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The Extraordinary Kame of Isbister Dig Featured on Digging for Britain
The archaeological dig at the Kame of Isbister in Shetland is among the most difficult sites to access in the UK. It will be featured in the BBC TV series “Digging for Britain” on Thursday, January 9, 2024, and will be available on BBC iPlayer starting January 7, 2024. The…
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Ragna’s Islands: Researching Names and Places in Orkneyinga Saga, Papay, North Ronaldsay and Fair Lisle
Professor Judith Jesch, Dr Matthew Blake, Judith Jesch and Corinna Rayner of the University of Nottingham talk to us about their latest research in this guest blog post. Ragna’s Islands is an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded research project built around a new translation of The Saga of…
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VEMS: Viking and Early Medieval Studies at INS Launch Event
Building on the ongoing research by staff and students at the University of the Highlands and Islands Institute for Northern Studies, Viking and Early Medieval Studies (VEMS) will be launched with an event at the Brahan Lecture Theatre, UHI Perth. The series of seminars will take place on Monday, December…
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A Pirates Life – The John Gow Heritage Trail
In the past few years, the UHI Institute for Northern Studies has developed a portfolio of commercial clients who have benefitted from the world-leading research conducted at our Perth, Orkney, and Shetland campuses. One of the deeply rooted Orcadian businesses that has reached out to us is J. Gow Distillery.…
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Research on the Poet Robert Burns is set to be Published in Paperback.
Institute for Northern Studies lecturer Paul Malgrati’s research on the poet Robert Burns and his influence on Scottish cultural politics will be published in paperback in December 2024. Previously successful in hardback, this book explores Robert Burns’s political legacy in modern Scotland and how successive political parties have used his…
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Community Seminar Series Begins Afresh for 2024
In collaboration with Culture Perth and Kinross, the Institute for Northern Studies has created a programme of public lectures and seminars for 2024-25 that are open to the community in the Perth area. The exciting programme has proved to be very popular. It brings seminars and talks to members of…
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Research Sheds New Light on Viking Sea Communications in 12th Century North West Scotland
A team of archaeologists from the University of the Highlands and Islands Institute for Northern Studies are investigating the possibility Vikings used shortcuts over land to help them move warships and smaller boats around Scotland’s west coast. The research forms part of the ongoing Norse and the Sea project, which,…
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PhDing, Ballading and January Living in the Faroe Islands: Sjúrðar kvæði deluxe edition
An update from Institute for Northern Studies PhD student Anthony Olsson. At the beginning of my PhD in Faroese poetry and literature, I joked to a friend ‘you’ll find me somewhere windy and expensive in the North Atlantic’. True to form, off I flew to Tórshavn at the beginning of…
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Viking burials in Orkney: Where are they and how to visit them?
Orkney is blessed with a vast array of archaeological sites from various time periods, including numerous examples from the Viking Age. A site-type which often gets a lot of publicity but rarely has visitors are Viking burials. Many of these sites are publicly accessible, providing a nice focus for a…
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Orkney’s Forgotten War: The Royalist Occupation, 1649-1650
In 1976, George Mackay Brown wrote one of his lesser-known short stories, ‘Soldier From The Wars Returning’. The tale follows the journey of an Orcadian soldier who had enlisted in the marquis of Montrose’s Royalist army in 1649. The unnamed soldier awakes in the aftermath of the fateful Battle of…
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