Scotland from the Sky Episode Rating Graph

In the first episode of a new series, presenter James Crawford explores how we have managed to surmount the challenges of our tough terrain to connect communities and places across the centuries. He takes to the air in a seaplane, landing in Loch Ness to reveal its geological secrets, uncovers traces of our Viking past, explores how we have crossed the treacherous Pentland Firth and flies above the stunning West Highland line. Finally, he visits the Highland crofters, going where no crofter has gone before at Scotland's first spaceport.

Presenter James Crawford reveals how planners and architects took to Scotland's skies after World War II and used the god's-eye view in their mission to redesign towns and cities across the Central Belt. From one of Scotland's first tower blocks, through New Town living to the building of a motorway that ripped through the heart of Glasgow, James reveals how these utopian and controversial visions have transformed our lives and how we're living with the legacy to this day.

The last episode of the landmark series, Scotland from the Sky, explores how aerial photography has revealed Scotland's hidden ancient past and uncovered secrets buried right beneath our feet. From an Aberdeenshire field where the very concept of time emerged, through the ghostly outline of a lost ornamental garden to the discovery of hundreds of pizza ovens that once fed Rome's mighty legions, presenter James Crawford reveals how our ancestors have written their story on Scotland's landscape.

Presenter James Crawford travels to the volcanic landmark Ailsa Craig on the trail of the best curling stones in the world and follows their remarkable journey from quarry to Olympic ice. In the Outer Hebrides, James tracks down a golf venue laid out by the founding father, buried in the wild landscape of South Uist. He uncovers the remarkable story of the restoration of what has been called golf's Holy Grail. On the Isle of Rum, he finds out how the island's original inhabitants hunted deer sustainably for generations. In Glencoe, James explores how some of Scotland's mountains were opened up by a maverick group of climbers from the shipyards of Glasgow. He clambers up Rannoch Wall with one of Scotland’s leading young climbers, Natalie Berry. While in Livingston, he encounters the modern concrete landscape of the town’s legendary skate park and tells the story of the visionary architect who created it.

Presenter James Crawford takes to the air to uncover some remarkable forgotten histories, travelling back in time to our ancient past. He begins his journey with Scotland's lost canal just outside Glasgow, and then travels back to the heyday of airship travel, the abandoned island of Mingulay, and the dark history of Inchkeith Island in the Firth of Forth. He ends on the Isle of Lewis where archaeologists have recently discovered what might be a lost stone circle.

In the first episode of this landmark BBC Scotland series, presenter James Crawford discovers how the magical combination of powered flight and photography sparked a revolution that changed how we understood our world. Beginning with the story of aerial photography itself, James takes to the air to discover forgotten factories, abandoned villages and secret military installations. From the first pictures taken from World War One biplanes, to modern-day drones and helicopters, this is the story of how Scotland's countryside, communities and cities dramatically transformed in just 100 years.