SSNS's next Annual Conference will take place in Darnick on 28 Nov. 2026.

Stephen will explore why so many of the crucial incidents leading to the downfall of the Norse line of northern Scottish jarls in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.

A 1,000-year-old Viking cross is restored and returned to public display at St John’s Chapel.

It is now time to bring in the island of Iceland to this Tapestry. Already we have seen (in The Islands of Sheep: Settlement of The Faroes) how during the 9th century, the Faroe Islands were being …

Mystery surrounds the origins of the 1,200-year-old, intricately decorated Book of Kells.

Welcome to the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin & Castlebar covering Archaeology, Decorative Arts, Folk & Country Life, & Natural History.FREE Exhibitions

Archaeologist Steve Dickinson believes the mound could contain the 9th Century king and his ship.

Archaeologists have found evidence of 340 Roman graves but say the site could hold more.

More than 1,000 words used as far back as 325BC to be collected for insight into past linguistic landscape

Archaeologists are to resume digging at the site after 3D radar technology uncovered a mystery find.

The Society is delighted to announce the publication of a new edited volume in honour of Dr Anna Ritchie.

Exclusive: Author challenges assumption monks on Iona created manuscript, instead positing its origins are Pictish

Although there is little evidence of it today, the tiny village of Forteviot with its population of around 200 was once the centre of the Pictish and newly-emerging Scottish kingdoms in the 9th cen…

At the end of my last post I noted that in the mid-800s, as well as fighting the Irish, we now had Vikings attacking Vikings and that the narrative was in danger of becoming even more confusing. Fo…

In Turges – a Norse leader in Ireland, we saw how the Irish prince – and then king – of Mide, Mael Sechnaill, had ritually drowned the Norse leader Turges in 845 – a result of the ongoing conflict …

A recently discovered assemblage of Pictish Stones will be on long term display in the village of Aberlemno later in 2025.

A name which appears in the Irish Annals between 839 and 845 is Turges (or Turgeis, Tuirgheis or Turgesius), a Norse chieftain fighting in Ireland. This post will look at this character – and what …

In this post I want to turn once again towards Scandinavia. In the early 9th century the land now called Norway was not united. Instead there existed a number of kingdoms such as Vestfold, Rogaland…

The pivotal ‘barbarian conspiracy’ of AD367 saw Picts, Scotti and Saxons inflicting crushing blows on Roman defences

The SSNS Seminar Series continues on 16 January with a talk by Dr Nelleke IJssennagger-van der Pluijm on 'Frisia and the Viking Age'.

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More than 800 objects unearthed near Melsonby show the north was ‘definitely not a backwater’ 2,000 years ago

The rise of the precursor to the Irish language remains a historical mystery that linguists, geneticists and archaeologists continue to debate

In the last two blog posts (The Last Pictish Kings: Part 2 – Kenneth, Brude, Drust… and Kenneth and Kenneth MacAlpin Part II )  I looked at the story of Kenneth MacAlpin, the man who is often descr…

SILLOTH, ENGLAND––According to a statement released by Grampus Heritage & Training, archaeologists working at a […]

In The Last Pictish Kings: Part 2 – Kenneth, Brude, Drust… and Kenneth, I posed the question: was Kenneth MacAlpin a Gael or a Pict? I was grateful to receive a number of comments and suggestion in…

In the last post we saw how, after the catastrophic defeat by the Norse in 839 which impacted both the Picts and the Dál Riadan Scots, Uurad ruled in Pictland for three years, and was based in Pert…

A runic inscription on one of the Galloway hoard’s elaborately decorated arm rings has been deciphered

Understand why Viking settlers of Iceland and the Faroe Islands represent different gene pools, and why this could rewrite history.