Northern Skye: A Land of Giants and Fairies Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands

It's said that the look of a place plays a big part

in shaping the character of its people.

If that is the case,

then island folk here must surely be a formidable lot.

There's something essentially heroic about this landscape,

and it's impossible not to be moved by its ruggedness and grandeur,

which seems to come from the realms of myth and legend.

I'm continuing my epic island-hopping odyssey,

trying to unravel the secrets

of some of Scotland's most fascinating places.

'And meeting the people who live here.'

I'm used to travelling first class, Donald.

-This is first class!

-I think this is steerage.

'It's impossible to be precise about the total number of islands

'that are scattered round Scotland's untameable coast,

'but not counting the numerous rocks and skerries, it's well over 250.'

At the end of the jetty, a vehicle driven by a collie dog

to take us to shore.

DOG BARKS

'On this grand tour, I'm exploring the northernmost peninsular of Skye,

'where mist-wreathed mountains

'and contorted rock formations

'have shaped its people and fired the imagination.'

My journey through Skye takes me back in time

to the geologically ancient Old Man of Storr,

on to the sporting legends of Portree,

and the enchanting Fairy Glen,

before exploring the eerily atmospheric Quiraing.

It's a grand tour that starts with a hike

best described as challenging.

This is the Trotternish Ridge.

It's like the backbone of northern Skye,

with 22 miles of arduous climbs and dramatic descents.

But, if geology is your bag, it really is quite something.

This is an extraordinary volcanic wilderness,

composed of ancient lava beds that once flowed across the landscape,

about 60-odd million years ago.

That's the scientific explanation.

But, here on Skye,

there are some rather more fanciful stories to explain the origins

of these massive pinnacles.

One such tale tells of an old man and his wife,

and what happened when they encountered a group of giants

roaming the hills. When the couple turned and fled,

they made the fatal mistake of looking back at their pursuers.

The old man and his wife were immediately turned to stone.

I don't know where the old woman is, but that's the old man,

and I reckon he must have been something of a giant himself,

because he's over 50 metres tall.

Now known the world over as the Old Man of Storr,

you get a sense of how colossal he is when you see

these tiny figures at his feet.

In Gaelic, the old man is known as "an bodach."

And "an bodach" is Gaelic for the male member.

Now that's what I call a whopper.

As I make my way along the ridge,

I begin to understand why the name for this island

is believed to be Old Norse for "island of mist."

It certainly makes things atmospheric.

Skye has a kind of otherworldly feel.

This landscape has provided the dramatic backdrop

for sci-fi epics like Star Wars, Alien and Prometheus.

And, as the mist clears,

I can see why numerous feature films

have made use of these breathtaking vistas.

'Indeed, this whole island could be described as one big Jurassic Park.'

I'm not just talking about the movies,

I'm talking about the giants of the fossil age - dinosaurs.

I'm heading down to the shoreline to see for myself a remarkable

discovery, which tells us a lot about this island

and the creatures which once roamed here.

Dugald, what are we looking for here?

We're looking for footprints.

Joining me is local expert Dugald Ross.

Amazingly, these are dinosaur footprints.

Really? You're kidding me!

We can tell that by the pattern of them.

They're in a distinct line.

It is, in fact, a distinct line of dinosaur footprints,

petering off into the distance.

There's about 100 prints here.

This was described by the researchers

who discovered them as "a dinosaur disco," and it caused a sensation.

Scientists were able to fill in a lot of blanks

in our understanding of the distant past on this island.

When we come to this particular one,

you can actually see the impression of the toes.

That's amazing.

It's absolutely huge, isn't it?

I can see very distinctly, one, two, three toe prints there.

So, how old would this footprint be? When was it made?

These date to the Middle Jurassic period of 170 million years ago.

Wow.

That was made by a huge sauropod.

When I say huge, that was 15 tonnes plus.

-Really?

-Yes, we can tell this by the immense size of the footprint that

they bore a large weight, you see?

