Douglas Vipond was born on 15 October 1966 in Elderslie, Strathclyde. He was brought up in Inchinnan and attended Park Mains High School in Erskine, choosing to go there because of the reputation of the music department. After school he enrolled at Glasgow’s Royal Scottish Academy of Music to study orchestral percussion. Details about his parents are not in public records.

Vipond was one of the founding members of Deacon Blue, and their 1988 hit “Real Gone Kid” peaked at number 8 in the UK Singles Chart. They have had 12 UK Top 40 singles and two No.1 albums. His move into television grew naturally from a love of sport and the outdoors, which led to the BBC commissioning Backcountry, a series where he both presented and took part in demanding outdoor challenges.

He spent six years reporting for BBC travel programmes such as Holiday, Summer Holiday and Holidays Out, co-presented The Kirsty Wark Show and The Big Country, and stepped in as a guest presenter on ITV’s This Morning for a fortnight. He became the current presenter of Landward in April 2009, covering agricultural and rural Scottish affairs for BBC Scotland.

Vipond married his second wife, Fiona Barratt, in July 2024 at the Cromlix Hotel, a 16-bedroom Victorian mansion in Dunblane, Scotland, owned by tennis star Andy Murray.