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James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖

@thattalljacobite.bsky.social

150 followers 300 following 220 posts

Part-time fossil hunter 🦕 Part-time history buff ⚔️ (Opinions my own) Works at both a battlefield and a fossil museum - forever looking for prehistoric fish 🎣 www.instagram.com/that_tall_jacobite/

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James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖 @thattalljacobite.bsky.social · Nov 14

Suppose Bluesky introductions are probably worth doing

I’m James and I work with the National Trust for Scotland in two museums covering history and palaeontology 🦖

I spend my free time dabbling in fossils and being deeply engrossed in Science fiction 👽

Follow for pictures of fossils and more 👋

James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖 @thattalljacobite.bsky.social · 39m

This is honestly depressing…

Culture Crave 🍿 @culturecrave.co · 4h

Over half of all articles on the Internet are now written by AI

(via Axios)

Reposted by James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖

Lucas Nunes @lucasjn.bsky.social · 4h

Here's a T. Rex bored to death trying to bite their own tail. My partner asked me to animate it in stop motion, after she watched a video about the very important topic of "could T. Rex chew its own tail like a dog". The puppet is still a work in progress 🦖

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Reposted by James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖

@VerseCycle / Caroline Burrows / Poet Performer Writer Teacher @versecycle.bsky.social · 1d

A new poem of mine 'A Hazel Tree for Hugh Miller' has been included in a booklet for Hugh Miller's Birthplace Museum. 'New Legends from Old Scenes' for part of Hugh's birthday celebrations.
#hughmiller #scottishpoetry #cromarty #versecycle #carolineburrows #poet #SpenserianSonnet

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James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖 @thattalljacobite.bsky.social · 2d

Before y’all ask yes I tried the Hugh Miller mutton chops, and yes I did not like them - they have since been removed 🪒

James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖 @thattalljacobite.bsky.social · 2d

So proud of how the weekend went - thanks to everyone who attended or supported us in the lead up, including the “old guard” I used to work with at Culloden! 🙏

Here’s to the 2026 Birthday celebrations! 💪

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Found people in the bottom left stand in front of two white historic buildings alongside a road

James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖 @thattalljacobite.bsky.social · 2d

…but not as excitable as our grand finale - the rocket launch! 🚀

We’re soon going to be known around the town for this rocket, easily the best thing we’ve bought for the museum! 💥

This video is best watched with sound just to hear the delight of lots of children being amazed by science 😊

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James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖 @thattalljacobite.bsky.social · 2d

Of course we did science experiments too! 🧑‍🔬

First up on both days this weekend we played with chemistry and did an elephant toothpaste experiment and then a Diet Coke/mentos experiment - lots of excitable screaming kids at this session… 🧪

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Two kids stand mesmerised by a flask overloading with bubbly chemicals

A white table with a chemistry flask overflowing with green bubbles

James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖 @thattalljacobite.bsky.social · 2d

We also had two special guests help us out! 👋

Living historian Andrew Newton brought the Victorian period to life inside Hugh Miller’s Cottage, whilst storyteller Lizzie McDougall told folkloric tales to kids inside the same room Miller would have heard similar stories as a kid! 🎩

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A Victorian gentleman in a brown tweed waistcoat stands in front of a white historic house

A Victorian gentleman in a brown tweed waistcoat stands inside a historic house talking to three children

A woman in pink sits on a chair in a historic house surrounded by people who she is talking to

James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖 @thattalljacobite.bsky.social · 2d

There were also a couple of kids craft activities, including our “new legends from old scenes” in which we tasked several creative writers to create new folkloric stories which then served as inspirations to create new landscape artwork.
Our “design-a-dinosaur” craft was also very popular! 🦖

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Two drawings hanging on a clothes line in a historic houses

A child drawing a picture on a blue table inside a historic houses

Two children doing a craft activity on a yellow table inside a museum

James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖 @thattalljacobite.bsky.social · 2d

We had a trio of fossil hunts on Cromarty beach, including one on Hugh Miller’s 223rd birthday. Here’s a couple of the best finds this weekend! 🦴

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Four people on a pebble beach in front of a White House and trees

A small round stone with a black fossil fish scale. The stone is sitting on a green base with a white and black scale bar above it

A hand holding a small rectangular stone with pieces of brown fossil fish bone on it. The stone is sitting on a green base with a white and black scale bar above it

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James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖 @thattalljacobite.bsky.social · 2d

I’m pleased to report that Hugh Miller’s Big Birthday Weekend 2025 was a resounding success! 🥳

Check out some of the stuff we got up to! 🎊

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A young girl with stripy sleeves is building a small craft cardboard dinosaur on a yellow table

A gentleman in Victorian period clothing speaks to a family inside a white walled historic house

A man wearing blue in a grassy park with high stone walls launches a water propelled rocket

Two white historic houses by the side of a road and sandwiched between two trees. The sky above is blue

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James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖 @thattalljacobite.bsky.social · 4d

Happy 223rd birthday to the big man - born #OnThisDay in 1802. So proud to be able to carry on Hugh Miller’s legacy of making science accessible to thousands of people! 🎂

Celebrate his birthday with us tomorrow at Hugh Miller’s Birthplace Museum - celebrations kick off at 11:00am in Cromarty! 🥳

A white marble bust of a man with mutton chops wearing a pink rosette in front of a blue wall

A black ammonite fossil half buried in brown sand

A water bottle fashioned into a rocket sitting on a grass field. A cartoon astronaut is inside the bottle

Two white historic buildings sandwiched between two trees

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James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖 @thattalljacobite.bsky.social · 8d

Is his grave accessible? Everytime I’ve been to Greyfriars the section he’s buried in always seems to be closed off to the public

James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖 @thattalljacobite.bsky.social · 9d

There’s gotta be a monster in here surely, right?

