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60 years ago, an extraordinary man called Harold Briercliffe | 0:00:02 | 0:00:06 | |
wrote a series of books about his great passion - cycling. | 0:00:06 | 0:00:10 | |
Largely forgotten, these overlooked gems were the culmination of a lifelong journey. His destination? | 0:00:10 | 0:00:16 | |
The whole of Britain on two wheels. | 0:00:16 | 0:00:20 | |
Over half a century later, | 0:00:20 | 0:00:22 | |
and equipped with one of his reliable cycle touring guides, I'll be re-tracing his tracks... | 0:00:22 | 0:00:27 | |
And riding his very own bicycle - a Dawes Super Galaxy. | 0:00:27 | 0:00:31 | |
This was the ultimate touring machine of its day. | 0:00:31 | 0:00:34 | |
I'll be taking it on one of Harold's classic journeys | 0:00:34 | 0:00:37 | |
through the magnificent countryside he explored all those years ago. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:42 | |
I'm going in search of Britain by bike. | 0:00:42 | 0:00:45 | |
Welcome to Scotland. Today I'm in the Highlands. | 0:00:45 | 0:00:49 | |
The western Highlands of Scotland. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:15 | |
Truly a wilderness. Mountains clad in bracken and heather. | 0:01:15 | 0:01:19 | |
Lonely glens. Lochs with castles standing proud on their shores. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:24 | |
This is Kintail, a rugged, unspoilt area of the North West Highlands | 0:01:24 | 0:01:30 | |
opposite the Isle of Skye. | 0:01:30 | 0:01:32 | |
Cycling author Harold Briercliffe simply loved the Highlands. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:36 | |
There are roughly 300 miles of mountains and lochs and glens and coastline. | 0:01:36 | 0:01:41 | |
He described it as "the most vivid and rugged landscape in Britain". | 0:01:41 | 0:01:45 | |
He also said that he best way to discover it was by bicycle, and who am I to argue? | 0:01:45 | 0:01:51 | |
This beautiful landscape has a vivid and sometimes bloody history. | 0:01:51 | 0:01:57 | |
It's seen rebellions and incursions, from warrior queens and invading armies, | 0:01:57 | 0:02:01 | |
intruders of different kinds, and not all of them human. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:05 | |
It's a place that outsiders are drawn to. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:07 | |
Some to celebrate its wildness, others to try to overcome it. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:13 | |
I'll be uncovering the evidence of their visits on my journey. | 0:02:13 | 0:02:16 | |
Today's route is 23 miles long, starting near Glen Shiel | 0:02:16 | 0:02:20 | |
on the shores of Loch Duich, | 0:02:20 | 0:02:22 | |
heading over a mountain pass and north up the coast to Kylerhea, | 0:02:22 | 0:02:26 | |
close to the Isle of Skye. | 0:02:26 | 0:02:28 | |
Then it's back down to Glenelg and inland to Glen Beag | 0:02:28 | 0:02:31 | |
before finally heading along the lonely path to Sandaig, | 0:02:31 | 0:02:35 | |
the unlikely setting of for international best-seller. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:38 | |
My journey starts here at the picture perfect location of the Ratagan Youth Hostel. | 0:02:43 | 0:02:49 | |
We know Harold Briercliffe came here, | 0:02:49 | 0:02:51 | |
not just because he wrote about it in his 1948 Touring Guide, | 0:02:51 | 0:02:54 | |
but also because we've got hold of some of his old photographs taken from almost exactly this spot. | 0:02:54 | 0:03:01 | |
Harold captured some wonderful views on his Scottish travels. | 0:03:01 | 0:03:05 | |
He was a prolific photographer, taking pictures to illustrate his guidebooks | 0:03:05 | 0:03:10 | |
and articles for cycling magazines. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:12 | |
Here is one with the view from the hostel front, looking along the loch, | 0:03:12 | 0:03:15 | |
of Harold's wife, Mamie, down at the lochside - with their trusted bikes, of course! | 0:03:15 | 0:03:23 | |
And this magnificent view of the mountains | 0:03:23 | 0:03:26 | |
on the north side of Glen Shiel, known as the Five Sisters of Kintail. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:31 | |
Rochdale-born Harold was an intrepid cyclist | 0:03:39 | 0:03:43 | |
so his routes aren't always easy - | 0:03:43 | 0:03:46 | |
this one begins with a climb up the 1100ft Mam Ratagan pass. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:52 | |
The gradient is mostly one in ten, steepening to one in seven, | 0:03:52 | 0:03:58 | |
and close to the summit there is a great coil of two hairpin bends. | 0:03:58 | 0:04:03 | |
This is pretty hard work | 0:04:06 | 0:04:09 | |
and all you can see around are trees and trees | 0:04:09 | 0:04:13 | |
and more trees. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:15 | |
At the top I'm going to meet up with Chris Marsh | 0:04:16 | 0:04:22 | |
