Neill was educated at Ayr Academy and later took an Honours degree in Celtic studies and English at Edinburgh. He was a frequent contributor to both Catalyst and Gairm magazines. As a young writer, he studied the poets of the Scottish Renaissance, and viewed 'modern assertions that "Scots was dying in the time of Burns" as the assertions of dyed-in-the-wool townies.

Awards for poetry have included The Grierson Verse Prize (1970), Sloan Prize (1970) and a Scottish Arts Council Book Award (1985). He lived in Galloway and was born in Prestwick, Ayrshire.