Clare Downham

She studied for degrees in Medieval History at the University of St Andrews and in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge, completing a PhD at the latter in 2003 under the supervision of Prof. Fergus Kelly (previously supervised by David Dumville).^[2][3]

In 2001, she took up a John O'Donovan scholarship in Celtic Studies from the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies,^[4] before taking a lectureship in the Celtic department at the University of Aberdeen and then in Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool.^[2] Subsequently, at Liverpool, she became Professor of Medieval History with the Institute of Irish Studies.^[1]

Downham was a elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in May 2025.^[5]

• "The Chronology of the Last Scandinavian Kings of York, AD 937–954", Northern History 40 (2003), pp. 25–51
• "Eric Bloodaxe – axed? The Mystery of the Last Viking King of York" Mediaeval Scandinavia 14 (2004), pp. 51–77
• Viking kings of Britain and Ireland : the Dynasty of Ivarr to AD 1014 (Edinburgh : Dunedin Academic, 2007)
• "'Hiberno-Norwegians' and 'Anglo-Danes': Anachronistic Ethnicities in Viking Age England", Mediaeval Scandinavia 19 *2009), pp. 139–69
• No horns on their helmets? essays on the insular Viking-age (Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies and the Centre for Celtic Studies, University of Aberdeen: Aberdeen, 2013)
• (ed.) Jocelin of Furness : proceedings of the 2011 Conference (Donington: Shaun Tyas, 2013)
• Medieval Ireland (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2018)