Fiona Campbell-Howes
@fortrenn.bsky.social
PhD student at the University of Glasgow, researching the early medieval Moray Firthlands in Scotland. Live in Penryn, Cornwall. FSAScot. Posts about early medieval Scottish history and archaeology. Blog: https://fortrenn.ghost.io
Post an image that always makes you laugh
November 14, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Post an image that always makes you laugh
Reposted by Fiona Campbell-Howes
OUT NOW! 📚
SSNS is proud to present its new edited volume, 'Common Ground in Scottish Archaeology' (ed. Kelly Kilpatrick), which honours the work of Dr Anna Ritchie, esteemed archaeologist, author, and lifelong advocate of Scotland's premodern history and heritage.
SSNS is proud to present its new edited volume, 'Common Ground in Scottish Archaeology' (ed. Kelly Kilpatrick), which honours the work of Dr Anna Ritchie, esteemed archaeologist, author, and lifelong advocate of Scotland's premodern history and heritage.
Common Ground in Scottish Archaeology (2025) - Scottish Society for Northern Studies
The Society is delighted to announce the publication of a new edited volume in honour of Dr Anna Ritchie.
www.ssns.org.uk
November 14, 2025 at 8:31 AM
OUT NOW! 📚
SSNS is proud to present its new edited volume, 'Common Ground in Scottish Archaeology' (ed. Kelly Kilpatrick), which honours the work of Dr Anna Ritchie, esteemed archaeologist, author, and lifelong advocate of Scotland's premodern history and heritage.
SSNS is proud to present its new edited volume, 'Common Ground in Scottish Archaeology' (ed. Kelly Kilpatrick), which honours the work of Dr Anna Ritchie, esteemed archaeologist, author, and lifelong advocate of Scotland's premodern history and heritage.
I regret to inform you that Microsoft are AT IT AGAIN.
If, like me, you let Microsoft update in the last 24 hours and discovered they've found a new way to shoehorn in a Copilot icon that just... sits there, watching... You can uninstall Word and install the version from Nov 4th or earlier: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office...
November 12, 2025 at 7:19 PM
I regret to inform you that Microsoft are AT IT AGAIN.
Really nice to see a sunny, colourful and joyful Pictland, rather than the endless murk and misery that characterises TV dramas about the early Middle Ages!
I drew a few pictures for @stoutstoat.co.uk's new book Carved in Stone (www.stoutstoat.co.uk/products/car...) it's probably the best-researched project I ever worked on, and also it looks beautiful. Lots of amazing artists worked on this! Anyway here are some pictish vignettes
November 12, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Really nice to see a sunny, colourful and joyful Pictland, rather than the endless murk and misery that characterises TV dramas about the early Middle Ages!
I just love Rebecca's hands-on PhD research - here giving a very good idea of sailing conditions during the Norman invasion.
I've been watching back videos from when I sailed from Dives-sur-Mer to Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, following the route of the Norman invasion fleet in 1066. 130km of c. 70m chalk cliffs in a strong N/NE wind that turned into a gale just before we reached Fécamp. Similar conditions to 1066 #MedievalSky
November 12, 2025 at 12:32 PM
I just love Rebecca's hands-on PhD research - here giving a very good idea of sailing conditions during the Norman invasion.
Reposted by Fiona Campbell-Howes
"The Picts emerge from the shadows and step forward in technicolour" 🤩
'Carved in Stone', an illustrated guide to 7th-century Scotland packed with information on languages, settlements, cuisine, fashion, medicine, skills and more, is now available for purchase: www.digitscotland.com/archaeologis...
'Carved in Stone', an illustrated guide to 7th-century Scotland packed with information on languages, settlements, cuisine, fashion, medicine, skills and more, is now available for purchase: www.digitscotland.com/archaeologis...
November 12, 2025 at 10:02 AM
"The Picts emerge from the shadows and step forward in technicolour" 🤩
'Carved in Stone', an illustrated guide to 7th-century Scotland packed with information on languages, settlements, cuisine, fashion, medicine, skills and more, is now available for purchase: www.digitscotland.com/archaeologis...
'Carved in Stone', an illustrated guide to 7th-century Scotland packed with information on languages, settlements, cuisine, fashion, medicine, skills and more, is now available for purchase: www.digitscotland.com/archaeologis...
