Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands

For this grand tour, Paul's journey begins at Loch Hourn on the mainland, takes him over the sea to Skye and then heads to the tiny island of Soay before finishing on Canna. Along the way, Paul visits the house which was the inspiration for Skyfall, home of Britain's most famous spy James Bond, embarks on a nerve-wracking caving expedition under the summit of Blaven and discovers the remarkable story of shark fishing off Soay.

On the west coast of Scotland are a group of islands that are so remote they almost seem to have been forgotten by the rest of the world and are populated by just a few hardy souls. Crossing the Sea of the Hebrides, Paul sets off to explore the Shiants, heads east to the romantic Isle of Ewe, and onto the Summer Isles, before travelling to the mighty cliffs of Handa. This tour sees Paul go diving at Scotland's first 'scallop ranch', kayak to the Summer Isles and visit the eerie but beautiful island of Gruinard, which was once considered to be so solitary and remote it was chosen to be the testing ground for Britain's biological warfare experiments during World War II.

This first grand tour of the new series takes Paul to the largest island in Britain: the long island of Harris and Lewis. Paul tries his hand at weaving Harris Tweed, meets the family behind the world-famous Stornoway black pudding and uncovers the remarkable story of how a mysterious medieval chess set was discovered on the remote beach of Uig on Lewis.

Paul Murton tours Outer Orkney, beginning at North Ronaldsay, which may be the most northerly of the Orkneys but turns out to be surprisingly easy to get to. Paul then hops across to Papa Stronsay, which is now populated by an order of monks who have chosen to make this isolated island their home, and ends on the island of Stroma in the Pentland Firth, a previously inhabited island that was abandoned in the 1950s. One of the last people to live there joins Paul to recall when it was still a thriving community.

Paul Murton visits Gigha and Jura, two islands of the Inner Hebrides which are only a few miles apart but could not be more different. He begins at the Achamore Gardens on Gigha, which were created in the 1930s by the malted-drink millionaire James Horlick. He 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. Where Gigha is small, lush and verdant, Jura is rugged and awe-inspiring. Despite being one of Scotland's largest islands, just 200 people live there - alongside more than 5,000 deer.

In this first episode of the new series, Paul Murton is travelling 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 onto Barra, Paul visits the only airport in the world where scheduled flights land on the beach, finds out about the island's tradition of crofting and goes foraging for cockles. Heading across the causeway to Vatersay, Paul joins local fishermen trawling for lobsters and ends his journey at spectacular Barra Head, which has been uninhabited for more than a hundred years.

In the fifth episode, Paul Murton explores the islands scattered in the Firth of Forth. He discovers that these seemingly peaceful islands have a dramatic history of war; from Medieval English raids on the monastic island retreat of Inchcolm, to the first air raid attack on Britain above Inchgarvie. Paul learns about the strategic importance of Inchkeith's defences during two world wars, before heading to the Bass Rock to learn more about the history of prisoners incarcerated on the unforgiving rock, with 160,000 gannets for company.

On this Grand Tour, Paul sets off from Mallaig to visit a group of islands famed for their unusual names: Rum, Muck and Eigg. Paul meets the real 'Lord Muck', visits the dramatic Kinloch Castle on Rum and joins the Eigg islanders in a very special celebration of the island's community buyout.

In this first 'Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands', Paul Murton sets out to visit some of the myriad of islands that lay off our coastline. Heading to Foula and Fair Isle - the most remote island communities in Britain - Paul makes a nerve-wracking visit to 'Da Snekk o' da Smallie' - a pothole in the cliffs of Foula which leads through to the Atlantic shore on the island, and learns about the beautiful knitting patterns which have made Fair Isle world famous.