Suzanne Collyer

Supervisors:

Dr Oisín Plumb and Prof Stefan Brink

Research Title:

What’s in a name? The Western Isles as a Central Place during the Viking Age

Research Abstract

The Western Isles (Outer Hebrides) of Scotland played a pivotal role as a ‘central place’ along a prominent sea highway during the Viking Age (c. 793 – 1066 CE). Nestled between the Viking strongholds in Orkney and the Isle of Man, the Western Isles must surely have formed an important destination for the many raiders, traders, and slavers active in the North Atlantic Sea during the Viking Age. Resultant of the islands’ strategic position, they became a melting pot of numerous cultures and were of critical importance to the economic, political, religious, and cultural milieu of the time. The people of the Western Isles were undoubtedly influenced by surrounding ethnic groups, including: the Orkney Jarldom to the north, the Gaelic Kingdom of Dál Riata to the south, the Pictish people of the mainland, the petty kingdoms of Ireland, the Viking settlements of Iceland, the Faroe Islands, York, Dublin, and the Danelaw, as well as other groups of roaming Vikings from Scandinavia. The interconnections between these groups resulted in the ethnogenesis of a distinct hybrid culture, that of Suðreyjar, whose narrative can be told through an analysis of a range of disparate primary and secondary sources. Often regarded as a backwater of the Viking expansion into the west, the Western Isles of Scotland have not yet been examined as a central place, an evidentiary lacuna this PhD thesis intends to fill.

Biography

Suzanne Collyer is a part-time PhD student at the Institute for Northern Studies, based internationally in Toowoomba, Australia. Her work on adapting central place theory to suit Viking Age island settlements has been presented at the UHI student conference in January 2024. Suzanne completed her MLitt in Viking Studies (Distinction) with UHI in 2021 with a dissertation focusing on the evidence for Viking Age slavery in the Western Isles of Scotland. She additionally holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and a Graduate Diploma of Teaching and Learning. Suzanne is a member of the Scottish Society for Northern Studies and the Viking Society for Northern Research. Beyond her PhD, Suzanne works as senior school Ancient History and Geography teacher at Fairholme College, Toowoomba.

Contact email address: 20002249@uhi.ac.uk