'Andrew Bradford's great-grandmother Mary Pickering moved in the same social circles as one of Scotland's most famous exports, Scottish American industrialist and richest man in the world, Andrew Carnegie.

In the latter years of the nineteenth century, Carnegie was building his grand Scottish baronial retreat Skibo Castle in the north of Scotland.

Mary Pickering was captivated by the beauty of Carnegie's Highland paradise and decided she wanted a Highland retreat of her own.

Kincardine Castle's foundation stone was laid on the 25th August 1894 and only two years later the castle was completed at a cost of $15,000.'

Initially it was my great-grandmother's residence and then my grandmother inherited it.

But she married a chap who had a big estate down in England and so they then basically lived down in England and came up here for three months in the summer.

So it was a rather grand holiday home.

When they moved from the estate in England up for their summer holidays, they hired a train, not just a carriage but a whole train.

They did have enormous quantities of baggage.

And then there were lots of servants.

There would have been something like 20 servants in the household who would have travelled too.

And of course they had their own baggage as well.

And so that was the sort of entourage but then it got better than that because they brought carriages for transport.

And carriages don't work unless you bring the horse too.

So they brought horses.

And then you needed food for the horses on the journey together with a groom or two to look after them.

So they came on the train as well.

And then in a fit of great logic, they put the milk cows from the place down in England on the train because, as they saw it, there was no point cows producing milk in England when they were up here for three months.

So they brought the milk with them.

And so to complete the menagerie, they then added sheep for meat and chickens for eggs while they were travelling.

And so this extraordinary caravan was their way of moving.

'What Andrew's privileged grandparents could never have anticipated was that a little over one generation later when Andrew took it over, things would be very different.'

We took over an estate that was in a financial crisis.

We took over this building and it was crumbling.

There were rooms which had been just abandoned because they were leaking.

And so they just shut the door and started a different room and, you know, sort of walked away, really, from the problems.

And...

I don't blame my parents entirely because that generation had also grown up from having lots of help and, really, their whole life was a downward slope of fewer and fewer people to help and what have you.

Whereas we started from... sort of not having helpers and staff and things like that and suddenly working our way up the hill.

'Running this great estate takes a lot of planning and a great deal of money.

Unlike his wealthy ancestors, Andrew has to balance the books by generating estate income to pay the bills.

Kincardine Estate's ownership of a mile of single-bank fishing rights on the mighty River Dee places it amongst the most hallowed and sought after fly-fishing locations in the world.

Today, Andrew is meeting with his estate factor David Smart to discuss a problem, a problem that is sucking money out of the estate.'

How's the fishing going anyway?

It's not as good a start to the season as the last few years.

We've done amazingly well since the turn of the century in terms of recovering the fishery and I suppose catches have been going up for 13 years in a row.

I guess it's inevitable at some point that things will turn around.

So it's been a very slow start to this season.

It's been cold too and you've had a lot of snow melt off the hills too.

So it just could be that, you know, there's lots to come.

'Anglers come from all over the world to fish in the River Dee.

In revenue terms each visiting angler represents vital income of several thousand pounds a week.'

John was telling me yesterday...

I don't know if it's true or not.

He said there are 250 dolphins outside in the North Sea gobbling up all the salmon.

I hope that's not true because that's the most thorny political issue and there's nothing much we can do.

So I hope that's not true.

'According to law, the dolphins and seals can't be touched.

So Andy can do nothing but sit and watch his money vanish at the mouth of the river.

Local fisherman Patrick Wight has fished this river for years.'

It's a huge threat.

One of the biggest threats nowadays are the dolphins and the seals.

Especially the seals.

There's hundreds and hundreds of them up the coast there and they're stopping the salmon coming in at source.

And if the salmon don't get up the river, that's us affected as well.

It's affecting the money coming up the river.

And I look at it sometimes as money coming up the river.

If that's stopped, then what do you do?

'Falling fly-fishing revenue represents a major blow to the financial wellbeing of the estate.

Andrew has hatched a scheme to attract customers by hiring two top fly-fishing experts to provide instruction to a group of first-timers.'

And that means lifting and pushing out, remember?

Pushing out.

'Some of the biggest freshwater fish ever caught have come out of the River Dee.'

Way back in 1924, there was a woman named Tiny Morison and she caught a salmon which is the biggest salmon ever recorded and it weighed in at 64 pounds.

