Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Wednesday, 29 April 2026

Identifying the Picts


Questions such as “Who were the Picts?” and “What happened to the Picts?” have dominated the historiography of early Scotland for certainly decades, and in many ways, for centuries. As a result the Picts have been left in a historical Highland mist, a group who intrigue, but continued to elude us.

Recent sequencing of some Pictish DNA does appear to have answered these questions. This research is presented in a short video from The Helix Report which can be seen here 

There is more about this new view of the Picts and their true place in the history of Scotland in another video, from Origin Decoder which can be seen here

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