Fiona Campbell-Howes
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fortrenn.bsky.social
Fiona Campbell-Howes
@fortrenn.bsky.social
PhD student at the University of Glasgow, researching the early medieval Moray Firthlands in Scotland. Live in Penryn, Cornwall. FSAScot. Posts about early medieval Scottish history and archaeology. Blog: https://fortrenn.ghost.io
Reposted by Fiona Campbell-Howes
This is helpful info.

TLDR - Google isn't in fact training LLMs on your Gmail content and you can turn the Smart stuff back on.
November 24, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Why do I find the prospect of owning these lock-ups so tempting?
November 22, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Re. last repost, be warned that this is what happens if you turn AI off in Gmail...
Holy shit, that just sent 17,500 emails to my inbox from the Promotion and Social folders... ridiculous we can't use that feature anymore without consenting to AI reading our emails!
When I turned that off, the tabs "Updates, Promotions, Social, InBox" were deleted by default. The tabs that existed BEFORE Gemini. #rage
November 21, 2025 at 3:13 PM
This was turned off by default for me, but worth checking.
If you use GMail, AI (Gemini) was turned on yesterday by default and now scans all of your content for machine learning. To turn off, go to Settings>General and scroll down. Uncheck the box for "Smart features."

There's other "Smart" add-ons as well, but that's the one that reads your content.
November 21, 2025 at 3:01 PM
A lovely bit of Penzance urban history uncovered here - nice work @tom.goskar.com et al.
Historic centre of Penzance uncovered during road works - Penzance Council
Recently, during excavations for the essential gas pipes replacement in Greenmarket, Penzance, Wales & West Utilities unexpectedly uncovered a fascinating piece of the town’s history.
www.penzance-tc.gov.uk
November 21, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Writing up the lecture I gave earlier this year about bishop Curetán (aka Boniface) of Easter Ross, and I keep typing 'Boniface' as 'Binface'. Poor Curetán.
November 20, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Reposted by Fiona Campbell-Howes
Great thread.
Oh wow! This is what happens when you're photographing MSS & don't capture the text in the inner gutter. 1st, here's the photograph (made about 100 yrs ago) of the Codex Salernitanus, f. 82ra. Although that big tear of the page is obvious, the inner gutter hasn't been fully captured in the photo.
November 19, 2025 at 5:17 AM
🎶 The AI bust is coming / and everybody's jumping 🎶
Google boss Sundar Pichai warns 'no company immune' if AI bubble bursts
The AI boom has been an
www.bbc.co.uk
November 18, 2025 at 6:52 AM
The NLS digitised map site is a hugely valuable resource, available for free. Definitely worth checking out, and not just for Scotland.
This #MapMonday let us take you back in time ⌛

We've just added first edition 6-inch to the mile Ordnance Survey maps of England and Wales to our website, published from the 1840s to 1880s. These maps are all from bound volumes.

Explore the maps > maps.nls.uk/additions/#188
November 17, 2025 at 1:06 PM
I got my entire £327 return ticket from Truro to Glasgow refunded earlier this year, making TransPennine Express effectively a funder of my PhD research.
train to Oxford yesterday and from Oxford today both cancelled, lovely free weekend trip thanks to Delay Repay, love travelling on British trains
November 15, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Reposted by Fiona Campbell-Howes
Hot off the press to have a read through in advance of @judithjesch.bsky.social presenting the annual Viking Society for Northern Research lecture to follow the AGM in London on 21 Nov. New members welcome! #medievalsky #sagas #poetry #runes #history vsnr.org/2025/09/01/w...
November 15, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Post an image that always makes you laugh
November 14, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by Fiona Campbell-Howes
OUT NOW! 📚

