Neil McGuigan
@neilmcguigan.bsky.social
Historian aka dastardly re-writer of history, chiefly Britain/Ireland, focus on Scotland & n. England pre 1300 | Author of 500-page + award-winning monograph on the Age of Máel Coluim III | Disability parent | https://st-andrews.academia.edu/NeilMcGuigan
Reposted by Neil McGuigan
2025 Frank Watson Book Prize in Scottish History!
Catriona M.M. Macdonald, The Caledoniad: The Making of Scottish History. Edinburgh: John Donald, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd., 2024. ISBN: 9780859767200.
Congratulations, Dr. Macdonald! 🏆🎉
Read the jury's citation: www.uoguelph.ca/arts/scottis...
Catriona M.M. Macdonald, The Caledoniad: The Making of Scottish History. Edinburgh: John Donald, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd., 2024. ISBN: 9780859767200.
Congratulations, Dr. Macdonald! 🏆🎉
Read the jury's citation: www.uoguelph.ca/arts/scottis...
October 23, 2025 at 4:10 PM
2025 Frank Watson Book Prize in Scottish History!
Catriona M.M. Macdonald, The Caledoniad: The Making of Scottish History. Edinburgh: John Donald, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd., 2024. ISBN: 9780859767200.
Congratulations, Dr. Macdonald! 🏆🎉
Read the jury's citation: www.uoguelph.ca/arts/scottis...
Catriona M.M. Macdonald, The Caledoniad: The Making of Scottish History. Edinburgh: John Donald, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd., 2024. ISBN: 9780859767200.
Congratulations, Dr. Macdonald! 🏆🎉
Read the jury's citation: www.uoguelph.ca/arts/scottis...
The Máel Coluim III book, brand new in hardback, is available for just £30 (down from £70-100) Abebooks :
www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/Book...
www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/Book...
Máel Coluim III, 'Canmore' by Neil McGuigan: New Hardcover (2021) | Postscript Books
ISBN: 9781910900192 - Hardcover - John Donald - 2021 - Condition: New - Máel Coluim III, 'Canmore'
www.abebooks.co.uk
October 16, 2025 at 4:22 PM
The Máel Coluim III book, brand new in hardback, is available for just £30 (down from £70-100) Abebooks :
www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/Book...
www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/Book...
Máel Coluim II, 'Canbeg'
Slightly diminish a book: Treasure Islet
Slightly diminish a book: Gone with the Breeze.
September 8, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Máel Coluim II, 'Canbeg'
A recent talk I gave to the Scottish Society for Northern Studies on Earl Harald of Orkney and "12th-century Scoto-Orcadian relations" has been put on YouTube. Includes a new theory about the origins of Harald's branch of the Scottish royal dynasty:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIDR...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIDR...
SSNS Seminar - Scoto Orcadian Relations in the Twelfth century, Dr Neil McGuigan
YouTube video by Scottish Society for Northern Studies
www.youtube.com
September 8, 2025 at 11:37 AM
A recent talk I gave to the Scottish Society for Northern Studies on Earl Harald of Orkney and "12th-century Scoto-Orcadian relations" has been put on YouTube. Includes a new theory about the origins of Harald's branch of the Scottish royal dynasty:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIDR...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIDR...
Day conference celebrating Glasgow's 850th anniversary. Celebrating with scholarship, and doubling as a commemoration of the work of Norman Shead. Thursday 4 September 2025 -- 10.00 am- 4:30 pm, City Chambers.
August 25, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Day conference celebrating Glasgow's 850th anniversary. Celebrating with scholarship, and doubling as a commemoration of the work of Norman Shead. Thursday 4 September 2025 -- 10.00 am- 4:30 pm, City Chambers.
Recently received this exciting new book, I really hope the tourist shops stock it. There aren't many quality books on Gaelic Scotland suitable for this kind of audience from real experts like Coinneach Maclean :
acairbooks.com/books/travel...
acairbooks.com/books/travel...
Travels in Another Country; A Guide to Gaelic Scotland | Acair Books
Until relatively modern times Scotland was largely a Gaelic-speaking nation. Areas that were described by Doctor Johnson in 1775 as being as remote and as u ...
acairbooks.com
July 16, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Recently received this exciting new book, I really hope the tourist shops stock it. There aren't many quality books on Gaelic Scotland suitable for this kind of audience from real experts like Coinneach Maclean :
acairbooks.com/books/travel...
acairbooks.com/books/travel...
