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Mike Middleton

@wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
2K followers 1.2K following 392 posts

I work in archaeology and data science in Scotland. journal.caa-international.org/artic…

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Reposted by Mike Middleton
ScARF @scarf-scot.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Are you interested in Neolithic and Bronze Age rock art? Join us at Kilmartin Museum on the 16th of May for a free, hybrid event led by the wonderful Tertia Barnett and @joanavaldez.bsky.social. In-person places are limited, so book soon if you're interested! More information: bit.ly/4s85XMi
Tertia and Joana lead a fieldtrip to see local rock art in Faifley, West Dunbartonshire during the RSE funded rock art workshops in 2025 © ScARF
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Reposted by Mike Middleton
Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 05/03/2026
I never saw the intricate connections with quite this sunny clarity before, such intimate revealing of relations in brilliance, and at such an hour… —Alan Riach, “Kilmartin Glen” published in CLEARANCES (Hazard Press/SCP, 2001) #poem #poetry #archaeology
Kilmartin Glen
Alan Riach

I never saw the intricate connections
with quite this sunny clarity before,
such intimate revealing of relations
in brilliance, and at such an hour:
the West and Islands open to the sea
and Ireland, always seemed to be
alive with colour: bright blue waters,
emeralds and snow; but shapes and movement,
glacial striations, ox-bow lakes, tidal rivers,
hill-tops making patterns to each other –
all connect in vision as the art of men
and women finds its laws in natural
reciprocation: raindrops in a quiet pool
form expanding spirals on the bending plane:
an ancient brooch, the lunulae –
silver, gold: water, sunlight, eyes
to see the clearness of design. And this
takes place in mind, imagination:
across ten thousand years, while now
outside the car my father drives, the rain
drives down on grass and bracken, heather
rocks and hills and lochs and lochans,
midges and elusive little fish. The forestry
have camouflaged the earth’s wet dark
antiquity; the road between Kilmartin
and the ferry just approaching Oban is
impatient, twisty, a hard fast exit through
this valley of old ghosts. And yet the vision stays
perception, the clarity of sunlight’s
careful disposition, in
this undifferentiated time.
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Reposted by Mike Middleton
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland @socantscot.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
WORK WITH US: ScARF Research Officers and ScARF Research Manager We are looking to hire three new members of staff to help deliver the final two regional research frameworks as part of @scarf-scot.bsky.social. Find out more and apply by 11:59pm on 8 March 2026: www.socantscot.org/news/#appoin...
Ruined castle with the words 'Work With Us' overlaid
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Reposted by Mike Middleton
Helen Spencer @helspencer.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Come work in the research team @socantscot.bsky.social on our ScARF project! We are looking for 3 new people to help us complete the last of the regional archaeological research frameworks for Scotland. Closing date the 8th March 2026 #HESFunded #Archaeology #HeritageJobs #Scotland 🏺
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Reposted by Mike Middleton
NPicts @northernpicts.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
We have had a fabulous start for the kickstarter for printed versions of the Rhynie big book, but we need MORE! Please support our project by buying yourself a printed copy of the Rhynie monograph! You have till 6th December to do so! www.kickstarter.com/projects/soc...
kickstarter.com
‘Rhynie, A Powerful Place of Pictland’: Printed Version
An opportunity to be part of history. Help us print a nationally important book that will transform our understanding of the Picts.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
I'm away atm. Will look at it when I'm back. Thanks!
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
For #HillfortsWednesday here's an old favourite, a view of the timber laced rampart at Castle Law, Abernethy under excavation. Photographed by P M Macintyre in 1898. 📸HES www.trove.scot/place/27917
The image shows an old black and whit photo, mounted on sepia coloured paper, with a thin red line, with arrows at each corner, framing the photograph. The photo shows the excavated rampart with a round ended shovel lent against it. Along the line of the dry stone wall there are holes where wooden beams where once located. There is rubble in the foreground, a layer of turf on top of the rampart and trees in the background.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Sorry. Just realised these are links to the staging Trove site. You just need to take stage out of the link to get them to work.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
The township and tacksman house at Allt Na Culaig is impressive canmore.org.uk/site/352763/.... It's also an amazing example of the clearances - wall build right over the buildings at Kraiknish stage.trove.scot/place/352769. As a bonus there there's a nice dun here too stage.trove.scot/place/11042.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
I enjoyed visiting Dun Sleadale. A nice broch and a beautiful landscape. stage.trove.scot/place/11037 I'd also recommend the Fairy Glen for its unusual geological formations.
