Dr. Mary MacLeod Rivett was born in London, England, to a Scottish-Canadian family. Her father’s family was from Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, and she spent a lot of time in the Hebrides as a child. Mary earned her B.A. from the University of Cambridge, and her M.A. from the University of York. She worked and studied in different parts of the world, including five years in Sweden, until she finished her Ph.D. at the University of Glasgow in 1999. Her publications include many articles on the archaeology of the Viking Age, and of the north of Scotland. Mary began her present job with Historic Environment Scotland after eight years as an archaeology lecturer at the University of the Highlands and Islands, and eleven years as the Regional Archaeologist for the Outer Hebrides. She lives between Edinburgh and the Outer Hebrides, where she and her husband, landscape painter Simon Rivett, have a family croft on the Isle of Lewis. Mary has been a popular and highly-rated lecturer on twelve AIA tours since 2002.