Now that's a huge fish.

The women, historically, are better fly-fishers than men.

Now whether that's because of pheromones or whether it's because the bigger fish will swim up closer to the bank, and they don't have to cast their line right into the middle of the river to get a bite, either way, I don't know.

But, you know, historically they are better fly-fishers.

'Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule.'

Push it out.

Come round.

Start your cast here.

Forward and away.

'Izaac Walton, author of The Compleat Angler, opined that "as no man is born an artist..."' It wasn't the greatest.

'"..so no man is born an angler."'

It's quite fickle.

You know, everything has to be right.

The water levels.

You know, the water temperature.

It's frustrating.

But we'll give it a go in the next pool.

You never know.

It could be when it'll just switch on then and we might get one.

Hi.

Anybody?

Any fish?

No, sorry.

Nothing today.

Not yet anyway.

We have a most superb day.

Scottish weather has been on our side, thank goodness.

That makes a big difference.

My husband had the rod and he got it tangled in the bank and the fly was stuck in a bit of earth next to the bank and the bank fell into the water with the fly and the wire all attached to it.

So we just had a bit of a nightmare trying to get the fly loose.

Someone in waders came to our rescue.

Wellies weren't enough.

I thought we might get beginner's luck but no such luck.

'Back at the castle, Andrew and Nicky put their fishing worries behind them while they host a corporate dinner party for a group of businessmen and their wives.

This is another of many activities devised to generate income for the estate, and a profitable one.

Every year, Kincardine Castle hosts numerous dinner parties, conferences and weddings all of which are planned, hosted and managed by Andrew and Nicky.'

These places don't run themselves.

They have tremendous maintenance obligations at all times.

And we cannot think of a more entertaining way of raising the funds to keep a building like this going, by having house parties to stay or business meetings or whatever it might be.

Living in a place like this is quite a headache in terms of upkeep and maintenance and insurance and all the other huge costs employing people to help us look after it.

So part of the reason for having these parties is to offset the cost of some of these activities by having people to stay.

'Andrew and Nicky employ local people to cook and wait on tables during their dinner parties.'

A lot of the large stately homes nowadays are so expensive that they have to hire the castles out.

So they have a marquee site down in the garden that's all piped in for water and electricity.

And I think last year I did a couple of marquee weddings down there.

It greatly helps the upkeep of this amazing building.

We always tell people that when they leave the building they actually own a few slates on the roof because it's due to them that we're able to keep it going.

'As the village postmistress, the antique shop owner, the barman and the Norwegian university student prepare dinner, Andy and Nicky remember when during one dinner party dramatic events meant they had to call on yet another member of the local community.'

We were all around here and it was January and it was very cold outside and the chimney went on fire and it was spectacular.

There were sort of 15-foot-high flames coming out of the top.

And so I took all sensible precautions.

So I had some retired army officers staying, so I put them on the route of the chimney all the way up the line of the chimney through the house just to identify if any problems were developing, smoke coming out of places it shouldn't have done.

And made sure they had a glass of whiskey in the other hand to do their job properly.

And then we got everybody else a drink down here.

We had palm trees hanging from all the lights.

They were purple and gold palm trees.

They were spectacular.

The whole place looked great.

And so everything was organized.

You know, the fire brigade were on their way.

They're called automatically.

The only thing I could think of doing when the fire brigade arrived, I got the saxophone out and I played Smoke Gets In Your Eyes for them.

I got a bit of a sort of row from the fire officer later in writing saying I didn't take it seriously.

One of them was on the roof with a radio and the other was watching the fire.

And they're very clever because they just let down enough water.

A tiny trickle.

So when it starts appearing in the fireplace, they know that's enough.

They communicate with each other.

So you have one on the roof saying, 'Roof to fireplace.

Come in, please.'

The other one says, 'Fireplace to roof.'

Then fireplace to pump because there's another one...

So, yeah, that's right.

I used, in the early days, to give the first engine a bottle of whiskey to encourage them to turn up quickly.

That's fine.

- Ooh.

Hello.

- Hello.

How are you doing?

'On the menu tonight is free-range chicken from the estate farm and salmon from the river.

In generations gone by, the task of catching the salmon would have fallen to salaried gamekeepers but tonight, and on every night when such dinners are hosted, the fish is caught by Andrew himself.

