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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA, FHistS

@swallowtailarch.bsky.social
584 followers 580 following 120 posts

Castles & Landscapes Expert | Research, Writing, Review, & Reach in Archaeology, History & Heritage | Where Words Work www.swallowtailarchaeology.co.uk #queenoflostcastles #LegendLadyLandscape #ResearchWritingReviewReach

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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA, FHistS @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Honoured to be serving once again as an officer of the Council of the @royalarchinst.bsky.social, this time as Honorary Secretary. Today marked my first meeting of a new three-year term. Good to be back in London - and with a purpose. #Archaeology
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The Castle Studies Trust @castlestudies.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Everyone has heard of a dig diary, well how about a building survey diary as Tom Addyman gives an update of his and his team's first visit to survey the inner ward of Cockermouth Castle. They've already made intriguing discoveries. Read here to learn more: castlestudiestrust.org/blog/2026/04...
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The Castle Studies Trust @castlestudies.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Fascinating discoveries after only their first visit to survey the inner ward of Cockermouth Castle, from Tom Addyman and team. For fans of domestic arrangements note the kitchen tower and its similarity to John Lewyn's designs at Durham and Raby yet possibly 30+ years older. Read more below.
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The Castle Studies Trust @castlestudies.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
We in the news in Ireland for our funding of the Kilkenny "Finding Flemingstown" geophyical survey by @discoveryprogramme.bsky.social. Development of castle and town in early Anglo-Norman colonisation were entwined so it's a further boost to Irish castle studies: www.independent.ie/life/archaeo...
independent.ie
Archaeologists uncover signs of forgotten village beside Kilkenny Castle
There has been a breakthrough in the search for a long lost medieval village in Kilkenny as experts believe they may have found the location of where the village once stood hundreds of years ago.
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The Castle Studies Trust @castlestudies.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
On 15 April, our latest project starts, the co-funding of an engineering survey of the great gatehouse of the Edwardian castle of Ruthin. A major castle now ruined and then had a C19 mansion and gardens built on it there's still medieval remains read more here: castlestudiestrust.org/blog/2026/04...
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The Castle Studies Trust @castlestudies.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
And this is one about the digital reconstruction of Holt which we funded over a decade ago, built by John de Warenne and favourite of Richard II: castlestudiestrust.org/blog/2021/04...
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The Castle Studies Trust @castlestudies.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Not all Edwardian castles in North Wales built in the late C13 were royal ones. In the Welsh Marches barons built great castles. These include, Hawarden, Holt and Ruthin. The latest project we are co-funding is on the Ruthin, built by Reginald de Grey: castlestudiestrust.org/blog/2026/04...
castlestudiestrust.org
Ruthin Castle: conserving and learning more about an Edwardian Castle – Castle Studies Trust Blog
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The Castle Studies Trust @castlestudies.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
and The National: www.thenational.scot/news/2602172...
thenational.scot
Prehistoric village discovered under Scottish castle will 'rewrite city's history'
THE remains of a prehistoric village has been discovered by a community archaeology team at the site of a castle in Glasgow that will “rewrite the…
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The Castle Studies Trust @castlestudies.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
And Glasgow Live: www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow...
glasgowlive.co.uk
Hidden prehistoric settlement discovered by locals could 'change the history of Glasgow'
Glasgow schoolchildren and volunteers have uncovered up to seven round houses dating to the Iron or Bronze Age near Glasgow's last surviving medieval castle.
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The Castle Studies Trust @castlestudies.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
In 2025 we awarded a grant to @crookston.bsky.social to carry out a community geophys survey of Crookston Castle supported by the geophys team of HES. We found not just some great archaeology but also a local area keen to learn more about "their" castle: castlestudiestrust.org/blog/2026/04...
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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA, FHistS @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
#Sunrise, #Solstice - and a Return to the #Light!
Sunrise behind a tree. Tree silhouetted against a deep red sky with a hint at the yellow of the rising sun. York in England.
