Mr Darkins
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darkinshistory.bsky.social
Mr Darkins
@darkinshistory.bsky.social
History & Classics teacher living in Argyll. Ancient and early medieval history. Romans, Picts, Scots, Britons, Vikings, with some Classical Greeks thrown in.

https://youtube.com/@cowalhistory7598?si=N5zx4E8ToNVRRwg1
Wonderful guided tour of the #Argyll papers at Inverary Castle with #Cowalheritagesociety today. Privileged to get face to face with c.16th documents signed by Elizabeth I, Mary QoS and James VI/I
April 13, 2025 at 6:40 PM
#RomanSiteSaturday Arbeia Roman fort, South Shields. Took the young 'un to visit at 6 months old and again 3 years on. Looking forward to our next trip! #get'emyoung #youngclassicist Fantastic museum with reconstructions of their gatehouse, commander's quarters and barrack blocks
February 1, 2025 at 9:04 PM
.. bed rock. The fort at the top is a beauty too, with a circuit of tumbled rampart around a rocky citadel. The views of surrounding farmland are spectacular. Also the possible site of Agricola's Battle of Mons Graupius. #Romans 📸 My own
January 9, 2025 at 9:10 PM
..of Bennachie. But the stranger turned out to be the Devil - when she realised her mistake, the girl fled and the notch in the side of the stone is where Old Nick caught her by the shoulder and turned the girl to stone. The track is magnificent, moving from eroded holloway to exposed slabs of...
January 9, 2025 at 9:10 PM
The Devil's Causeway, from the Pictish Maiden Stone up to the rampart of Mither Tap o' Bennachie #hillfort. Tradition has it a daughter of the laird of Balquhai made a wager with a stranger that she could bake a good supply of bread before he could build a road to the top of the nearby hill... (1/3)
January 9, 2025 at 9:10 PM
The Barochan Cross, once sited near Barochan Fort on the track to Dumbarton Rock, now inside Paisley Abbey. C.10th-11th, Kingdom of Strathclyde. Carries martial imagery - may have been a muster point for the fighting men of Renfrewshire. #StandingStoneSunday
January 5, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Today, Puck's Glen in #Cowal
January 2, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Almost otherworldly - Dunagoill on Bute for #hillfortwednesday Possible seat of Cenel Comgaill of Dalriada, taken over as a stronghold by the Gall Gaidheal in the c. 9th. Evidence of being vitrified along upper rampart.
December 25, 2024 at 12:32 AM
The Flavinius Stone, roman tombstone preserved in Hexham Abbey. Found under the Abbey floor in 1881, it is a memorial to a Roman Standard bearer from the troop of Candidus. #TombTuesday
December 10, 2024 at 6:57 PM
@profgabriele.com Bought! Looking forward to giving it a listen on the commute 😍
December 10, 2024 at 2:27 PM
The 'Granny' Kempock Stone, perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking the shore at Gourock. Swallowed up by Victorian tenements but lingers on, brooding over the top a steep winding close. Believed to be an altar to a pagan god or a monument to an ancient battle (1/2) #StandingStoneSunday
December 8, 2024 at 9:32 PM
Shrine to Mithras, found at #Housesteads on #hadrianswall Eastern worshippers believed the god to be born from a cosmic egg, as depicted here. The egg is decorated with the signs of the Zodiac - this is the earliest known depictions in of these in Britain.
December 8, 2024 at 12:34 AM
A brilliant display of Roman altar stones gathered from around Hadrian's Wall. Exhibited at the #HancockMuseum with suggested painted finishes projected on to the stones. #Roman
December 7, 2024 at 11:46 PM
C.10th upright carved slab in Ardchattan Priory, Argyll. Later cut down & repurposed as a grave slab. Believed to have been moved here after the priory was founded. Possibly Norse in style. #medievalBluesky
November 15, 2024 at 11:58 PM
Recent pilgrimage to #WhitbyMuseum to view some of their lovely Anglo-Saxon exhibits. Everytime I get down to Yorkshire, I try to visit a different early medieval survival.
November 15, 2024 at 3:45 PM