Dr Oisín Plumb MA (Hons), MSc, FSA Scot, FRHistS, FHEA

Lecturer

Institute for Northern Studies
杏吧原创 Perth
Webster Building
Crieff Road, Perth
PH1 2NX

Research interests

Dr 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.

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 杏吧原创 Orkney, then 杏吧原创 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.

Oisin Plumb

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
  • Scotland's Story I: Mesolithic to Medieval (co-lead)

BA Modules:

  • Scotland's Music
  • Celtic and Celtic Revival Art in Scotland
  • Interdisciplinary Project (Culture Studies)
  • Dissertation (Culture and Heritage)

Programme Leader: MLitt Scottish Heritage

Taught and Research Degree Supervision

Leader of INS summer course programme

  • 15- 19 June 2026: Stories Written in Stone: The People who Built Scotland
  • 16- 20 June 2025: The Birth of Scotland: Celtic & Viking Legacies in the Forging of a New Kingdom
  • 17-21 June 2024: Rulers and Raiders: Celts and Vikings in Central Scotland

Organiser of INS and Culture Perth and Kinross joint museum seminar series

Publications

Publications

Monograph

  • Picts and Britons in the Early Medieval Irish Church: Travels west over the storm-swelled sea (Turnhout: Brepols, 2020)

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)
  • Alternative facts and plausible fictions in the northern European past, ed. by Oisín Plumb and Alexandra Sanmark (Turnhout: Brepols, 2024)
  • Royalty and Ritual: The landscape of power in early medieval Scotland and Europe, ed. by Alexandra Sanmark, Mark A. Hall, Jane Geddes and Oisín Plumb (Leiden: Sidestone 2026)

Articles

  • , Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society 91 (2017), pp. 9-20
  • ’, Notes and Queries, Volume 65, Issue 4, (1 December 2018), pp. 476–478
  • in Oisín Plumb, Alexandra Sanmark and Donna Heddle (eds.), What is North? Imagining and representing the north from ancient times to the present day (Turnhout: Brepols, 2020), pp. 37- 51
  • , Innes Review 75.1 (2024): 1-22
  • in David Strachan, Cathy MacIver, and Andy Heald, King’s Seat, Dunkeld: Excavations of a Royal Centre of the Southern Picts, 2017-21 (Bicester: Archaeopress, 2025), pp. 151-54
  • in Alexandra Sanmark, Mark A. Hall, Jane Geddes and Oisín Plumb (eds.), Royalty and Ritual: The landscape of power in early medieval Scotland and Europe (Leiden: Sidestone 2026), pp. 79-87

Newspaper and Blog Contributions

Research Projects

Research Projects

External Memberships

External Memberships

  • Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
  • Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • Member of the Scottish Medievalists