Neil Oliver: News, Comment, History

This week Neil comes face to face with the mighty walls of an almost impregnable castle, which down through its history inspired many heroic ‘last stands’ and a song that famously features in one of Neil's favourite films.On the orders of Edward I, Harlech castle was built between 1283 and 1285 by James of St George a military engineer of unsurpassed genius. It’s clever design, a castle within a castle with it’s back protected by the Irish sea, made it a truly formidable fortress.During the Wars of the Roses in 1460 Margaret of Anjou, queen and wife of the Lancastrian King Henry VI fled to Harlech castle. For the next eight years the castle was besieged by Yorkist forces determined to capture her. Eventually an army, 10,000 strong, starved the castle into submission. Although unsuccessful this heroic, ‘Last Stand’ was immortalised in the song ‘The Men of Harlech’.It was this song, which was used to such great effect in Zulu, the 1964 film starring Michael Caine, about another legendary ‘Last Stand’, the defence of Rorke’s Drift in the Anglo-Zulu War.Check out, Neil’s new Video Podcasts on his Patreon site - Neil Oliver.And the series Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil steps into the middle of a brutal family feud - the Wars of the Roses.The warring family, the Plantagenets, have been described as ‘a race dipped in their own blood. The factions within the family and their unremitting quest for power and the English throne led to a civil-war that ripped England apart for 30 years and left tens of thousands of soldiers dead on battlefields right across the country. With the dead of Westminister Abbey swirling around him, Neil meets the mother whose son, Henry VII, lead England out of the war and began the Tudor dynasty.Check out, Neil’s Video Podcasts on his Patreon site - Neil Oliver.And the series Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil steps foot into Cambuskenneth Abbey, a place that was to prove crucial in the making of a legendary king - Robert the Bruce.The Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 was a defining moment in the long Wars of Scottish Independence. Overlooked by the mighty Stirling castle, which sits atop the crag and tail of an extinct volcano, is a low-lying plain with the lazy meandering river Forth running across it. It was here that Robert the Bruce and his army took on a much larger English force, which was spearheaded by its dreaded heavy cavalry. Cambuskenneth Abbey, built beside the river Forth, plays an important part in Robert the Bruce’s story and this famous battle – it’s a location so thick with history you can almost feel it brush against your face!Check out, NEIL OLIVER LOVE LETTER – the series INSTAGRAM account Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil’s journey takes us to one of the most beautiful glens in Scotland where we discover, what is believed to be, the oldest living thing in Europe - the Fortingall Yew.The legendary Fortingall Yew nestles at the eastern end of Glen Lyon – the glen which Sir Walter Scott called the ‘longest, loneliest and loveliest in Scotland’. Many experts put the age of the yew at 9000 years old, which means it was a thousand years old before the British Isles were even created. The tree has seen so much history. Folklore in this part of Scotland has it that Pontious Pilate was born here and as a young child would shelter under the Fortingall Yew before he was whisked off to Rome and into the history books. What’s certain is, the tree and the glen are somewhere that have always mattered to our ancestors, a place that invites deep contemplation as you stand there and mark the long passage of time  Check out, NEIL OLIVER LOVE LETTER – the series INSTAGRAM account Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil takes us to a place of legends, a place where, with a glint in his eye, he proudly tells us he was once the warm-up act to Bono and U2 on the Pyramid stage.Glastonbury Tor is a magical landscape shimmering with ancient traditions, beauty and horrors. It’s a place that has always been, and still feels ‘special, the air around it thick with history. Tales of Jesus, the Holy Grail, King Arthur and Guinevere, Glastonbury is a place swirling with wonderful fables and myths.Check out, NEIL OLIVER LOVE LETTER – the series INSTAGRAM account Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we travel with Neil to Angus where the glowing red eye of Arbroath Abbey casts a watchful look over us.It was here at the Abbey in 1320 that the Declaration of Arbroath was written, a revolutionary document whose words would resonate around the world. Drafted as a declaration of Scottish independence and a show of support for the celebrated king, Robert the Bruce, it also held the monarch and his heirs to account. On the heels of Magna Carta this document, was another important steppingstone on the path to democracy. Check out, NEIL OLIVER LOVE LETTER – the series INSTAGRAM account Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil takes us off the beaten track to St Nectan’s Glen in Cornwall. It’s one of a number of enchanted places that are dotted all over the British Isles, which have a real aura and presence around them. Shimmering with crystal clear waters