Reposted by Neil McGuigan
July 11: Feast of Drostan († early C7th), founder-abbot of the Pictish monastery of Deir (Deer). Several dedications to him in NE Scotland including Episcopal church at Old Deer. The old church at Aberdour, Aberdeenshire, claimed his relics. Also Dec 15. The C10th Book of Deer #medievalsky
July 11, 2025 at 6:52 AM
July 11: Feast of Drostan († early C7th), founder-abbot of the Pictish monastery of Deir (Deer). Several dedications to him in NE Scotland including Episcopal church at Old Deer. The old church at Aberdour, Aberdeenshire, claimed his relics. Also Dec 15. The C10th Book of Deer #medievalsky
Recently published, myself reviewing Ben Hudson's *Macbeth before Shakespeare*. Behind paywall, but in summary a good read that would have been a much better piece of scholarship had the author engaged significantly with research produced after the 90s:
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Benjamin Hudson, Macbeth before Shakespeare. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. Pp. xvii, 293; black-and-white figures. $37.99. ISBN: 978-0-1975-6753-1. | Speculum: Vol 100, No 3
www.journals.uchicago.edu
July 1, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Recently published, myself reviewing Ben Hudson's *Macbeth before Shakespeare*. Behind paywall, but in summary a good read that would have been a much better piece of scholarship had the author engaged significantly with research produced after the 90s:
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Review of *Reigns of Edmund, Eadred and Eadwig*, eds Blanchard and Riedel, incl. my own contribution on 'Revisiting the End of Northern [English] Independence' in the latest issue of @royalstudies.bsky.social :
rsj.winchester.ac.uk/articles/499...
rsj.winchester.ac.uk/articles/499...
rsj.winchester.ac.uk
June 27, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Review of *Reigns of Edmund, Eadred and Eadwig*, eds Blanchard and Riedel, incl. my own contribution on 'Revisiting the End of Northern [English] Independence' in the latest issue of @royalstudies.bsky.social :
rsj.winchester.ac.uk/articles/499...
rsj.winchester.ac.uk/articles/499...
Founders of Poland, 'Pictish Piasts'? 'The male skeletons almost all carry a single, rare group of genetic variants on the Y chromosome...today found mainly in Britain. The closest known match belongs to a Pict buried in eastern Scotland in the 5th or 6th cent.'
www.independent.co.uk/news/science...
www.independent.co.uk/news/science...
Secrets of medieval kings revealed by DNA from 900-year-old skeletons
New DNA evidence unsettles a nation’s founding myth
www.independent.co.uk
June 14, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Founders of Poland, 'Pictish Piasts'? 'The male skeletons almost all carry a single, rare group of genetic variants on the Y chromosome...today found mainly in Britain. The closest known match belongs to a Pict buried in eastern Scotland in the 5th or 6th cent.'
www.independent.co.uk/news/science...
www.independent.co.uk/news/science...
New publication from myself today:
"The fame and significance of Dunkeld in the tenth and eleventh centuries"
clog.glasgow.ac.uk/ojs/index.ph...
"The fame and significance of Dunkeld in the tenth and eleventh centuries"
clog.glasgow.ac.uk/ojs/index.ph...
June 9, 2025 at 8:27 PM
New publication from myself today:
"The fame and significance of Dunkeld in the tenth and eleventh centuries"
clog.glasgow.ac.uk/ojs/index.ph...
"The fame and significance of Dunkeld in the tenth and eleventh centuries"
clog.glasgow.ac.uk/ojs/index.ph...
Happy St Columba's day. Today is released a new volume commissioned to mark the 1500th anniversary of the birth the saint. Features greats like Thomas Charles-Edwards, John Carey, Thomas Owen Clancy and Simon Taylor among others. I am also there.
clog.glasgow.ac.uk/ojs/index.ph...
clog.glasgow.ac.uk/ojs/index.ph...
