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Dr Lizzie Swarbrick 🇵🇸

@lizzieswarbrick.bsky.social
1.4K followers 385 following 172 posts

Art & Architectural Historian - Research Manager for the Research in Action on Church Heritage project @churchheritage.bsky.social - Freelance research and writing about Scottish Medieval and Early Modern - She/her

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Dr Lizzie Swarbrick 🇵🇸 @lizzieswarbrick.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Absolutely this. If you have a chronic illness it should be illegal to have a cold or period pains or whatever. Just leave me alone with my Long Covid for a bit, I’ve got enough on already.
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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 25/09/2026
This William Wilson stained glass panel is a thing of beauty (and yours for opening bids of £1,200). Can anyone hazard a guess where it might have come from? cc @jeelyeater1.bsky.social @scotchurchestrust.bsky.social
Stained and painted  glass panel, a bold mid-20th century design c. 1955 but also in a much older tradition.
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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
while the British Academy is using partial randomisation on its small grants -- and awarding more women/and POC researchers than ever before -- UKRI is feeding your painstakingly-developed proposal into an AI. But it's okay because they then get *two* AIs to debate whether you get the money.
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Research in Action on Church Heritage @churchheritage.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This weekend we are heading to Portnahaven Church on Islay! Join us on Saturday 26th September, 11am-3pm for our ReACH open day! We are looking forward to hearing more about its heritage and, most importantly, meeting people who have their own memories and connections to the building.
Image is the Flyer for Research in Action on Church Heritage Portnahaven Church open day. The background image is of Portnahaven church with details of the open day over the top. The open day will be on September 26 2026 11am-3pm Free Entry All Welcome. Flyer invites you to Explore the church interior and share your memories and experiences. Project partners are Scotland's Churches Trust and Society of Antiquaries Scotland. Funders are the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Pilgrim Trust. Image includes a QR code for the full programme and URL web address for this www.churchheritage.scot
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Gabe Moshenska @gabemoshenska.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Race scientists are like asbestos: unwisely built into the fabric of universities many years ago, will absolutely kill people, and require careful but total removal. Also, mostly harmless if embedded in concrete.
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Research in Action on Church Heritage @churchheritage.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
What memories do you have of Burntisland Old Parish Church? On 5 September, ReACH will be there for our next case study open day, and we'd love to hear your stories - weddings, baptisms, Christmas services, childhood memories, family connections or simply moments that have stayed with you.
Flyer with image of Burntisland church and overlaid text with open day details
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Andy Fleming @slackbastard.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
via al jazeera
'In the UK you can harass a black professor to death, but you can't protest a genocide.'

A vigil was held in London for former Cambridge professor Jason Arday, who was found dead amid plagiarism allegations he denied. His death has sparked a wider debate over racism and the intense scrutiny he faced. Arday's family criticised a “campaign of harassment” against him.⁣
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Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Think of all the mediocre white men with their plagiarism/stealing student work/sexual harassment who kept their jobs or quietly retired but are alive. Jason Arday’s situation did NOT have to play out or end this way, no matter his errors. And the media and everyone with a hot take is responsible.
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Richard Smyth @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Bede's World! Bede's World! Party time! Venerable!
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Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
This article listing all 34 Clacton candidates should prove indispensable for any scholars asking the question "what exactly is Britain?"
bbc.co.uk
The candidates standing in the Clacton by-election
The full list of candidates who have declared they intend to fight the Clacton by-election.
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Ben Bloodworth @benbloodworth.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
bsky.app/profile/jannaphia.bsky.soc… This ‘Spot the AI’ academic quiz is excellent and has a lot useful pointers on how to decern real human made images from the mega slop 💫🧑‍🎨💫
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Jess O'Thomson @jessothomson.co.uk · 03/07/2026
🚨 WE NEED YOU 🚨 As a new Prime Minister comes into power, we want to show that an overwhelming number of people support trans people, and want the government to take serious action to protect their rights. Will you say you stand with trans people? And share with everyone you know?