and enclosed by cliffs coated with rich moss and ferns it’s a place that somehow manages to stop you in your tracks and invites you to think.Named after St Nectan who lived a life of contemplation and devotion there in the 5th century the glen, with its healing waters, has long been a place of importance and pilgrimage for our ancient ancestors. Long before St Nectan and for as long as can be remembered it was known as a special place, a deep reservoir of human hopes, dreams and the future. Check out, NEIL OLIVER LOVE LETTER – the series INSTAGRAM account Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil travels to an island at the heart of the British Isles.Snaefell is the highest mountain on the Isle of Man. On a clear day, from it’s peak, they say you can spin 360 degrees and see seven Kingdoms. The Isle of Man is at the geographical centre of the British Isles archipelago, but it’s a place apart. A constitutional anomaly that’s under the UK’s protection, but has its own parliament, laws and language. It’s an island of great beauty, deep history and stubborn independence, a place with the power to reset your equilibrium.Check out, NEIL OLIVER LOVE LETTER – the series INSTAGRAM account Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Neil travels to see an iconic document that shook the world.In 1215 a battling king squared up to his rebellious barons in a power struggle produced Magna Carta and a new political order. A charter of rights that started to pin back the monarchy, Magna Carta declared not even a king is above the law. Never again would an English monarch have absolute power. Magna Carta and a follow-up document the Charter of the Forest helped lay the foundations for parliamentary democracy, shaping the world we live in today.Check out, NEIL OLIVER LOVE LETTER – the series INSTAGRAM account Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil travels back in time, almost 1000 years, to what became the city of Durham and the construction of a majestic building whose beauty and power have resonated down through the centuries ever since – Durham cathedral.Our ancestors have always been driven by the need to build. In the years following the turn of the first millennium a great wave of energy ran across Europe and through the British Isles. In 1093 the Normans started building a cathedral whose towering pillars, cavernous interiors and powerful presence make it truly feel like a mountain raised by humans.Check out, NEIL OLIVER LOVE LETTER – the series INSTAGRAM account Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil’s journey takes us in search of the battle whose ferocity, violence and savagery shocked the whole of the British Isles and shaped its borders for ever – the battle of Brunanburh.The repercussions from this momentous battle, fought in AD 937, have reverberated right up to the present day. Long remembered as the Great War this was the battle that sliced the long island in two!Check out, NEIL OLIVER LOVE LETTER – the series Instagram account Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil takes us in search of the remains of one the greatest Kings ever to reign in the British Isles.Not far from Winchester’s city centre, in amongst modern residential streets, Neil is on the trail of the location where Alfred the Great’s bones were buried. Alfred the Great took on the Vikings and won. On the field of battle he was a brave and determined soldier. As a ruler his intellect and charisma helped put in place many of the practical and philosophical foundations that have shaped the British Isles. The hunt for his remains gives us a telling snapshot of the man and the history that followed his deathCheck out, NEIL OLIVER LOVE LETTER – the series INSTAGRAM account Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil takes us back in time to meet a king who stopped the Vikings in their tracks.Sitting in the Ashmolean museum in Oxford is a precious golden artefact called the Alfred Jewel, which is over a thousand years old and inscribed with the words, ‘Alfred ordered me made’. This jeweller’s masterpiece tells us so much about the man who commissioned it – King Alfred the Great - a ruler whose actions had a profound effect on shaping the British IslesCheck out, NEIL OLIVER LOVE LETTER – the series INSTAGRAM account Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil winters with the Great Heathen Army, the mighty Viking force that was poised, ready to sweep across the British Isles.After the Vikings defeated the powerful Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia they chose to over-winter their army in its capital, Repton in Derbyshire.It was here they rested and recuperated, plotting and planning their next military moves. It was also where they buried their dead. The grave of a formidable Viking, known as the Repton Warrior, who died of terrible injuries was found here, buried with his battle sword. The Vikings, who had died in battle were heading for Valhalla, but come the good weather their comrades were intent on pressing on and conquering the whole of the British Isles.Also discovered at Repton was a mass Viking grave of great significance. At its centre was, what's thought to be, the grave of one of the Great Heathen Army's leaders - the legendary