Reposted by Fiona Campbell-Howes
The phenomenal and enigmatic rock crystal and gold 'jar' of Bishop Hyguald from the heart of the Galloway Hoard is NOW on display for the first time ever. It was held back for Kirkcudbright while the rest of the Hoard continues its world tour in Melbourne (1/2)
Gold jar from Galloway Hoard on display in Kirkcudbright
It resembles a perfume bottle and a Latin inscription on it suggests it had a religious function.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 2:51 PM
The phenomenal and enigmatic rock crystal and gold 'jar' of Bishop Hyguald from the heart of the Galloway Hoard is NOW on display for the first time ever. It was held back for Kirkcudbright while the rest of the Hoard continues its world tour in Melbourne (1/2)
Yess, just realised my 2pm call is with a client who conducts all Teams calls with video off, so I don't have to get up from my favoured winter work mode of sitting on the floor in front of the radiator.
November 10, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Yess, just realised my 2pm call is with a client who conducts all Teams calls with video off, so I don't have to get up from my favoured winter work mode of sitting on the floor in front of the radiator.
Reposted by Fiona Campbell-Howes
Pagans in paperback early next year! With RED SPREDGES!
We couldn't be happier to share the pre-order link for the @waterstones.bsky.social special edition of PAGANS in paperback. With a beautiful foiled cover, red spredges and an exclusive short story, it is a treat. Limited numbers, so pre-order now if you want it! www.waterstones.com/book/pagans/...
November 10, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Pagans in paperback early next year! With RED SPREDGES!
Reposted by Fiona Campbell-Howes
Can anyone recommend any academic essays (that are publicly available online or that you could send me) exploring the parallels between Loki and Ulysses expanding on Snorri's slightly throwaway lines on the topic. Or failing that, general explorations of Troy-as-Asgard? #MedievalSky #ClassicsSky
November 9, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Can anyone recommend any academic essays (that are publicly available online or that you could send me) exploring the parallels between Loki and Ulysses expanding on Snorri's slightly throwaway lines on the topic. Or failing that, general explorations of Troy-as-Asgard? #MedievalSky #ClassicsSky
A write-up of the talk I gave at today's Scottish Place-Name Society conference. I've been looking at three Black Isle place-names that are thought to contain a Scots form of the name Curetán, an eighth-century bishop of Ross. [Spoiler: I don't think they do.]
Kincurdy, Cuthilcurdy, Hill o’ Hirdie: Evidence of a Scots cult of St Curetán?
This post is more or less the transcript of a talk I gave this afternoon at the Scottish Place-Name Society Autumn conference, which took place on Zoom. Many thanks to Simon Taylor, Bill Patterson, So...
fortrenn.ghost.io
November 8, 2025 at 8:44 PM
A write-up of the talk I gave at today's Scottish Place-Name Society conference. I've been looking at three Black Isle place-names that are thought to contain a Scots form of the name Curetán, an eighth-century bishop of Ross. [Spoiler: I don't think they do.]
Good thread on the revised assessment of the previously-presumed 'Pictish-to-Norse' transition site at Buckquoy, Orkney. It looks like that interpretation needs to be put to bed.
NEW Were the Picts of northern Scotland wiped out by Viking conquest? New radiocarbon dates from the 1st millennium AD settlement of Buckquoy, Orkney paint a more complex picture of cultural interaction in the Northern Isles.
#AntiquityThread 1/15 🧵
@northernpicts.bsky.social🏺 #Archaeology
#AntiquityThread 1/15 🧵
@northernpicts.bsky.social🏺 #Archaeology
November 7, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Good thread on the revised assessment of the previously-presumed 'Pictish-to-Norse' transition site at Buckquoy, Orkney. It looks like that interpretation needs to be put to bed.
As the AI bubble gets ready to burst, here comes the next about-to-be-ludicrously-overhyped tech thing.
Will quantum be bigger than AI?
The highly complex technology is increasingly being tipped to transform computing.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 7, 2025 at 8:19 AM
As the AI bubble gets ready to burst, here comes the next about-to-be-ludicrously-overhyped tech thing.
Help to get a nationally-important monograph printed. A pledge of £34 will get you a print copy of the Rhynie book + UK shipping if the full £10k is raised. A bargain price for what will be a very detailed account of this major Pictish site and its environs. (The ebook will be free.)
CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN LAUNCH: ‘Rhynie, A Powerful Place of Pictland’
Please pre-order or donate before 6 December to enable us to print this book by Professor Gordon Noble FSAScot, which will have a major impact on the study of Pictish kingship and society: www.kickstarter.com/projects/soc...
Please pre-order or donate before 6 December to enable us to print this book by Professor Gordon Noble FSAScot, which will have a major impact on the study of Pictish kingship and society: www.kickstarter.com/projects/soc...
November 6, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Help to get a nationally-important monograph printed. A pledge of £34 will get you a print copy of the Rhynie book + UK shipping if the full £10k is raised. A bargain price for what will be a very detailed account of this major Pictish site and its environs. (The ebook will be free.)
Reposted by Fiona Campbell-Howes
We've just added more historic Ordnance Survey maps of Ireland to our website. You can now compare first edition one-inch to the mile maps dating from the 1860s to 1870s with second edition maps published between 1898 and 1902. maps.nls.uk/os/one-inch-...
November 3, 2025 at 9:01 AM
We've just added more historic Ordnance Survey maps of Ireland to our website. You can now compare first edition one-inch to the mile maps dating from the 1860s to 1870s with second edition maps published between 1898 and 1902. maps.nls.uk/os/one-inch-...
Still v. tickled that Jane Geddes's theory about the conical structure on Sueno's Stone has inspired a t-shirt! The 'furnace of the damned' interpretation is elaborated in her award-winning 2024 PSAS article (now open access): journals.socantscot.org/index.php/ps...
November 2, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Still v. tickled that Jane Geddes's theory about the conical structure on Sueno's Stone has inspired a t-shirt! The 'furnace of the damned' interpretation is elaborated in her award-winning 2024 PSAS article (now open access): journals.socantscot.org/index.php/ps...
After wrestling with some difficult sources, I'm quite excited about my paper next Saturday at the Scottish Place-Name Society conference. New research on the cult of Curetán/Boniface in the Black Isle, and the possible layout of early medieval Rosemarkie. Details here: spns.org.uk/spns-autumn-...
November 2, 2025 at 12:02 PM
After wrestling with some difficult sources, I'm quite excited about my paper next Saturday at the Scottish Place-Name Society conference. New research on the cult of Curetán/Boniface in the Black Isle, and the possible layout of early medieval Rosemarkie. Details here: spns.org.uk/spns-autumn-...
Scandalous that Furnace of the Damned are SHUNNING Kinloss, Rafford and Alves on their 2026 tour.
New NPixts Furnace of the Damned Band T-shirt just landed in the NPixts store. Touring Northern Pictland in 2026 including Forres, Lossie, Burghead, Findhorn and Johnny Foxes Inverness 🤣🤣🤣
Free UK post till midnight Sunday!
npixts.teemill.com/product/furn...
npixts.teemill.com/product/furn...
Free UK post till midnight Sunday!
npixts.teemill.com/product/furn...
npixts.teemill.com/product/furn...
Furnace of the Damned! (Women\/Slimmer fit)
Rock on with Northern Pictland's finest!
npixts.teemill.com
November 1, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Scandalous that Furnace of the Damned are SHUNNING Kinloss, Rafford and Alves on their 2026 tour.
Reposted by Fiona Campbell-Howes
The next lecture in our 2025-2026 season is coming up on Friday 21 Nov! Professor Jane Geddes will present her research on the lost libraries of Pictland. (Lectures are for PAS members only - find out about the many benefits of PAS membership here: www.thepictishartssociety.org.uk/join-us.)
October 30, 2025 at 9:31 PM
The next lecture in our 2025-2026 season is coming up on Friday 21 Nov! Professor Jane Geddes will present her research on the lost libraries of Pictland. (Lectures are for PAS members only - find out about the many benefits of PAS membership here: www.thepictishartssociety.org.uk/join-us.)
Important new article re-evaluating the demographic transition from Pictish to Norse in Orkney. Material previously categorised as 'Norse' or 'Viking' is now shown to date to the earlier Pictish period (pre-800).