stage.trove.scot
Skye, Dun Sleadale | Place | trove.scot
Find out about Skye, Dun Sleadale on trove.scot, a website from Historic Environment Scotland that holds details of more than 340,000 buildings, archaeological, industrial and maritime sites across Sc...
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
The fort of Brae Brough, on Hoy, in Orkney, is a short distance north of the famous rock stack of the Old Man of Hoy. The fort is almost a rock stack itself with a 325m vertical drop along it’s seaward side. www.trove.scot/place/1480 #HillfortsWednesday 📸 HES
This black and white image shows the flat platform and precipitous cliffs around the promontory fort of Brae Brough on Hoy in Orkney.
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Reposted by Mike Middleton
Peeblesshire Archaeological Society @peeblesarchsoc.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
Welcome to Peeblesshire Archaeological Society's new Bluesky page! We're very much looking forward to telling you more about PAS & keeping you up to date with the Society's activities, events & lecture programme. Please follow us and, better still, share your own archaeological interests with us.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
I try to avoid politics, but criticism of the Israeli state for its genocidal milliary actions in Palestine is not antisemitic. UN experts have called it a genocide. It is a fact. We can all see this.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Very cool. How have I not seen this before? Thanks for sharing.
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Reposted by Mike Middleton
NPicts @northernpicts.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Information about our upcoming dig at East Lomond with the Falkland Stewardship Trust - there are a series of free talks on the archaeology of East Lomond as part of our mini festival of archaeology and the open day for the dig will be 12th July. Come along and find out more!
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Reposted by Mike Middleton
NPicts @northernpicts.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
Join us at Aberdeen Archaeology! www.abdn.ac.uk/geosciences/departments/archaeology
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Reposted by Mike Middleton
Dig It! @digitscotland.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
In Fife, @mafs-scot.bsky.social‬ are excavating the 12th-century Lindores Abbey, which has a long tradition of distilling 🥃 Visit the site from 21 June to 4 July or head to their Open Day on 3 July for site tours and a showcase of the finds: www.digitscotland.com/events/monas... #ScotlandDigs2025
Several people in high-vis looking at a person talking near a trench
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
#HillfortsWednsday
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Reposted by Mike Middleton
Trimontium Trust & Museum @trimontiumtrust.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Our next #TrimontiumTalk is Thurs. 12 June – not to be missed! Hillfort expert Strat Halliday, will talk about Hillforts, Settlements & Ancient Geography. In person & online -recording will be available. Thinking of becoming a member? Members enjoy all TrimontiumTalks free, year-round! #Hillforts
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
For anyone interested in Iron Age / Early Med forts in Scotland (hillfort being a non-preferred term in Scotland), I'd like to highlight this talk by Strat Halliday. Strat worked through all the forts in Scotland as part of the Hillforts Atlas and is one of the foremost experts on the subject.