Right…? 🦕🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

A large body of water, Loch Ness in Scotland, with a sloping hill on the horizon and a tree in the bottom Left foreground

A body of water, Loch Ness in Scotland, with a tree in the foreground on the left and mountains on the horizon

A statue of the Loch Ness Monster covered in yellow, red, and blue ribbons sitting in a small grass park

James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖 @thattalljacobite.bsky.social · 10d

Happy 120th Birthday to the big man 🦖
#TRex #Fossils #NHM #Dinosaur

A museum cabinet displaying a brown dinosaur jaw in front of a green background

Reposted by James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖

Emissary Of Night | ليلى @diplomatofnight.com · 10d

It'll never be lost on me that a particular subset of the liberal commentariat in both North America and Western Europe were deeply infatuated with this woman up until the very moment she decided to talk about that one issue you're still basically not allowed to talk about lol.

Paul T. Levin @paultlevin.bsky.social · 10d

““They dragged little Greta [Thunberg] by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag. They did everything imaginable to her, as a warning to others,” the Turkish activist ErsinÇelik, a participant in the Sumud flotilla, told Anadolu news agency.”+

Israel accused of detaining Greta Thunberg in infested cell and making her hold flags

Activist tells Swedish officials she has been subjected to harsh treatment, including insufficient food and water

www.theguardian.com

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James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖 @thattalljacobite.bsky.social · 10d

This is gonna be so good!

@VerseCycle / Caroline Burrows / Poet Performer Writer Teacher @versecycle.bsky.social · 10d

I've got a sonnet 'A Hazel Tree for Hugh Miller' featured in 'New Legends from Old Scenes' to celebrate Hugh Miller's birthday at Hugh Miller's Birthplace NTS
#nationaltrustforscotland #hughmiller #cromarty #carolineburrows #versecycle #poetry #sonnet #spenseriansonnet #newlegendsfromoldscenes

James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖 @thattalljacobite.bsky.social · 11d

The trail at Knockan Crag has some artwork inspired by geology - the two hands indicate if you place one hand on the limestone and one hand on the Moine rock you’ve got a 500 million year gap between you

Here’s a few more pieces of artwork at the site

A mountainous landscape with a blue and white cloudy sky. To the left of the frame is a stone structure

A mountainous landscape with a large stone sphere in the foreground made up of hundreds of pieces of flat rock

A large stone triangular structure sticking out of a green grass and brown fern covered hill

A grey statue of two me, one sitting and one standing, in front of a drystone dyke fence. Three mountains and a lake are in the background

James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖 @thattalljacobite.bsky.social · 11d

Here’s Hugh Miller’s Birthplace Museum’s #ScottishMuseumsDay submission for #MightyObjects

Our dinosaurs (Brachiosaur tail bone and two Iguanodont bones, all from the Isle of Wight) which are back on display for the Big Birthday Weekend (Sat 11th and Sun 12th Oct!) 🦕

@scottishmuseums.bsky.social

A museum display on a wooden floor featuring three fossils, two toy dinosaurs (one grey and one yellow), and three white number cards

A museum display on a wooden bookcase featuring three fossils, two toy dinosaurs (one grey and one yellow), and three white number cards. To the right of the display is a small white information card about the fossils in the display

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Reposted by James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖

Daniel Dockery @dandock.bsky.social · 12d

Get really into dinosaurs. That's my recommendation for a happier life. Each day, I get news like "Look at this big freak that used roam the Earth!" or "Ya know the big freak you already loved? Fossils show it was even more freakish!" and it's a blessing every time.

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James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖 @thattalljacobite.bsky.social · 11d

Made the pilgrimage to Knockan Crag for the first time

Here 1 billion year old Moine rock has been thrust up and out of the Earth during the collision of Scotland and England over 400 million years ago, forcing it to slide and sit atop younger 500 million year old Durness limestone!

Geology rocks!

A long black coloured cliff sits atop a green-brown grassy hill beneath a white cloudy sky

A photo of me in blue crouched and touching two rock layers - black on top and yellow on bottom

The Moine thrust - a large layer of dark black-grey rock sitting on top of a smaller layer of yellow limestone rock

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Reposted by James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖

Scottish Greens @scottishgreens.org · 12d

Last night four Scots, along with hundreds of others, were attacked and kidnapped by the Israeli navy as they tried to deliver livesaving aid.

The UK government must act.

The Herald. Four Scots on Gaza aid flotilla ‘kidnapped’ by Israel, Ross Greer says.

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Reposted by James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖

Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 12d

Is it a lizard? Is it a snake? Maybe a 'false snake'?? As that's what its name means in Gaelic!

Hello to Breugnathair, a new fossil from the Jurassic of Skye with a curious mix of snake & lizard features, showing that early squamate evolution was complex

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Fossil found on Skye is new species of fanged Jurassic reptile

Experts say the lizard-like creature, which has been given the Gaelic name Breugnathair elgolensis, had lived about 167 million years ago.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖

Scottish Museums Federation @scottishmuseums.bsky.social · 12d

Scottish Museums Day is tomorrow and we're going BIG! 💥

From giant fossils to towering sculptures and shipyard legends. Visit a museum, find some #MightyObjects, and share them with us by using #ScottishMuseumsDay!

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Reposted by James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🦖

Lars S. Sørensen @handansken.bsky.social · 15d

A cool way to illustrate #Viking ships? Paint them on a pane of glass and set it up by the sea.

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