Neil Oliver: ‘…I’ve taken a lot on trust - NO LONGER!

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]Hello again.

[00:00:02]Beginning to look as if I'm just wandering endlessly around the environs of Sterling where I live in central Scotland. Uh I'm deciding to continue with uh what my what my wife Trudy would call Neil's vague tour of Scotland.

[00:00:29]Look at this. This is really quite interesting.

[00:00:32]As you can see, we're now crossing via a modern bridge, the river forth.

[00:00:40]Sometimes I think the story of Sterling is the story of the river forth because so much of what has happened in this area uh is because of the need felt by people down through the years to get back and forth across the fourth It's a tidal river. Really quite a dramatically tidal river. You can see the muddy banks cuz the the tide is out at the moment.

[00:01:06]Few others will come rushing back in.

[00:01:08]I am walking you um towards a little what would you call it? A suburb called Campus Kenneth.

[00:01:17]Yeah.

[00:01:19]I'll tell you more about Campus Kenneth in a minute or two. It means the haven or the safe place of Kenneth. The Kenneth in question being Kenneth McCalpin. Uh in the traditional textbooks you'd read about him being the founder of the Kingdom of Scotland, but of course he wasn't really. Uh it was his descendants that that first forged Scotland. But there you go.

[00:01:46]That's us having crossed the mighty Scottish river forth.

[00:01:54]I love this little place, Campus Kenneth. It's one of those sort of um sliding doors, parallel universe places where I could imagine a different turn of events.

[00:02:07]uh having seen me us as a family even live here. It's a it's a splendidly peaceful little part of the town.

[00:02:23]I used to bring Trudy and I used to take turns bringing our kids over here uh to a house where uh two of our kids got piano lessons with Nicola. It seemed to go on for years. I think possibly it did. Uh used to come over and park the car and wait for the lesson to be to be completed.

[00:02:47]And it was really because of that because of the time spent here and the necessity to fill the time of the lesson that I got to know uh Canvas Kenneth Abby uh quite intimately. Uh, I used to walk around it. Just used to put in the the 45 minutes or so of the of the lesson walking around the abbey. So, I've got more of a sense of the place than maybe I otherwise would have. But look at all these lovely little cottages. It's a lovely little spot. I mentioned vague tours. That's the um that's the Campanil, the bell tower of Campus Kenneth Abby. Get to that in a minute.

[00:03:30]For now, it's just uh in the background of the shop. I mentioned the vague tours because in the present climate, I hear myself uh talking about Scottish history. Uh and what I'm basically doing is trottting out what I was taught. I mean, I've augmented it a bit over the years, things I've read, people I've talked to and interviewed, places I've visited. Um but it is it is an orthodox version of events.

[00:04:00]And you know, I I'm I'm banging on all the time in other contexts about uh orthodoxies and and the need to challenge them and the need to and the need to ask questions about what we're told. So I have to remind myself that the version of events that I have in my head about Scottish history and the one that I'm imparting in brief to you now, I'm taking a lot on trust in terms of the actions of the personalities and the events that are supposed to have unfolded because I think about it in the so in the context of what's happening in the Middle East at the moment, the war in Iran, the war that America is waging uh in Iran on behalf of Israel.

[00:04:53]Uh the death tolls, the damage, the disruption to supply chains and the the the the chaos incoming for the whole world on account of what's happening there. I think about all of that and I wonder am I properly understanding the events and these are events that are happening right now right in front of my eyes how much of it how much of what I'm seeing uh how much of what I'm reading watching being told how much of it's true in any absolute sense in terms of what we mean by true so I think I'm I'm recounting I'm going to be talking to you about things that happened here 7 8 900 years ago or longer now. What are the chances that my version of events is right after all this time when with events that are unfolding right this moment in the Middle East in Iran that I'm not confident if what I know or think I know about those events is even true.

[00:06:05]So I think my experience of fascination with what I think I understand about Scottish history and British history, world history, I've got to temper it all the time with the uncertainty that I have about what's happening in the world around me right this moment. So with that hearty pinch of salt, with that necessity to wonder and to keep on asking questions.

[00:06:37]Let's keep walking.

[00:06:39]That fine gateway behind me there. You'd be forgiven for thinking that it was the gateway into a cemetery, which well that's that's the function that it serves now and has done for the longest time. Uh but it's really uh one of the few upstanding sections of masonry left behind from Cambas Kenneth Abbey.

[00:07:05]Camas Kenneth Abbey was built in a it's almost an island created by a big meandering loop of the river forth. Uh the the land was set aside and given to a group of Aroian Arrowacian cannons in 1140 officially by King David I of Scotland and it was I think it changed hands over the years. It was subsequently taken up I think by Augustinians uh at some point when the Araian cannons were finished with it or had been dispossessed. Uh and then the whole thing the whole thing fell into ruin of course uh on account of the reformation uh you know when all the when all the great um when all the great abbies and monasteries and all those church holdings were seized by Henry VII and assets stripped and so Campus Kenneth Abby was ruined then. uh the stone the stonework you can see the you see the foundation layers the the very lowest layers of the masonry it was all gradually robbed out and the the stone was taken and repurposed um all over Sterling actually there's a famous building up beside Sterling Castle it's called the Mar work uh and it was built as a as a house a fine house for um one of the kkins the Earl of Mar, hence Mar's work. Uh, and a lot a lot of the raw material for it was was plundered from from in here. Consider this fascinating curiosity, this stone sarcophagus, this tomb. This is well, it's now within the ruins of Campus Kenneth Abby. Um but at the it was about how how to how to unpick the story. I've mentioned the James boys. There was a succession of King Jameses uh in Scotland. James the 1, James II, 3rd, fourth, fifth, sixth, James V 6th who became uh James the 1 of England. Well, James the first of Great Britain uh following the death of Elizabeth I.

[00:09:33]Well, James III, the middle the middle of the run, if you like, he died in battle just just a shout away from here, a place called Sakibburn. It was in 1488.

[00:09:48]Uh, and he, you know, he he died he died during the battle, which is pretty spectacular. Although that the King Jameses did have a bit of a habit, a bit of a a bit of a run of uh of being killed in battle. Anyway, he's killed at Sockburn 1488 September, I think. Um, and in the in the aftermath, rumors spread that he had been murdered, that it was Reicside, that the whole thing was a kind of a setup and that it was a faction uh representing his son who replaced them as King James IV. Uh, that was actually be behind his reside, his assassination under the cover of the battle. Um, in the aftermath of it, for forever after, James IV wore a an iron chain or a celiss or some kind of penitential garment under his clothes uh as a sign of of of his grief and potentially guilt by association with what had actually happened to his father. But in the it's part of the cover up let's say he he was buried uh by the high altar of canvas Kenneth Abby. So inside the building at that time when the you know when the building was still up and running as an abbey uh he ended up in the ground alongside his wife uh Queen Margaret of Denmark. It was the it had been the marriage of uh James III and Margaret of Denmark uh that brought Ornney and Shhatland into the Scottish kingdom. Uh it was a it was a bit of a dowry settlement that actually brought those two archipelos that had been Danish uh into the Scottish kingdom. But anyway, what happened? what happened in terms of this unlikely tomb here surrounded by its iron railings. Uh reformation uh the abbey was torn apart right down to its foundations. All the masonry robbed out and used again elsewhere around the the city of Sterling and the the sight of the high alter was lost.

[00:11:59]But then in 1860 something, I'm going to say 1865, workmen found coffins in what was regarded as the vicinity of the high altar. And it was assumed that the mortal remains therein were those of King James III and his wife, Queen Margaret. So they were Queen Victoria.

[00:12:23]Queen Victoria was on the throne. She got to hear about it. So she was uh suitably upset about what had happened uh to her to her fellow monarch and she paid for this tomb and the and the and the due ceremony that saw the remains of James and Margaret presumably uh re-eried inside the sarcophagus which itself sits close by what is assumed to be or to have been the high altar of Cambas Kenneth Abby. It is a quite lovely spot. Nonetheless, as I mentioned, I used to I used to wander about here of an evening while I was waiting for one or other of my kids to get their piano lesson in a house nearby.

[00:13:11]There is the river.

[00:13:14]Can you see the river just beyond just beyond? Can you see the sheen? Can you see the light on the river there?

[00:13:25]It's a very pretty spot. The the the abbey uh would have been associated with a ferry crossing. You know, that that fabled necessity, the difficulty of crossing the river forth anywhere. Um so there was a ferry in the vicinity uh because the the abbey kind of commanded if that's the right word uh a ford af foring place a crossing place on the river that was you know usable to an extent and the abbey having made the crossing was probably a very welcome site for travelers because they would have been guaranteed um you know safe haven uh and bed and board as well.

[00:14:08]That is the bell tower that was left despite the fact that the rest of the abbey was torn down. The the bell tower, the campanil as it's called, was left intact and it is therefore the best preserved campil anywhere in Scotland.

[00:14:25]It was probably left. Well, it's hard to tell exactly, but but it may well have served as a useful um you know, observatory, you know, a a high place to stand and keep an eye on the allimportant crossing of the river forth.

[00:14:42]I did a bit of filming in there, if you can believe it, back in the day. Uh we set up to tell a bit of the story of Robert Le Bruce and his long determination to take the throne of Scotland. And we filmed in there uh a bit of high drama.

[00:15:06]Uh, I talk about the I talk about the the necessity to remain open-minded not just about what's happening around us, but also the version of events, the canonical version of events that we that we're handed about the past.

[00:15:27]And you know, anyone who's read a little bit around the the Scottish Wars of Independence knows or at least thinks they know what Robert the Bruce was all about.

[00:15:40]But it's a hard one to call because apart from anything else, he was a scheming, ambitious, ruthless politician.

[00:15:53]Uh he knew what he wanted and he set out to get it. And there's a there's a there's an important part of the story that we filmed in high drama in the shadows in the darkness inside that campanil and it related to the fact that in about 1304 uh long before long before Robert established himself off the back of the bat the Baretburn as the king of an independent Scotland. Long before that he entered into a business relationship with William Lambertton who was the the bishop of St. Andrews St. Andrews Cathedral and and the dascese up there.

[00:16:34]He entered into a secret relationship with Lambertton that they would back one another that the one would represent the the muscle of the church and the other Robert would would uh represent the more earthly power. And Lambertton was interested in Bruce because he saw him as a likely lad.

[00:16:56]He saw him as somebody who possibly could deliver on the intention and the ambition to become the king of Scotland.

[00:17:04]And it was a vested interest for a man like Lambertton because at the time uh the Archbishop Ricks in England at York and particularly in Canterbury were kind of vying for total control of all the churches in England and in Scotland.

[00:17:25]And if if uh an English king was on the throne of Scotland, then it would have placed by association uh the the bishops the church in Scotland under the rule of the English church or the church in England. And an individual like William Lambertton didn't want that. They fancied themselves the Scots Scotland as Rome's special daughter. uh there was a kind of a degree of independence that they enjoyed. They weren't under the heel of York and Canterbury and a man like Lambertton wanted that state of affairs to continue and so he needed an independent an independent king of Scots and he decided that Robert the Bruce was the very fellow. And so in 1304 they entered into this secret contract which was signed in the in the abbey at Campus Kenneth. They promised to back each other and to keep the relationship secret. It was high treason what they were agreeing between themselves. They were agreeing to conspire to put Robert on the throne of Scotland. It was a terrible risk. And so each man laid down £10,000 which in the 14th century was a considerable sum of money and each man's£10,000 would be forfeit to the other if they reneged on the deal. Here we are the very place the scene of the filming inside the bell tower campus Kenneth.

[00:19:11]It's quite the atmospheric little spot.

[00:19:19]I suppose my point today is just the necessity to ask questions about everything. I I spent a a career in in terrestrial traditional television really giving the giving the orthodox version of events. It's what I was there to do. It's what I did. Uh but as the as the years have gone on, just as I have learned to question what's happening around us, what on earth happened during the thing that the authorities called the COVID pandemic, whatever that was, and to me, whatever CO was, if it even was matters not at all in comparison to what was done in the name of CO. It was all about asking questions.

[00:20:14]And then I learned to ask questions about what we were told was happening in Ukraine.

[00:20:20]You know that official version of events that had Vladimir Putin just get up one morning and decide to invade the sovereign territory of Ukraine. You know, when five minutes online was enough to at least make a quest, make a person contemplate the possibility at least that the whole thing had been instigated by the United States of America who didn't like the fact that the democratically elected president of that Ukraine was facing towards Moscow.

[00:20:55]And so Victoria Nuland, the assistant secretary of state, and Jeffrey Pat, the ambassador to Ukraine, they conspired to get rid of that democratically elected president and replace him with one who was more inclined towards Washington. 5 minutes online was enough to make you ask questions and to and to bring to mind the the Nazi element in Ukraine, you know, the Azov battalion, you know, and figures like, I don't know, a whole cast of characters um uh Ollie Chanabok and and the rest of these ultra ultra Nazi figures uh that were that were, you know, on the stage as politicians in that part of the world and then you know the the the due questioning that that was then inspired when it came to something like what started to happen in Gaza what started to happen in Gaza which which was soon identifiable as a genocide but we weren't allowed to use that word for the longest time although by now the necessary the necessary agencies do talk about what's happening in Gaza as a genocide.

[00:22:17]And so when it comes to when it comes to contemplating what happened in the past, I have to bring I'm obliged to bring to mind the same questioning attitude. And so th this this place Kenneth Abby is a very is a very worthwhile uh location for that kind of consideration.

[00:22:41]Campus Kenneth. I said as I was walking across the bridge uh means the the safe place or the haven of Kenneth. Kenneth McCalpin. And it has that name because in 834 AD Kenneth McCalpin won a battle.