goodlaw.social
I stand with trans people | Good Law Project
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Neil Norman And His Cosmic Orchestra @fubsyshabaroon.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
PANINIS’S
A sign which says:

PANINIS’S
HAM / PEPPERONI / CHICKEN HAMPANINIS’S
HAM / PEPPERONI / CHICKEN HAM
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📝Saline & District Heritage Society @salineheritage.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Also: Saline Session House (which happens to host our wee museum!) so it's a perfect place to visit to escape the heat & learn about our archaeological projects 😊🌡️ ❄️ Parish Church, Main St, Saline KY12 9TL Sundays 1030am - noon Tuesdays 6pm - 8pm #Fife #heritage
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Dr Florence H R Scott @florencehrscott.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
hate it when I am twenty words away from meeting my word count for today and then wikipedia shows me an image with the caption 'thought to be the oldest depiction of a pretzel' when I KNOW of a picture of a pretzel from decades earlier and I am now down a rabbit hole and I can't escape
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Dr Lizzie Swarbrick 🇵🇸 @lizzieswarbrick.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Reminder for all those suffering in the heat: churches are generally nice and cool if you need a breather.
A thermometer with the chancel of Whitekirk (East Lothian) in the background.
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Dr Will Wyeth @willwyeth.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
🗣️ Medievalists! 🏰 Check out this page, we’ve done a reconstruction the medieval chapel at Chester Castle! www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places... Please share widely! There’s loads of info and *lovely* images from the repertoire of medieval art - and also more reconstructions!
english-heritage.org.uk
The Chester Castle Chapel Wall Paintings
The walls of the medieval chapel in the Agricola Tower at Chester Castle were richly painted around 1240 with scenes including miracles of the Virgin Mary and St Edward the Confessor. From the fragmen...
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Coleen Murphy @ctmurphy1.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
one anecdote: I was searching for a link to one of my old papers on Google, and the automated Gemini summary attributed all of my lab's work to my husband
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Dr Lizzie Swarbrick 🇵🇸 @lizzieswarbrick.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Long Covid at work. What you see: my big smiley face at and event trying not to trip over my words. What you don’t see: having to lie on the floor of a gorgeous auditorium because I’m too unwell to do the walking tour. Grateful to NLHF for accommodating my illness but it’s still bloody hard.
Me in a red dress with a name badge on in front of a Heritage Fund sign. The main auditorium of Paisley Town Hall. You can see my feet in work boots and a seat. I’m clearly lying on the floor.
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Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Yes it could be argued that keeping up with world events is important but alternatively can I interest you in hugging an ancient mossy boulder that looks like a face and quietly listening while it tells you stories from centuries cloaked in mist.
A lovely mossy boulder with a face. I walked past this venerable stone gentleman on Dartmoor when I was beginning to write my first novel, Villager, and it whispered all 104,000 words of the book to me. So now I have to pay it all of my royalties. Unfortunately my ex-publisher stopped paying me royalties last year. Understandable, the boulder was not happy. But now I have a new publisher and the book has been republished. So remember if you purchase a copy you will be helping a boulder to eat, pay the rent on his riverside moss garden, and feed his boulder family.
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Dr Rachel Souhami @rachelsouhami.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Museums and heritage freelancers! There is now a union for you! I've been working with @soupdragon2000.bsky.social and @dannybirchall.bsky.social to set up the Heritage Freelancers branch of @prospectunion.bsky.social Full details and joining info: heritagefreelancersunion.co.uk
heritagefreelancersunion.co.uk
Prospect Heritage Freelancers
A branch of Prospect for museums and heritage freelancers
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Dr Lizzie Swarbrick 🇵🇸 @lizzieswarbrick.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Even in a village on a tiny Greek island*, I still can’t seem to avoid Scottish heritage. *Kioni in north Ithaka - maybe the best place on earth. But please don’t tell anyone.
A book display in a shop in Kioni, Ithaka, Greece featuring a book about the Monymusk Reliquary.
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Edinburgh World Heritage @edinburghwh.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Greyfriars Kirkyard: New Perspectives on George Heriot and John Bayne's tombs Thursday 25 June 18:00 - 20:00 Augustine (United) Church George IV Bridge Mark Hatton & Chris Cooper will present new perspectives on 2 tombs in Greyfriars Kirkyard. edinburghworldheritage4.beaconforms.com/form/533cc5d9
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Nancy Johnston @jeelyeater1.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
#SteepleSaturday This building in #Crieff hasn’t been a church since 1997. It’s A listed and has significant #StainedGlass by #DouglasStrachan and #HerbertHendrie. It’s in an absolutely disgraceful condition. Someone must own it.