SSNS is proud to present its new edited volume, 'Common Ground in Scottish Archaeology' (ed. Kelly Kilpatrick), which honours the work of Dr Anna Ritchie, esteemed archaeologist, author, and lifelong advocate of Scotland's premodern history and heritage.
Common Ground in Scottish Archaeology (2025) - Scottish Society for Northern Studies
The Society is delighted to announce the publication of a new edited volume in honour of Dr Anna Ritchie.
www.ssns.org.uk
November 14, 2025 at 8:31 AM
I regret to inform you that Microsoft are AT IT AGAIN.
If, like me, you let Microsoft update in the last 24 hours and discovered they've found a new way to shoehorn in a Copilot icon that just... sits there, watching... You can uninstall Word and install the version from Nov 4th or earlier: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office...
November 12, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Really nice to see a sunny, colourful and joyful Pictland, rather than the endless murk and misery that characterises TV dramas about the early Middle Ages!
I drew a few pictures for @stoutstoat.co.uk's new book Carved in Stone (www.stoutstoat.co.uk/products/car...) it's probably the best-researched project I ever worked on, and also it looks beautiful. Lots of amazing artists worked on this! Anyway here are some pictish vignettes
November 12, 2025 at 12:41 PM
I just love Rebecca's hands-on PhD research - here giving a very good idea of sailing conditions during the Norman invasion.
I've been watching back videos from when I sailed from Dives-sur-Mer to Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, following the route of the Norman invasion fleet in 1066. 130km of c. 70m chalk cliffs in a strong N/NE wind that turned into a gale just before we reached Fécamp. Similar conditions to 1066 #MedievalSky
November 12, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Reposted by Fiona Campbell-Howes
"The Picts emerge from the shadows and step forward in technicolour" 🤩

'Carved in Stone', an illustrated guide to 7th-century Scotland packed with information on languages, settlements, cuisine, fashion, medicine, skills and more, is now available for purchase: www.digitscotland.com/archaeologis...
November 12, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Reposted by Fiona Campbell-Howes
The phenomenal and enigmatic rock crystal and gold 'jar' of Bishop Hyguald from the heart of the Galloway Hoard is NOW on display for the first time ever. It was held back for Kirkcudbright while the rest of the Hoard continues its world tour in Melbourne (1/2)
Gold jar from Galloway Hoard on display in Kirkcudbright
It resembles a perfume bottle and a Latin inscription on it suggests it had a religious function.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Yess, just realised my 2pm call is with a client who conducts all Teams calls with video off, so I don't have to get up from my favoured winter work mode of sitting on the floor in front of the radiator.
November 10, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by Fiona Campbell-Howes
Pagans in paperback early next year! With RED SPREDGES!
We couldn't be happier to share the pre-order link for the @waterstones.bsky.social special edition of PAGANS in paperback. With a beautiful foiled cover, red spredges and an exclusive short story, it is a treat. Limited numbers, so pre-order now if you want it! www.waterstones.com/book/pagans/...
November 10, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Reposted by Fiona Campbell-Howes
Can anyone recommend any academic essays (that are publicly available online or that you could send me) exploring the parallels between Loki and Ulysses expanding on Snorri's slightly throwaway lines on the topic. Or failing that, general explorations of Troy-as-Asgard? #MedievalSky #ClassicsSky
November 9, 2025 at 7:33 AM
A write-up of the talk I gave at today's Scottish Place-Name Society conference. I've been looking at three Black Isle place-names that are thought to contain a Scots form of the name Curetán, an eighth-century bishop of Ross. [Spoiler: I don't think they do.]
Kincurdy, Cuthilcurdy, Hill o’ Hirdie: Evidence of a Scots cult of St Curetán?
This post is more or less the transcript of a talk I gave this afternoon at the Scottish Place-Name Society Autumn conference, which took place on Zoom. Many thanks to Simon Taylor, Bill Patterson, So...
fortrenn.ghost.io
November 8, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Good thread on the revised assessment of the previously-presumed 'Pictish-to-Norse' transition site at Buckquoy, Orkney. It looks like that interpretation needs to be put to bed.
NEW Were the Picts of northern Scotland wiped out by Viking conquest? New radiocarbon dates from the 1st millennium AD settlement of Buckquoy, Orkney paint a more complex picture of cultural interaction in the Northern Isles.

#AntiquityThread 1/15 🧵

@northernpicts.bsky.social🏺 #Archaeology
November 7, 2025 at 9:02 AM
As the AI bubble gets ready to burst, here comes the next about-to-be-ludicrously-overhyped tech thing.
Will quantum be bigger than AI?
The highly complex technology is increasingly being tipped to transform computing.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 7, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Help to get a nationally-important monograph printed. A pledge of £34 will get you a print copy of the Rhynie book + UK shipping if the full £10k is raised. A bargain price for what will be a very detailed account of this major Pictish site and its environs. (The ebook will be free.)
CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN LAUNCH: ‘Rhynie, A Powerful Place of Pictland’

Please pre-order or donate before 6 December to enable us to print this book by Professor Gordon Noble FSAScot, which will have a major impact on the study of Pictish kingship and society: www.kickstarter.com/projects/soc...
November 6, 2025 at 9:28 AM