Claire Slack

I've got lots of new followers here so a quick intro is due! You'll like it here if you are down for folklore, magic, walking the landscape, terrible attempts at the Welsh language, morris dancing, spoon carving, mushroom hunting, all things #phdlife and weird things in museums.

Today I did a radio interview with BBC Wiltshire about local traditions and finished off with co-leading a guided folklore and archaeology walk around West Kennet. I have no idea how I became this person but it's magnificent

It was an absolute dream to launch this fantastic exhibition last night at @wiltshiremuseum, having played a very small part in making it happen. Couldnt be prouder of our team and the amazing folk at Wessex Museums and the Museum of British Folklore.

Now the key people know, I suppose I better fess up why I've been so absent from socials these last few months. Baby mossgoblin coming September 2025.

Deep in 1980s folklore journals today. We've got black dogs, dark sky omens, dubious folk cures (snail broth anyone?) and saint sightings a plenty at @wiltshiremuseum.bsky.social

Still my biggest claim to fame

The year is on its knees, waiting for the blade of ice. We roast ale. We roast cider. Rough music fills the air. The Bone Horse dances the night #WinterSolstice

Happy solstice from Oliver's Castle where @martinb-archaeo.bsky.social had to pull me out of the mud when I stacked it but we caught a rather magnificent sunset.

Had a nice little adventure out with some of our team today to explore the Un/Common People exhibition at Museum & Art Swindon before it heads on to @wiltshiremuseum.bsky.social. A gorgeous exhibition with some great folky objects from across Wessex (and a tiny weeny feature from yours truly)

Are you even in museum work if you don't casually bake historic recipes like Ancient Roman Libum on your lunch breaks? All tested for Saturnalia

Hey! We’ve compiled a starter pack of museums, galleries, archives and libraries in the UK who are right here on Bluesky 🦋 go.bsky.app/9o1sRWp

A day drinking hot chocolate with 14th century spices and doing my usual pilgrimage to see the things on King Arthurs grave

It really has been an honour to play a small part in making this incredible exhibition happen. Hope the pre-launch went amazingly!

Take me back to lazing around on long barrows instead of unpacking a thousand boxes into our new house please

Take your folks to your nearest stone circle day (featuring things hidden on stones)

As archaeologists, we are also storytellers. For the stones are lithic libraries, batteries which store tales. Some recite from their volumes of folklore, I find as much enchantment in sharing with others the narratives of the Long Neolithic. – Dr. K. Brophy #StandingStoneSunday

I'm in the middle of moving to a new house so I feel I don't have much to say to my lovely new followers at the moment but please enjoy this little glimpse into what being an ethnographic researcher into British sacred sites looks like (minus broken boots, sheep poo covered notes and zero sleep)

1k followers absolutely deserves a throwback to my adventure to see the Hunting of the Earl of Rone in May where I walked many, many miles with @meikle25.bsky.social and got to hang out with the fool and some other lovely people like @folklorepod.bsky.social

Still 90% certain this signpost in Din Lligwy was a fae trap. Dim diolch Tylwyth Teg🧚‍♂️

Hello, new followers. HELLEBORE is a small press devoted to folk horror, folklore and the occult in Britain. To be notified of new releases, events and merch, you can sign up to our free newsletter here: 👉🏼 helleborezine.substack.com

One whole year since I moved to this wonderful place called Wiltshire and wandered through the Avebury Manor yew hedges wondering where life would take me 🌲

Think I've time slipped into the early 2000s if Etnies stickers are back in the public sphere. If anyone needs me I'll be a grumpy goth teen stomping around in my Etnies and my Cradle of Filth t-shirt writing questionable rock music for the foreseeable.

Stones hold stories like lithic batteries. They store not only the mythic, but profoundly personal tales. For as much as may be petrified warriors, giants' playing pieces, they're also sites of first kiss, the awe found in time's long shadow. – Dr. K. Brophy #StandingStoneSunday

Is #StandingStoneSunday a thing here? A little throwback to my spring adventure in the middle of some very famous stones

A cute little witch hanging out on a 1911 chestnut roaster in the Wiltshire Museum collections

Hello, here's a starter pack for folklore research, do let me know if you want in!

Just some little hagstones hanging from a tree on the edge of a stone circle for your Saturday morning enjoyment

Five bands I've seen more than five times: The Levellers Ensiferum The Damned Korpiklaani Reel Big Fish

For most of history, the witch has been a creature of the bruised margins – dweller at village edge, the wrong side of the hedge. No true witch lacks empathy for all those others marginalised by society's insane need to other and divide. – #EmilyCBanting, 1982 #WitchSky

Nature magic old-stones (ok I cheated a bit there)

I haven't posted on here for a while but as the TwitX exodus is really truly underway I am making my return with some good things found at Bryn Celli Ddu.

Another day playing out with druids for research purposes next to some exceptional old stones.

As I pack ready to set out on fieldwork once again I ask you, what vital thing have I forgotten? 😅

Good frosty morning to everyone (but especially my new cat friend)

Twilight barrow spotting on the post-work buses might be my favourite thing about my new life in Wiltshire so far

Spent the day wandering through yew pathways in the rain and mists to the sound of church bells. Avebury felt very Milbury today.

We might have got absolutely soaked but Lynford Arboretum provided the mushroomy goods today 🍄

Bit of Black Shuck hunting in the Great Churchyard on a Friday night (spoiler: we found one)

The year is dying. Fields becomes mud, become fissured by frost. They give up their ghosts. Ragged phantoms rise, squeeze themselves through the cracks. They begin their long walks home carrying no gifts except omen. – C.L. Nolan

Hello I've no idea what I'm doing on this app but grateful for @hookland.bsky.social having all the best people from that old place on their account for me to follow. I'm here anyway 😅