Paul is an archaeologist with a particular interest in the Neolithic of northern England. He has intimate knowledge of Long Meg and all of her Daughters, having been very fond of them for decades. He has led surveys and excavations here, as well as numerous public events, over recent years. He published a lengthy paper about Long Meg in 2021 (available here).
Paul is a graduate of Durham University, and fondly remembers his first ever visit to Long Meg during an undergraduate field trip in the mid 1980s. His first job was as an assistant to the Cumbria County Archaeologist, which enabled him to study all the Cumbrian stone circles at first hand. Work then took him ‘down south’ for a few years, before he was appointed as Northumberland National Park Archaeologist. His time in Northumberland enabled him to focus on his other great archaeological passion, Neolithic rock art, of which the county has numerous splendid examples. He subsequently worked for a decade for the North Pennines AONB Partnership, where he set up the Altogether Archaeology project which undertook, in partnership with Durham University, the first ever excavations at Long Meg.
He now lives in Weardale, County Durham (only an hour’s drive from Long Meg!) and works for his own independent archaeological consultancy, Oracle Heritage Services. He is an Honorary Fellow in the Department of Archaeology at Durham University, and has published numerous books and papers about prehistoric northern England and other archaeological subjects. He is currently working on a book about Long Meg that he hopes will do justice to this most magnificent of places.