[00:22:55]Somewhere here he defeated an army of picss and it was part of the long bloody process by which picss and gales gradually merged and came together as one thing which took the name of Alaba which was the precursor of Scotland.

[00:23:14]So that was in the 9th century and the battle happened here and it's remembered ever after as Cambas Kenneth.

[00:23:23]And then in 1140 in 1140 David I of Scotland granted land here as I said before to that company of Arawian Aroian cannons and they built an abbey here in the 12th century.

[00:23:40]Now that David the first that David the first had been partly raised or he let's say he'd come into his maturity at the English court. He had been in exile from Scotland. A lot of complicated politics was unfolding during his lifetime. He was the youngest son of uh King Malcolm III, Malcolm Canour and uh St. Margaret, who was of the Anglo-Saxon royalty that was driven out by the Norman conquest in 1066.

[00:24:16]David was the youngest son of that coupling and he was partly raised in the English court a long way from home and he took on uh English courtly attitudes. He was much more of an English prince than a Scottish prince by the time he came up here to claim his rightful throne. And it was he with that attitude. He wanted to be surrounded by friendly faces, familiar familiar friends. And so he brought uh English, which is to say Norman, which is to say French knights, north with him. and he gave them land in Scotland. There a whole raft of them. Uh the Fitz Allens, the Fitz Allen family, they came up. Uh who else? Uh the Bale.

[00:25:15]The Bale were given a vast tract of territory in the west of Scotland. And most significantly, the De Bruis family, the French name De Bruis. And they were that was what became the Bruce family, Robert the Bruce. And they were given land down in Anandale and parts of over in the southwest of Scotland. So it was because of David I who gave the land to the cannons who built this abbey. It's because of him that those Norman French knights were in Scotland. And so by the time you've got a figure like Robert the Bruce, Robert of the Bruce family, Robert the Bruce claimment on the Scottish throne, by the time you've got him in operation, you've got what is effectively several generations down the line, right enough, but it's Norman French, Norman French nobility. occupying vast tracks of Scotland and Robert the Bruce amongst them.

[00:26:27]Robert the Bruce is is held up in the traditional version of events as the ultimate independentminded king of Scots. So you have to ask yourself what really and truly were his motivations and how much consideration would he have been given within those motivations to the what would you say the indigenous Scots the the the the sitting tenants of the place those who were on the hand before David I gave it away to people who were among that original retinue that invaded England in 1066 with William the Conqueror.

[00:27:18]You know just how Scottish were they just how British were they?

[00:27:25]Where did their loyalties really lie?

[00:27:27]Who were they? How much did they really care about the rank and file Scottish people? I don't know. But it begs the question, you know, when you're considering what the motivation was for Robert's part in the Wars of Independence, you know, just really what was going on in his head. You look at some of the things that he did in order to get what he wanted. You look at some of the actions that he took. uh Buckan the territory in the northeast that was the seat of his coming rivals for the throne that territory was laid waste and in the aftermath of what Robert the Bruce did to destroy the Cumins as challenggers to the throne Bucken was sterile for generations no people no animals nothing there that's what he was prepared to do to fellow Scots in order to secure his kingdom.

[00:28:31]It's worth bearing all of these things in mind. I think you know so when it comes to as I say wondering wondering how events unfolding now let's say under Donald Trump and the regime in Iran and Benjamin Netanyahu's Israel uh Putin's Russia Xi's China in 700 800 900 years time If there's anybody recording history, what will be the official orthodoxy, the version of events that people are invited to take as canonical that people in the main are expected to accept as the most reliable and honest version of events.

[00:29:26]We're right in the middle of it.

[00:29:29]We're living through what's unfolding right now in Iran and we don't know.

[00:29:36]We don't really know what's going on. We don't know what secret deals are being struck between the key players. We think we know their motivations.

[00:29:47]You're invited to think that Donald Trump's all about America. Make America great again. And you're invited to think that Vladimir Putin cares most about Russia, mother Russia, and Xi Jinping cares most about China, and the regime in Iran is most interested. The coming in Iran, most interested in Iran. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. But maybe there's a completely different story.

[00:30:16]And that just like what happened between the bishop of St. Andrews and the wouldbe king of Scots.

[00:30:27]Secret deals done in the shadows.

[00:30:33]Who knows? Who knows?

[00:30:36]All you can do is pay attention.

[00:30:42]But there you go. the splendid, inspirational, and also restful bell tower of Campus Kenneth Abby. In the end, you're just left with the bones and the worn down teeth. And from those hard, stubborn presences, you have to try and piece together what on earth happened.