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Duncan Mackay @theduncanmackay.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
Stop! I know what you’re thinking! You need that final stocking filler for a history-loving loved one! Something under £15, small, perfectly shaped for wrapping, easily & quickly available from (all good) high street shops or online! I’ve got your back… #Echolands - A Journey in Search of Boudica
Echolands by Duncan Mackay on Christmas wrapping and decorations.
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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA, FHistS @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA, FHistS @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Castel Nuovo, also known as Maschio Angioino, stands proudly in front of Piazza Municipio and Naples’ city hall. Built 1279, I took this photo this October. #Naples #Napoli #CastelNuovo #Italy #MedievalArchitecture #TravelPhotography #MedievalSky #QueenOfLostCastles
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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA, FHistS @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
#Beautiful #winter #sky this #evening!
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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA, FHistS @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
#Castlerigg
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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA, FHistS @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Just led a brilliant Walk & Talk at #CaergwrleCastle with the Cambrian Archaeological Association! 🏰✨ We explored what’s known – and still debated – about this rare hybrid of Welsh siting & Edwardian-strength masonry, perched above the River Alyn. 1/3 #MedievalCastles #WelshHistory #MedievalSky
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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA, FHistS @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
To book your place, contact me on rachel@swallowtailarchaeology.co.uk
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Paul Webster 🌈 @webstermedieval.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Enjoying attending the Thirteenth Century Conference online today. Currently following the first Bjorn Weiler Memorial Lecture,by Daniel Power on Eleanor of Castile's inheritance in Ponthieu and Aumale. #medieval #medievalsky
Computer screen showing lecture slide with maps of England and Northern France.
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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA, FHistS @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
🏰✨ Free Walk & Talk! ✨🏰 📅 Sat 13 Sept 2025 | ⏰ 2–4 pm 📍 Caergwrle Castle, Flintshire 📩 Reserve your spot: rachel@swallowtailarchaeology.co.uk #SwallowtailArchaeology #QueenOfLostCastles #ResearchWritingReviewReach #CaergwrleCastle #WelshHistory #CastlesOfWales #LegendLadyLandscape #medievalsky
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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA, FHistS @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
Acorns on sun-burnt August grass 🌱☀️ In medieval Britain, the oak was power itself — boundary marker, court tree, symbol of endurance and lordship. 🌳👑 #Oak #Acorns #BritishCountryside #MedievalHistory #Folklore #queenoflostcastles #medievalsky
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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA, FHistS @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
St. Mary’s, #Beverley, #Yorkshire - founded AD 1120. Though the #Lincoln #Imp is famous, the Beverley Imp is arguably more frightening—yet perhaps also endearing?! Its grotesque face vividly shows how #medieval carvers mixed #myth and #morality into #sacred spaces. #medievalsky
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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA, FHistS @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
The melting of late #summer #skies
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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA, FHistS @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
#Nature in the #Wild #Garden
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Ben Potts @benjaminsteven.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
One of two stones discovered on the moors around Whitby and given to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society by antiquarian Canon Raines in 1895. One disappeared, but this fantastic bit of #rockart can still be seen at York Museum Gardens. 📸 my own, yesterday.
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Ste Lingard @stelingard.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
One of the staircases leading from the front lawns up to Marbury Hall, #Cheshire (pic my own), & an aerial image from before the hall was demolished in 1969 (pic via the Friends of Anderton & Marbury). The site has been a country park since the late 1970s - a local treasure. #StaircaseSaturday
A short, wide staircase in some slightly overgrown parkland, relict from a former country house, now demolished.An aerial view (black and white) of Marbury Hall. From: https://foam.merseyforest.uk/?cat=20
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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA, FHistS @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Some very lovely people very kindly made my #dream come true a year ago today! Another Big One off my Big #Birthday #BucketList! Just loved it! 😊 #tractor
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Paul H Vigor, BA (Hons) History; MSocSc Industrial Archaeology @paulvigor64.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
Alltwen Moon.