Always the showman and perfect host, Andrew entertains his guests with tales of esteemed relations from the literary world.'

What about the man behind you, with the beard?

- Yes.

- Who's that?

Yeah.

It's a while back.

He was born in something like 1597.

And he was a lawyer down in England.

He lived at a lovely estate called Chawton in Hampshire.

And they handed their estates over to a cousin and the cousin was a chap called Edward who is my great-great- great-grandfather.

And Edward moved into the house down there and moved his mother and his unmarried sisters into a house in the village and it is from there that his sister, a certain Jane...Austen, published all her books.

So Jane Austen is my great- great-great-grand-aunt.

Certainly whenever a biography of Jane Austen is written, that painting is reproduced.

Because this lady on my left was the only person in Jane Austen's life who sponsored her and actually gave Jane money to buy a new inkjet cartridge for her printer - or whatever she needed.

- (Laughter) Sadly, the royalties if ever there were any for Pride And Prejudice have evaporated.

Certainly we don't get any of them.

What about the talent?

Well, that's gone too!

Never mind.

We actually love entertaining.

From our point of view, I suppose there is a monetary aspect.

It is an essential way to try and keep the roof on a marvelous building.

'A few years ago, Nicky came up with a business plan that would not only go on to generate income for the estate but would also provide welcome employment for people in the neighboring village of Kincardine O'Neil.

She started her own food business from the castle, Kincardine Kitchen, specializing in home-made quality produce.'

10 eggs, 11 chickens.

Not bad.

Good, good.

'Today, she is getting ready to showcase her wares at a farmers' market in the city.

Helping her in the kitchen is local resident, former housekeeper of the castle, Margaret Stephen.'

This room was the butler's pantry.

So the butler would have polished his silver in here.

It's nice and handy for the front door.

So he would have heard cars rolling up and nipped out the front to welcome people.

And when my mother-in-law died, and Margaret became her carer, we decided to put Margaret and the kitchen to use.

We knew Margaret was such a fantastic baker.

And start selling our products.

So I came here when my son was four and he's now 47, so there you go.

That's how long I've been here.

And we've developed the recipes ourselves.

It's Margaret's shortbread recipe.

She was legendary for her shortbread way before we started this business.

And the other recipes are old... either family recipes or things we've developed between us.

700 grams of runny honey.

Making our salted rosemary spicy peanuts.

Which are one of our bestsellers.

We sell huge sums of them.

Hope I've got 700 grams in here.

I think I have, nearly.

I don't go to that many markets.

But it's a lovely chance to meet the customers who buy our products.

Most of our products are just sold in shops.

You never get the chance to chat to anyone.

So we go to one farmers' market a month.

I hope we'll do well.

It's rather hard to tell.

We've not been there before.

Seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12.

That just gets put in the oven, and roasted for about half an hour.

(ANDREW) There is never a day when I can say I have done everything that needs to be done.

There's always going to be things to do.

I don't think it would ever cross my mind to walk away, however tempting that might be because...

The...

In a way, the fact that I have been charged by previous generations to look after this place is an obligation, I feel.

I've been given that as a responsibility and a duty.

They've put their trust in me.

I think it would be an utter betrayal of trust if I were to just flog it all off and go and have a happy life on a big yacht in the Caribbean or wherever it might be.

But, no, it would never occur to me.

I think that would be a dereliction of my duty.

It's a funny thing.

You feel a responsibility for the whole community because we provide a lot of housing for people and so you have to consider what would happen, just for example, if a property became vacant we were then to re-let it just at the highest possible rent we could get on the open market.

We would land up, I guess, with a lot of professional people who commute into Aberdeen or whatever paying sort of higher rents and able to pay higher rents than the chap who works for the local authority mending the roads, for example.

But then you have to consider, over 20 years or whatever, we've re-let all our houses, they're now all at a much higher rent, so, yes, I'm much better off, but where have those people who worked locally gone?

They have to be businesses that work.

There's no point being as charitable as you like.

If at the end of the day you can't afford to maintain the buildings you're not actually helping anybody.

So it's an interesting game and I...

It's a fabulous role to be in.

You know, it's a great job.

'A great job it might be.

Tough, it certainly is.

