Professor Katherine Forsyth

  • Professor of Celtic Studies (Celtic & Gaelic)

telephone: 01413305803
email: Katherine.Forsyth@glasgow.ac.uk

Celtic & Gaelic, School of Humanities, 3 University Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ

Import to contacts

ORCID iDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616

Biography

I was born in Glasgow but grew up in the North-East of Scotland, attending the local school. I have an undergraduate degree from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, and a Masters and PhD from Harvard University in Celtic Languages and Literatures. I had a Rhys studentship at Jesus College, Oxford, and a Junior Research Fellowship from St Hilda’s College, Oxford, and a British Academy Institutional Research Fellowship from University College London. Since 1998 I have been teaching at the University of Glasgow. I am half-time.

Research interests

My interests lie in the history and culture of the Celtic-speaking peoples in the first millennium AD, with a particular focus on text as material culture. My interest in the uses of literacy and in the technology of writing led to a collaborative project on the Book of Deer, Scotland’s oldest manuscript (published 2008). Although I have also published on aspects of Pictish studies and on sculpture in Scotland, the main focus of my research has always been epigraphy, particularly inscriptions in the ogham alphabet. I have conducted field-work on inscriptions in Scotland, Northern Ireland, south-west Ireland, south-west England, the Isle of Man and Brittany. I have acted as consultant to Historic Environment Scotland advising them on new displays of sculpture at Whithorn, Kirkmadrine, and Iona. For many years a member (and Chair) of the National Committee for Carved Stones in Scotland, I am co-author of the Scottish Archaeological Framework Future Thinking on Carved Stones in Scotland.

Other interests include the Gaelic history of Glasgow (see the Glaschu website, and the book Glasgow’s Gaelic Placenames). Through the projects Mapping Gaelic Glasgow and Spoken Here, and elsewhere, I have collaborated with Glaschu Beo (Gaelic Life) on various activities which formed the basis of a REF Impact Case Study Transforming Glasgow’s relationship with the Gaelic language of which I was the Principal Investigator. I have a number of publications about board-games in ancient and medieval Celtic society, including several in collaboration with Mark Hall (Perth Museum).

I am the UK Principal Investigator of a UK–Ireland Collaboration in Digital Humanities with Maynooth University colleagues: OG(H)AM: Harnessing digital technologies to transform understanding of ogham writing, from the 4th century to the 21st (funded by UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Irish Research Council, 2021-24), and Co-Investigator for the AHRC-funded project Iona’s Namescapes: Placenames and their dynamics in Iona and its environs (2020-2023).

From 2016 until its end in 2023 I was Director of the AHRC’s Centre for Doctoral Training in Celtic Languages.

Research groups

  • History of Christianity

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2016 | 2015 | 2012 | 2011 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2001 | 2000 | 1998 | 1997 | 1995
Number of items: 46.

2023

Stifter, David, White, Nora and Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2023) Early literacy and multilingualism in Ireland and Britain. In: Mullen, Alex and Woudhuysen, George (eds.) Languages and Communities in the Late-Roman and Post-Imperial Western Provinces. Oxford University Press: Oxford, pp. 203-235. ISBN 9780198888956

Whyte, Alasdair C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1256-8245, Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 and Taylor, Simon ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6382-8284 (2023) Glasgow’s Gaelic Place-Names. Birlinn. ISBN 9781839830464

2022

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 and Parsons, Geraldine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5992-8642 (2022) Battle of the sexes: women and boardgames in early Irish literature and society. Clio: Femmes, Genre, Histoire(56), pp. 67-90.

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 and Parsons, Geraldine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5992-8642 (2022) Joutes entre les sexes. Les jeux de plateau dans les textes gaéliques anciens. Clio: Femmes, Genre, Histoire, 56, pp. 69-91.