2025: Ì Chaluim Chille: Interdisciplinary Studies on Iona and Columba on the 1500th anniversary of the birth the saint
| Foillseachaidhean Rannsachaidh Oilthigh Ghlaschu
clog.glasgow.ac.uk
June 9, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Happy St Columba's day. Today is released a new volume commissioned to mark the 1500th anniversary of the birth the saint. Features greats like Thomas Charles-Edwards, John Carey, Thomas Owen Clancy and Simon Taylor among others. I am also there.
clog.glasgow.ac.uk/ojs/index.ph...
clog.glasgow.ac.uk/ojs/index.ph...
Reposted by Neil McGuigan
Announcing forthcoming seminar on "Scoto-Orcadian Relations in the Twelfth Century: A Re-Examination", May 29th, at 7PM / 1900 (Scotland time), myself with @northernstudies.bsky.social
www.ssns.org.uk/events/ssns-...
www.ssns.org.uk/events/ssns-...
SSNS Seminar - Dr Neil McGuigan - Scoto-Orcadian Relations in the Twelfth Century: A Re-examination - Scottish Society for Northern Studies
The SSNS Seminar Series continues on 16 January with a talk by Dr Nelleke IJssennagger-van der Pluijm on 'Frisia and the Viking Age'.
www.ssns.org.uk
April 28, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Announcing forthcoming seminar on "Scoto-Orcadian Relations in the Twelfth Century: A Re-Examination", May 29th, at 7PM / 1900 (Scotland time), myself with @northernstudies.bsky.social
www.ssns.org.uk/events/ssns-...
www.ssns.org.uk/events/ssns-...
Announcing forthcoming seminar on "Scoto-Orcadian Relations in the Twelfth Century: A Re-Examination", May 29th, at 7PM / 1900 (Scotland time), myself with @northernstudies.bsky.social
www.ssns.org.uk/events/ssns-...
www.ssns.org.uk/events/ssns-...
SSNS Seminar - Dr Neil McGuigan - Scoto-Orcadian Relations in the Twelfth Century: A Re-examination - Scottish Society for Northern Studies
The SSNS Seminar Series continues on 16 January with a talk by Dr Nelleke IJssennagger-van der Pluijm on 'Frisia and the Viking Age'.
www.ssns.org.uk
April 28, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Announcing forthcoming seminar on "Scoto-Orcadian Relations in the Twelfth Century: A Re-Examination", May 29th, at 7PM / 1900 (Scotland time), myself with @northernstudies.bsky.social
www.ssns.org.uk/events/ssns-...
www.ssns.org.uk/events/ssns-...
Reposted by Neil McGuigan
Our very own Alex Woolf is on In Our Time on Radio 4 this morning, talking about the Battle of Clontarf. You can listen to it on BBC Sounds here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, The Battle of Clontarf
Brian Boru's celebrated defeat of Hiberno-Norse forces and allies outside Dublin in 1014.
www.bbc.co.uk
April 10, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Our very own Alex Woolf is on In Our Time on Radio 4 this morning, talking about the Battle of Clontarf. You can listen to it on BBC Sounds here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
Does anyone have access/ a copy of the following: GWS Barrow, 'The origins and early history of Edinburgh and Glasgow: two Scottish cities contrasted', in Ekonomiczne i pozaekonomiczne czynniki' rozwoju miast (Akademia Ekonomiczna w Krakowie, Kraków, 1986), pp. 5-22
April 2, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Does anyone have access/ a copy of the following: GWS Barrow, 'The origins and early history of Edinburgh and Glasgow: two Scottish cities contrasted', in Ekonomiczne i pozaekonomiczne czynniki' rozwoju miast (Akademia Ekonomiczna w Krakowie, Kraków, 1986), pp. 5-22
I recently realised that there appears to be a 6 month period in 1306 when the heir to the Scottish throne is called Neil/Niall. It would have few things to go differently, but it seems that Scotland could have had a King Neil I in the 14th century!
March 24, 2025 at 3:26 PM
I recently realised that there appears to be a 6 month period in 1306 when the heir to the Scottish throne is called Neil/Niall. It would have few things to go differently, but it seems that Scotland could have had a King Neil I in the 14th century!
A thesis on Scottish heritage and tourism that should be more widely read -- even though it is a bit depressing : theses.gla.ac.uk/5178/1/2014M...