from the Forestry Commission and talk to him about these trees | 0:04:22 | 0:04:27 | |
and the plans for the forest in the Highlands in the future. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:31 | |
The growth of trees planted by the Forestry Commission | 0:04:31 | 0:04:35 | |
prevents a continuous panorama being presented | 0:04:35 | 0:04:38 | |
during the ascent, but at clearings the picture of Loch Duich, | 0:04:38 | 0:04:43 | |
backed by the Five Sisters, is striking indeed. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:46 | |
This may look like natural woodland, but it is in fact an immigrant crop, | 0:04:46 | 0:04:51 | |
planted in regimented rows, grown to be cut down, | 0:04:51 | 0:04:55 | |
replanted and harvested all over again. | 0:04:55 | 0:04:58 | |
Ratagan Forest was established by the Forestry Commission in 1923 | 0:04:58 | 0:05:02 | |
to meet the demands of the national timber industry. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:05 | |
The dominance of the invading Sitka spruce has been a thorny issue ever since. | 0:05:05 | 0:05:11 | |
When the Forestry Commission started in the early 20th century, | 0:05:11 | 0:05:14 | |
they spent a lot of time looking at species from around the world | 0:05:14 | 0:05:18 | |
and Sitka spruce was chosen because the environment from which it comes from, | 0:05:18 | 0:05:23 | |
the west coast of America, is perfectly suited to the west coast of Scotland. | 0:05:23 | 0:05:29 | |
It seems to me that a lot of people have a problem with the Sitka spruce | 0:05:29 | 0:05:33 | |
because it's an invader, because it's come from so far away. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:35 | |
Can you appreciate that strength of feeling? | 0:05:35 | 0:05:39 | |
Yeah, I think the Sitka controversy | 0:05:39 | 0:05:43 | |
is as much a visitor's perspective | 0:05:43 | 0:05:48 | |
to see an alien tree planted in geometrical shapes on what's perceived to be a wilderness. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:54 | |
But of course, these hills have been managed | 0:05:54 | 0:05:57 | |
for centuries and look the way that they do because of that management. | 0:05:57 | 0:06:01 | |
Many of these slopes would have been closed-in birch woodland with hazel scrub and holly and rowan. | 0:06:01 | 0:06:07 | |
Those, over centuries, would have disappeared through this grazing pressure, | 0:06:07 | 0:06:12 | |
muir burning, heather burning. | 0:06:12 | 0:06:14 | |
So a lot of the native woodland ended up being confined just to gullies and ravines. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:19 | |
And then the broad open slopes were the areas the foresters came and planted in the '20s. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:25 | |
But it's not just the planting, it's the harvesting that most upsets people. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:30 | |
I know this is a really difficult balance because you're undertaking a commercial enterprise, | 0:06:30 | 0:06:35 | |
it's time to chop them down, they've all got to come down. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:39 | |
But you must see, as anyone else sees, how incredibly ugly that can look. | 0:06:39 | 0:06:43 | |
It's more than just a scar, it can look like a warzone. | 0:06:43 | 0:06:47 | |
Trees were established here to establish a national timber resource and that can't be forgotten about. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:53 | |
But certainly in an area like this | 0:06:53 | 0:06:56 | |
the environmental importance | 0:06:56 | 0:06:58 | |
of these habitats come up and up the agenda. | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
So when the first phase of trees are being harvested, the second phase - | 0:07:01 | 0:07:06 | |
we're using Scots pine instead of Sitka spruce - but the trees are also being planted | 0:07:06 | 0:07:11 | |
in a more randomised structure at greater spacings. | 0:07:11 | 0:07:15 | |
So we're starting to get more of those environmental associations | 0:07:15 | 0:07:19 | |
which the first phase of densely planted Sitka spruce wasn't giving. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:23 | |
It's perhaps unrealistic to think that one day this landscape | 0:07:32 | 0:07:35 | |
will be covered in huge swathes of Caledonian Forest, and some people probably think that the Sitkas | 0:07:35 | 0:07:41 | |
are native, after all they've now been here for 80 years, | 0:07:41 | 0:07:44 | |
which is longer than some visitors to Scotland. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:47 | |
Harold mentions in his books some very well known early visitors to this part of the Highlands. | 0:07:50 | 0:07:56 | |
In 1773, Dr Johnson and his travelling companion James Boswell came on this very road. | 0:07:56 | 0:08:03 | |
They struggled a bit, despite the fact that they had horses, | 0:08:03 | 0:08:06 | |
both up the hill and down it. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:08 | |
I can't say that I'm struggling downhill. I was going up, though! | 0:08:08 | 0:08:12 | |
1st September 1773, going downhill on the other side was no easy task. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:20 | |
As Mr Johnson was a great weight, the two guides agreed he should ride the horses alternately. | 0:08:20 | 0:08:26 | |
As he rode upon it downhill, it did not go well and he grumbled. | 0:08:26 | 0:08:31 | |
Hello! | 0:08:32 | 0:08:35 | |
Johnson and Boswell came here not just to take in the wonderful views, | 0:08:38 | 0:08:42 | |
but because they were on their way to Skye. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:44 | |
For centuries, this crossing was the principal gateway from the mainland | 0:08:44 | 0:08:49 | |
to the Hebrides - a short stretch of water known as the Kylerhea race. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:54 | |
In the late 18th century, drovers bringing their cattle from the Hebrides over to market | 0:08:54 | 0:09:00 | |
would wait for these waters to be calm and then drive the cattle across. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:03 | |
They'd have to swim to the mainland. | 0:09:03 | 0:09:07 | |
So far my journey has taken me from Ratagan along the Mam Ratagan pass, skirting the village of Glenelg | 0:09:07 | 0:09:15 | |
and north to the Kylerhea race, and one of Harold's favourite locations. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:21 | |
Immediately north of the ferry stands the youth hostel of Glenelg. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:26 | |
Its situation at the road end, without another dwelling in sight on the mainland, | 0:09:26 | 0:09:31 | |
is amongst the grandest of all the Scottish hostels. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:35 | |
This used to be the Glenelg Youth Hostel. It's now a private residence. | 0:09:35 | 0:09:39 | |
It does do B&Bs, but Harold would have been very sad that the youth hostel has been lost | 0:09:39 | 0:09:44 | |
because he felt that places like this, and the Ratagan Youth Hostel, | 0:09:44 | 0:09:48 | |
where we started, were crucial stepping stones to explore great outdoors | 0:09:48 | 0:09:52 | |
for the adventurous explorer. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:54 | |
And with every one that closes, it makes it that bit harder for walkers | 0:09:54 | 0:09:58 | |
or cyclists or runners who are trying to get into the landscape. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:02 | |
And doing so on a very small budget. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
In his book, Harold sings the praises of the Scottish Youth Hostelling Association, | 0:10:09 | 0:10:14 | |
which had been set up in the 1930s to allow young people to travel and experience other cultures. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:20 | |
Not simply a dry bed for a weary cyclist, in the late 1940s, | 0:10:22 | 0:10:27 | |
the hostels were a symbol of freedom and hope - | 0:10:27 | 0:10:31 | |
a world in which outsiders were not invaders, but welcome guests. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:36 | |
The SYHA has done much to open up the Highlands to the cycling visitor. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:41 | |
Thousands of wayfarers who might never have ventured into the Highlands | 0:10:41 | 0:10:45 | |
have used the hostels and, for small outlay, have seen the finest mountain scenery in the British Isles. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:52 | |
Following Harold's suggestion, I'm now retracing my tracks, | 0:10:54 | 0:10:58 | |
heading south, back along the military road towards Glenelg | 0:10:58 | 0:11:03 | |
and the Bernera Barracks. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:05 | |
You feel so far away from any sort of major city or town. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:12 | |
You feel a long way away from pollution. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:14 | |
From noise pollution as well. | 0:11:14 | 0:11:17 | |
It's so quiet! | 0:11:17 | 0:11:18 | |
And it really does feel fresh. | 0:11:20 | 0:11:22 | |
You can feel it on your skin, in your lungs... | 0:11:22 | 0:11:25 | |
It's like an inner and outer body wash. | 0:11:27 | 0:11:32 | |
Despite the peace and serenity of this coastal road, | 0:11:38 | 0:11:41 | |
it has a chequered military past. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:43 | |
More than 147,000 Scots were killed in the Great War | 0:11:43 | 0:11:47 | |
and the casualties from the highland regiments were particularly high. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:52 | |