As Andrew's ancestor Jane Austen once wrote, "It isn't what we say or think that defines us but what we do."

Two centuries after her death, Andrew embraces his vocation in a manner fitting to the vision of his great- great-great-grand-aunt.

The estate owns and has to look after over 80 properties in the area.

Andrew takes this responsibility very seriously.

And when the family of one of his long-term tenants needs more room he moves the building contractors in.'

- We've just managed to lay the floor.

- Yeah.

This is going to be your sitting room.

You've got the kitchen next door.

And so the ground-floor room will become your bedroom.

- That's right.

- And then you've got to...

They'll have a room each upstairs.

Fine.

They've been quite considerate.

Because we're long-term tenants, they've said 'We can do that for you.'

That's been quite an important thing for us.

It means we can stay here longer.

And it's such a beautiful place.

Lovely space.

And that's exactly what we wanted.

And that's what they've given us.

Space, warmth, comfort.

Well, when we were excavating for that extension for that house, they had to haul this enormous rock out of there.

So we're now wondering what to do with that.

But behind it is an old farm steading, redundant from agricultural purposes.

And that's going to become one of the next projects, to try and make a home or a house or even...maybe two, out of this steading.

So that's another thing to look forward to and go and talk to the banker about, I guess.

It's a bit of a challenge nowadays.

It used to be easier to borrow money.

And it's become much more difficult, sadly.

'As well as income from his many properties on the estate and from the fishing parties, Andrew also runs a hugely successful shooting operation, another vital brick in the wall of the estate's resources.'

I suppose in terms of overall economic activities, it's a fairly small element of everything we do.

But it's an important one.

For example, shooting goes on in the woods.

We're growing trees.

But shooting adds to the output, use and diversity of a woodland area.

If you just grew trees on that ground, you'd lose out on the employment and the environmental benefits that shooting creates.

And likewise in the river, if we didn't have fishing, we would find that we weren't managing the river at all.

Fishing generates a lot of revenue for this valley.

But it also enables us to manage the river for wildlife and for the benefit of the salmon.

But it also creates a huge number of jobs in support such as accommodation provision and all the wealth that fishermen from all over the world bring as sort of high-end, high-spending tourists.

I wouldn't say we're dependent as an estate on shooting and fishing but it's certainly an important adjunct to everything else we do.

'Always on the lookout for new ways to expand his many businesses, Andrew decides to host a group of shooting enthusiasts.

Some of these shooters are serious players in a highly competitive sport.

And their guns, as well as being very expensive, are their prize possessions.

One of Scotland's top shots is David Gillanders.'

This is... a 12-bore shotgun but it's a bit unique.

A normal shotgun is called a self-opener.

And that means it just goes down like that by gravity.

It just does that.

This, if you watch this, this is a bit special.

If you turn it around the other way, it actually comes up the other way.

Which means it's driven up the way.

So when you're shooting big days you can actually go bang-bang and do that to change cartridges.

It's very quick and very easy.

Another thing special about it is its length.

It's a 25-inch barrel, which actually is almost illegal in this country now.

Maybe used for armed robberies a few years ago.

Sawn-off shotguns were 25-inch.

Today, a new one in the region of£50,000.

This one I wouldn't sell for less than 30.

But I'd never sell it.

Every time I pick it up I just think it's like an old friend, you know.

And if you can talk about a gun being beautiful, then this is a beautiful gun.

This could last, 300-400 years comfortably.

And it was made for me.

So all the stock has been cast...

So when I mount a shotgun like so, it just comes straight to where I want to shoot it.

I don't have to think about pointing at a target.

I'm on his nose every time.

I just mount the gun, pull the trigger and you're dead.

Thank you very much.

Game over.

The sun's out.

'In the UK today, almost half a million people shoot deer and grouse.

The pastime is worth an incredible 2.2 billion pounds a year to the UK economy.

Shooting supports 70,000 full-time jobs and enthusiasts spend over five billion pounds each year buying the very best of equipment.'

This guy's got the same guns as me, except he's got the originals and I've got the newer version.

So I've got a pair of these from 1900 - and the guy who built that gun trained that guy.

- Trained this guy.

So these are Edinburgh guns.

- They're probably the best-known Scottish gun.

- Correct.

And they're very tough guns.

And pretty rare actually.

Good, eh?

Good story.

Now let's see who hits more birds.