2021

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2021) Ogham inscriptions from the Brough of Birsay. In: Morris, Christopher D. and Barrowman, Rachel C. (eds.) The Birsay Bay Project Volume 3: The Brough of Birsay, Orkney: Investigations 1954-2014. Oxbow: Oxford, pp. 375-388. ISBN 9781789256079

2020

Driscoll, Stephen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4943-2571, Campbell, Ewan ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8075-0287, Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616, Hall, Mark and Scott, Ian (2020) Early medieval sculpture of the Forteviot area. In: Royal Forteviot: Excavations of a Pictish Power Centre in Strathearn, Eastern Scotland. Series: Council for British Archaeology research reports, 177. Council for British Archaeology: York, pp. 129-170. ISBN 9781909990050

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2020) Protecting a Pict?: Further thoughts on the inscribed silver chape from St Ninian’s Isle, Shetland. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 149, pp. 249-276. (doi: 10.9750/PSAS.149.1294)

Thickpenny, Cynthia, Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616, Geddes, Jane and Mathis, Kate ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4012-5065 (Eds.) (2020) Peopling Insular Art: Practice, Performance, Perception. Oxbow Books: Oxford, UK. ISBN 9781789254549

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 and Hall, Mark A. (2020) Rhetoric and reality in the visual culture of Medieval Celtic board games: literary and archaeological evidence combined. In: Lapina, Elizabeth and Kopp, Vanina (eds.) Games and Visual Culture in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Series: Studies in the history of daily life (800-1600), 8. Brepols: Turnhout, Belgium, pp. 33-75. ISBN 9782503588728 (doi: 10.1484/M.HDL-EB.5.120702)

2019

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2019) Handpins and puzzlelocks: some eighth-century literary evidence for Late Roman material culture in Ireland. In: Ljung, Cecilia, Andreasson Sjögren, Anna, Berg, Ingrid, Engström, Elin, Hållans Stenholm, Ann-Mari, Jonsson, Kristina, Klevnäs, Alison, Qviström, Linda and Zachrisson, Torun (eds.) Tidens landskap. En vänbok till Anders Andrén. Nordic Academic Press: Lund, pp. 24-26. ISBN 9789188909121

2016

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 and Thickpenny, Cynthia (2016) The rock carvings. In: Toolis, Ronan and Bowles, Christopher (eds.) The Lost Dark Age Kingdom of Rheged: the Discovery of a Royal Stronghold at Trusty's Hill, Galloway. Oxbow: Oxford, pp. 83-102. ISBN 9781785703119

Foster, Sally, Forsyth, Katherine, Jeffrey, Stuart and Buckham, Susan (2016) Future thinking on carved stones. History Scotland, 16(6), pp. 8-10.

Foster, Sally, Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616, Jeffrey, Stuart and Buckham, Susan (2016) Scottish Archaeological Research Framework: Future Thinking on Carved Stones. [Website]

2015

Thomas, Charles and Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2015) An ogam inscription from Paul, West Penwith. Cornish Archaeology, 54, pp. 205-217.

2012

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2012) Book of Deer. In: Hourihane, Colum (ed.) The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art. Oxford University Press: New York. ISBN 9780195395365

Barrowman, R.C. and Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2012) An Ogham-inscribed slab from St Ninian’s Isle, found in 1876. In: The Chapel and Burial Ground on St Ninian’s Isle, Shetland. Excavations Past and Present. Series: Society for Medieval Archaeology Monographs (32). Society for Medieval Archaology: London, UK. ISBN 9781907975462

2011

Hall, Mark A. and Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2011) Roman rules? The introduction of board games to Britain and Ireland. Antiquity, 85(330), pp. 1325-1338. (doi: 10.1017/S0003598X00062086)

2009

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2009) The Latinus Stone: Whithorn's earliest Christian monument. In: Murray, J. (ed.) St Ninian and the Earliest Christianity in Scotland: papers from the conference held by the Friends of the Whithorn Trust in Whithorn on September 15th, 2007. Series: BAR British series (483). Archaeopress, pp. 19-41. ISBN 9781407304281

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 and Driscoll, S.T. (2009) Symbols of power in Ireland and Scotland, 8th-10th century. Territorio Sociedad y Poder: Revista de Estudios Medievales, 2, pp. 31-66.

2008

Forsyth, K. (Ed.) (2008) Studies on the Book of Deer. Four Courts Press: Dublin. ISBN 9781851825691

Forsyth, K ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 and Driscoll, S ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4943-2571 (2008) Symbols of power in Ireland and Scotland 8th-10th century. In: Symposium Internacional Poder y Simbología en Europa, siglos VIII-X, Oviedo, Spain, 22-27 September 2008,

Forsyth, K., Broun, D. and Clancy, T. (2008) The property records: text and translation. In: Forsyth, K (ed.) Studies on the Book of Deer. Four Courts Press: Dublin, pp. 131-144. ISBN 9781851825691