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Dr Lizzie Swarbrick 🇵🇸 @lizzieswarbrick.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Who needs blockbusters when you have ‘The Block’? I adored the small but perfectly formed Melsonby Hoard exhibition at @yorkmuseumstrust.bsky.social especially ‘The Block’ of at least 88 Iron Age finds that were woven and threaded together before they were wrapped in cloth and deposited.
‘The Block’ in its exhibition case. Over 88 Iron Age objects which were carefully threaded to stay as one when they were deposited. Now a thick layer of rust and stuff (I’m not an archaeologist) has further fused them. A close up of ‘The Block’ showing some of the finds within.
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Fiona Chartres @chartresfi.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
This stunning 15th/16thC aumbry at St John the Baptist, Oxenton has some of the loveliest carving I've seen in a while. The detail in the tiny windows and vaulted bay ceiling is so fine that I'm amazed it's survived in such good condition. I don't covert much but this.... want it! #TraceryTuesday
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Des Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Hans moleman meme. The text is "I need the most galway job you have/no, that's too galway."
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Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Seagull facts: The record for the largest number of sandwiches stolen by a seagull in one day is 74. The Chinese word for seagull translates as "the beaked horse who stares". The robust digestive system of seagulls allows them to eat many things weaker birds cannot, including multisockets & kettles.
A photograph of one of Lyme Regis' finest gulls, just after I had asked it "What you looking at?" and it had answered "Don't know. It hasn't got a label."
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Dr Lizzie Swarbrick 🇵🇸 @lizzieswarbrick.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Still not over that time I found MIDGES in the trompe l'oeil border of a 1498 manuscript made for a Scottish patron. They even have teeny bloody jaws! A bit of local flavour added by the Low Countries artists for owner Aberdonian Dean Brown? Full MS available here digital.nls.uk/early-manusc...
The border of a manuscript made in Ghent or Bruges from 1498. On a gilded background are violas, wild strawberries, a snail and a midge. Known as the Dean Brown Prayerbook, now in the National Library of Scotland 	MS.10270.
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Women's History Scotland @womenshistscot.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
📢 Call for Papers: Women’s History Scotland Conference We’re excited to invite proposals for our conference, taking place online on Friday, 18 September 2026. 🗓 Submission deadline: 1 July 2026 Please share this post widely! Find full details: womenshistoryscotland.org/2026/05/04/c...
womenshistoryscotland.org
Call for Papers: Women’s History Scotland Annual Conference 2026 – Women's History Scotland
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Dr Lizzie Swarbrick 🇵🇸 @lizzieswarbrick.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
I’m off work sick (sorry if you’re waiting for a message from me) but I did manage to stumble to a beach with my favourite childhood book on my birthday.
My hand holding up Comet in Moominland in front of a beautiful Scottish beach in the sunshine.
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Liam Kirkaldy @liamkirkaldy.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
I can't believe they got this interview with the walrus
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It's Pipes, Mum! Pipes is here! @scriblit.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
'So much for the tolerant left'
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Euan @euan.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Scottish Labour manifesto is out, don’t vote for them
• Delivering single-sex spaces on the basis of biological sex, in NHS wards, schools, sport and everyday life by upholding the Equality Act and delivering clear instructions to public services on how to comply with their legal obligations to women and to trans people.
• Keeping women's prisons for women, instructing the Scottish Prison Service to remove all biologically male prisoners from women's prisons within days of the election.
• Recommit the NHS to delivering single sex wards on the basis of biological sex, and ensuring patients can request same sex provision wherever possible.
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Dreadnought Holiday @dreadships.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Okay, so the funny thing is that coffins and tunnels are often this shape for the same reason - your feet and legs are narrower than your shoulders. The undertaker doesn't want to waste any more wood than he needs, the miner doesn't want to dig more rock.
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Dr Lizzie Swarbrick 🇵🇸 @lizzieswarbrick.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Solidarity with my former colleagues! Amazing teachers and researchers as well as skilled administrators - these wonderful staff are the backbone of the university and no amount of shiny buildings could ever make up for losing them.