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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
Glastonbury Tor this evening.
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Clare Downham @downham.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOC329/t...
jobs.ac.uk
The Childers Professorship of Irish History at University of Cambridge
Searching for an academic job? Explore this The Childers Professorship of Irish History opening on jobs.ac.uk! Click to view more details and browse other academic jobs.
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Clare Downham @downham.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
New book just arrived for review! Exciting #medievalsky
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BookWormSat @bookwormsat.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
'O luminous late day! The air's enchanted. The white stork flying by is half asleep and the swallows cross one another—wings sharp-stretched to the gold air— and away' -Antonio Machado @signemaene.com welcomes you to a Spanish #BookWormSat. 🎨Kerry Buck
Artwork of swallows and dandelions. light blue and green background colours.
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Ste Lingard @stelingard.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Rosamund's Tower, #Pickering Castle. Early C14 as part of a broader upgrade of the outer curtain, from timber palisade to stone wall. William I began the castle in the years after Hastings, as part of his 'harrying' of the North. #WallsOnWednesday #NorthYorkshire #Castles 📷 My own
A square tower, made of stone, partly ruined and partly overgrown.
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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA, FHistS @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Thank you for sharing, @suegreaney.bsky.social !
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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Today is publication day for the long-awaited PAPERBACK edition of ‘Magic in Merlin’s Realm’, my book about the political significance of magic in Britain from the Middle Ages to modern times 📚🧙‍♂️🔮 @universitypress.cambridge.org www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...
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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA, FHistS @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Worn holloways, whispering sunken lanes. A #castle nestled in the folds of its landscape. No sound but #nature. Time and Peace hold their breath. 😊 #MedievalWales #Castles #LandscapeDreaming #SunkenLanes #medievalsky #queenoflostcastles #legendladylandscape
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Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Anyone still unsure of the difference between a publisher and a vanity press? Here it is. Publishers make money from selling books to the public. Vanity presses make money from selling publishing services to authors. In one model, the author gets paid. In the other, the author gets charged. Simple.
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Rachel Moss @menysnoweballes.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Obligatory castle pic from medievalist on holiday - who will be the first to guess *which* castle?
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Christiane Kroebel @whitbyhistory.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Arguing about Castles - 2 medieval Mulgrave Castles and a hypothesis, presented this morning in Leeds. Might make a good talk for the winter programme @whitbynats.bsky.social @whitbymuseum.bsky.social or a summer outing in 2026.
Foss Mill and Sandsend Beck early 20th century.Motte after tree felling in 1947
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Katherine Weikert @kateweikert.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Some excellent @castlestudies.bsky.social action @imc-leeds.bsky.social this afternoon! Organised by @willwyeth.bsky.social, 'Arguing About Castles' featured papers from @swallowtailarch.bsky.social, Christian Clarkson (Simpson & Brown), and Ryan Prescott (Leeds).
Title slide for 'Reframing Newhouse Castle: Lincolnshire and the "Anarchy", 1135-54' for the talk by Ryan Prescot. Title slide for 'Castle Studies in three Private Sector: what heritage consultants do (and don't do)' a talk by Christian ClarksonTitle slide for 'Leisure, Literature and Legend: reconstructing Edward I's and Queen Eleanor of Castile's Castles and Boroughs through Innovative Landscape Context,' a talk by Rachel Swallow
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Christiane Kroebel @whitbyhistory.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Another excellent session and found much food for thought in this paper @swallowtailarch.bsky.social and it's good to continue 'Arguing about Castles' afterwards!
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The Castle Studies Trust @castlestudies.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Eleanor was far from the only Eleanor let alone queen who influenced or commissioned castle building as this blog from a few weeks ago by @swallowtailarch.bsky.social on Eleanor of Castile and her impact on Caernarfon: castlestudiestrust.org/blog/2025/05...
castlestudiestrust.org
Queen Eleanor of Castile, Caernarfon Castle, and the Overton Connection – Castle Studies Trust Blog
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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA, FHistS @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Thoroughly enjoyed this paper at #IMC2025 @imc-leeds.bsky.social - and great to meet you, too, @whitbyhistory.bsky.social !
