Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History

In this episode Neil takes us to an island stained with the first bloody fingerprints of an invader who would change the British Isles forever.

Heading to the Northumberland coast, at low tide, Neil walks to the tidal island of Lindisfarne. During the 7th century this small island became home to a thriving priory that grew to be rich and famous around the world. Its wealth drew the attention of the Vikings who in a smash-and-grab raid plundered its treasure, maiming and murdering anyone who stood in their way. Home to a picturesque castle that stands on a basalt crag facing the mighty North Sea, Lindisfarne is an island that has seen much!

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This week, on his journey around the British Isles, Neil takes us to Northumberland to meet the legendary, King Arthur.

Climbing the battlements of the imposing Bamburgh Castle, swirling with mist and myths, legends and history, Neil explores the legend of King Arthur, the fabled hero, who resonates with us still in the 21st Century. The site is heavy with history. A place of majestic kingdoms and ritualistic cruelty. The episode takes in the retreating Romans, the advance of the Anglo-Saxons and the looming presence of the Vikings, and woven throughout it is the story of King Arthur – the hero who is said to be sleeping, ready to return when these Isles need him again.

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In this episode Neil’s journey takes us to a magical island where the landscape, the light and the very air you breath come together to soothe the soul.

This week Neil sails from Oban, on the west coast of Scotland, to the island of Mull, from there he takes another boat to island of Iona. On the edge of the British Isles, Iona is steeped in ancient history long lost in time, said to be the place where some Scottish, Irish and Norwegian Kings are buried. It's now famous as a holy island where a group of very early Christian evangelists came to keep their faith alive. It's an island of breath-taking beauty that has the power to restore you.

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In this episode Neil steps into an opulent Roman Villa grand enough to have housed the governor of Roman Britannia and maybe even put up a visiting emperor or two.

Lullingstone villa, in Kent, was built in the first century AD and developed and expanded over the next 300 years or so. Large in size, by anyone’s standard, and decorated with fine mosaic floors and beautiful wall paintings. With some archaeological detective work and painstaking restoration the interiors of this incredible building reveal nothing less than the arrival of Christianity into the British Isles.

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In this podcast we’re walking with Neil alongside the largest Roman artefact in the whole world, Hadrian’s Wall, the boundary of Empire. And we comes to a stop at a stretch of the Wall called Sycamore Gap, where one of the most beautiful trees in the British Isles stands.

Over 70 miles long, Hadrian’s Wall is an incredible feat of engineering. Interspersed with milecastles, barracks, forts and settlements, it’s a formidable wall dividing the long island into North and South. The Romans took around 6 years to complete the wall and it was built before there were any such people called the Scots or the English. The sheer ambition and hard work needed to construct it shows just how serious the Romans were about owning the British Isles.

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In this episode Neil travels across the channel with legions of heavily armed, well trained Roman soldiers and heads to Bath in Somerset

In AD 43 a conquering Roman army invaded the British Isles and brought the modern world with it - forms to fill in, records to keep, taxes to pay, straight roads and central heating. Exploring Rome’s influence on the British Isles Neil takes us with him to Bath’s hot springs, the incredible natural phenomenon that brought two gods together - Sulis, the Celtic goddess and Minerva from Rome.

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In this episode Neil takes us to a place of great power and beauty, an island off the west coast of Ireland, with its shoulder set hard against the mighty Atlantic.

High on the dramatic cliffs of Inishmore Neil explores two formidable Iron Age forts - Dún Aengus and Dún Dúchathair. The compelling mystery behind the remains of these breath-taking forts gives us a sharp reminder of the forces that shape the world we all live in today.

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In this episode we travel with Neil to one of the most magical lakes in the British Isles.

In the beautiful dark waters of Llyn Fawr, in Mid-Glamorgan, Neil comes face to face with the reflections of another world - home to ritual, ceremony and an ancient way of life that spanned the Bronze and Iron Ages. He rubs shoulders with an elite group of thinkers, whose power and knowledge spread right across the British Isles and discovers a hoard of incredible artefacts.

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In this episode Neil takes us on board the oldest known seagoing boat in the world – the Dover Boat.

Next door to the White Cliffs of Dover, one of the most unmistakeable, and instantly recognisable landmarks in the whole of the British Isles, Neil comes face to face with what for him, is one the most extraordinary artefacts he has ever seen. An incredible bit of ancient kit that was made by Bronze Age shipbuilders and used, by our ancestors, to travel and trade across the channel - Neil brings the Dover Boat to life.

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This week Neil takes us with him to Llandudno to explore deep within the belly of a mountainous sea serpent.

Across the world the powerful marriage of copper and tin was producing a new metal alloy that was propelling the future of our species and driving a new age, the Bronze Age. Around 4000 years ago, at the Great Orme in Clwyd our ancestors started mining copper one of the metals needed to make this new metal alloy. The result, a vast almost industrial operation, helps shine a light on the drive, determination and sophistication of our ancestors - the mine they dug is the largest known prehistoric copper mine in the world.

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