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 and Tedeschi, C. (2008) The inscribed slates. In: Lowe, C. (ed.) Inchmarnock: An Early Historic Island Monastery and its Archaeological Landscape. Series: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph Series. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland: Edinburgh, pp. 128-153. ISBN 9780903903370

Forsyth, K. (2008) The stones of Deer. In: Forsyth, K. (ed.) Studies on the Book of Deer. Four Courts Press: Dublin. ISBN 9781851825691

2007

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2007) An ogham-inscribed plaque from Bornais, South Uist. In: Ballin-Smith, B., Taylor, S. and Williams, G. (eds.) West over Sea: Studies in Scandinavian Sea-Borne Expansion and Settlement Before 1300: a Festschrift in Honour of Dr. Barbara E. Crawford. Series: The Northern World (31). Brill: Leiden, pp. 460-477. ISBN 9789004158931

2006

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2006) Inscriptions in the Celtic world (2) early medieval. In: Koch, J.T. (ed.) Celtic Culture: a Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, pp. 970-972. ISBN 9781851094400

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2006) Ogam inscriptions and primitive Irish. In: Koch, J.T. (ed.) Celtic Culture: a Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO: Santa Barbera, California, USA, pp. 1390-1393. ISBN 9781851094400

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2006) Pictish language and documents. In: Koch, J.T. (ed.) Celtic Culture: a Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO: Santa Barbera, California, USA, pp. 1444-1446. ISBN 9781851094400

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2006) Picts. In: Koch, J.T. (ed.) Celtic Culture: a Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, pp. 1446-1448. ISBN 9781851094400

2005

Driscoll, S.T. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4943-2571, O'Grady, O. and Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2005) The Govan School revisited: searching for meaning in the early medieval sculpture of Strathclyde. In: Foster, S.M. and Cross, M. (eds.) Able Minds and Practised Hands: Scotland's Early Medieval Sculpture in the 21st Century. Series: Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph Series (23). Historic Scotland: Scotland, pp. 135-158. ISBN 9781904350743

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2005) HIC MEMORIA PERPETUA: the inscribed stones of sub-Roman southern Scotland. In: Foster, S.M. and Cross, M. (eds.) Able Minds and Practised Hands: Scotland's Early Medieval Sculpture in the Twenty-First Century. Series: Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph Series (23). Historic Scotland: Scotland, pp. 113-134. ISBN 9781904350743

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2005) Origins: Scotland to 1100. In: Wormald, J. (ed.) Scotland: a History. Oxford University Press: Oxford, pp. 1-37. ISBN 9780198206156

2004

Driscoll, S.T. and Forsyth, K. (2004) The late Iron Age and early historic period. Scottish Archaeological Journal, 26(1-2), pp. 4-20. (doi: 10.3366/saj.2004.26.1-2.4)

2003

Will, R.S., Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616, Clancy, T.O. and Charles-Edwards, G. (2003) An eighth-century inscribed cross-slab in Dull, Perthshire. Scottish Archaeological Journal, 25(1), pp. 57-71. (doi: 10.3366/saj.2003.25.1.57)

2001

Higgitt, John, Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 and Parsons, David N. eds. (2001) Roman, Runes and Ogham: Medieval Inscriptions in the Insular World and on the Continent. Shaun Tyas: Donington, Lincs. ISBN 9781900289443

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2001) Early Christian monuments of Scotland. In: Lynch, M. (ed.) The Oxford Companion to Scottish History. Oxford University Press: Oxford, England, pp. 426-427. ISBN 9780192116963

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2001) Languages of Scotland, pre-1100. In: Lynch, M. (ed.) The Oxford Companion to Scottish History. Oxford University Press: Oxford, England, pp. 377-378. ISBN 9780192116963

Okasha, E. and Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2001) Early Christian inscriptions of Munster: a corpus of the inscribed stones. Cork University Press: Cork. ISBN 9781859181706

2000

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2000) The Historica Regum Anglorum and a lost Pictish source. In: Taylor, S. (ed.) Kings, Clerics and Chronicles in Scotland, 500-1287: Studies in the Early Sources of Scottish History Presented to M.O. Anderson on the occasion of her Ninetieth Birthday. Series: Medieval Studies. Four Courts Press, pp. 19-34. ISBN 9781851825165

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2000) Appendix 1: The ogham inscription at Dunadd. In: Lane, Alan and Campbell, Ewan (eds.) Dunadd: An Early Dalriadic Capital. Series: Cardiff studies in archaeology (4). Oxbow Books: Oxford, pp. 264-272. ISBN 9781842170243

Hall, M., Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616, Henderson, I., Scott, I., Trench-Jellicoe, R. and Watson, A. (2000) Of making and meanings: towards a cultural biography of the Crieff Burgh cross, Strathearn, Perthshire. Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal, 6, pp. 154-188.

