The Courier invites you on a tour of the River Tay in a way never done before

On this voyage of discovery you will meet the many characters whose lives depend on the silvery waterway

It’s the River Tay but not as you know it.

The Courier is embarking on an exploration of Scotland’s greatest waterway next week and we’re inviting you to hop aboard.

Our writers and photographers have been on a voyage of discovery, visiting people and places along the 120-mile length of the river, hearing from the folk who live, work and play here, and examining the Tay and its place in our world in a way we never have before.

It has shaped the landscape; served as a trading route for thousands of years and fed and nourished the towns, villages and rich agricultural lands that now thrive along its path but how often do we think about its role in our lives?

We’ll introduce you to the workers who’ve been drawn from around the globe by all kinds of circumstances to forge a new community in the heart of highland Perthshire, much as settlers have been doing for the last few thousand years.

We’ll meet the fishing guide who dreamed of catching salmon on the Tay as a little boy behind the Iron Curtain, and the outdoor activities enthusiasts who can attest to its healing powers.

There’s the septuagenarian boatbuilder nearing the end of his line as the only person still constructing the traditional wooden fishing boat of the Tay – just don’t mention retirement – and the man whose handiwork helped to put a roof over Madonna’s head now providing a refuge for one of the UK’s rarest breeding birds.

We spend a day on manoeuvres with the gran’s army waging war on invasive species and learn what possesses ordinary citizens to put their lives on the line to go to the aid of those in peril on the sea.

There are scientists defying logic in order to restock the river and its tributaries with salmon, sometimes armed with nothing more sophisticated than a prawn on the end of a long stick and a handful of power company shares, and a son, whose late father fell in love with the River Tay in the heyday of its fishing industry, who is now fulfilling his wish to see it teeming with life again.

We learn about the unique challenges of tending an allotment plot and trying to complete a round of golf on an island in the middle of the city – and the charms that make it all worthwhile – and hear from the man who helped unload the last cargo of jute to arrive in Dundee from India, who is now helping to steer a future built on cruise liners and decommissioning.

We’ll tell you what connects a bloody ploughman, a giant redwood and the wreck of a barge off the Fife shoreline. And everywhere we go, there are beavers. Lots of beavers, and lots of people figuring out how to deal with them.

It’s been quite the journey and we’ll be thrilled if you join us.

Picture: Kris Miller. A traditional wooden Tay cobble being used on the river.