Original subtitles

(wind howling)

(dramatic orchestral music)

- [Narrator] Our coast-to-coast journey

starts in the south-east of Scotland.

From Edinburgh, we follow the Forth River upstream,

past a host of historic landmarks,

including its famous bridge.

Inland across the Lowlands,

is the Falkirk Wheel,

the only canal boat lift of its kind in the world.

West of Scotland's biggest city, Glasgow,

is Faslane Naval Base,

that's home to Britain's nuclear submarines.

Crossing the rugged islands and peninsulas of the Hebrides,

we end at a mystical sea cave,

that's inspired artists and writers for centuries.

(traditional folk music)

As far as historians can tell,

the modern sport of golf was born in Scotland.

And here on the east coast, near the border with England,

lies one of the world's most famous golf courses.

Muirfield.

(stirring music)

It's hosted no less than 15 Open Championships,

as well as being home to the oldest golf club in the world,

The Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers,

whose records go back to 1744.

Following the coastline into

the mouth of the Forth Estuary,

the twin chimneys of Cockenzie power station,

are a distinctive landmark.

In 2005, the coal-fired facility was reported to be

the UK's least carbon-efficient power station.

It's now set to close by 2016,

with plans for a gas-powered replacement.

(dramatic percussive music)

The neighboring town of Prestonpans,

which dates back to the 11th century,

gained the attention of local press on Halloween 2004,

when there was finally a public declaration

of the innocence of 81 Scottish women,

who'd been convicted of witchcraft,

and executed back in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Set deep on the Forth Estuary, is Edinburgh,

the capital of Scotland.

The city is dominated by a volcano,

that was last active over 300 million years ago.

Steeped in myths and legends,

it's even been mentioned as a possible location for Camelot,

the castle and court of King Arthur,

hence its name, Arthur's Seat.

It looms over the city.

Edinburgh has a population of less than half a million,

making it a small capital by European standards.

(light acoustic music)

But despite its size,

it's the most visited city in the United Kingdom,

after London.

It's helped in part by the Edinburgh Festival,

the biggest arts and culture event in the world,

attracting as many tourists as there are residents.

And sitting on top of another long-extinct volcano,

is the symbol of the city, Edinburgh Castle.

After centuries of battle,

it now enjoys a more sedate role,

as Edinburgh's biggest historic attraction.

It's at the heart of a city that has one of

the highest concentrations of listed buildings in the world,

around four and a half thousand.

The 16th century Old Town still retains

the original medieval plan of streets and market squares.

Built on a narrow ridge,

the space restriction led to some of

the earliest high-rise buildings,

reaching up to 15 floors.

The central area of Edinburgh is known as the New Town,

though it was mostly constructed over

the 18th and 19th centuries.

It's considered to be a masterpiece of city planning,

and stands as one of the finest examples

of Georgian architecture in the world.

In 1995, both the old and new towns

were declared World Heritage Sites.

To the west of Edinburgh, along the Estuary,

is this fine example of 19th century landscape design.

(bright symphonic music)

The park surrounds Dalmeny House,

the first mansion in Scotland to be built in

the Tudor Revival style.

It's been home to the Earls of Rosebery since 1817,

when the house was completed.

Its most famous resident was the 5th Earl of Rosebery,

who by all accounts was a celebrity in his time.

He is supposed to have said

that he had three ambitions in life.

To be prime minister,

to marry an heiress,

and to win Britain's greatest horse race, the Derby.

He managed all three.

He was in office in 1894,

won the Derby three times,

and married Hannah de Rothschild,

of the great banking dynasty.

Today, the house which keeps the world's greatest

collection of Napoleonic art and objects,

is open to the public for guided tours.

(dramatic brooding music)

And hidden from view behind this hill,

is the gigantic structure,

that is the world's first major steel bridge.

Spanning the Estuary's two and a half kilometers,

the Forth Railway Bridge took seven years to construct,

and was opened in 1890.

The workforce was vast, up to 4000 men at a time.

57 lost their lives. (train engine roaring)

A structure like this needs constant maintenance.

So it's no surprise it's become part of the expression,

"painting the Forth Bridge."

Referring to a never-ending task,

by the time you finish at one end,

it's time to start over again at the other.

Beside this marvel of Victorian engineering,

is the 60's-built Road Bridge,

which replaced a centuries-old ferry service,

for vehicles and pedestrians.

(stirring symphonic music)

From engineering to architecture,

the two bridges make up a spectacular view

from Hopetoun House,

one of the last works of the great Scottish designer,

William Adam, who died in 1748, before its completion.

The work was taken up by his sons, John and Robert Adam,

who like their father, were influenced by the style of

the grand European palaces of the time.

