Grand Tours of Scotland’s Rivers episode 6: Paul follows the River Ayr as it flows from Loch Glenbuck towards the sea and the Clyde coast. The old mining village of Glenbuck was demolished long ago, but its memory is kept alive by former resident Barbara Alexander whose uncle, the famous Liverpool football manager Bill Shankly, was a Glenbuck man. From Glenbuck, Paul follows the river through a landscape pockmarked by the scars of old mineral extraction and industry.       At Muirkirk he discovers how a local man illuminated the cities of the world with gas lighting, and how

Grand Tours of Scotland’s Rivers episode 5: This Grand Tour begins in the hills above Glen Clova, on a mountainous plateau known as the Mounth. Following the South Esk downstream, Paul enters picturesque Corrie Fee, where he scrambles on the cliffs with two botanists, searching for Scotland’s rarest plant. Back on the South Esk, he goes electro-fishing to discover more about the ecology and general health of the whole river system.       Running out of riverside paths, Paul takes to the road for a few miles and rides a motorbike to the ancestral home of Harley Davidson. Later

Grand Tours of Scotland’s Rivers episode 4: Paul discovers the source of the remarkable River Nith, high in a remote forestry plantation. Heading downstream, he hears the story of the Knockshinnoch mining disaster – how 116 men were saved from entombment after a massive earth collapse.       At Sanquhar, once famous for its unique and distinctive knitting pattern, Paul tries very hard to knit a glove before it all unravels. Kirkpatrick Macmillan was the man first credited with making a bicycle with pedals. Paul wobbles in his wake aboard a replica at Drumlanrig Castle, before heading south to