1998

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (1998) Literacy in Pictland. In: Pryce, H. (ed.) Literacy in medieval Celtic societies. Cambridge University Press, pp. 39-61. ISBN 0521570395

1997

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (1997) Language in Pictland : the case against 'non-Indo-European Pictish'. Series: Studia Hameliana, 2. De Keltiche Draak. ISBN 9080278556

1995

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (1995) The inscriptions on the Dupplin Cross. In: Bourke, Cormac (ed.) From the Isles of the North: Early Medieval Art in Ireland and Britain. HMSO: Belfast, pp. 237-244. ISBN 9780337112010

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (1995) Language in Pictland: spoken and written. In: Nicoll, E.H. and Forsyth, K. (eds.) A Pictish panorama: the story of the Picts. Pinkfoot Press, pp. 7-10. ISBN 1874012105

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (1995) Some thoughts on Pictish symbols as a formal writing system. In: Henderson, I. and Henry, D. (eds.) The Worm, the Germ and the Thorn: Pictish and Related Studies Presented to Isabel Henderson. Pinkfoot Press, pp. 85-98. ISBN 1874012172

This list was generated on Tue Jul 15 17:45:20 2025 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Books | Book Sections | Edited Books | Conference Proceedings | Website
Number of items: 46.

Articles

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 and Parsons, Geraldine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5992-8642 (2022) Battle of the sexes: women and boardgames in early Irish literature and society. Clio: Femmes, Genre, Histoire(56), pp. 67-90.

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 and Parsons, Geraldine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5992-8642 (2022) Joutes entre les sexes. Les jeux de plateau dans les textes gaéliques anciens. Clio: Femmes, Genre, Histoire, 56, pp. 69-91.

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2020) Protecting a Pict?: Further thoughts on the inscribed silver chape from St Ninian’s Isle, Shetland. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 149, pp. 249-276. (doi: 10.9750/PSAS.149.1294)

Foster, Sally, Forsyth, Katherine, Jeffrey, Stuart and Buckham, Susan (2016) Future thinking on carved stones. History Scotland, 16(6), pp. 8-10.

Thomas, Charles and Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2015) An ogam inscription from Paul, West Penwith. Cornish Archaeology, 54, pp. 205-217.

Hall, Mark A. and Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2011) Roman rules? The introduction of board games to Britain and Ireland. Antiquity, 85(330), pp. 1325-1338. (doi: 10.1017/S0003598X00062086)

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 and Driscoll, S.T. (2009) Symbols of power in Ireland and Scotland, 8th-10th century. Territorio Sociedad y Poder: Revista de Estudios Medievales, 2, pp. 31-66.

Driscoll, S.T. and Forsyth, K. (2004) The late Iron Age and early historic period. Scottish Archaeological Journal, 26(1-2), pp. 4-20. (doi: 10.3366/saj.2004.26.1-2.4)

Will, R.S., Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616, Clancy, T.O. and Charles-Edwards, G. (2003) An eighth-century inscribed cross-slab in Dull, Perthshire. Scottish Archaeological Journal, 25(1), pp. 57-71. (doi: 10.3366/saj.2003.25.1.57)

Hall, M., Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616, Henderson, I., Scott, I., Trench-Jellicoe, R. and Watson, A. (2000) Of making and meanings: towards a cultural biography of the Crieff Burgh cross, Strathearn, Perthshire. Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal, 6, pp. 154-188.

