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Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands

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Paul Murton sets out to experience the world of island life.

Paul Murton sets out to experience island life today, uncovering the past and its connections with the present, pointing to the surprising and the beautiful lying just offshore.

BBC Scotland

Paul Murton

Kathryn Ross

Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands: Series 1 Compilations - 60 minutes: Eriskay, Barra and Vatersay

Eriskay, Barra and Vatersay

Series 1 Compilations - 60 minutes

BBC Scotland - Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands, Series 1 Compilations - 60 minutes, Eriskay, Barra and Vatersay

Paul Murton travels to the beautiful islands of Eriskay, Barra and Vatersay.

In this episode, Paul Murton travels to the beautiful islands of Eriskay, Barra and Vatersay before heading south to explore Mull.

In this episode, Paul Murton is travelling to the beautiful islands of Eriskay, Barra and Vatersay before heading south to explore Mull.

Beginning his journey on Eriskay Paul discovers how this islands 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 makes a pilgrimage out to spectacular Barra Head, which has been uninhabited for more than a hundred years.

Leaving the Outer Hebrides behind, Paul heads south to explore Mull and its satellite islands. 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 and the mysterious island of Inch Kenneth, before heading to explore Mull itself, which he sees at break-neck speed thanks rally driver Louise Thomas, who regularly competes in the world famous Mull Rally.

Paul’s final destination is the beautiful and remote Treshnish Islands, where he experiences a spot of “puffin therapy”. 


Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands: Series 1 Compilations - 60 minutes

A BBC TV channel for Scotland which will broadcast every evening and will show drama, factual, comedy and news programmes made in Scotland


Paul Murton sets out to experience island life.

Paul Murton sets out to experience island life, exploring our often-violent island legacy and discovering how island life is in our blood.

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Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands

Series 1 Compilations - 60 minutes

Eriskay, Barra and Vatersay

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