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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA

@swallowtailarch.bsky.social

520 followers 570 following 110 posts

Castles & Landscapes Expert | Research, Writing, Review, & Reach in Archaeology, History & Heritage | Where Words Work www.swallowtailarchaeology.co.uk #queenoflostcastles #LegendLadyLandscape #ResearchWritingReviewReach

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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · May 11

My latest blog, courtesy of, and thanks to, @castlestudies.bsky.social

#medievalsky
#castle
#landscapes
#legendladylandscape
#QueenOfLostCastles
#SwallowtailArchaeology
#ResearchWritingReviewReach

The Castle Studies Trust @castlestudies.bsky.social · May 11

In our latest blog we have a guest post from @swallowtailarch.bsky.social talking about her latest fascinating research looking at Eleanor of Castile's (Edward I's wife) impact on the building of one of Wales's great castles, Caernarfon: castlestudiestrust.org/blog/2025/05...

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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 27d

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I’ll be running the Walk & Talk again soon under Swallowtail Archaeology – watch this space!
swallowtailarchaeology.co.uk

#CaergwrleCastle #MedievalSky #QueenOfLostCastles

Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 27d

2/3
Huge thanks to everyone who joined in. Your ideas & questions are already feeding into my current research on new contextual interpretations of the castle and its landscape. 🙌

#ArchaeologyWalk #CommunityResearch #QueenOfLostCastles

Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 27d

2/3

Huge thanks to everyone who joined in. Your ideas & questions are already feeding into my current research on new contextual interpretations of the castle and its landscape. 🙌

#ArchaeologyWalk #CommunityResearch #QueenOfLostCastles

Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · 27d

Just led a brilliant Walk & Talk at #CaergwrleCastle with the Cambrian Archaeological Association! 🏰✨
We explored what’s known – and still debated – about this rare hybrid of Welsh siting & Edwardian-strength masonry, perched above the River Alyn. 1/3

#MedievalCastles #WelshHistory #MedievalSky

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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · Sep 11

To book your place, contact me on [email protected]

Cambrian Archaeological Association @cambriansarch.bsky.social · Sep 10

*Reminder* Free Cambrians Walk and talk this Saturday Sept 13, 2025! Come and join @swallowtailarch.bsky.social Dr Rachel Swallow- Queen of Lost Castles 🏰- and learn all about Caergwrle Castle, Anglo-Welsh/Marches. To book: cambrians.org.uk/walks-and-ta...

Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · Sep 5

I’d have loved to have heard this paper - particularly as it was in honour of Björn. Is it recorded/online, do you know?

Reposted by Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA

Paul Webster 🌈 @webstermedieval.bsky.social · Sep 5

Enjoying attending the Thirteenth Century Conference online today. Currently following the first Bjorn Weiler Memorial Lecture,by Daniel Power on Eleanor of Castile's inheritance in Ponthieu and Aumale. #medieval #medievalsky

Computer screen showing lecture slide with maps of England and Northern France.

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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · Sep 2

Thanks for the reposts!

Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · Sep 2

🏰✨ Free Walk & Talk! ✨🏰

📅 Sat 13 Sept 2025 | ⏰ 2–4 pm
📍 Caergwrle Castle, Flintshire

📩 Reserve your spot: [email protected]

#SwallowtailArchaeology #QueenOfLostCastles #ResearchWritingReviewReach #CaergwrleCastle #WelshHistory #CastlesOfWales #LegendLadyLandscape #medievalsky

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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · Aug 27

Acorns on sun-burnt August grass 🌱☀️
In medieval Britain, the oak was power itself — boundary marker, court tree, symbol of endurance and lordship. 🌳👑

#Oak #Acorns #BritishCountryside #MedievalHistory #Folklore #queenoflostcastles #medievalsky

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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · Aug 19

😂

Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · Aug 19

😉

Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · Aug 19

Oh, you’re so right! ‘Beauty’ is most definitely in the eye of the beholder!

Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · Aug 19

😂

Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · Aug 19

St. Mary’s, #Beverley, #Yorkshire - founded AD 1120.

Though the #Lincoln #Imp is famous, the Beverley Imp is arguably more frightening—yet perhaps also endearing?! Its grotesque face vividly shows how #medieval carvers mixed #myth and #morality into #sacred spaces.

#medievalsky

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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · Aug 16

Oh, that’s so beautiful! I went to briefly Anchorage a few years ago - and it’s so lovely!

Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · Aug 15

The melting of late #summer #skies

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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · Aug 4

#Nature in the #Wild #Garden

Reposted by Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA

Ben Potts @benjaminsteven.bsky.social · Aug 2

One of two stones discovered on the moors around Whitby and given to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society by antiquarian Canon Raines in 1895.

One disappeared, but this fantastic bit of #rockart can still be seen at York Museum Gardens. 📸 my own, yesterday.

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Reposted by Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA

Ste Lingard @stelingard.bsky.social · Aug 2

One of the staircases leading from the front lawns up to Marbury Hall, #Cheshire (pic my own), & an aerial image from before the hall was demolished in 1969 (pic via the Friends of Anderton & Marbury). The site has been a country park since the late 1970s - a local treasure. #StaircaseSaturday

A short, wide staircase in some slightly overgrown parkland, relict from a former country house, now demolished.

An aerial view (black and white) of Marbury Hall. From: https://foam.merseyforest.uk/?cat=20

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Dr Rachel E Swallow FSA @swallowtailarch.bsky.social · Jul 30

Some very lovely people very kindly made my #dream come true a year ago today!

Another Big One off my Big #Birthday #BucketList!

Just loved it! 😊

#tractor