Patrick Gleeson is a archaeologist interested in the later prehistoric, medieval and historical archaeology of Europe. He was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize in 2022 for this work, recognising the international impact of his research. He is a member of the Young Academy of Ireland (RIA), the Historic Monuments Council of Northern Ireland, and the Standing Committee for Archaeology of the Royal Irish Academy.

His current research focus is (i) the archaeology of cult, rulership, kingdoms and governance in the first millennium AD of northern Europe; and (ii) novel approaches to landscape and social-ecological change, including developing chronologies for change for the recent past (1700–). He is particularly interested in the use of large scale remote sensing, G.I.S. and the application of new and novel methodologies at a landscape scale in these areas. Ongoing field projects include Dunseverick Promontory, Kedrah Fort, Lagore Crannog, Navan Fort, the Rock of Cashel, Knockainy and Milfield, while he has also worked on multi-proxy approaches to human-environment dynamics particularly associated with island archaeology/ecology.

PhD and postdoctoral projects are welcome in any aspect of (i) Iron Age or medieval society, and specifically cult, kingship and religion in late prehistoric and medieval Europe; and (ii) catastrophes and multi-scalar human-environment dynamics  1700–present.

Current Projects

Landscapes of Catastrophe (AHRC Standard Grant UKRI4384, £1.5m PI, 2025–29)

Ecologies of Governance in the First Millennium AD (AHRC Standard Grant UKRI2089, £1.5m PI, 2026–29)

Institute for Heritage and Environmental Science: 14CHRONO for RICHES (AH/Z506126/1, >£2.2m 2024–36, PI)

Capability for Collections - Institute for Heritage and Environmental Science (UKRI/AHRC Award, £3m PI)

Corpus of Iron Age Stone Sculpture (DAEICS)

Digital Atlas of Early Irish Carved Stones (DAEICS - INSTAR Funded, Co-I)

Navan Fort and Environs (Leverhulme and ABC District Council funded, PI)

Cult Regimes (Leverhulme Trust Funded, 2022–26, PI)

Complete Projects

Comparative Kingship (Leverhulme Trust funded)

Waves of Colonisation in the Sea of Moyle (AHRC funded)

Career History

2020–present Senior Lecturer in Early Medieval Archaeology, QUB

2017–20 Lecturer in Early Medieval Archaeology, QUB

2015-17 Lecturer in Archaeology, Newcastle University

2014-15 IRC Postdoctoral Fellow, NUI, Galway

2014 Research Assistant, Dept. of Archaeology, UCC, Insular Monasticism at Toureen Peakaun Project

2009-14 IRC and WJ Leen (UCC) PhD, Archaeology, UCC

2008-9 MA in Medieval Archaeology, University of York

Shortlisted, EAA European Book Prize 2026 (Landscapes of Kingship in Early Medieval Ireland)

Philip Leverhulme Prize 2022 (international impact)

Winner Martyn Jope Prize 2020 (Soc. Med. Archaeology)

Winner of the Journal of Irish Archaeology's Woodman Prize, 2014

Winner Ríocht na Midhe Prize 2013

Winner of the ASIMS and Four Courts Press Michael Adams Prize 2013

Council Member of the Society for Medieval Archaeology

Member Young Academy of Ireland, elected 2023– 

Appointed Historic Monuments Council Northern Ireland

Member Standing Committee for Archaeology, Royal Irish Academy

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Current PhD students:

Clair Richardson, Society and the Dead: Geospatial Analysis of complex cemeteries (DfE funded)

Leidy Bojaca Gonzalez, Carved Stones in Context: Symbol Stones and Ogham (with Prof. G. Noble, Uni. of Aberdeen) (Leverhulme Trust funded)

James Bright: 'Digital phenomenology': interrogating the experience of diachronic rotual landscapes through remote sensing, 3D reconstruction and virtual reality modelling' (AHRC funded)

F. Louise Moffet: (AHRC funded) The Place of the Late Medieval Church in Ulster

Ellinor Graham: Mitigating the impacts of environmental change on cultural heritage using drone-based survey techniques (Quadrat DTP)

Holly Shipton: Landscape, Ecology and Agriculture in Medieval Ireland: a Study of Roger Bigod's Medieval Estates (DfE funded)

Clare Privilege: The Origins of Textile Production in Early Ireland

Undergraduate

ARP1010 Themes in Historical Archaeology

ARP1013 Introduction to World Archaeology

ARP2043 Archaeology of Islands

ARP2045 St Patrick to the Plantation: the Archaeology of Historic Ireland

ARP3085 Kingship and Religion in the First Millennium AD

Postgraduate

ARP4041 Research, Theory and Practice

ARP4202 Current Debates in Irish Archaeology

AHS7031 Research Preparation Portfolio I

AHS7032 Research Preparation Portfolio II

Administrative Roles

Programme Director, Archaeology and Palaeoecology

Pathways Programme Co-ordinator for School of Natural and Built Environment

Masters Programmes Co-ordinator

Advisor of Studies Level 4

Research Seminar Organiser