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 07/07/2025
UK bosses to be banned from using NDAs to cover up misconduct at work
theguardian.com
UK bosses to be banned from using NDAs to cover up misconduct at work
Exclusive: Changes to workers’ rights bill will prohibit the silencing of staff who suffer harassment or discrimination * Labour has delivered where Tory ministers did not on NDA rules Bosses in the UK will be banned from using non-disclosure agreements to silence employees who have suffered harassment and discrimination in the workplace as part of the government’s overhaul of workers’ rights. Ministers will on Monday night table amendments to the government’s employment rights bill to prohibit the widespread practice of using legally enforceable NDAs to conceal unacceptable behaviour at work. Continue reading...
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Dr Will Wyeth @willwyeth.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Toot toot, it’s castles o’oclock! Come to the first of two castles sessions this fine Monday @imc-leeds.bsky.social at Newlyn GR.07. #LeedsIMC #IMC2025 #LeedsIMC2025 #s134 #s234 #castles
Screen grab of the page advertising two conference papers. The session abstract reads:

“How do we know about castles? How do we build arguments about castles? 'Arguing about Castles' presents new work which examine the structure and development of ideas in castle studies as a field of enquiry at the intersection of (among others) medieval studies, architecture, archaeology, history and medievalism. It seeks to lay bare the worlds of learning - theoretical, methodological, epistemic - which underpin contemporary castle studies, in order to challenge received wisdoms and open new collaborations and areas of research.
This session explores what it means to own, adhere to, construct and learn about castles and their knowledges.
Papers discuss the place of castles in communities and across time, and how knowledge is negotiated in diverse circumstances.”

The two presentations are:
134-a - Two Mulgrave Castles in Lythe Parish, North Yorkshire: A Hypothesis for their Setting in the Landscape
By Christiane Kroebel, Independent Scholar


134-b - Digital Interludes: Methods of Teaching Castles
By Leonie V. Hicks, Canterbury Christ Church University
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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA, FHistS @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Really enjoyed the Arguing About Castles II session at @imc-leeds.bsky.social today—expertly organised by @willwyeth.bsky.social of #EnglishHeritageTrust. It was great to present alongside Christian Clarkson (Simpson & Brown) and Ryan Prescott (Leeds). Some excellent research out there!
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Paul Montgomery @stonefishweirs.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Underwater images of a 9,000-year-old stationary fish weir off the coast of southern #Sweden from a well-preserved #StoneAge site. From fishing settlement was presented in a lagoon environment where Mesolithic humans lived during parts of the year. 1/5
Picture of wood fishweirs on seabed From 
Hansson, Anton, et al. "A submerged Mesolithic lagoonal landscape in the Baltic Sea, south-eastern Sweden–Early Holocene environmental reconstruction and shore-level displacement based on a multiproxy approach." Quaternary International 463 (2018): 110-123.
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Lorna Richardson @lornarichardson.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Writing an entirely new module on critical approaches to digital media & AI. I'll post a few links from my prep as I go. This is an excellent eye opening documentary from DW about the exploitation of Kenyan AI annotation workers, who are exposed to horrific material & bear the psychological scars
youtu.be
How big AI companies exploit data workers in Kenya | DW Documentary
YouTube video by DW Documentary
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Lorna Richardson @lornarichardson.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
A Guardian editorial on metal detecting, with no indication of the legal issues involved? Cool, cool
theguardian.com
The Guardian view on metal detecting: hobbyists as well as experts can play a part in unearthing the past | Editorial
Editorial: Detectorists and archaeologists sometimes clash, but the recent find of two Roman swords was the thrilling result of collaboration
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