warrior, Ivar the Boneless.Check out, NEIL OLIVER LOVE LETTER – the series INSTAGRAM account Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil takes us with him to a place of stunning beauty with a dark and brutal past.For years the Vikings well-deserved reputation for violence and brutality left a bloody stain right across the British Isles. They were masters of devastating ‘hit-and-run’ attacks, then at the end of the ninth century things took a turn…. for the worse! Vikings arrived on the Brough of Birsay in Orkney, driving off, or in an act of systematic genocide slaughtering the local Pictish men. But what was different this time was the Vikings hadn’t just come to pillage and plunder……they’d come to stay!Piecing together the archaeology and history Neil tells a compelling story of an island trampled beneath Viking feet…… and he reveals what his DNA says about his own ancestors! Check out NEIL OLIVER LOVE LETTER – the series Instagram account Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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!Check out the INSTAGRAM account – NEIL OLIVER LOVE LETTERemail: [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Check out the INSTAGRAM account – NEIL OLIVER LOVE LETTERemail: [email protected]  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Check out the Instagram - Neil Oliver Love Letteremail: [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Check out the Instagram account: Neil Oliver Love Letteremail: [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Check out the Podcast Instagram Account - Neil Oliver Love Letteremail: [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil travels across the channel with legions of heavily armed, well trained Roman soldiers and heads to Bath in SomersetIn 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.Check out the Podcast Instagram Account - Neil Oliver Love Letteremail: [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Check out the Podcast Instagram Account - Neil Oliver Love Letteremail: [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Check out the Podcast Instagram Account - Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Check out the Podcast Instagram Account - Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Check out the Podcast Instagram Account - Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s podcast we travel with Neil across the British Isles into the Bronze Age, investigating the metal alloy that would transform the human species.The ancient world knew Cornwall as one of the richest sources of tin on the planet. And in the Bronze Age tin was in demand, because it is one of the two metals, along with copper, needed to make the new 'wonder' alloy, bronze. Neil takes us to Geevor tin mine on the incredibly beautiful Cornish coast exploring how this part of the British Isles played its part in helping to create the weapons, tools, jewellery and artworks that powered the world’s Bronze age.Check out the Podcast Instagram Account - Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil takes us to a place swirling with myths and legends.In Cardigan bay lies the fabled Welsh Atlantis, Cantre’r Gwaelod. Legend tells of a rich land that was prized and protected but lost to an unstoppable flood. Setting off from Borth, Neil walks across an ancient landscape that intersects with history and archaeology to reveal some of it’s hidden secrets.Check out the Podcast Instagram Account - Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s episode Neil takes us to Salisbury to meet a Time Traveller from around four and a half thousand years ago who still has much to say.Neil uncovers the stories this remarkable man tells us about the journey he took, walking right across Europe to Wiltshire in a time when you could hear the banging and clattering of building work at Stonehenge. Known as the Amesbury Archer, our Time Traveller was a man of great status. When he died, he was buried surrounded by beautiful flint arrow heads, fine archer’s wrist guards, gold and other precious metals - the richest Bronze Age burial ever discovered in Britain.Check out the Podcast Instagram Account - Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil travels to the largest artificial, prehistoric mound in Europe.Half a million tons of chalk were used by our Neolithic ancestors to build Silbury Hill. Neil explores this colossal monument, the mystery and myths that surround it and the role it played in the lives of the people who constructed it. Built at a time when our ancestors had moved from being hunter gathers to farmers and were starting to make marks on the landscape, it’s an incredibly powerful statement that shouts ‘we are here’!Check out the Podcast Instagram Account - Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s podcast Neil’s journey continues across Wiltshire’s powerful ritual landscape, taking us to the largest stone circle in the world.Avebury is a colossal monument built over centuries by our Neolithic ancestors. It consists of three stone circles and at its heart is the cove stone weighing nearly 100 tons. This complex and mysterious monument chart’s the seasons, marks time and once brought our ancestors together. Awed by its sheer scale and intent Neil testifies to