Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands - Season 2 (2014)

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 ...