(Chuckles) The old and the new.

- Right.

- Yeah.

(Repeated gunshots) '93 per cent of people who shoot are male and over the age of 40.

However, nowadays more and more young people are getting involved.'

I thought it was pretty good.

But I've got quite a sore shoulder.

Maybe my technique needs to improve.

But, no, it was good.

- Good fun?

- I enjoyed it, yeah.

More fun than I thought actually.

'Game hunting and clay pigeon shooting provide valuable custom to the estate.

Andrew works closely with local and national organizations to encourage people to take up the sports.'

The thing about clay pigeon shooting is not to shoot your opponent's birds.

And he shot a few of mine, so I ended up shooting a few of his.

So that's how it went.

'For centuries castles have been associated with romance and fairy tales.

But for the first lady of Kincardine Castle, the reality was to prove very different.'

I suppose everyone can dream of living in a castle.

But I think a lot of people who come here, we can pretty quickly disabuse them of that, of that dream, because it's blooming hard work nowadays.

It's very hands-on.

You need to be very practical.

You know, if something breaks it's usually us that fixes it.

If the roof needs mending, it's us that's up there with our ropes and glue, sticking on slates.

It's incredibly lucky that Nicky seems to have adapted quite well to the life style.

When I got married to Andy, I thought I was marrying a farmer.

And I used to wait at home for the next dirty shirt or pair of trousers to come in because that's what he was.

He was out with the cattle, plowing, harvesting, every day.

I maintain I had to marry her before she found out, otherwise she might have run away.

When we were first married we lived in a little cottage.

A very modest two-up, two-down cottage which we loved.

He grew up here.

I think it was very different.

Slightly more spartan.

I think we've got it soft nowadays with our warm house and... but, yes, he grew up here and had a wonderful upbringing.

A wonderful country upbringing with lots of space to run around, play tricks with his brothers and his sister.

But he does talk about the cold a lot.

He used to have to put... On cold nights he used to have to put the toothpaste onto his toothbrush the night before because otherwise when he woke up in the morning he couldn't get it out of the tube.

It was absolutely frozen solid.

It only became apparent after a year or two of our marriage that in fact it was going to be ours.

'Although Andrew was the youngest of the family, he was chosen to take on the running of the estate.'

I'm not the oldest son.

My mother, who inherited it, was not the oldest child.

And, in fact, her mother who inherited the place was the girl and her brother would probably have inherited it even though he was younger than her in the way these things happened back then.

But he was killed in the First World War and so I guess the thing went through that ghastly business of, you know, people being killed either in the war or lost on the Titanic or whatever it might be.

I suppose in my family's case there wasn't the crisis that there would be in some families where there is a title that is stuck to the property as well.

And you know, if you are the Earl of Blogs or whatever it might be, it might be that you felt that the property had to go with the earldom.

Where in our case there is none of that, so it didn't really matter it going through the female line.

I suppose I was...

I mean, I was very young.

I was 24 back then.

And I...

I probably...

If I knew then what I know now, I wonder whether I would even have accepted the role.

I mean, you know, I suppose in the innocence of youth I said yes, give it a go.

But I think... it's been a daunting project.

'Andrew and Nicky have three children, now grown up.

Their youngest son Charlie is serving with the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.

Their eldest son Ed works in international banking.

And their daughter Louisa is a teacher at the Leiths School of Food and Wine in London.

So with their children carving out careers for themselves, who's going to take over the running of the estate when Andrew and Nicky decide it's time to put their feet up?

Could it be daughter Louisa?

She could, she could.

But I think...we're sort of gearing up for the oldest boy to take over for no reason than I think he can probably afford to take it over.

Hopefully, anyway, you know.

'The military has always played a big part in the Bradfords' history.'

Andrew's great-grandfather, his grandfather and his father were all career soldiers.

And during World War II the castle was taken over by the War Office to serve as a military hospital.

A real-life Downton Abbey as the Honorary Colonel Bradford tells us.'

The castle was a hospital during the First World War and the Second World War.

There were three wards and that was the drawing room, the dining room and what was then the billiard room, now our kitchen.

And then the great hall was used as a common room.

And I know very little about what happened but I know that the inmates or whatever they're called, patients, I think might be a better word...

They wore suits with red ties.

They didn't wear a uniform but they had this sort of civilian dress but it was a sort of regulation dress.