A new consideration of the chronology of the key settlement of Buckquoy, Orkney - shows that the buildings here belong firmly in the Pictish tradition. This leads to a wider consideration of the timings and character of the Viking Age in the Northern Isles.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Buckquoy, Orkney: addressing the Pictish-Viking transition in northern Scotland | Antiquity | Cambridge Core
Buckquoy, Orkney: addressing the Pictish-Viking transition in northern Scotland
www.cambridge.org
October 30, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Important new article re-evaluating the demographic transition from Pictish to Norse in Orkney. Material previously categorised as 'Norse' or 'Viking' is now shown to date to the earlier Pictish period (pre-800).
Idly wondering if I could get a travel bursary to go to Scotland to check the gender of a single Latin word in a fourteenth-century charter. #PhDLife
October 30, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Idly wondering if I could get a travel bursary to go to Scotland to check the gender of a single Latin word in a fourteenth-century charter. #PhDLife
Reposted by Fiona Campbell-Howes
Just in time for Halloween, a new Pictish vision of hell
In PSAS 153, 2024 @socantscot.bsky.social Jane Geddes argues the weird 'beehive' surrounded by headless corpses on Sueno's Stone, Forres, is the furnace of the damned
Nice shout-out to #CrucibleOfNations as a bonus
doi.org/10.9750/PSAS...
In PSAS 153, 2024 @socantscot.bsky.social Jane Geddes argues the weird 'beehive' surrounded by headless corpses on Sueno's Stone, Forres, is the furnace of the damned
Nice shout-out to #CrucibleOfNations as a bonus
doi.org/10.9750/PSAS...
October 30, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Just in time for Halloween, a new Pictish vision of hell
In PSAS 153, 2024 @socantscot.bsky.social Jane Geddes argues the weird 'beehive' surrounded by headless corpses on Sueno's Stone, Forres, is the furnace of the damned
Nice shout-out to #CrucibleOfNations as a bonus
doi.org/10.9750/PSAS...
In PSAS 153, 2024 @socantscot.bsky.social Jane Geddes argues the weird 'beehive' surrounded by headless corpses on Sueno's Stone, Forres, is the furnace of the damned
Nice shout-out to #CrucibleOfNations as a bonus
doi.org/10.9750/PSAS...
Reposted by Fiona Campbell-Howes
And just because it's that time of year, I held my nose and dived back into the bad place myself to rescue one of my favourite threads: the original Pictish Vision of Hell: A Halloween Thread twitter-thread.com/t/1057601508...
The Pictish vision of Hell: a Halloween thread by @amaldon(Adrián Maldonado) | Twitter Thread Reader
The Pictish vision of Hell: a Halloween thread
twitter-thread.com
October 30, 2025 at 10:20 AM
And just because it's that time of year, I held my nose and dived back into the bad place myself to rescue one of my favourite threads: the original Pictish Vision of Hell: A Halloween Thread twitter-thread.com/t/1057601508...
Reposted by Fiona Campbell-Howes
To mark the launch of Colmán Etchingham's Vikings in Early Medieval Ireland, Boydell & Brewer are offering a **65%** discount on the book until the end of November. Enter the code BB158 when ordering it from their website (individual not institutional orders):
boydellandbrewer.com/book/vikings...
boydellandbrewer.com/book/vikings...
October 29, 2025 at 6:57 PM
To mark the launch of Colmán Etchingham's Vikings in Early Medieval Ireland, Boydell & Brewer are offering a **65%** discount on the book until the end of November. Enter the code BB158 when ordering it from their website (individual not institutional orders):
boydellandbrewer.com/book/vikings...
boydellandbrewer.com/book/vikings...
I always find it extraordinary that we have a copy of the Life of Columba dating almost to Adomnán's own time. (The image here shows the BEST chapter of the Vita Sancti Columbae - the one with the River Ness monster.)
Oct 28: Feast of Dorbéne mac Altaíni (†713), abbot of Iona. Scribe of the earliest surviving copy of Adomnán’s Life of Columba. Fáelchú mac Dorbéni succeeded him. 📸Stadtbibliothek Schaffhausen #medievalsky
October 28, 2025 at 6:48 PM
I always find it extraordinary that we have a copy of the Life of Columba dating almost to Adomnán's own time. (The image here shows the BEST chapter of the Vita Sancti Columbae - the one with the River Ness monster.)