And this was the result.

One of the finest stately homes in Scotland.

Today it stands almost unaltered,

as a lasting testament to the family of architects,

who were to heavily influence the style of

domestic architecture in the 18th century.

(meandering piano music)

Further up and sitting at the head of

a spit of land on the Forth River,

is the ominously named Blackness Castle.

It was built in the 15th century,

as a formidable stronghold,

by one of Scotland's most powerful families,

the Crichtons.

During the wars with France in the early 1800s,

it held prisoners of war.

And after many years as an ammunition depot,

it was finally declared an ancient monument.

Because of its site, jutting into the Forth,

and its long, narrow shape,

the castle has been characterized,

as the ship that never sailed.

Many of the coastal towns along the Forth,

were once involved in heavy industry.

Like Bo'ness, which even had a port.

But these days, it's a commuter town,

and one of its main employers

is just further along the river.

This major industrial landmark,

is the Grangemouth Oil Refinery,

the only refinery in Scotland.

It was originally built in the 1920s,

to refine oil from the Middle East,

until the discovery in 1975,

of North Sea oil off the Scottish coast.

Since then, crude oil has been piped directly

to one of the terminals.

Today this medium-sized plant has the capacity to process

210,000 barrels of crude oil a day.

Following the Forth River inland to its upper reaches,

we arrive at a 14-meter high,

elaborately-crafted stone pineapple.

(light symphonic music) (birds tweeting)

It's been described as the most

bizarre building in Scotland.

Completed in 1761, by the 4th Earl of Dunmore,

the cupola adorns a garden wall that

once contained a greenhouse on the first floor.

It was used to grow exotic fruit, including pineapples.

They were such a rare delicacy at the time,

that architects adopted them as a motif

to symbolize power, wealth and hospitality.

And Dunmore remains the most spectacular use of this motif.

Today the gardener's quarters,

and the pineapple summerhouse provide holiday accommodation,

and the gardens are open to the public all year round.

Leaving the flood plains of the Forth River,

we head inland to the Central Lowlands of Scotland.

Rich in coal and iron ore,

this area played a key role in

the rise of industrial Scotland in the 1800s.

And to transport these raw materials

between cities and ports,

an extensive canal network was created.

At the turn of the Millennium,

these waterways were not only restored,

but in some cases, like the example we see here,

they were reinvented.

Completed in 2002, this is the Falkirk Wheel,

one of Scotland's biggest tourist attractions.

It uses a giant rotating mechanism,

to simultaneously raise and lower boats,

24 meters between the Forth and Clyde,

and Union canals.

The intention was to create a dramatic,

21st century structure,

to replace the 11 locks that previously

connected the two waterways.

It's the only boat lift of its kind in the world,

taking five and a half minutes to complete a half-turn.

Surprisingly, the wheel only uses the same amount of energy

as it would take to boil eight household kettles.

(tranquil electronic music)

West along the valley,

is a reminder that even across the Lowlands,

the famous hills and mountains of Scotland

are never far from view.

This is the Carron Valley Reservoir,

created in 1939 by flooding the Carron River.

It proved to an ideal habitat,

for the indigenous brown trout population.

And the source of the water is the nearby Campsie hills,

a picturesque range which lie along a geological fault,

known as the Campsie Fault.

Erosion has left tiers of rock,

representing some 30 lava flows,

which date back 360 million years.

A period when many mountain ranges

and coal beds were being formed.

More recently though,

this splendid scenery has been a place of escape,

for those living in Scotland's biggest city,

just to the south.

This is Glasgow,

situated on the River Clyde. (stirring music)

Two and a quarter million people live in the conurbation,

that's over 40% of the Scottish population.

It was the founding of its university in 1451,

that first placed Glasgow on the map.

The fourth oldest university in the English-speaking world,

its main campus is now this fine Victorian building.

In the 1800s, during the Industrial Revolution,

the city flourished.

Glasgow was known as the second city of the British Empire,

for much of the Victorian era.

It became a world center for heavy engineering,

particularly in the shipbuilding industries.

But Glasgow's industrial heyday only lasted

until the post-war years,

and the city fell into a steady decline.

Today the shipyards are no longer

the hub of activity they once were.

The few that remain,

mainly focus on the design and construction

of high-tech Royal Navy warships.

Glasgow's function as a port also diminished.

Today only the King George V Dock for ocean-going vessels,

remains operational.

After the decline of industry,

vast areas of the city had become derelict and rundown.

But the 1980s saw a rigorous program of regeneration,

to rebuild its architecture,

as well as its image.

But despite these examples which remain,

many of the notoriously unpopular tower blocks

from the 1960s and 70s were demolished.