I know where they hung the dartboard because they didn't think of protecting the oak paneling.

This was the Second World War, because we can tell where the dartboard was hung simply because there's a ring of pinhole or needle holes from the darts.

We still have bits and pieces of paper telling us what to do in the event of an air-raid and that sort of thing.

And we also actually have the air-raid siren, which still works very well.

(Air-raid siren) My father had a very successful career.

He was a professional soldier before the war and then was in France from what, October 1939, something like that, and, unfortunately his division was captured about a week after Dunkirk and he was incarcerated, badly treated, ill and spent about seven months trying to get out.

There were various schemes including, indeed, one of the earlier hijackings of an aircraft, which was a plan he'd hatched.

I have no more details than that and I think it was foolhardy because he couldn't fly an aeroplane.

And one of the, I suppose, coincidences of these sorts of stories is that one of the young lieutenants who was serving under my father was my wife Nicky's father.

In that he died when she was only about 18 months old, she never knew him.

So when I brought Nicky here as my girlfriend for the first time, my father was delighted to be able to tell her many stories about her father whom A) she'd never met and B) she'd never heard the stories.

So that was just one of those happy coincidences.

Andrew's father knew my father way better than I ever did because he died, my father died, when I was a baby.

And my father served with Andrew's father for most of the last couple of years of the war.

So he was able to tell me a lot.

My father was a very junior soldier at the time but he was able to tell me what a lovely chap he was and how much he valued his ability as a soldier and as one of his friends.

But there is a postscript to all of this, which is that, as a child growing up in this house, one of the earliest memories I have of life is of my father screaming.

And he used to have the most terrible nightmares, not...quite frequently.

And I used to remember this terrible distress at night.

And I think, you know, in the depths of the night, that sort of thing grows on you.

You know, you don't expect your father to be sort of screaming and crying but... so it was pretty upsetting.

'As a cathartic exercise, Andrew decided to write a book about his father's war exploits.

And during his extensive research, he discovered a fascinating treasure trove of material tucked away with other papers in a suitcase in the loft area of the castle.'

We have here a letter.

And again, in his letter he would have said, "Look inside envelope."

And so, they looked inside the envelope and they peeled it open and there inside was all this instruction about messages to be dropped to various agents and things in Northern France.

So...and then another one contains a slip of lavatory paper.

It's actually very difficult to read but I have a transcript of it here and it reads, 'The Germans take 75 per cent of food etc.

Arriving at Marseille from North Africa, considerable quantities of tin or other metals also crossing to France for Germans.

A method of making cotton for munitions from alfalfa grass has been discovered.

Alfalfa grass may soon be exported to France for German use.

Numbers of Germans here and in Tunisia increasingly steadily."

And the extraordinary thing is, I then also have the letter from MI9, from the War Office, saying, to my grandfather, "Dear Colonel, I must thank you for your letter of 14th April enclosing copy of the message which your son sent in his letter to you dated 27th of March.

We have transmitted this message to the various persons concerned."

So there's the whole story, the letter my father sent of what was clearly a dodgy message.

If my father had been caught with that information in hand, that would have been the end of him.

I wouldn't be here.

'Nicky is a classically trained pianist and between running the house and her produce business, she teaches piano to the local children on the estate and from the village.'

I teach three days a week, so I've got about 17 students.

Sometimes they're almost overwhelmed the first term or two I teach them, coming to a castle.

But they... it's a real privilege to be part of a child's life and to see that child developing over many years.

(Accomplished playing) Music is a very big part of our lives and both Andy and I came from musical families and were encouraged as children.

So it just seemed natural that something we loved doing, that... and I suppose the choirs come out of that.

My Suzuki piano teaching has come out of that as well.

Since we've been doing the choir for, I can't remember, five, six years, when we first started, he couldn't read music but he could go kind of one up or one down on the stave but he's really come on a lot.

He's not clever at blowing his own trumpet but he really can read music.

# La, la, la, la... What are the little notes there for?

I think they must be words that you need to fit in.

Oh, I see, that's what was confusing me.

- They must be words.

- All right.

- Shall we try verse two with some words?

- Right.

One, two, three.

# La, la, la, la... 'The choir that is made up of locals from the village come up to the castle every week to rehearse for the coming church service.'

