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The People’s Lochs and a Double Life

Paul sails along a much-loved route through the Kyles of Bute to Dunoon, before heading to the Borders and exploring the forgotten lochs of Fife.

Paul sails along a much-loved route through the Kyles of Bute to Dunoon, discovering a secret history of WW2 bouncing bombs along the way.

From Dunoon and its connections with international singing star Harry Lauder, Paul gets nostalgic about nuclear submarines in the Holy Loch. Here he meets a man with an impressive water-powered organ. Crossing the loch, Paul beats hot steel with a blacksmith whose ancestors have been working Vulcan’s forge for six generations. Their work includes the Golden Gates at Benmore gardens, where Paul learns about a sugar daddy who collected art on a scale to rival the Tate collection. On the shores of Loch Long, Paul discovers a Viking connection in the shape of a vintage sailing boat that takes him to scale the heights of the people’s mountain – the Cobbler.

Later in the programme, Paul’s loch-hopping journey across Scotland reaches the quiet lochs of the Borders, explores the lochs of Scotland’s capital and crosses over the Forth to discover the forgotten lochs of Fife. From St Mary’s Loch, Paul’s route takes him through Borders sheep country. Here he learns dog handling techniques at a school for sheep dogs, and then heads to some man-made lochs in the Moorfoot Hills, where he hears tell of hidden treasure. In Edinburgh, he discovers the story of a Dutch-speaking Scottish minister on skates and goes in search of a lost river and two long-vanished lochs in the heart of the city.

Crossing the Firth of Forth, Paul travels around the industrial lochs of the old Fife coal field before walking in the footsteps of Mary Queen of Scots on a haunted island in Loch Leven.

58 minutes

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