Darren S. Layne
@funkyplaid
Historian of 18th-century Scotland focused on Jacobite Studies and Digital History. Curator of JDB1745. Chair, Jacobite Studies Trust. PhD via University of St Andrews. In love with a swan and two cats. Currently watching the leaves in Portland, OR.
Last weekend's PNW Pen Show yielded this Pelikan M481 demonstrator, a rare little gem that served as a prototype for the popular M200. I immediately brought it to Gena Salorino for a Journaler grind and filled it with Vinta's gorgeous Aegean. What a delightful instrument and what a joyful find.
Excited to share this CFP w/the Bluesky community! The sixth triennial conference of the Jacobite Studies Trust will be held in Aberdeen on 21-22 May 2027. Its theme is 'Jacobitism on the Home Front and Abroad'. Submissions are happily accepted until 31 Oct. jacobitestudiestrust.org/activities.h...
Our final JST #JacobiteStudies Virtual Workshop for the Spring 2026 term is on Tue, 5 May! We'll be joined by @alannamactavish.bsky.social, who will be updating us on her doctoral research at @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social re: Jacobite education in the university curriculum. jdb1745.net/events/jstwo...
Updated the kitchen window box with fresh moss poles and bedding, just in time for our Portland spring. One cutting from kind friends has transformed our morning moments, and that’s how we carry forward our impacts on each other.
As part of the #JacobiteNations workshop this past weekend, we were treated to a special viewing of some of @uoacollections.bsky.social's gorgeous artifacts. Here I'm gingerly holding a pristine scroll butt pistol believed to be owned by Col John Roy Stuart during the '45. #museums #scottishhistory
New project notebook and all the trimmings care of the wonderland that is Oblation Papers and Press. Every visit is an adventure and a balm for the soul. On either side of the counter!
Thanks, Aberdeen. Great to spend some incredibly productive time with a pretty fab consortium of scholars from all around the world. This is how we protect the Humanities.
Coming up on Tues, 24 March, we'll be joined at the JST #JacobiteStudies workshops by @jennyb6565.bsky.social, who will be sharing with us her work on the Jacobite spy Rev George Kelly and how we've thought about him both through history and the Jacobite historiography. jdb1745.net/events/jstwo...
Thankful to @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social's RIISS for flying me out on a quick weekend jaunt to present a paper for their 4th annual Jacobite Nations workshop. It's going to be a long trip but worth every mile: 'Digitising the Jacobite Record with JDB1745: From Data Fiction to Datafication'.
Crivens has also had quite enough of these pieces of dookie in power just now. Quite enough.
Happy Birthday to my beloved @cygnoir.net on this 23rd of Hearts. Ever since she emerged from the water my life has been far better in every way. 🦢💜
This week marked the release and delivery of a pretty remarkable edited collection from colleagues at Glasgow and @luathpress.bsky.social. It contains an incredible *44* contributions and represents an affordable, accessible tour-de-force of cultural connections between Outlander and Scotland. (1/2)
Wishing you a very happy holiday from one lordless pagan pomp-and-ritual-appropriating household to yours, whatever the heck you believe and brings you warmth, joy, and comfort in these remarkable times.
Many things bring me a profound sense of thankfulness this year; not the least of which is the individual and community resilience that I see all around me. No matter your concentric communities and identities, I'm wishing you a bountiful and restorative harvest. Except for ICE. Fuck those guys.
Downtown Portland, Oregon in the morning. Lawless. Overrun. Completely aflame. And no stores at all anymore. This is not AI. Nor is it fake news. This is my Portland and your Portland. It’s a wonderful place to be and we’re going to keep it that way.
Today's task is calculating blackmail as percentages of assessed rent in western Stirlingshire just before the last Jacobite rising. What a way to create an economy out of thin air...until it almost inevitably backfired. Truly a rock and a hard place for both tenants and landlords. #ArchiveGlam
h/t @threadinburgh.scot for flagging up this new release about the medieval coal mine beneath the Forth. One day during some volunteer work at Culross Palace garden, we trudged out at low tide to see what we could see. It's still there, after all these hundreds of years.
Two weeks of autumnal flux lead to the moment we wait for each year in our backyard. In two more, it will be no more, but at this moment it’s difficult to be anything but reverential of our relative peace and privilege. Small shifts with big results. Progress. Exhale.
We're only a day away from our next JST #JacobiteStudies workshop, which will feature @rmonsey.bsky.social sharing insights from her work on Jacobite manuscript poetry created between the Revolution and the Hanoverian Succession. Coming up Tues, 28 Oct, 5pm UKT. jdb1745.net/events/jstwo...
Fifteen years today since the big party with many of the best folks we know. A flash in the pan; the wink of an eye. So many adventures shared and hopefully many more to come. I’ve been blessed to find my person in this crazy ol’ world, and every year I more exquisitely adore her.
Finished a significant project today so we took a cheeky drive to the sea and watched the sun slip into the water. A fine time for brine.
Check out the war zone that is downtown Portland, y’all. Taken today, where I risked my very life by simply stepping outside of the house.
Enjoyed a quick flirtation with Vancouver the other weekend for a book launch, some social time with colleagues, and a few truly great meals and coffees. Hard to believe it’s just five hours up the road.
My friends, I’ve finally arrived at the joy of poutine. Life was only black-and-white until this moment. I now know Epiphany.
First tour of the school season at Oregon Historical Society, which means autumn is right on our doorstep. We had a huge group of thoughtful, interested 8th-graders and they gave us far more back than we offered them.
Pretty interesting record in one of Cumberland's order books from 11 May 1746, just a few weeks after Culloden. 5am rounds for troops to 'pluck heather for the tents', presumably to lay on top for insulation and protection from the rain. Later entries give orders to turn the heather to dry it out.
Happy unexpected publication day for a chapter I’d written in a magnificent edited collection from @edinburghup.bsky.social. So many remarkable contributions in here and I’m fortunate to be in such good company within. #ShapingJacobitism #JacobiteStudies edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-shaping...