Adventurer Leon McCarron dreamed about going to the Arctic since he was a child. Now he has the chance to retrace the epic 1856 voyage of one of his great heroes, and international celebrity, Lord Dufferin.

In June 1856, the 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, left his home in Bangor to travel across Scotland and on to the Arctic in a small sailing schooner. After travelling 6,000 miles in four months, Lord Dufferin published a best-selling account of his journey and in the process set the course for the rest of his life. He became the most outstanding diplomat of the Victorian era, a charming fixer solving international and domestic disputes everywhere from Canada to Burma.

Leon McCarron recreates this seminal voyage by following the accounts written in Lord Dufferin's book, introducing us to some of the stories of this extraordinary man. Leon considers Dufferin's family background, his Ulster-Scots heritage, his drive for adventure and achievement, and explores the parallels with his own background and adventurous life a century and a half later.

The programme reveals how the Scottish part of that first epic journey and his passion for Sir Walter Scott impacted Lord Dufferin's future, his Clandeboye estate, and the landscape of North Down as we know it today. 

NPE Media Production

Supported with the Northern Ireland Screen Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund 

Presenter: Leon McCarron

Editor: Neil Whiteside  

Director: Chris Tyndall   

Executive Producer: Paul McGuigan

Executive Producer for BBC Northern Ireland: Fiona Keane 

Writen and Produced by Graham Little 

Ulster-Scots Consultant: David Hume

Graphics: ALT Animation

Archive Imagery: The Dufferin and Ava Archive, Paragon Yacht, Belfast Telegraph, Austin Vince, Dave Cornthwaite and PRONI

Thanks to: The Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, Lola Armstrong, His Grace the Duke of Argyll, Stephen Scarth, Leona Taylor, Royal Geographical Society, Shane Winser, Alasdair MacLeod, Professor James Nixon, Ed Wheeler, Brian Black, Walter Corr, You and Sea Ltd, Boreal Yachting, Arne Kvaale, Nils Egeland and Shane O'Neill 

• NPE Media