A Highland River and Quietly Flows the Don

Paul explores the River Oykel in the Northern Highlands and Aberdeenshire’s famous River Don. He follows the River Oykel from its source in Assynt to the Dornoch Firth and the sea, learning about the loneliest and highest war grave in Scotland, trying for trout in a lochan over 1,000ft above sea level and hearing about the riotous events of the Year of the Sheep.

Downstream, he discovers the legacy of the Duke’s giant toothpick when, in the 19th century, the fabulously wealthy Duke of Sutherland spent a fortune trying to create agricultural land out of a peat bog. In a remote glen, Paul meets a man who controversially hopes one day to bring back wild wolves to the Highlands. Journey’s end is on the Dornoch Firth, where Paul learns about an ambitious project to recreate a huge native oyster bed.

The River Don rises in wild land, high on the moors of the Grampian mountains. Paul follows its easterly flow from the famous Cock Bridge, where he encounters the Lonach Highlanders and a clan chief with two feathers in his cap carrying relics of the Battle of Culloden. Close to Strathdon, Paul meets an artist and sculptor who creates lifelike creatures from scrap metal, and then learns how the Aberdeen Angus became a world-beating cattle breed.

At Alford, he explores an unusual transport museum and hears about an eccentric and brilliant postman who invented a steam automobile. A trip in a vintage Rolls-Royce takes Paul further along the course of the river. At Kemnay, he visits the huge quarry that once provided granite for prestigious buildings across the UK. As the river nears the sea, Paul meets a woman who wove overcoats for the Red Army. He then helps a Bulgarian couple harvest honey from their black Scottish bees before reaching the mouth of the river on the North Sea coast.