Grand Tours of Scotland’s Rivers episode 1: Paul Murton explores the River Garry and hears tales of clan chief Struan Robertson, who fought in all three Jacobite risings. Paul then discovers the geology of deep time, before restaging the Battle of Killiecrankie with just two men, a musket and a broadsword. After surviving a Highland charge, Paul falls off a bridge. He reaches journey’s end on the beautiful Ben Vrackie – the ‘speckled hill’.
Seasoned traveller Paul Murton sets off downstream to explore five rivers over six programmes from source to sea. Paul Murton is a Scottish television presenter and broadcaster, film-maker, and historian, working primarily on the BBC with an emphasis on travelogues in Scotland. Born in 1957 and raised in Ardentinny on the shores of Loch Long, Argyll, Scotland, where his parents ran a small hotel, Murton is best known for his series Scotland’s Clans, Grand Tours of Scotland, Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands and Grand Tours of Scotland’s Lochs.
Murton is a graduate of the University of Aberdeen and the National Film and Television School. Before writing and presenting his Grand Tours series, he directed several TV dramas, including Bramwell, The Bill, Casualty and River City. In 2021 he wrote the biographical novel The Highlands, published by Birlinn. He is married with five children and lives in Scotland.
Grand Tours of Scotland’s Rivers episode 1
River Garry
The River Garry is a major tributary of the River Tummel, itself a tributary of the River Tay, in the traditional county of Perthshire in the Scottish Highlands. It emerges from the northeastern end of Loch Garry, just to the southeast of the Pass of Drumochter, and flows southeastwards and eastwards down Glen Garry to the narrow Pass of Killiecrankie beyond which it joins the Tummel.
Loch Garry itself is fed by the Allt Shallainn, Allt na Duinish and Allt na Cosaig which enter its southern end. The loch occupies a deep northeast-southwest aligned trench cut by glacial action. Glen Garry provides the main route northwards for both the A9 road and the railway from Perth to Inverness. The River Garry is one half of the River Tummel system, joining the upper Tummel to become Loch Faskally just upstream of Pitlochry. It is the main salmon producing area within the Tummel system.
The Garry itself is an amalgam of three main tributaries; the River Tilt, the Errochty Water and the upper Garry. Until recently, most of the salmon were produced in the Tilt, Errochty and lower Garry because the upper Garry was closed to salmon in the 1950s because of hydro abstraction. However, in 2017, flow was restored over an 8 mile stretch of the river and an obstruction, a weir at Struan, was removed. This area is being restocked from the Board’s hatchery and is already producing considerable numbers of smolts.
