Grand Tours of Scotland's Lochs

Paul explores the lochs of Skye. He hears tales of the singer Donovan and his dream of a hippy colony, thrills at the sound of the pipes, tries on a jacket fit for a king and goes in search of a Viking ship canal. After learning about the mythical female Celtic warrior and sorceress Scáthach, Paul has a lesson in spear-throwing, before tackling one of the longest rock climbs in the Cuillin Mountains – the Dubhs Ridge. Journey’s end is one of the finest mountain views in Scotland.

This Grand Tour starts at Loch Glashan above Loch Fyne, where Paul Murton travels back in time to learn how to paddle a coracle. At Old Castle Lachlan, he dabbles in Victorian virtual reality, courtesy of George Washington Wilson and his stereoscopic camera. At the open-air museum of Auchindrain, Paul follows Queen Victoria on the trail of poverty tourism, before having fun with the tale of MacPhunn - a man who cheated the noose. The wreckage of a WW2 Superfortress and stories of diamond smuggling emerge as Paul visits a sacred Tinker's Heart before ringing the changes at Inveraray.

Leaving Kinlochleven – once known as the electric village because of its links to power-hungry aluminium smelting - Paul discovers a forgotten German PoW camp from WWI in the woods nearby. Taking an old military road out of the village, Paul climbs into the surrounding hills and arrives at the Blackwater dam - a colossal memorial in concrete to the last of the navvies. After visiting the graves of some who died during its construction, Paul treks across empty moorland to a lonely bothy. From Corrour, the UK’s highest and remotest station, he arrives unexpectedly in the lap of luxury. After failing miserably at clay pigeon shooting at Corrour Lodge, Paul makes a long hike down to Loch Laggan, where he is taken out to an island with a legendary feasting tradition.

Paul Murton travels through old Perthshire, shrouded in a mythic past when kelpies lurked in the lochs of the Trossachs. He lends a hand bringing in the cattle and hears how Rob Roy MacGregor might not have been the romantic figure of popular fiction. Was he a hero or just a cattle thief? At Rob Roy’s graveside, Paul meets a man who casts doubts on the clansman’s last resting place. He then travels along a disused railway above a beautiful loch to a place where the earth once moved for folk at the 'Shaky Toun'. A trek on horseback takes him to Loch Tay, where he goes back to the Iron Age and learns how to light a fire without matches. Scaling a local giant, journey’s end is on the summit of mist-wreathed Ben Lawers.

Paul’s loch-hopping journey starts on the west coast on a wild and windswept stretch of Loch Hourn. Travelling inland, Paul reaches sheltered Loch Quoich, where he hears tales of Scotland’s last outlaw. On the shores of Loch Lochy, he meets a couple who had a memorable encounter with a monster from the deep called Lizzie. A detour south leads to a ruined bridge where the first shots were fired of the ’45. Paul then walks an old railway line above the Great Glen and inhales diesel smoke from a reeking shunter at a station undergoing restoration. A canal journey takes him to Fort Augustus, where he searches for the original fort. On Loch Ness, Paul meets a man who, when still a schoolboy, met the fastest man on water, John Cobb aka the Gentle Giant.

Paul explores the forgotten lands of Morvern. On the shores of Loch Aline, he sees the devil in a fossil and then plunges deep underground to discover an unlikely connection between sand and WW2. Above Loch Arienas, he hears the moving testimony of a family who were cleared from the land in the 19th century. Paul then has an al fresco art lesson and tries to paint the scene. At Fort William, he paces the ruins of the original fort and learns that the town that now surrounds it was once known as Maryburgh. Following a Jacobite theme, Paul encounters the Strange Plate and discovers the secrets of Jacobite paper money. Journey’s end is a 'loch that never was' beneath the magnificent 300ft Steall Falls.