They walked on four hind legs.

-They were four-legged?

-Yes.

These are Scotland's first recorded sauropods,

so they've attracted a lot of attention

from palaeontologists worldwide.

What would the sauropods have been doing down here?

We can reasonably assume that they would have been cooling off,

simply because it was a tropical climate during that period.

So they may have been wading in the shallow waters.

-Like hippos?

-Yes, possibly, as animals do today.

Touching this fossilised footprint,

I feel I'm spanning the aeons of time.

It makes it almost feel as if the age of the dinosaurs was yesterday.

It's mind-blowing, isn't it?

Absolutely mind-blowing.

Having literally followed in the footsteps of giants,

I'm heading for Portree, the biggest town on the island.

It's a bustling hub for locals, and the many visitors to Skye.

But, for me, it's a chance to relax and take in

the traditional sport of these parts - shinty.

Shinty's a game I know something about.

When I was at school, we played it on a gravel pitch.

I can't say that I was an enthusiastic player.

Perhaps it was supposed to toughen us up.

In fact, it's given me a lifelong aversion to any game which involves

swinging a wooden stick at head height.

And, judging by this guy, with good cause.

But, nevertheless, the game has a noble tradition.

And it's played with a passion on the islands.

-FOOTAGE NARRATOR:

-Shinty, the fastest field game in the world.

Shinty is something like hockey, but it's a much older game.

Dating back to the sixth century,

it's believed that Irish monks brought the game to Scotland.

And the skills developed while playing

were put to good use in battle

when the shinty stick was swapped for a sword.

It's a tough physical game,

everybody knows that and everybody expects that

when they walk onto the park. And that's what the spectators

and our supporters come here to watch.

Speaking to shinty coaches Alasdair Bruce and Douglas MacDougall

is bringing back all my school playing field nightmares.

It's quite a ferocious game, isn't it?

Yeah. It's not a game for the faint-hearted.

People get hurt, but nobody really lets on that they're hurt.

It's part of the excitement, isn't it,

because the sport does go with a wee bit of adrenaline,

and it's an exciting game.

It is. It's quite a spectacle.

This club was formed in the 1880s

and one of their first great triumphs came in 1898,

when their team won the MacTavish Cup.

But many of those pictured here swapped the shinty fields of home

for the battlefields of France.

1915, there were a number of boys from Portree

who played shinty headed off to France.

Battle of Festubert

was one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War.

I think, if I can recall, it was about 20,000 men

lost over a ten-day period.

And from the guys that left Portree alone,

I'm able to talk about the...

There was 11 from the village that didn't come back.

Some of them were players that had played in the 1898

MacTavish Cup winning team.

It was a terrible time, wasn't it?

-Yes. It was huge.

-They were younger guys.

They said it was industrial massacre at the time.

It was the first big, bloody battle of the First World War

involving guys from the Highlands here.

So, last year, exactly 100 years to the day,

we met up and played several shinty games.

The main attraction game was Skye against Kingussie,

where on both sides a number of descendants of men

that had fought at Festubert were playing.

That shows how deeply-rooted in the community this game is.

Yes, the shinty club is a huge part of the community.

Before someone thrusts a shinty stick in my hand, I make my excuses.

And with the clash of the ash still ringing in my years,

I make my way north,

stopping off at one of the island's most enchanting spots,

the Fairy Glen.

Now, fairies have something of a scary reputation.

In legend, especially here on Skye, which is considered to be

the fairy capital of Scotland, they're known as warlike,

strong-willed, supernatural beings,

capable of great harm.

Stories abound of children being taken from their homes

to be replaced with changelings,

or people taken into fairy mounds for what seems a few moments,

but, when they emerge, discover that several days or even years

have passed.

My favourite is where the beautiful queen of the fairies

seduces a mortal man and whisks him off to fairyland.

Now, that rocky outcrop ahead of me is known as Castle Ewen.

