Dr Tom Horne, Viking Archaeologist

Museums

Some of the early medieval Govan Stones from the Viking-Age kingdom of Strathclyde

I am volunteer Communications Manager and a Tour Guide for the Govan Stones, a museum collection of internationally important early medieval carved stones created in the Viking-Age kingdom of the Clyde Britons.

MUSEUM PRESS & PUBLICITY

2019 – Lost Stones

I have worked on the Press outreach for the rediscovery in 2019 of several ‘lost’ early medieval stones in the graveyard surrounding the museum, which is located in Govan Old.

My Press contacts led to coverage in the New York Post

2023 – Govan Warrior

In 2023, I was instrumental in gaining widespread media and public interest in the Govan Warrior, a name I coined.

The Warrior, which might be the earliest carved stone in the entire collection, is a find of national importance, and was made by archaeologists from University of Glasgow Archaeology and Clyde Archaeology.

My photograph of the Govan Warrior
A film I made the day of the Govan Warrior’s discovery

VIDEO TOURS

My long-form tour of the Govan Stones

ART

I have drawn two of the five Govan hogbacks, Viking-Age carved stone monuments produced in the early medieval kingdom of the Strathclyde Britons.

My pen portraits of two of the five Viking-Age Govan hogbacks

The fashion for such monuments, presumed to be funerary in nature, seems to have spread north to the Clyde Britons via contact with and/or political influence from Scandinavians in Northumbria and Cumbria, who seem to have developed this distinctive and utterly compelling sculptural form.

The five in Govan were, as all the stones in the museum, discovered in the 1,500-year-old churchyard that surrounds Govan Old.