Our experts
Our small ship cruises are led by specialists in the fields of archaeology, history, art, architecture, wildlife and music.
Our leaders are chosen for their individual expertise and their ability to communicate. Our experts follow the traditional ACE house style, where, as well as giving lectures and talks, they lead the cruise from start to finish.
Humphrey Burton
Humphrey Burton CBE, MA, is one of Britain's most distinguished television directors and music commentators.
Humphrey was BBC Television's first Head of Music and Arts and a founder-member of London Weekend Television. He has worked alongside Menuhin, Walton, Bernstein and Rattle, and his biographies of Bernstein and Menuhin have become standard works.
Humphrey has won four Emmies and two British Academy awards for his work as a film director. As a presenter he has received the Royal Television Society's silver medal and a Sony Gold award.
Humphrey is the expert leader on the following cruises:
Highlands and Islands of Scotland
Peter exley
Peter Exley, BSc, is an ecologist and ornithologist who works for the RSPB. He has also held posts with BirdLife International and the Albatross Task Force in South Africa.
Peter has led and managed many ACE tours in the United Kingdom, including study courses to the Faeroes and Shetland.
Peter says that participants on the Highlands and Islands of Scotland cruise are likely to see ospreys, golden eagles and goosanders. In addition, Oban is famed for its otters and Eigg is reputed for its minke whales, dolphins and porpoises. Whilst on Mull there will be an opportunity to see white-tailed sea eagles on a specially escorted visit with the local RSPB.
Peter is the expert leader on the following cruises:
Highlands and Islands of Scotland
Kevin Hand
Kevin Hand, MSc, is a conservationist and ornithologist who has led a wide array of wildlife tours across the world and - closer to home - to the Shetlands and the Borders.
Kevin directed a Darwin Initiative project on the taiga forests in Siberia with the Tree Council, the British Trust for Ornithology, the Forestry Commission and Traidcraft.
Kevin says that on the Highlands and Islands cruises particpants are likely to see an abundant bird and sea life, including otters, whales, dolphins and porpoises as well as golden and sea eagles.
On the Galápagos cruise, Kevin will be accompanied by Paula Tagle, MSc, a geologist and Galápagos National Park guide who lives in Ecuador.
Kevin is the expert leader on the following cruises:
Highlands and Islands of Scotland
Philip Kenrick
Philip Kenrick, MA, DPhil (Oxon), read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he also completed his doctorate on pottery from British excavations at Benghazi in Libya.
Philip has worked at Lepcis Magna, Benghazi and Cyrene and has helped to produce a major volume on Sabratha. He has also worked on excavations in Sicily (at Eraclea Minoa near Agrigento), Turkey and Jordan.
Philip has held research posts at Reading and Oxford and is a research associate of the Oxford University Institute of Archaeology. Philip is currently Treasurer of the Society for Libyan Studies and is working on a guidebook to the antiquities of Tripolitania.
Philip is the expert leader on the following cruises:
HILARY MACARTNEY
Hilary Macartney, MA, PhD, gained her doctorate at the Courtauld Institute in London. She is an honorary research fellow at Glasgow University's Institute for Art History and an editorial assistant at the University of Leeds.
Hilary is author of the HarperCollins guide to Scotland and has contributed articles to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. In 2009 Hilary will be a guest curator at the Edinburgh Festival Exhibition and a contributing author to a Historic Scotland publication on the art and architecture of Glasgow.
Hilary is the expert leader on the following cruises:
Highlands and Islands of Scotland
Paul Mellars
Professor Paul Mellars, MA, PhD, (Cantab), is professor of Pre-History and Human Evolution at the University of Cambridge (where he is also president of Corpus Christi College).
Paul will give two illustrated talks on board the Lord of the Glens: the first will be on the archaeological work he has undertaken on the island of Oronsay in the Inner Hebrides; the second will focus on the origins of modern humans, on which Professor Mellars is one of the world’s leading experts.
Paul is the expert leader on the following cruises:
Highlands and Islands of Scotland
DENIS MORIARTY
Denis Moriarty, MA (Oxon), is one of ACE Study Tours' most experienced course directors.
Denis is a lecturer and former television producer with the BBC, where he specialised in producing documentaries on art, architecture and cultural history.
Denis has visited Egypt over a dozen times, working with the Egypt Exploration Society on a BBC documentary on Memphis Saqqara and producing a programme on the Valley of the Queens at Luxor with the Getty Foundation.
Closer to home, Denis has been a regular visitor to Scotland since he first performed at the Edinburgh Fringe alongside Dudley Moore and Ken Loach. Denis also knows France intimately, having travelled there extensively both in personal and professional capacities. Denis is a very personable entertainer and everyone can expect to be well cared for in his company.
Denis is the expert leader on the following cruises:
Highlands and Islands of Scotland
MALCOLM OXLEY
Malcolm Oxley, MA (Oxon), is a talented art historian, a subject to which he brings a historian's wider perspective.
Malcolm has a profound knowledge of the art and architecture of France and is a highly experienced course director, having led cultural tours for ACE to Burgundy, the Loire Valley, Normandy, Alsace and the Paris region.
Malcolm is a man of catholic tastes, equally at home exploring the art galleries of his native Yorkshire as he is touring the glories of Avignon and Arles. Malcolm was for many years deputy head of St Edward's School, Oxford.
Malcolm is the expert leader on the following cruises:
ANDREW WILSON
Andrew Wilson, BA, BD, FSAS, is a native Scot whose specialism is archaeology and ancient history.
Andrew studied archaeology then theology before working overseas as an archaeologist, specialising in Roman frontier systems and Byzantine mosaics. Andrew is a Fellow of the Society for Libyan Studies and belongs to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and the Classical Association of Scotland.
Andrew has led many tours and cruises for ACE in the Graeco-Roman world, and several in Britain, with a particular emphasis on the archaeology of his native Scotland.
Andrew is the expert leader on the following cruises: