Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands

- Season 2

(2014)

Paul Murton travels to the Outer Hebrides and the beautiful islands of Eriskay, Barra and Vatersay. Meeting local people on Eriskay he discovers how this island's remote location helped preserve a unique way of life for centuries and also allowed the locals to hide thousands of bottles of whisky from the excise men who came visiting when a ship laden with a valuable and thirst-quenching cargo ran aground here in 1941. This was one of the less sober chapters in the island's history and was the inspiration for the famous film Whisky Galore. Moving on to Barra, Paul ...

For this grand tour, Paul Murton is exploring the Isle of Mull and its satellite islands to discover why they have become boltholes from the hustle and bustle of the modern world. Beginning his journey on the tidal island of Erraid, which inspired famous Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson, Paul is then island-hopping to beautiful Ulva, the final resting place of Lachlan MacQuarrie, one of the first governors of New South Wales. MacQuarrie is known as the father of Australia, but Ulva is where this celebrated Scot was born and it is where he chose to be buried. ...

In this episode Paul Murton is visiting two islands of the Inner Hebrides, Gigha and Jura, which are only a few miles apart but couldn't be more different. He begins his journey at the stunning Achamore Gardens on Gigha, which were created in the 1930s by the malted drink millionaire Colonel Sir James Horlick. Sir James loved Gigha's mild climate so much that he bought the island and made it his home. Today Gigha is owned by the community and many of its residents are incomers attracted by the opportunity to begin a new island life on this small and fertile place. ...

For this grand tour, Paul Murton is travelling by puffer to explore a little-known string of islands just off the west coast near Oban. Paul's first landfall is the island of Kerrera, which Paul discovers played a hugely important role during the Second World War as a base for the RAF's Seaplan Squadron. It was from here that the enormous Sunderland seaplanes took off to give air cover to vulnerable convoys during the Battle of the Atlantic. Leaving Kerrera behind, Paul hops back to the mainland and heads by road to cross the famous 'Bridge over the Atlantic' to Seil ...

There are some seventy islands in the Orkney archipelago but just how much of a challenge is it to keep all these islands connected? To find out, Paul Murton is making a grand tour of Outer Orkney and begins his journey at North Ronaldsay. This may be the most northerly of the Orkneys, but Paul discovers that it's actually surprisingly well connected with a regular airline service - in fact it's easier and quicker to get here than to many isolated spots in the Highlands. From here Paul is island hopping to Papa Stronsay, which is now populated by an order of monks who...

The final episode of the series sees Paul Murton visiting the 'Atlantic Twin' islands of Coll and Tiree. Paul begins his journey on Coll where he meets the charismatic owner of Breachacha Castle, Nicolas Maclean Bristol, a descendant of the ancient MacLeans of Coll, whose history on the island goes back to the 14th century. The population of Coll has slumped in recent years to just 200 people, but Nicolas runs a charity on the island which encourages young volunteers to come and work here from all over the world, and so this tiny, remote island has a distinctly ...