The City Council also began a program of

sandblasting the decades of soot and grime

from the city's many tenements and municipal buildings.

The work finally revealed

the magnificent Victorian stonework

that graces the city once more.

One of the images associated with modern Glasgow,

is the 3000-seat Clyde Auditorium.

It's made up of an interlocking series of ships' hulls,

a reference to the city's shipbuilding heritage.

(stirring symphonic music)

And on the opposite bank,

lies the titanium-clad Science Mall that houses more than

250 interactive science-learning exhibits,

over three floors.

In 1999,

Glasgow was designated UK City of Architecture and Design.

It was a testament to its recovery and is now referred to

as the world's first post-industrial city.

As the Clyde widens into the Estuary,

the unmistakable 73-meter high Dumbarton Rock,

comes into view.

A common feature along this ancient fault line,

it's actually a hardened magma plug,

from an extinct and long-eroded volcano.

But what makes this particular rock unique,

is the castle that sits upon it.

Dumbarton Castle has the longest recorded history

of any stronghold in Britain,

going back to the 8th century.

Before that time,

the castle is veiled in myths and legends.

Merlin, from the legend of King Arthur,

is said to have stayed here.

The rock lies on the north bank of the River Clyde,

where the River Leven flows in from Britain's biggest lake.

Loch Lomond.

This freshwater loch is 39 kilometers long,

and has more than 30 islands.

Many of them are privately owned,

with holiday accommodation.

And it was on one of these islands in 1984,

that Alan Pettigrew broke a world record

for hurling a haggis,

a kind of Scottish sausage.

He hurled the stuffed sheep's gut an amazing 55 meters.

It was a record he was to hold for 20 years.

A more familiar sport,

played on the western shore of the loch,

is golf.

This is Loch Lomond Golf Club,

one of the most exclusive golf clubs in Scotland,

and widely considered to be one of

the finest golf clubs in the world.

Its members include such illustrious names as

Prince Andrew,

Sir Sean Connery,

and Sir Nick Faldo.

The tough course measures 6492 meters,

and makes heavy use of natural obstacles,

such as streams and marshes.

Further west, towards the coast,

and the lochs are now seawater.

This is Gare Loch,

and unlike most other lochs in the region,

its primary use is something other than

leisure and fishing industries.

There's been a Naval base here,

ever since the Second World War.

At the height of the Cold War in the 60s,

submarines carrying Polaris nuclear missiles,

were stationed here.

And today, Faslane Naval Base is best known as

the home of the United Kingdom's nuclear submarine fleet,

armed with Trident missiles.

Each missile is capable of carrying up to

12 independently-targetable nuclear warheads.

Given the presence of these missiles,

Faslane has been the subject of controversy,

attracting demonstrations by anti-nuclear campaigners.

Approaching the end of our journey,

the route takes us across the rugged peninsulas

and islands of the west coast of Scotland.

(traditional folk music)

This is Islay, the fifth-largest Scottish island.

It covers 600 square kilometers,

and has a population of over 3000.

Famous for its malt whisky,

it runs eight distilleries,

making it an important source of income for the island.

Its relatively mild weather,

and over 209 kilometers of coastline,

makes it popular for tourists and birdwatchers.

But despite the milder weather

brought in from the Gulf Stream,

these waters can be deadly for shipping.

And lighthouses play a crucial role in these rocky seas,

whose waves can reach up to 30 meters during a storm.

This remote lighthouse is some 70 kilometers

from the Scottish mainland.

It's been guiding ships safely through these waters

for around 150 years.

(waves crashing)

It was designed by Thomas Stevenson,

father of Robert Louis Stevenson,

who wrote the celebrated novel, "Treasure Island",

as well as "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde".

Up until 1971, when it became automated,

lighthouse keepers would spend lengthy periods here.

But it's now controlled from

the Lighthouse Authority's headquarters in Edinburgh,

where we started this journey.

We finally arrive at Staffa,

an uninhabited island made entirely from

the hexagonal columns of ancient lava.

The mythical giant, Fingal,

is said to have built a causeway from here to Ireland,

just to settle a score with his enemy.

But the giant is best known for another feature

of the island he gives his name to.

Fingal's Cave.

The cavern has an arched roof that's over 20 meters high,

and it's the eerie sounds produced by

the echoes of the waves,

that give it the atmosphere of a natural cathedral.

(stirring symphonic music)

And it's captured the imagination of artists,

writers and composers ever since the 18th century.

The Scottish novelist, Sir Walter Scott,

described Fingal's Cave as;

"One of the most extraordinary places I ever beheld.

"It exceeded in my mind every description I'd heard of it."

It's a romantic account,

and a perfect place to end this journey.

(warming symphonic music)

(graphics whooshing)