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Reposted by Mike Middleton
Trimontium Trust & Museum @trimontiumtrust.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
#IronAgeBuildings #IronAgeWednesday 🗻 The Eildon Hills, where the Selgovae hillfort once stood on Eildon North.  It housed over 300 roundhouses. Tomorrow, 12 June, join Strat Halliday - hillfort expert - for a talk on Iron Age settlements! zurl.co/bxydb Photo: Cicerone webpage. zurl.co/aZAGh
This picture shows the Mid and South Eildon Hills from a view of the Tweed River. The hills are green with trees leading across them.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Tynron Doon, in Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland, commands a spur of Auchengibbert Hill and has at least three lines of massive ramparts and ditches with ramparts standing up to 6.5m height and rock cut ditches from 7 to 15m in breadth. #HillfortsWednesday canmore.org.uk/site/65300/t... 📸 HES
A rather dark aerial photo of the fort covered in a thin dusting of snow. The snow highlights the ramparts and ditches and can be seen as particularly massive toward the right of the image. In the enter there is a central enclosure and to the left a smaller annex can be seen. On the steeper slopes to the top there is a plantation of pine trees.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
There are just 20 days left until Canmore is retired. Please look at Canmore's replacement www.trove.scot and feedback your comments on functionality, using the feedback form, or directly to the trove team at trove@hes.scot.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
#HillfortsWednesday
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Reposted by Mike Middleton
Ulla Rajala @ullamr.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
The bivallate Iron Age Oldbury hillfort lies 5 km west from Avebury in Wiltshire. Its defenses enclose 9 ha. There is also a hill figure of a white horse cut to the chalk on the northern side. The only excavation was in 1930 and the latest survey in 2004. #HillfortWednesday
The hillfort from air
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Arbory Hill Fort, in South Lanarkshire, is one of the higher forts in Scotland. The inner stone-walled rampart has been inserted into the earlier bi-vallate fort, and the outer ramparts contain at least five entrances. #HillfortsWednesday canmore.org.uk/site/47427/a... 📸HES
Aerial photo showing the three ramparts of Arbory Hill Fort in an open upland moorland.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
The feed catches any post containing the words bronze age in the text or alt text and I can see the feed has already caught it. Thanks for contributing!
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
A new chapter. Good luck!
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
#HillfortsWednesday
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Lovely colours and great for seeing the hut platforms.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
😂
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Woden Law in the Scottish Boarders is a complex Iron Age fort with multiple phases of construction and remodeling and the fort is associated with earthworks outside the fort. The fort's relationship to these remains a question to be answered. canmore.org.uk/site/58068 #HillfortsWednesday 📸HES
Aerial view of Woden Law fort int the Scottish Borders. The fort is in high pasture.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
You can feedback directly to the Trove team using trove@hes.scot
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Reposted by Mike Middleton
Trimontium Trust & Museum @trimontiumtrust.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Our next Trimontium Talk is coming up on June 12th! Join us for Hillforts, Settlements and Ancient Geography with Strat Halliday @ 7:30pm. Taking place both in person and online. ... Visit the link below to book your spot! 🌟 zurl.co/8tOLA
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Thanks! Your contribution is important. Thanks for your input.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
I've also been told that although HES are not currently on Bluesky, the Comms team are monitoring it for feedback on the transition from Canmore to Trove and are feeding this back to the Trove team.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
I'm sorry if my post read in this way. Here is a screenshot from our internal project management system showing the feedback is important and it is being taken seriously.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
I've fed copies of your posts and others with the Trove team and they say, "...do encourage individuals to raise concerns via our feedback survey or via email on trove@HES.scot."
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
I do not know. Apologies
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
I'm not doing this officially. I'm just an interested employee.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
I don't know. Appologies. I'm just HES staff. I'm not on the Trove team.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
This is a really useful thread with valuable examples of differences in service. For those that can't feedback via the trove feedback form I will be screenshot posts and feeding them back to the Trove team. To help find them it would be useful if posts contained the word Trove. Thanks.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
I was just explaining how it is supposed to work. I am aware how it currently functions.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
There are supposed to be in separate tabs following a search. The first tab should be the designations. The last should be the canmore data in a tab called activities
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
Will do.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
Just to note that his work was done by hes staff last year.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
I will screen shot your thread and feed it back to the trove team.
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
It would be good if you could feed this back via the feedback form on Trove. Thank you!
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Reposted by Mike Middleton
Dr Wendy Morrison @hillfortian.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
#hillfortsWednesday Bessie's Hillfort, Eskdalemuir. I don't know who Bessie was, but she kept a tidy little set of ramparts with some scooped platforms inside. Best seen as here, from the Late Iron Age settlement enclosure on the hill above.
Earthworks just in front of a plantation of conifer trees
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Mike Middleton @wulfgarthebard.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Here is your periodic reminder that Canmore is soon to be switched off. Please look at Canmore's replacement www.trove.scot and feedback your comments on functionality, using the feedback form, while you still can.
The original home page of the Canmore website showing the frontage of John Sinclair House, the former home of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.
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