And perhaps that's where the fairy queen holds court.

Such was the importance of fairies on Skye

that clan MacLeod have a flag

said to be a gift to the chief from his fairy lover.

On two occasions,

they carried it into battle and both times emerged victorious.

It's still held in Dunvegan Castle.

I've made it! Very nice, too.

I've got the place to myself.

As much as I'd love to be away with the fairies, especially their queen,

there's little chance of me meeting any today.

So, instead, I return to the real world and the village of Uig.

Having travelled across the island,

I'm increasingly aware

of just how big a part Gaelic culture plays in the life of Skye.

It's something that's celebrated through language,

literature and also music.

But, until recently, centuries of neglect

had left the culture in a desperately weak condition.

Then, in the 1980s,

the band Runrig burst onto the music scene and restored Gaelic pride,

with music inspired by the history and language of Skye.

Their lead singer was Donnie Munro.

And I'm meeting him on the hillside above Uig

beside a hugely symbolic building.

It's a remarkable-looking tower there, Donnie.

So, what is it? Is it a ruin?

Is it a folly?

Well, I mean, it is a folly and it dates back to about 1860.

And it's known locally as Fraser's Folly.

It's an interesting building in the landscape,

but, in many ways, in historical terms,

it's kind of iconic of a period in the local area

that was very difficult for people, the period of the clearances.

Fraser was the landlord and this tower was actually built

on the site where many of the tenants of the Fraser estate

came to pay their rent.

And when it became more apparent to him that it was more profitable

to bring in sheep and sheep farmers

onto the land, he simply removed many of his tenants.

Pretty brutally in certain areas.

So, he was a key player in the clearances

-in the north end of Skye, then.

-He certainly was.

People disappeared off this landscape due to people

like Captain Fraser.

And, certainly, for my generation growing up, going to school...

..we had absolutely no sense whatsoever

that all of this stuff had gone on.

-Did that inspire you musically, what you were doing?

-It did.

# The red-hot sun burns up the hill

# The winter's bright... #

'The music then became very much informed by our common history.

'The things we shared as people growing up here.

'The whole idea of community,'

of language, of culture, of the land,

of the denial of history.

-# You saw and touched...

-#

Since leaving Runrig, Donnie has become involved in politics

and does much to encourage and support Gaelic culture

on the islands.

I'm very fortunate to be involved with the very inspirational

institution called Sabhal Mor Ostaig, which is the national centre

for the development of Gaelic language and culture.

And it's the only university which provides all of its degree

programmes through the medium of Gaelic language.

Right through from access to PhDs.

That is all about giving opportunity, good education...

you know, the things that people need to live anywhere in the world.

Nowadays, children here grow up with an understanding

of how the clearances shaped this island's history.

And, with an ever-increasing population,

things are looking up for Skye.

Continuing my exploration, I head back to the Trotternish Ridge,

stopping off at the small crofting settlement of Staffin.

I've come to lend a hand to father and son Ian and Calum MacDonald.

They're about to move their cattle to one of the nearby islands.

-What's the plan?

-I'm going to take them just now.

-Right.

-We'll get the boat ready and then hopefully

-it'll all go swimmingly.

-I'll give you a hand.

-Okey doke.

-Good stuff.

COW MOOS

Now, in the course of my travels,

I've become a bit of an old hand at this sort of thing.

HE URGES COW ON

I've already shared a boat with dozens of sheep,

so I imagine this works in much the same way.

'While Calum goes ahead to ready the boat,

'Ian and I drive the tiny herd down to the shore.'

Well, it's exhausting work, this.

'And to beat the tide, we can't hang around.'

Where's your horse when you need it?

-It's all right for you, Ian. You've got wheels.

-I know.

You don't need to do all the running.

So, that's where we have to swim them, across there.

-Oh, yeah.

-It's not so far.

'This is Staffin Island.

'And for our small herd, the grass is greener over there.

'But, to get across, they won't be on the boat with us.

