Great Coastal Railway Journeys

An epic stretch of Scottish coastline is the first stop for Michael Portillo. Siccar Point, close to Dunbar on the Firth of Forth, was the site of an extraordinary 18th-century discovery and is today a place of pilgrimage for earth scientists.

Michael Portillo continues his 300-mile Scottish coastal journey along the Firth of Forth at the railway engineering icon for which it is famous throughout the world: the Forth Bridge.

Michael Portillo begins this leg of his Scottish railway journey in the beautiful medieval city of Stirling. Michael learns it was a strategic city, situated where the Lowlands meet the Highlands at the lowest bridging point of the River Forth.

Michael Portillo visits St Andrews, home to Scotland's oldest university, in eastern Fife, before heading to the vibrant city of Dundee and the harbour town of Stonehaven.

Michael Portillo's Scottish railway journey reaches Aberdeen, from which he heads to the wild and beautiful Forvie National Nature Reserve and Scotland's most easterly town, Peterhead.

Michael Portillo crosses the Culloden Viaduct aboard the Caledonian Sleeper to arrive bright and early in the coastal city of Inverness, from which he heads north on a scenic adventure to the Orkney archipelago. On boggy moorland overlooking the Moray Firth near Inverness, Michael explores the battlefield at Culloden, where Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobite army fought British government troops in 1746.