the fact that, thousands of years ago, this surely was a place that meant so much.Check out the Podcast Instagram Account - Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil takes us to a place that is famous around the world and speaks of massive intent.Constructed with huge stones weighing up to 40 tons and great sarsen trilithons - Stonehenge is truly monumental. It brought our ancestors and their ideas together, tracking the light, the planets and time - and 5000 years after it was begun it's somewhere that still has the power to put you in your place.Check out the Podcast Instagram Account - Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil takes us across Wiltshire’s Ritual Landscape to investigate a mysterious chambered tomb.Built by our ancestors over 5000 years ago West Kennet Long Barrow is one of the largest chambered tombs in the British Isles. In it were found stone daggers, beads and pottery together with skulls, long bones and other human remains – a place that that still has the power and presence to make the hairs on the back of your neck rise as you crawls inside.Check out the Podcast Instagram Account - Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil explores heaven itself.Travelling back in time to the Neolithic and the inspiringly beautiful Great Langdale in Cumbria’s Lake District, Neil delves into the history behind the famous greenstone axe heads. Telling the story of our ancestors who produced them and finding out what them tick. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil takes us deep underground chasing the beautiful, ‘must-have’ raw material our ancestors craved.Travelling to the incredible lunar landscape of Grime’s Graves in Norfolk, Neil unravels the story of how, 5,000 years ago, our ancestors mined high quality flint on an almost industrial scale. Miners with a deep sense of responsibility, always giving something back for what they took from the earth - an ancient knowledge we are only just starting to relearn today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil travels to a time when our ancestors lived with their dead in a way many of us would find shocking today.Journeying to the World Heritage Site on the east coast of Ireland, where the incredible Neolithic tombs at Newgrange and Knowth sit, Neil explores an age that still has many hidden secrets. As soon as he steps foot inside the monumental megalithic art, it’s clear that this place continues to hold the power to move us. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil turns the British Isles upside down! Travelling to Orkney, off the north-east tip of Scotland, he uncovers ancient burial tombs, ceremonial halls and gives us a glimpse of an influential powerhouse long hidden by time.As he tells the story of the profound changes this once formidable centre of influence has undergone, Neil unravels the lessons history tells us and the pointers it gives to what may lay ahead in the future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil takes us to the roots of the most profound, self-inflicted, social upheaval our species has ever known.Travelling to the west coast of Ireland, Neil tells the story of how our view of the world, and our place in it changed forever - the introduction of farming and the daily grind around 10,000 years ago has had social and psychological consequences we are still coming to terms with today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil brings us face to face with the violent, bloody birth of the British Isles.In this episode Neil takes us to Angus, in Scotland to see the breath-taking beauty of the Montrose Basin and evidence of the biggest natural disaster the world has seen in the last 8000 years. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Neil’s journey across the British Isles, and through its history, continues as he takes us on a walk down one of the oldest streets on the planet.In this episode Neil is confronted with some of the oldest art ever found in Britain. Around 16,000 years ago Creswell Crags, in the Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire borders got its latest tenants, a group of hunter gathers who made their homes home with beautiful decorations and mysterious painted symbols. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Neil’s journey across the British Isles brings us face to face with a dead body and a case of mistaken identity.In Goat’s Hole Cave, on the Gower Peninsula, Neil uncovers tantalising clues and profound emotions surrounding a grave that is 34,000-year-old - the grave where the remains of the oldest modern human ever found in the British Isles was discovered. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Neil Oliver’s Love Letter to the British Isles begins a million years ago, as he sets off on his journey through time and space to tell the story of the British Isles and how they came to exert a profound influence over the whole world.Neil’s journey starts on the Norfolk coast, in Happisburgh, where he brings us footprint to footprint with evidence of a lost tribe, human, and yet not quite us – the first tenants of what would become the British IslesCheck out the Podcast Instagram Account - Neil Oliver Love Letter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.