Books

Whyte, Alasdair C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1256-8245, Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 and Taylor, Simon ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6382-8284 (2023) Glasgow’s Gaelic Place-Names. Birlinn. ISBN 9781839830464

Higgitt, John, Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 and Parsons, David N. eds. (2001) Roman, Runes and Ogham: Medieval Inscriptions in the Insular World and on the Continent. Shaun Tyas: Donington, Lincs. ISBN 9781900289443

Okasha, E. and Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2001) Early Christian inscriptions of Munster: a corpus of the inscribed stones. Cork University Press: Cork. ISBN 9781859181706

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (1997) Language in Pictland : the case against 'non-Indo-European Pictish'. Series: Studia Hameliana, 2. De Keltiche Draak. ISBN 9080278556

Book Sections

Stifter, David, White, Nora and Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2023) Early literacy and multilingualism in Ireland and Britain. In: Mullen, Alex and Woudhuysen, George (eds.) Languages and Communities in the Late-Roman and Post-Imperial Western Provinces. Oxford University Press: Oxford, pp. 203-235. ISBN 9780198888956

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2021) Ogham inscriptions from the Brough of Birsay. In: Morris, Christopher D. and Barrowman, Rachel C. (eds.) The Birsay Bay Project Volume 3: The Brough of Birsay, Orkney: Investigations 1954-2014. Oxbow: Oxford, pp. 375-388. ISBN 9781789256079

Driscoll, Stephen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4943-2571, Campbell, Ewan ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8075-0287, Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616, Hall, Mark and Scott, Ian (2020) Early medieval sculpture of the Forteviot area. In: Royal Forteviot: Excavations of a Pictish Power Centre in Strathearn, Eastern Scotland. Series: Council for British Archaeology research reports, 177. Council for British Archaeology: York, pp. 129-170. ISBN 9781909990050

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 and Hall, Mark A. (2020) Rhetoric and reality in the visual culture of Medieval Celtic board games: literary and archaeological evidence combined. In: Lapina, Elizabeth and Kopp, Vanina (eds.) Games and Visual Culture in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Series: Studies in the history of daily life (800-1600), 8. Brepols: Turnhout, Belgium, pp. 33-75. ISBN 9782503588728 (doi: 10.1484/M.HDL-EB.5.120702)

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2019) Handpins and puzzlelocks: some eighth-century literary evidence for Late Roman material culture in Ireland. In: Ljung, Cecilia, Andreasson Sjögren, Anna, Berg, Ingrid, Engström, Elin, Hållans Stenholm, Ann-Mari, Jonsson, Kristina, Klevnäs, Alison, Qviström, Linda and Zachrisson, Torun (eds.) Tidens landskap. En vänbok till Anders Andrén. Nordic Academic Press: Lund, pp. 24-26. ISBN 9789188909121

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 and Thickpenny, Cynthia (2016) The rock carvings. In: Toolis, Ronan and Bowles, Christopher (eds.) The Lost Dark Age Kingdom of Rheged: the Discovery of a Royal Stronghold at Trusty's Hill, Galloway. Oxbow: Oxford, pp. 83-102. ISBN 9781785703119

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2012) Book of Deer. In: Hourihane, Colum (ed.) The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art. Oxford University Press: New York. ISBN 9780195395365

Barrowman, R.C. and Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2012) An Ogham-inscribed slab from St Ninian’s Isle, found in 1876. In: The Chapel and Burial Ground on St Ninian’s Isle, Shetland. Excavations Past and Present. Series: Society for Medieval Archaeology Monographs (32). Society for Medieval Archaology: London, UK. ISBN 9781907975462

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2009) The Latinus Stone: Whithorn's earliest Christian monument. In: Murray, J. (ed.) St Ninian and the Earliest Christianity in Scotland: papers from the conference held by the Friends of the Whithorn Trust in Whithorn on September 15th, 2007. Series: BAR British series (483). Archaeopress, pp. 19-41. ISBN 9781407304281

Forsyth, K., Broun, D. and Clancy, T. (2008) The property records: text and translation. In: Forsyth, K (ed.) Studies on the Book of Deer. Four Courts Press: Dublin, pp. 131-144. ISBN 9781851825691

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 and Tedeschi, C. (2008) The inscribed slates. In: Lowe, C. (ed.) Inchmarnock: An Early Historic Island Monastery and its Archaeological Landscape. Series: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph Series. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland: Edinburgh, pp. 128-153. ISBN 9780903903370

Forsyth, K. (2008) The stones of Deer. In: Forsyth, K. (ed.) Studies on the Book of Deer. Four Courts Press: Dublin. ISBN 9781851825691

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2007) An ogham-inscribed plaque from Bornais, South Uist. In: Ballin-Smith, B., Taylor, S. and Williams, G. (eds.) West over Sea: Studies in Scandinavian Sea-Borne Expansion and Settlement Before 1300: a Festschrift in Honour of Dr. Barbara E. Crawford. Series: The Northern World (31). Brill: Leiden, pp. 460-477. ISBN 9789004158931

