The Anglo-Scottish border and the Northern World from the Viking Age to 1500

On Saturday 12 October 2024, the Regional Heritage Centre will be joining together with the Scottish Society for Northern Studies (SSNS) for a joint full-day Study Event at Carlisle’s Tullie House Museum.

Carlisle – the ‘Great Border City’ – offers an ideal vantage point for surveying the Anglo-Scottish border region and its links with a wider northern world. Papers include the Scottish Society for Northern Studies’ annual Hermann Pálsson lecture, this year delivered by Dr Colleen Batey, a leading specialist in the study of Viking-Age Scotland. Other speakers will range across the medieval period, beginning in the last days of the Northumbrian and Cumbrian kingdoms, entities that stretched across the future Anglo-Scottish border. We’ll cover the changes of the Viking Age and the development of the border itself, ending in the fourteenth century – the era of the Wars of Independence.

Subject to confirmation from Tullie House nearer the time (in light of ongoing building works), we hope that participants will be able to visit the Viking-Age and medieval displays in the Border Gallery on the first floor of the museum. Please note this event will be for in-person attendance only.

Full schedule:

• • 9.30am – Assemble at Tullie House Museum
    (NB: tea/coffee is not served at the beginning of the day but will be available mid-morning)

• 9.45-9.55 – Welcome remarks
  Dr Oliver Wilkinson (Lancaster University) and Prof. Clare Downham (SSNS/University of Liverpool)
• 10.00–11.00 – The Hermann Pálsson lecture: ‘A Life without Borders? The Viking and Late Norse Northern Isles of Scotland’
  Dr Colleen E. Batey (UHI; University of Durham)

• • 11.00-11.30 – Coffee/tea & biscuits (Function room)

• 11.30-12.15 – ‘Jeux sans Frontières: The Great Army’s Great Game in Northern Britain’
  Dr Tom Horne

• • 12.15-1.30 – Lunch
    (NB: Lunch is not included but there are many options nearby. Potential option to explore the Viking-Age and medieval galleries at Tullie House – subject to confirmation)

• 1.30-2.15 – ‘Earl Siward and Anglo-Scottish Relations in the Eleventh Century’
  Prof. Fiona Edmonds (Lancaster University)
• 2.15-3.00 – ‘The Negotiation of a National Border in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries’
  Dr Matthew Hammond (University of Hull)

• • 3.00-3.30 – Coffee/tea & biscuits (Function room)

• 3.30-4.15 – ‘Navigating Allegiance across an Evolving Border: Anglo-Scottish Ecclesiastical Networks in the Mid-Fourteenth Century’
  Dr Jenny McHugh (Lancaster University)

• • 4.15pm – End of event

Book your tickets HERE

Fee for this event:  £32 (£28.80 for members of SSNS and current RHC Friends and Patrons).

Please note fee includes coffee/tea and biscuits, but not lunch.

Parking: There is no parking at Tullie House, but for more information about nearby options, please visit Carlisle parking website here If you have a mobility problem and would like to reserve a parking space close to the venue, please contact us to see if this is possible.

Booking: If possible, please use the University’s online store to book your place(s). Alternately, please follow the directions on the attached flyer.