One, two, three.

# A-A-Amen That was a lot better.

'Just over the hill to the west of the Kincardine Estate lies the small town of Bellabeg, home to the world-famous Lonach Gathering.'

The Lonach Gathering is a great gathering.

It's the one we absolutely try and guarantee to go to and it's a beautiful location.

It's not too big, it's not too commercial.

You're guaranteed to see lots of friends there and have a really fun day out.

Our children always come home for that weekend and some bring their friends.

It's a great party.

'The Lonach Gathering is one of the world's best-known examples of that quintessentially Scottish summer occasion... the Highland Games.

The Lonach Highlanders are members of the Lonach Highland Friendly Society made up of men and women from the Strathdon area of Scotland.

Formed in 1823, the principal aim of this society is the preservation of Highland dress and the Gaelic language and music.'

(Drumming) 'To the uninitiated, the very mention of the Highland Games spirits up visions of giant men in swirling tartan kilts hurling tree trunks and dainty women with pointy feet attaining states of virtual levitation as they perform country dances with origins going back hundreds of years.

At traditional games, like the Lonach Gathering, such fanciful visions very closely match the reality.

(Bagpipes and drums) On the day of the event, the Lonach clansmen parade through the town, stopping at homes along the way for a wee dram.

(Chatter) (All toast) 'In case a little too much of the amber nectar is taken along the parade route, the clansmen are followed, at a discreet distance, by a shire horse pulling a cart... ..onto which the fallen are loaded.'

I tend to keep this one as just a private family day.

It's just pleasant to spend the day with my friends and family.

We've got a day off today but we are... We've got 18 to dinner tonight, and we're all then going off to a ball.

So, we've got a long day ahead of us.

A late night too.

We'll probably get to bed about 4:30 tomorrow morning.

And having danced fairly vigorously for many hours.

So it's a good workout.

'A tightly-packed schedule of events sees dance, music and sports activities taking place throughout the games arena.

Professionals from around the globe compete side-by-side with local amateurs.'

(Cheering) (Shouting) 'Most of the men at the Lonach are from the clan Forbes, although there are Wallace and Gordon clan members as well.

Each with their own tartan and their own sense of competitive pride.

(MC) Well done!

'As the Bradfords get ready for their dinner party, Andrew tells us that the highland dancing is not confined only to the games arena.'

There have been a few famous feet that have danced on the floor of the great hall here.

But perhaps the most famous would be the Queen and her sister, Princess Margaret, when they were in their teens and twenties.

They used to come down here, I say, regularly - probably once a year - to polish up their Scottish country dancing.

We dance Scottish reels today and it's a very strong tradition and I'm pleased to say it still is with the next generation too.

Our children absolutely love doing this and erm...it's.. it's part of the social mix and scenery of Scottish life today, which is great.

'It's the morning of the farmers' market and Nicky has arrived at Aberdeen University to exhibit her wares.

She wants to get Kincardine Kitchen goods out to a bigger audience, and it's important to the estate that she raises more awareness for her fledgling company.'

We've had an early start.

We're here at the Aberdeen University May Fest, which is...it's the first time it's happened.

It's a bit of an unknown event for us because nobody knows how successful it's going to be.

So we didn't know how much stuff to bring.

We've just brought everything.

But we're quite used to doing farmers' markets and, you know, produce markets of different kinds.

This is the first time we've done one in the center of town.

I'm looking forward to it.

- I forgot the stickers to go on my marmalade.

- Yes.

And, in case anyone asks, it did win a silver award at the World Marmalade Championships.

World Marmalade Championships.

Only in Britain could you get the World Marmalade Championships.

He's got a busy day.

He'll be doing gardening if it doesn't rain too much.

It's easier to split forces.

You get more done that way, I think.

But he's hoping to do a few loads in the tractor to fill up the biomass boiler.

So, um...

It's greedy for...

It's been so cold, we need to do it quite regularly.

It's been greedy for woodchips.

(He laughs) We've got a load of chips.

We're going to put them in here.

This is the fuel store for the central heating system.

It heats the hot water and the central heating.

And it's made of...

The fuel is simply ground up trees, it's woodchip, what you call biomass... ..and uh... there's an apparatus in here, an Archimedes screw, that takes the chips through into the boiler.

The fuel bill is quite interesting.