'Around here, the cattle have to work for their supper.

'Now, I have to say, I've never seen a cow swim before.

'But, here on Skye, it's something of a crofting tradition.'

Now, Calum, we've got the cows miraculously in the water.

Do they take to water naturally?

Well, these ones do because

that's where they go. And they're used to it.

Cows wouldn't normally, naturally go to water, no.

What distance is it across here?

Well, at low tide it's, you know, 400 or 500 yards, maybe.

In fact, Calum would often be in there swimming with the herd.

But, thankfully, I won't be putting my trunks on today.

Well, they'll be glad to get across, I imagine.

They will, they'll be tired after this swim because,

although it's slack tide,

there still's a current going through here.

So, indeed they will.

I'm going to be quite tired as well at the end of it.

Yeah. Just keep it going.

They'll fill their bellies with green grass and they'll just

chew their cud for a while and meet the other cows that are there.

And their day will be over.

So, it looks as if the cows have got the bottom under their feet,

as they say. They seem to be walking.

-They're actually getting out.

-Aye. It's quite a struggle for them,

as well. Cos there's long tangle there and, you know,

they're tired and they're slipping a wee bit. Things are getting

wrapped around their legs, but they know they're on the shore.

Hallelujah, they made it.

Animal instinct there.

They'll get to where they need to go.

So, with a yee-haa, it's time for me to skedaddle.

I'm back on the ridge,

and passing through the mysterious and wonderfully-named Quiraing.

This whole landscape looks like

it's come from the pages of Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings.

This could be Middle Earth, a land of heroes and mighty deeds.

Just as Tolkien created a fictional universe,

populated with orcs, elves and wizards

engaged in an epic struggle of good versus evil,

so the forces that created the Quiraing

over millions of years were equally dramatic.

You have to imagine what Skye might have looked like 40 or 50 million

years ago. Dominated by a huge volcano

which grows 4,000 metres above the sea.

This volcano pumped out unimaginable quantities of molten rock which

cooled to form the lava beds that make up the Trotternish Ridge today.

But Skye's geological convulsions didn't stop there.

The lava here is about 300 metres thick

and it sits on top of much older, softer rock,

which literally gave way under the colossal weight

and the land split and slipped away east of where I'm now sitting.

Though, apparently, it's still moving a few centimetres each year.

A kind of a slow-motion natural disaster.

And there's one place among these geological giants

that really is something to behold.

At the heart of the Quiraing is the Table,

an extraordinary, elevated playing field, really,

where I'm told that Skye men of old

enjoyed the clash of the ash at a midsummer shinty match.

As stadiums go, it's hard to imagine one more impressive.

It would seem that the spectacular is commonplace here.

And since I've been told that you can't come to Skye

without fishing for salmon,

it's no surprise that I'm being taken to a spot that just happens

to look like something out of The Land That Time Forgot.

It's a spectacular location for a waterfall.

It's stunning. Now, this river is called the Lealt.

Ian Stewart knows these waters well.

And is the go-to guy for anyone wanting to learn about

the mystic art of fly-fishing for salmon.

The thing about fly-fishing is it's not about strength,

it's about timing.

When the salmon returns from the saltwater environment,

as soon as it hits fresh water, it stops feeding.

It's not capable of eating anything.

But what we're trying to do is we're trying to trigger an instinctive

reaction so that it actually grab at something

which is more-or-less annoying it.

Right, so I'll have a shot at this.

-Yes.

-I mean, you're casting so beautifully, Ian.

You're making me realise that it's an art.

HE LAUGHS

-So, here we are.

-Yeah.

Yeah. No, that was hopeless.

It's about timing and rhythm.

-It's like being a musician.

-Yes.

-Stringed instrument.

-Yes, yes.

-Single stringed instrument.

-It's very, very similar.

-A rod and line.

-Yes, very similar.

-Yes.

-No, absolutely pathetic.

If you shorten your line now.

