Scotland Clans

A clan on the very edge of Scotland, the Macneils of Barra were notorious pirates who exploited their superb knowledge of the sea. Taking over from where the Vikings left off, the Macneils carried on the great Highland tradition of raiding and were a law unto themselves. The story of the Macneils from the culture they shared with the Vikings, through piracy, shipwreck and seaweed - to their decline in the 19th century.

The Scotts were once just an ordinary Borders family. Today, they have become one of the greatest private landowners in Britain - with thousands of acres of land, four major castles and a vast art collection. They won all this not through battlefield prowess, but through the canny determination of one of the most remarkable women in Clan history. Anna Scott was no more than a girl when she became the Duchess of Buccleuch in the mid-17th century. Her marriage to the son of Charles II propelled the Scotts into the first rank of British nobility - but it very nearly ended in disaster. The story of the Scotts' journey from reivers to royalty.

In 1563, the putrifying corpse of George Gordon, the fourth earl of Huntley, was tried and found guilty of treason. A bizarre end for a nobleman whose power and arrogance had earned him the title of 'the cock o' the North'. Despite the humiliation of Clan Gordon, their prestige was resurrected by the sixth Earl of Huntley, whose intimate relationship with King James the Sixth set tongues wagging and resulted in a jealous feud with a memorably bloody finale - the brutal murder of the Bonny Earl of Moray. The gruesome story of how the Gordons became embroiled in a blood feud that led to open rebellion against the Scottish crown, leading to their eventual downfall.

The untold story of how the Leslies played a major role in shaping modern Europe. From as early as the Crusades the Leslies made their name as warriors. Many of them left Scotland seeking fame, fortune and glory, including Walter Leslie, who left behind his modest roots in Aberdeenshire and ended up a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, and Alexander Leslie, who also left Scotland with nothing, to fight in the Swedish Army, and became one of Europe's greatest generals.

Alexander Robertson of Struan was a legend in his own lifetime. As the thirteenth and last chief of his clan, he was the only Scot to have fought in all three Jacobite rebellions of the 17th and 18th centuries - and the only one to have published pornographic and political Gaelic verse. This self-styled romantic hero single-handedly tried to restore the reputation of his clan while living the life of a rebel. But his unwavering support for the Jacobite cause cost this highland chief most of his ancestral lands. The story of Alexander, the so-called poet chief, tracing the rise and fall of a clan that mythologised its own importance as the world around them changed.

The Hamiltons have been one of Scotland's most famous lowland clans and one of her greatest families - from the Wars of Independence right through to the Second World War. But did they act for the good of Scotland or the good of the Hamiltons? The programme examines the role of this clan, who always found themselves at the centre of events throughout history, from the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to the Act of Union and Rudolf Hess' bizarre attempt to start peace talks with Britain in 1941.