In the 12 months just till recently, till March, we burnt 314 liters of oil.

And in the 12 months prior to that, we burnt 23,000 liters of oil.

So, it's made quite a difference to our oil consumption.

But, obviously, we've burnt woodchips instead.

But the advantage we have about woodchips is that we grow them and if we cut trees down and we replant them, then the carbon dioxide that we release by burning this to heat the castle, is obviously recovered by the tree, the next crop of trees.

And so that's what they mean about it being sustainable.

The rowan jelly comes from the estate, not a very common thing.

We serve it with roast lamb or venison.

That's lovely.

- Well, I'll take a packet of these.

- Okay.

- And I'll take one of them as well.

- Brilliant.

From our point of view, the really important thing is that we've been warmer because we've been more relaxed about burning this because it's half the price of oil.

In terms of the fuel costs, the fuel bill for the year is half the price.

A bit more work for me but I get to play with boys' toys - the digger and things.

So there's, you know, there are swings and roundabouts on that.

The first sale of the day.

Thank you.

- Thank you very much.

- Enjoy them.

Yeah.

- Thank you.

Bye.

I wanted to try the chili jelly.

Anything I've said is not to be used for blackmail!

It won't be.

'As Andrew makes his way back to the castle with yet another load of woodchips, Nicky drops into the post office, on the way back from the university, with the Kincardine Kitchen goodies that she didn't sell in the city.'

- How's your day?

- Yes, very busy today.

And the tourists are beginning to come out a bit.

Yes, yes.

Lots of fishermen.

And we've got some French men at Bridge Cottage.

Yeah.

Do they buy our biscuits and our brownies and our shortbread?

Yes, they do.

Yes.

'Susan Brooks and her husband came to Kincardine O'Neil to do a spot of fishing.

They loved it so much they decided to stay, renting the post office from the estate.'

They're great.

Wonderful landlord.

Just couldn't fault him at all.

My husband likes salmon fishing, so we used to spend every holiday up here and we'd stay in Andy and Nicky's cottage.

Everything sort of fell into place from there.

And then, here we are.

'Christianity came to Kincardine O'Neil in the early 5th century with the founding of a church around the year 430 AD.

For nearly 1,600 years, the villagers had a place of worship.

Christchurch was built in 1866.

Even on the day of rest, Andy and Nicky are hard at it.

Andrew is a Eucharistic Minister of the Scottish Episcopalian Church in Kincardine O'Neil, where Nicky also plays the organ.'

(Organ plays) # Hail the day that sees Him rise # Hallelujah # Glorious to His native skies # Hallelujah # Christ awhile to mortals giv'n # Hallelujah # Enters now the highest heav'n # Hallelujah 'The second Sunday in June is always an important day in the calendar for Andrew and Nicky.

It's when they open their home, gardens and grounds to the local people of Kincardine O'Neil and the surrounding communities.

It's a testament to Andrew and Nicky's popularity that so many people join them each year.'

(WOMAN) Oh, they're charming.

Absolutely charming.

And if people have a lot of trouble at their door, then, you know, we know that they will be there, they will be supportive.

They look after their tenants.

They take into consideration people's needs.

We have to make it work, but I'd like to think we do it with a human face and there is some care and stewardship involved in all of that rather than just simply maximizing profit.

It's a fantastic privilege to run it.

It is a huge responsibility but, in life, responsibility and privilege should be in balance, and I believe, in this case, they are.

We've started sort of at the bottom of the slope and have climbed up, slowly.

And it's a gradual process.

I hope it's still ongoing.

I know there's a long way to go but that's life.

We won't finish before we are dead, I'm sure.

But there will be...

I hope we'll...

I know we will have left the place in a far better condition than when we took over - both this building and also the properties on the estate - and, I hope, the economics of the estate as well.

'Whatever life as great estate owners throws at them, the Bradfords always face it head-on with humility, a finely-developed sense of humor and an ever-constant smile.

They truly are an extraordinary couple.'

- I think... - You go.

I think whatever life you lead, you think that your life is pretty ordinary.

Do you think your life...

I don't think our life is extraordinary.

I don't think we are an extraordinary couple.

I think every couple is extraordinary.

'To learn more about Great Estates, visit pbs.org Great Estates Of Scotland is available on DVD.

To order, visit ShopPBS.org or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS'