From long-lost Viking ships and kings buried in unexpected places to tales of murder,

power, faith, and the lives of ordinary people across medieval Europe and beyond.

Join me, Matt Lewis, Dr. Eleanor Jarniger and some of the world's leading historians,

as we bring history's most fascinating stories to life only on

History Hit. With your subscription, you'll unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive documentaries

with a brand new release every week exploring everything from the ancient world to World War II.

Just visit historyhit.com forward slash subscribe.

Hello, I'm Matt Lewis. Welcome to Gone Medieval from History Hit, the podcast that delves

into the greatest millennium in human history. We've got the most intriguing mysteries,

the gobsmacking details and latest groundbreaking research from the Vikings to the printing press,

from kings to popes to the crusades. We cross centuries and continents to delve into rebellions,

plots and murders, to find the stories big and small that tell us how we got here. Find out who we really were. We've gone medieval.

In the year 870, a siege took place on the west coast of what is now Scotland. Theumbarton rock on the River

Clyde was the capital of the Britonic Kingdom of Altklut. If you've never heard of Altklut,

then this siege is probably the reason. It lasted just four months and saw the relocation

of the capital and the renaming of the realm to the kingdom

of Strathclyde. There's something else that's unusual about this siege too. It was conducted

by the kings of the smash-and-grab raid, the Vikings. Why did they adapt their tactics when

they reached Dumbarton? What made the Rock such a prize?

How do these four months in 870 alter our perception of the Vikings

and lay the foundations for a united Kingdom of Scotland?

To help me unravel these events and make sense of their impact,

...