Grand Tours of Scotland

Historian Paul Murton goes in search of "the Romantic ideal" and discovers how Sir Walter Scott played a key role in reinventing Scotland.

On an original 1870s tricycle, Murton travels to Royal Deeside to learn how Scotland’s mountains and glens became a destination for rich gentlemen to test their mettle.

When railways spread across the country, tourists ventured for the first time to Scotland’s west coast. Murton takes the Jacobite train to Mallaig and the Isle of Skye.

Murton goes in search of the stunning Highland landscapes that have attracted visitors for the past 200 years with the promise of improving mind, body, and spirit.

More-adventurous tourists braved the rough seas to travel to Orkney and Shetland, hoping to restore themselves in the peace and quiet of the remote Northern Isles.

When working people eventually won the right to some free time, most headed not to the romantic Highlands for a holiday but to the seaside.