Dr Oisín Plumb MA (Hons), MSc, FHEA, FSAScot
Lecturer
Institute for Northern Studies
UHI Perth
Webster Building
Crieff Road, Perth
PH1 2NX
- e: oisin.plumb@uhi.ac.uk
- t: +44 (0)1738 877507
Biography
Dr Oisín Plumb is originally from Edinburgh. He completed a degree in Medieval Celtic Studies, followed by a masters degree in medieval history at the University of Edinburgh. His masters dissertation examined the engagement of the Iona community with astronomy, geography and unusual natural phenomena. He obtained his PhD on ‘Early Medieval Ecclesiastical migration from Northern Britain to Ireland’ from the University of Edinburgh in 2016. During this time, he also taught in both Celtic and Scottish Studies; and History Classics and Archaeology at Edinburgh. He joined the Institute for Northern Studies as a lecturer in 2017, based initially at UHI Orkney, then UHI Perth. He teaches a range of modules reflecting his research interests in the early medieval world as well as his active interest in Scotland's music and culture. His monograph Picts and Britons in the Early Medieval Irish Church: Travels west over the storm-swelled sea was published by Brepols in 2020.
Research interests
Oisín Plumb’s research focuses on Early medieval Northern Britain and Ireland. Particular issues of interest include the Picts, Dalriada, Ireland, the church, the early medieval north Atlantic, travel and exploration, the formation of local and national identities in the early medieval period, and maps and the understanding of the earth's lands and its place in the cosmos the early middle ages.
Current Project: Where were the Orcades? A study on the ‘Anglo-Saxon mappa mundi’
Academic Responsibilities
Academic Responsibilities
MLitt Modules:
Picts: Revealing the Painted Past
Celts and Vikings in Contact: the North Atlantic as a Shared Cultural Space
Scotland's Voice II: Music and Song
Gender in Viking Society
Vikings in Scotland and the Irish Sea Region
BA Modules:
Scotland's Music
Celtic and Celtic Revival Art in Scotland
Vikings and Valkeries: People and Society in the Viking Age
Interdisciplinary Project (Culture Studies)
Dissertation (Culture and Heritage)
Taught and Research Degree Supervision
Publications
Publications
Monograph
- Picts and Britons in the Early Medieval Irish Church: Travels west over the storm-swelled sea (Turnout: Brepols, 2020) further details
Edited Volumes
- What is North? Imagining and representing the north from ancient times to the present day, ed. by Oisín Plumb, Alexandra Sanmark and Donna Heddle (Turnhout: Brepols, 2020) further details
- Alternative facts and plausible fictions in the northern European past, ed. by Oisín Plumb and Alexandra Sanmark (Turnhaut: Brepols, 2024) further details
Articles
- ‘A Case of mistaken identity? Monenna and Ninian in Galloway and the Central Belt’, Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society 91 (2017), pp. 9-20
- ‘A Possible Hiberno-Pictish Dispute’, Notes and Queries, Volume 65, Issue 4, (1 December 2018), pp. 476–478
- ‘“Beyond the range of human exploration”: Cormac and the ‘North’ in the seventh century’ in Plumb, Sanmark and Heddle (eds.), What is North? Imagining and representing the north from ancient times to the present day (Turnhout: Brepols, 2020), pp. 37- 51
- 'Where were the Orcades? Early medieval engagement with the islands at the edge of the Earth in texts and maps', Innes Review 75.1 (2024): 1-22
Newspaper and Blog Contributions
- Columba, Nessie and the Deadly Loathsome Little Creatures, The Orcadian, 10 May 2018
- An Introduction to the Picts, Highland Pictish Trail, 7 October 2020
- Legends of King Arthur in Medieval Scotland, The Orcadian, 15 January 2021
- Q and A: Where were the Orcades? Early medieval engagement with the islands at the edge of the Earth in texts and maps, Edinburgh University Press, 28 August 2024
External Memberships
External Memberships
- Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
- Member of the Scottish Medievalists
- Member of the Royal Historical Society