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2006) Inscriptions in the Celtic world (2) early medieval. In: Koch, J.T. (ed.) Celtic Culture: a Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, pp. 970-972. ISBN 9781851094400

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2006) Ogam inscriptions and primitive Irish. In: Koch, J.T. (ed.) Celtic Culture: a Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO: Santa Barbera, California, USA, pp. 1390-1393. ISBN 9781851094400

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2006) Pictish language and documents. In: Koch, J.T. (ed.) Celtic Culture: a Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO: Santa Barbera, California, USA, pp. 1444-1446. ISBN 9781851094400

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2006) Picts. In: Koch, J.T. (ed.) Celtic Culture: a Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, pp. 1446-1448. ISBN 9781851094400

Driscoll, S.T. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4943-2571, O'Grady, O. and Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2005) The Govan School revisited: searching for meaning in the early medieval sculpture of Strathclyde. In: Foster, S.M. and Cross, M. (eds.) Able Minds and Practised Hands: Scotland's Early Medieval Sculpture in the 21st Century. Series: Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph Series (23). Historic Scotland: Scotland, pp. 135-158. ISBN 9781904350743

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2005) HIC MEMORIA PERPETUA: the inscribed stones of sub-Roman southern Scotland. In: Foster, S.M. and Cross, M. (eds.) Able Minds and Practised Hands: Scotland's Early Medieval Sculpture in the Twenty-First Century. Series: Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph Series (23). Historic Scotland: Scotland, pp. 113-134. ISBN 9781904350743

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2005) Origins: Scotland to 1100. In: Wormald, J. (ed.) Scotland: a History. Oxford University Press: Oxford, pp. 1-37. ISBN 9780198206156

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2001) Early Christian monuments of Scotland. In: Lynch, M. (ed.) The Oxford Companion to Scottish History. Oxford University Press: Oxford, England, pp. 426-427. ISBN 9780192116963

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2001) Languages of Scotland, pre-1100. In: Lynch, M. (ed.) The Oxford Companion to Scottish History. Oxford University Press: Oxford, England, pp. 377-378. ISBN 9780192116963

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2000) The Historica Regum Anglorum and a lost Pictish source. In: Taylor, S. (ed.) Kings, Clerics and Chronicles in Scotland, 500-1287: Studies in the Early Sources of Scottish History Presented to M.O. Anderson on the occasion of her Ninetieth Birthday. Series: Medieval Studies. Four Courts Press, pp. 19-34. ISBN 9781851825165

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (2000) Appendix 1: The ogham inscription at Dunadd. In: Lane, Alan and Campbell, Ewan (eds.) Dunadd: An Early Dalriadic Capital. Series: Cardiff studies in archaeology (4). Oxbow Books: Oxford, pp. 264-272. ISBN 9781842170243

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (1998) Literacy in Pictland. In: Pryce, H. (ed.) Literacy in medieval Celtic societies. Cambridge University Press, pp. 39-61. ISBN 0521570395

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (1995) The inscriptions on the Dupplin Cross. In: Bourke, Cormac (ed.) From the Isles of the North: Early Medieval Art in Ireland and Britain. HMSO: Belfast, pp. 237-244. ISBN 9780337112010

Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (1995) Language in Pictland: spoken and written. In: Nicoll, E.H. and Forsyth, K. (eds.) A Pictish panorama: the story of the Picts. Pinkfoot Press, pp. 7-10. ISBN 1874012105

Forsyth, K. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 (1995) Some thoughts on Pictish symbols as a formal writing system. In: Henderson, I. and Henry, D. (eds.) The Worm, the Germ and the Thorn: Pictish and Related Studies Presented to Isabel Henderson. Pinkfoot Press, pp. 85-98. ISBN 1874012172

Edited Books

Thickpenny, Cynthia, Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616, Geddes, Jane and Mathis, Kate ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4012-5065 (Eds.) (2020) Peopling Insular Art: Practice, Performance, Perception. Oxbow Books: Oxford, UK. ISBN 9781789254549

Forsyth, K. (Ed.) (2008) Studies on the Book of Deer. Four Courts Press: Dublin. ISBN 9781851825691

Conference Proceedings

Forsyth, K ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616 and Driscoll, S ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4943-2571 (2008) Symbols of power in Ireland and Scotland 8th-10th century. In: Symposium Internacional Poder y Simbología en Europa, siglos VIII-X, Oviedo, Spain, 22-27 September 2008,

Website

Foster, Sally, Forsyth, Katherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-3616, Jeffrey, Stuart and Buckham, Susan (2016) Scottish Archaeological Research Framework: Future Thinking on Carved Stones. [Website]

This list was generated on Tue Jul 15 17:45:20 2025 BST.

