The Sperrin Mountains which overlook Derry were once the highest mountain range in the world, even towering above the Himalayas, a new landmark TV series claims.
Blueprint, which is due to air for the first time next Monday, March 31, on BBC Northern Ireland, chronicles the development of the island of Ireland over millions of years and how the landscape became what it is today.
More than 600 million years
ago, the familiar Sperrins would have towered high above the clouds at a time when Ireland was actually two separate countries split by a vast ocean.
The new series, which will be rolled out on television, online and on radio, will give viewers a never-before-seen view of the country and how it evolved through millennia.
Over millions of years, Ireland has been baked by deserts, drowned beneath tropical oceans, torched by volcanoes, and frozen in ice. It undertook an incredible journey from the South Pole, right the way across up the globe, to where it is today. And even today, we're still on the move northwards.
How did our flowers and forests get here? What happened to the incredible beasts like Woolly Mammoths, Giant Deer or Brown Bear that once roamed our land? This programme sets out to find the blueprint of our plants and animals – evolutionary trail blazers who went before us to create a land bustling with life.
The series will be presented by William Crawley who is aided by two expert contributors, archaeologists Peter Woodman and Emily Murray.
It will feature breathtaking special effects which will help bring to life the incredible journey that has created this place and shaped the people living here today.
Blueprint begins next Monday, March 31, at 9pm on BBC Northern Ireland.
The full article contains 299 words and appears in Foyle News newspaper.
