Christmas – The Hebrides

Everyone Romesh has ever met has told him how amazing the Scottish islands are - but nobody he knows has actually ever been there. Now, in a year when travel abroad has been all but forbidden, he is heading to the Hebrides to find out if you can really have a proper adventure so close to home, spending a week visiting the isles of Skye, Harris and Lewis.

Guiding him through the journey is Donald Macsween, or Sweeney to his friends, a local crofter from the far north of Lewis - a place that lies as far north as Greenland.

During their trip, Sweeney shows Romesh the spectacular rugged beauty of the islands and what at first glance looks like Caribbean sandy beaches - only utterly freezing. Rom tries his hand at the Highland Games and does his best to avoid feeling up a sheep’s testicles during a day spent on Sweeney’s farm. Along the way, there is a trip to the remote island of St Kilda - four hours out across the open Atlantic - and a chaotic afternoon spent with local band Peat and Diesel, the biggest thing to hit the Western Isles for decades.

But it is also a trip full of surprises: Rom finds a community that is at times uncomfortable with the sheer number of people now visiting the islands and sees why its people are having to fight so hard to preserve their local culture.