Grants

Current

Principal Investigator: OG(H)AM: Harnessing digital technologies to transform understanding of ogham writing, from the 4th century to the 21st (UK–Ireland Collaboration in Digital Humanities, funded by UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Irish Research Council, UK £320k; Ireland €270k, 2021-24)

Principal Investigator: OPal+ (Ogham Palaeography+) AHRC Follow-On Funding for Impact and Engagement, £110k, 2023-24.

Co-Investigator: Iona's Namescape: place-names and their dynamics in Iona and its environs (AHRC-funded, 2020-23)

Completed

Co-Investigator: Future Thinking on Carved Stones in Scotland, Royal Society of Edinburgh (2015-16). Output: Scottish Archaeological Research Framework

Co-Investigator: Sgeul na Gàidhlig: The Gaelic Story of the University of Glasgow project 2013–2014, £65k. Output: Sgeul na Gàidhlig website

£18k of internal funding from Glasgow Knowledge Exchange Flexible Fund and College of Arts which supported various aspects of Mapping Gaelic Glasgow and Spoken Here projects.

Raised £17.5k for the International Congress of Celtic Studies, Glasgow, 2015

AHRC Research Leave (Whithorn Project, 2008)

Centre for Manx Studies (support for fieldwork, summer 2006)

Consultant to Historic Environment Scotland, Headland Archaeology, GUARD, Centre for Digital Documentation and Visualisation, National Museums of Scotland

Supervision

I welcome approaches from potential students in any of my research areas, especially Pictish Studies, epigraphy, literacy and sculpture.

Current

Heather Ford, Appealing to the Past in Uncertain Times: an interdisciplinary study of the evocation and reuse of prehistoric standing stones in the monumental epigraphy of early medieval Scotland (SGSAH-funded)

Elena Orpianesi, The lost manuscript culture of early medieval Scotland and Man: the evidence of Early Medieval Manx and Scottish Latinate Inscriptions (EMMSLI)

David Bain, The Early Medieval Carved Stones of Renfrewshire

Alexa Blankenship, Visuality and Identity in Viking artefacts from Scotland and Ireland

Completed

Wallace, Jenn (2022) The Dupplin Cross: An interdisciplinary examination of a Pictish sculptured stone monument  (MPhil Research)

McNamara, Carolyn Jeanette (2021) Tracing the Community of Comgall across the North Channel: an interdisciplinary investigation of Early Medieval monasteries at Bangor, Applecross, Lismore, and Tiree.

Johnson, Catherine Estelle (2020) A comparative study of portable inscribed objects from Britain and Ireland, c. 400-1100 AD.

Thickpenny, Cynthia Rose (2019) Making key pattern in Insular art: AD 600-1100.

Rhys, Guto (2015) Approaching the Pictish language: historiography, early evidence and the question of Pritenic  (AHRC-funded)

  • Ford, Heather
    Appealing to the Past in Uncertain Times: an interdisciplinary study of the reuse and evocation of prehistoric standing stones in the monumental epigraphy of early medieval Scotland.
  • Osgarby, David John
    What do the Symbols Say? A Linguistic and Statistical Decipherment of Pictish Symbols

Teaching

  • Celtic Civilisation 1A: The Ancient Celts (Level 1 – Convener)
  • Celtic Civilisation 1B: The Celts in the Early Middle Ages (Level 1 - Contributor)
  • Literacy in Medieval Celtic Societies (Honours – Convener)
  • Celtic Art in Context (Honours - Convener)
  • Kingdoms and societies in northern Britain AD 400-800 (Honours – Contributor)
  • Dissertation course (Honours –  Supervisor)
  • MLitt in Celtic Studies (Contributor)

Additional information

I appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘In Our Time’ about the Picts in 2017.

I set up Celtic and Gaelic’s Open Access initiative: CLÒG (Clò Gàidhlig Oilthigh Ghlaschu, ‘Glasgow University Gaelic Press’).


Katherine Forsyth