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A taster of Coast's journey from Glasgow to Edinburgh via The Caledonian Canal.

A taster of Coast's journey from Glasgow to Edinburgh taking a shore-to-shore route through the highlands on Britain’s greatest man-made waterway, The Caledonian Canal.

A taster of the Coast team's novel journey along the west and east coast of Scotland taking an extraordinary shore to shore route through the heart of highlands on Britain’s greatest man-made waterway, The Caledonian Canal. Neil Oliver joins the crew of the last surviving coal fired, steam-powered, ‘Clyde Puffer’. The Puffers were tough little working boats carrying cargo out from Glasgow. The tiny coastal village at Catterline became an artistic obsession in the 1950s for Joan Eardley, one of Britain’s best modern painters; amateur artist Alice Roberts explores what drew Joan to Catterline and how her life was cut tragically short on the verge of great success. Nick Crane reveals how the majestic Loch Ness became a key part of Britain’s biggest building project in the early 1800s, for nearly 20 years Highlanders desperate for work became navvies digging huge canals to link up the Lochs of the Great Glen fault, eventually they created a 60 mile long waterway through the heart of Scotland connecting the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, but it was too little, too late. Underwater at Loch Creran industrious little worms have constructed a remarkable ‘worm city’ that is one of the biggest of its kind in the world, Miranda Krestovnikoff dives to explore how the tiny worms built their big reef and investigate the colourful creatures that have moved in to share their home. Mark Horton unearths what remains of the mysterious and violent people who once ruled much of Scotland, the Picts. Their coastal stronghold at Burghead was largely flattened to build a herring port, but the Picts left their mark in stone, and bones.

Release date:

Duration:

2 minutes