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Scotland's Churches Trust @scotchurchestrust.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
The minister of the newly combined Old Kilmacolm Parish Church and St Columba's, Kilmacolm has issued an appeal to find a silver flagon from the latter church that has gone astray since its closure. Full story in the Greenock Telegraph 👇 www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/news/2596078...
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Dr Lizzie Swarbrick 🇵🇸 @lizzieswarbrick.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
It’s me again! If you want to hear about the history if this wonderful medieval church and be involved in its future then please come along!
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Dr Lizzie Swarbrick 🇵🇸 @lizzieswarbrick.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
One of the grindingly hard things about having Long Covid is having to repeatedly come up with polite ways to respond to the question ‘are you feeling any better now’? Just saying ‘no’ breaks the ‘fine thanks’ ritual answer. Every time it reminds me the painful drudgery of having a chronic illness.
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weird medieval guys @weirdmedieval.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
spring/summer hot fashion tip: i heard that zoomorphic fibulae are expected to make a BIG comeback!
two inlaid brooches shaped like birds
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Lorna Richardson @lornarichardson.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
This archaeological research really captures the enchantment of trying to understand human life across the barriers of time and evidence. A warm July day, grief and sadness, colour, scent and precious things.
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Dr Lizzie Swarbrick 🇵🇸 @lizzieswarbrick.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Fun (not fun!) reading this week.
An image of my desk at the National Library of Scotland. You can see my laptop and notebook surrounded by several volumes including ‘Mythologising the Past’, ‘Whose Middle Ages’, ‘The Far Right Today’, and ‘From the Far Right to the Mainstream’.
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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 02/03/2026
This is a really weird fantasia of Edinburgh (and its geography) as it never was and is *full* to the brim of the sorts of simple yet glaring errors and anachronisms you would never have gotten if you hadn't left it to a computer to just barf out an averagised slop answer.
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Dr Lizzie Swarbrick 🇵🇸 @lizzieswarbrick.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Hey! Does anyone know an expert in 18th century Scottish naval history? I have questions about some beautiful church panel paintings!
The interior of Burntisland Old Parish Church with wooden galleries painted with naval scenes.
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Dr Lizzie Swarbrick 🇵🇸 @lizzieswarbrick.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
I wrote a thing with Mark Hall on the wonderful late medieval chandelier in St John’s, Perth. Many simply do not know that Scotland has such ecclesiastical treasures and it’s more important than ever that we celebrate them at this time of mass church closures.
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👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 12/02/2026
i genuinely think there's a PhD somewhere on flower arranging in churches and the incongruity between the respect it's afforded vs the actual significance of the role that it plays
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Dr Lizzie Swarbrick 🇵🇸 @lizzieswarbrick.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
Bloody love this photo of me in action this weekend giving tours at Whitekirk as part of the open day organised by @churchheritage.bsky.social. Thanks @scotchurchestrust.bsky.social for taking and posting it!
Me in a bright purple dress standing in the porch of Whitekirk surrounded by people listening to my tour. The picture is taken through the doors of the church and you can see the lovely red sandstone of the porch.
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Scotland's Churches Trust @scotchurchestrust.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
It's a @churchheritage.bsky.social open day at Whitekirk Church in East Lothian today. Come along and find out more about the remarkable history of this amazing building and its connections to a medieval pope, Oliver Cromwell and the Suffragettes. www.scotlandschurchestrust.org.uk/wp-content/u...
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Scotland's Churches Trust @scotchurchestrust.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
We are back again tomorrow with a FREE public open day from 11-3, with tours from Dr @lizzieswarbrick.bsky.social at 12pm, 1pm and 2pm and wonderful music in between. If you haven't before visited this wonderful historic gem, or haven't been for a while, do come along. Everyone is welcome! (2/2)
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Bob Marshall @bobmarshall.co.uk · 06/02/2026
Having fun this evening on the tablet visualising St Mary’s Church, Whitekirk with a lime render. #Procreate #iPad #EastLothian
An elevation drawing of the south side of St Mary’s Church, Whitekirk, in East Lothian, Scotland, showing red sandstone walls, and a white lime washed tower and south transept gable. Drawing by Bob Marshall 2026. Created using the Procreate app for iPad.
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