In the second episode of Scotland Revealed the celebration continues when Scotland’s best loved photographer Colin Prior reveals the hidden attraction of the nation’s favourite mountain, and a fascinating Jurassic past is uncovered...
Geographer and presenter Vanessa Collingridge’s journey this programme starts in Argyll, where you can find over five thousand years of human history in just one glen. For her, it’s the most magical place in the whole of Scotland.
Kilmartin Glen is nestled between the Sound of Jura and Loch Fyne , a quiet and unassuming landscape holds some extraordinary secrets, with over 350 ancient sites making the area one of the richest archaeological landscapes in Britain. Sharon Webb, curator of Kilmartin House Museum, explains its importance.
While Kilmartin was the centre of the kingdom over a thousand years ago, it was Inverary that took over when the rule of the region was in the hands of the Duke Of Argyll. This quiet town on the shores of Loch Fyne has a fascinating claim to fame, because before Cumbernauld and before East Kilbride, this was Scotland’s first planned town.
Then there’s the Western Highlands: scenery the world wants to see, judging by the bustling tourist trade. Nowhere delivers a view quite like Buachaille Etive Mòr, which Vanessa believes has to be one of the most photographed mountains in Scotland - and you can see why from the show’s stunning footage.
The route to Skye reveals a stunning view, a rugged shoreline with thousands of headlands, created by sea lochs as they drove their way inland. Two of the largest lochs - Loch Sunart and Loch Linnhe - were created by ice ages from the last two and a half million years. Stuart Munro, Scientific Director of Edinburgh’s Our Dynamic Earth, is on hand to detail how exactly this happened.
The programme then leaves the island behind to travel even further back in time, to over 400 million years ago as an exploration of the Great Glen unravels some of the earliest secrets of Scotland’s creation.
It’s a phenomenal feature that was created by violent natural forces, and runs 65 miles across the north of our country from Fort William to Inverness dividing the Grampians and the North West Highlands - all part of the Caledonian Mountain range, created during the same great geological event.
Then on up north with one of Scotland’s most amazing feats of engineering, the Caledonian Canal, which was designed by Thomas Telford and opened in 1822, and on to Loch Ness. At 230 metres it’s the second deepest Loch in Britain and could hold all the water contained in every lake and reservoir of England and Wales put together. Of course, there’s also a famous resident of the loch who’s responsible for many curious visitors paying a visit to see if they can spot her...
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