Author is a blue-badge tour guide and a historian/archaeologist (and also the nephew of the great poet).
Author is a blue-badge tour guide and a historian/archaeologist (and also the nephew of the great poet).
theses.gla.ac.uk
March 24, 2025 at 3:13 PM
A thesis on Scottish heritage and tourism that should be more widely read -- even though it is a bit depressing : theses.gla.ac.uk/5178/1/2014M...
Author is a blue-badge tour guide and a historian/archaeologist (and also the nephew of the great poet).
Author is a blue-badge tour guide and a historian/archaeologist (and also the nephew of the great poet).
Merry St Ælla's day, the feast of Ælla the blood-eagled, martyr of York, slain by heathens #OTD in 867. My first published article, 10 years old this month, was about the life and afterlife of the king.
www.academia.edu/10247408/%C3...
www.academia.edu/10247408/%C3...
March 21, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Merry St Ælla's day, the feast of Ælla the blood-eagled, martyr of York, slain by heathens #OTD in 867. My first published article, 10 years old this month, was about the life and afterlife of the king.
www.academia.edu/10247408/%C3...
www.academia.edu/10247408/%C3...
Happy St Cuthbert's Day!
Mar 20: Feast of Cuthbert (c.634-87), bishop of Lindisfarne. Northern England's favourite saint, also commemorated in Scotland. He reportedly possessed gifts of prophecy and healing. Wilfrid I, bishop of York, succeeded him. Cuthbert’s pectoral cross 📸Chapter of Durham Cathedral
March 20, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Happy St Cuthbert's Day!
Reposted by Neil McGuigan
So, so devastated to see History Scotland magazine come to an end with the Spring 2025 issue. It has been a pleasure to work on the magazine over the past 10 years, and its loss is a big blow to those working on, or interested in, Scottish History.
February 26, 2025 at 2:35 PM
So, so devastated to see History Scotland magazine come to an end with the Spring 2025 issue. It has been a pleasure to work on the magazine over the past 10 years, and its loss is a big blow to those working on, or interested in, Scottish History.
Reposted by Neil McGuigan
Mar 6: Feast of Balthere (Baldred), 8thC Northumbrian hermit who lived at Tinangehām (Tyninghame, East Lothian) and later on Bass Rock. In legend his prayers destroyed a dangerous reef.
March 6, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Mar 6: Feast of Balthere (Baldred), 8thC Northumbrian hermit who lived at Tinangehām (Tyninghame, East Lothian) and later on Bass Rock. In legend his prayers destroyed a dangerous reef.
A short piece by myself on 'Lothian and the Scottish Kings', for History Scotland:
www.academia.edu/127876656/Lo...
www.academia.edu/127876656/Lo...
Lothian and the Scottish Kings
To modern readers and scholars alike, the integration of Lothian appears overwhelmingly the most important part of the Scottish kingdom's territorial expansion....
www.academia.edu
February 26, 2025 at 1:14 PM
A short piece by myself on 'Lothian and the Scottish Kings', for History Scotland:
www.academia.edu/127876656/Lo...
www.academia.edu/127876656/Lo...
Reposted by Neil McGuigan
Tree rings shed new light on Pictish power centre with incredible accuracy www.pressreader.com/uk/the-scots...
PressReader.com - Digital Newspaper & Magazine Subscriptions
Digital newsstand featuring 7000+ of the world’s most popular newspapers & magazines. Enjoy unlimited reading on up to 5 devices with 7-day free trial.
www.pressreader.com
January 30, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Tree rings shed new light on Pictish power centre with incredible accuracy www.pressreader.com/uk/the-scots...
Reposted by Neil McGuigan
Nice to see past and present @uniofnottingham.bsky.social @uonenglish.bsky.social students editing and writing the reviews in @northernstudies.bsky.social @tcfairfax.bsky.social @cassidycroci.bsky.social @em-ehx.bsky.social
January 9, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Nice to see past and present @uniofnottingham.bsky.social @uonenglish.bsky.social students editing and writing the reviews in @northernstudies.bsky.social @tcfairfax.bsky.social @cassidycroci.bsky.social @em-ehx.bsky.social