Just shorten the line a wee bit.

What's the biggest fish you've ever caught?

The biggest fish I've caught is 18lbs.

All I can say is you never forget your first salmon.

I can remember the first salmon

I caught as vividly today as I did when I was

-a 14-year-old schoolboy.

-You were 14?

-Yes.

After several hours, no fish has taken my fly.

But at least my technique seems to be improving.

That's really good, Paul. Really good. You've relaxed.

-You must feel yourself relax now.

-Oh, I'm so chilled.

Yeah, that's good. That's what fly-fishing's all about.

Catching a fish is a bonus.

Now, if I'm lucky enough here to catch a fish,

I suppose I'll have to release it again.

Yes, that's right. Since this year,

the Scottish Government have issued new regulations whereby it's illegal

now to take a wild salmon from any of the West Coast rivers.

-Really?

-And that includes all Skye rivers.

-It's illegal?

-Yes.

-Why is that?

It's for conservation purposes.

The wild salmon stocks are severely depleted.

And, in many respects, anglers are the best conservationists

because it's in our self-interest to try and make sure

that the fish survive.

The new catch-and-release policy still allows anglers

to enjoy their sport, but, for generations of islanders,

salmon fishing has been their livelihood.

All around this coast, there were fishing stations

where catches were landed in the traditional way,

using what's known as a bag net.

To find out more about the history of this fascinating industry,

I've come to the home of retired fisherman Lachie Gillies.

Now, you've spent some time at the salmon fishing,

at one of these stations.

Yes, I did. I did. That was a while back, though.

A long time ago, when the salmon was fairly plenteous.

That's me there at a stop in Ireland.

And there was a bothy there where you could stay.

And that's where we slept. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Staffin had five men working in it.

-So, you would have been one of five.

-One of the five, yes.

I was only, what? A little over 20 years of age at the time.

Now, the fishing that you were doing,

-it was quite a complicated system, was it not?

-Well, it is.

You need to pay a lot of attention to what you're doing.

A big bag net and a smaller bag net inside it.

It's like a fish trap, in a way.

It's just a cage.

-And attached.

-A big cage tied onto the shore.

So, it's a big structure.

Oh, a big structure altogether, yes.

But it involved a lot, a lot, a lot of work. Yes.

-You can see it's a big net, isn't it?

-It is a big net.

These are big poles and that stretched away into the distance.

Oh, yes. That net when it's wet, after being out at sea,

it needs four men to carry it. It would make you puff a lot.

THEY LAUGH

The day you caught 100 fish or more, the boss at Portree

would always send down a bottle of whisky.

-Really?

-Yes. So that we would make it another 100 the following day.

That's a good incentive!

In the days before fish farms,

this was how the Scottish salmon, served in restaurants far and wide,

would mostly have been caught.

And, occasionally, the men would find something

rather unexpected in their nets.

But they looked happy days.

Ah, yes, they were happy days.

Yes. Well, you were young and happy.

Much has changed on Skye since Lachie's day.

Now, tourism has become the island's main industry.

But if you feel the need to escape the coachloads of visitors,

there is still one place that few people visit.

And that will be my final destination.

Lying just four miles off the north coast of the Trotternish peninsular,

Fladda-chuain is one of a chain of tiny islands.

These were once inhabited,

but they must have been desperate places to live

and it makes you wonder at the nature of the holy men

who once worshipped God from these rocky islands.

It's said that one of these monks was a giant of a man called

Gorgon, and he built his hermit cell on the island 1,400 years ago

when St Columba was on Iona.

Strangely, the very last man known to have lived on this windswept rock

was also famous for his size.

Mullach Mor, the big man from Mull.

Size obviously does matter when you're on a small island.

This watery wilderness is an appropriate place

for me to end my grand tour of the untamed places

and legendary characters of Trotternish,

Skye's land of giants and fairies.

Join me on my next grand tour,

which hops around Orkney, from Flotta to Sanday.