The cropmarks here are very promising, and this is a cool chance to be part of a dig that changes our understanding of the Northumbrian world - if you're around and can do it, give it a look!

🎶As I went walking I saw a sign there, And on the sign it said "Private Property." But on the other side it didn't say nothing. That side was made for you and me🎶

Rosamond McKitterick (1949-2026) A formidable scholar, an inspiring teacher, a generous spirit and a supportive colleague - truly, we have lost one of the great ones. @sidneysussex.bsky.social @camhistory.bsky.social @camedieval.bsky.social

St Baldred would be proud...

(*this month's task, evidently...) I wonder if there's a friendly volcanologist 🌋 out there (ideally someone conversant with tuff) who wouldn't mind glancing at the manuscript (8k words or so) to make sure there aren't any glaring errors

Somewhat impromptu trip to Dunkeld and Birnam today - so impromptu that I didn't do my proper homework and climbed to the top of Birnam Hill/King's Seat only to find out that the early medieval fort is on the other King's Seat, just the other side of Dunkeld. Ah well, the view was great.

Rapid (and definitely missing a lot of stuff) but it's very easy to see the landscape context of a lot of early medieval stones/religious sites/hillforts from up here in a way you just can't do on a map!

Getting up this morning to get up Kinnoul Hill was a good idea. Lot of early medieval stuff captured in this photo.

Rewarding myself after a few hours in the HES archives with... more stones

... palayes by ressone it will have the maist plesand sycht [view] of all the foure airthis [directions], in speciall park and gairdin, deer thairin, up the riverais of Forthe, Teyth, Allone, and Guddy to Lochlomwnd, ane sycht rownd about in all pairtis and downe to the revear of Forthe'. 7/

Stirling looking a bit menacing on the ascent but what a view of the Forth valley

what I say: "hell yeah man, I love the Stones!" what I mean:

Currently visiting Glasgow for the day, but there's a new post out on my blog! Some additional thoughts on humanizing and loving the people we study, even when we're only seeing them through objects... trevors-newsletter-bb53ab.beehiiv.com/p/studying-t...

Capping off my time in Aberdeen by making Nan Shepherd proud and hiking in the Cairngorms. True to form, it was sunny when I went up and hailing when I came down.

Finished grading and rewarded myself with a train down to Stonehaven and some dramatic cliff walks round Pictish sites

As @brionyneilson.bsky.social once informed me, Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero have in the past described historians as like grave-robbers.

What's a landscape so transformed in the last few hundred years as to be unrecognizable? I'll go first. Kentucky Bluegrass is an invasive species in North America & is considered a sign of a degraded ecosystem on the Canadian Prairie. Kentucky's 'Bluegrass' region is a modern ecological wound!

The reading of the proclamation...its a place which has been filled with power, not ghosts. I came away thinking of other ancient monuments, that once they held this same power to their visitors, but their stories lost. Thats what humans do. A lesson for anyone looking at sacred sites.

Up to all my usual tricks (though there were, in the end, no seals to be had)

Crossing over the Tay by rail, obligatory to repost McGonagall's truly abysmal poem about the 1879 disaster www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45828/...

Oh, mighty Forth, I have missed you dearly

Ah yes Edinburgh Zoo, the measurement all Scottish people understand - the weight of a six pack of ginger.

This is a brilliant analysis, but also, jokes with this sentiment always baffled me because as a former Starbucks employee I was RELIEVED when someone ordered a black coffee because it was the fastest and easiest thing to "make." We also never corrected anyone on the size names - why would we?

Wrapping up chapter edits in the Dublin airport while also triple-checking Trove.scot to make sure I know when and where to look out my window at Edinburgh's airport to see the Cat Stane, with its lovely fifth or sixth century inscription. www.trove.scot/place/50719

Sir David Attenborough inspired generations of wildlife researchers and presenters, but who inspired him? Step forward diminutive, dismissed but indomitable Evelyn Cheesman, whose books about the natural world inspired the young David Attenborough. But not for her well-resourced expeditions.../1

Shamefully reminded of the realities of jet lag as I (for about ten terrible minutes) believe that I've accidentally slept twelve hours and have missed my next flight. Kudos to the receptionist who barely blinked at my trying to check out of the hotel, realizing, and then trying to un-check-out.

Supremely jetlagged but officially on the right side of the Atlantic.

say it with me fellas 🗣️ the ocean of truth washes over the pebbles with every wave, and they rattle and clink with the most wondrous din 🗣️

Time to finish this chapter and get it into my advisor's inbox before I leave!

This is great! Also, how to support an academic: - read their papers - cite their articles and books - tell your friends and students about their work - include their work in your reading lists and syllabi - ask your library to buy their books - tell them you liked their work or that it was helpful

May the Forth be with you

As I wrestle with a half dozen maps and tables for my current dissertation chapter - has anyone figured out the tips and tricks to make image-placement work smoothly in Word yet? I've spent so long in the settings doing text-wrapping and all and have never been able to totally master it.

We have an *extremely* important announcement to make. From Wednesday, we will be launching our puffin live cam, coming to you from the Farne Islands. So you can watch puffins all day long. In celebration, please enjoy this clip of puffins being really busy for 39 seconds straight.

As I do my final prep for three weeks of research and writing travel in Scotland in May, I'm also dusting off my old blog to prepare it for a host of short, photo-filled reflections on the work as I'm traveling. If that sounds up your alley, give it a look! trevors-newsletter-bb53ab.beehiiv.com

The best thing I ever did for my dissertation was walk around the Isle of May and Dunbar and Abercorn early on. While so much has changed, so many other aspects of the landscape become very clear very quickly

Can't believe I now get to reshare this 'meme' that I made for this purpose on ye olde Twittere back in 2020

Just over a week til I'm on my way to Scotland (via Ireland) and it's starting to feel real, both in terms of the amount of work I need to accomplish before I leave, and the excitement to get out and about in the landscapes I study.

I’m pleased to share that 'Borders and the Norman World', which I co-edited with Áron Kecskés, @rozierhistorian.bsky.social, and @lvhicks.bsky.social , is now being released in paperback. It will be available in June and is currently open for pre-order: boydellandbrewer.com/book/borders...

As you start planning for #icms2026 at #kzoo2026, please note that "Donuts for Newcomers" is not just for those new to the conference, but also those who want to come help newcomers feel welcome! So if you're willing to be a friendly face for new people at the conference, you too deserve a donut. 🍩

“Stories from Ireland’s Past”, now available to download for free at TII website www.tii.ie/media/n51bn1...

“We observed that, as opposed to their predecessors, young adults today seldom venture out to their local mead hall and socialize with tavern wenches,” said lead researcher Michael Kempe, noting that the study’s conclusions also align with a recent downswing in attendance at jousting matches.

If our classroom activities comprise teaching students how to use a commercial product then we are not teachers; we are salespeople.

#EarthDay is a perfect day to plug our @greenhouseuis.net #environmental humanities book talk series! You can currently listen to or watch 194 conversations we had with authors about their books. 🎧 podcast newnatures.org/greenhouse/f... 🎥 videos on book pages via newnatures.org/greenhouse/

It's a shame the Scotichronicast ended, Kate was doing such a useful thing. Here is my solitary appearance, being interviewed in one of the last episodes, talking about Máel Coluim III and the Anglo-Scottish borderlands (as well as myself!). podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

"If you're a writer—any sort of a writer, really—in search of an audience, you will find so much that's invaluable in this candid, spirited, and openhearted handbook." - @bcdreyer.social on #ThePublicScholar. Which you can pre-order here: www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

An excellent and very important article on the risks of missing the forest of social kinship through the trees of aDNA work!

Channeling this classic XKCD comic (with apologies to Randall Munroe for my edits here) as I review my chapter comments that read "include a map, no one but you knows where these sites are"

One of my favorite little crossovers between my love of our national park system and my medieval work round the Forth... "I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out until sundown, for going out I found, was really going in."

St. John the Baptist Church, Knaresborough by Kym Deyn "it has never forgotten, not the ache of rain, the moment a curled shell became stone, not the novelty of an axe, of thumbs, of men"