I can see the ruin of the Barracks just over there. | 0:11:55 | 0:12:00 | |
But the Bernera Barracks don't relate to a modern war, | 0:12:02 | 0:12:04 | |
rather to a bloodsoaked conflict some 200 years earlier, | 0:12:04 | 0:12:07 | |
just a few years after the Act of Union between Scotland and England. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:12 | |
In the early 18th century, the barracks were an outpost | 0:12:12 | 0:12:15 | |
of English-speaking authority in a Gaelic-speaking world. | 0:12:15 | 0:12:20 | |
When Boswell, a Lowland Scot, brought Dr Johnson through here on their way to the inn at Glenelg, | 0:12:20 | 0:12:27 | |
he gazed on the lit Barracks with longing. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
As we passed the barracks at Bernera, I would fain have put up there. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:34 | |
At least I looked at them wishfully, as soldiers have always everything in the best order. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:40 | |
Historian Jim Hunter is meeting me here to explain why Bernera Barracks | 0:12:42 | 0:12:47 | |
were built to house an army of outsiders in hostile territory. | 0:12:47 | 0:12:51 | |
Even with no roof on and no glass in the windows and massive great cracks | 0:12:51 | 0:12:56 | |
down the walls, these are still very impressive buildings. | 0:12:56 | 0:12:59 | |
When were the barracks first built? | 0:12:59 | 0:13:01 | |
They were built in the early 1720s, not long after the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. | 0:13:01 | 0:13:08 | |
The Jacobite movement aimed to restore the Catholic House of Stuart | 0:13:09 | 0:13:13 | |
to the throne, but the Jacobite Highlanders | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
were also fighting to defend the old clan system from the intrusion of a London-based government. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:23 | |
It was from Highlands that they launched a number of rebellions, the most spectacular being in 1715. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:31 | |
And the last one, in many ways the most successful one, | 0:13:31 | 0:13:35 | |
being the one that started in 1745 | 0:13:35 | 0:13:37 | |
when a Highland army led by a Stuart Prince, | 0:13:37 | 0:13:41 | |
famously known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
marched south out of the Highlands, | 0:13:44 | 0:13:47 | |
conquered Scotland by capturing Edinburgh, and then towards the end of 1745, | 0:13:47 | 0:13:52 | |
invaded England and got, by the beginning of December 1745, | 0:13:52 | 0:13:56 | |
got as far south as Derby, about 120 miles from London. | 0:13:56 | 0:14:00 | |
That really terrified the British establishment, the Government of the day. | 0:14:00 | 0:14:05 | |
And it's around that sort of incursion, | 0:14:05 | 0:14:11 | |
that rebellious activity in the Highlands, the notion of Highlands as reservoir of rebels | 0:14:11 | 0:14:17 | |
and dangerous people of that kind, it's around all of that | 0:14:17 | 0:14:21 | |
that you get the push to establish garrisons here, | 0:14:21 | 0:14:25 | |
construct roads, generally subject the area to effective British control, British rule. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:31 | |
Was it a success? Were the barracks a successful place to be stationed? | 0:14:31 | 0:14:37 | |
I think militarily they weren't a success at all. | 0:14:37 | 0:14:40 | |
They were built after one rebellion | 0:14:40 | 0:14:44 | |
in order to prevent another one and manifestly they didn't | 0:14:44 | 0:14:47 | |
because another rebellion followed 20, 30 years later. | 0:14:47 | 0:14:50 | |
In fact, the roads which were intended to allow the British army to move rapidly into the Highlands | 0:14:50 | 0:14:58 | |
were used very effectively by the Jacobite army to move very rapidly out of the Highlands. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:03 | |
And to conquer Scotland in an astonishingly short space of time. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:07 | |
From a military point of view, they weren't a success. | 0:15:07 | 0:15:09 | |
We've seen in more recent conflicts how difficult it is | 0:15:09 | 0:15:13 | |
for a military force to establish control over a wild mountainous area. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:19 | |
Just as in Afghanistan in current times, | 0:15:19 | 0:15:22 | |
in the Highlands 200, 300 years ago it was very difficult to do that. | 0:15:22 | 0:15:26 | |
What changed this area from being that lawless, clan wilderness | 0:15:26 | 0:15:32 | |
into being more sophisticated? | 0:15:32 | 0:15:35 | |
It began to change radically in the later part of the 18th century, | 0:15:35 | 0:15:40 | |
after the last Jacobite rebellion in 1745, 1746 | 0:15:40 | 0:15:44 | |
had been definitively crushed at the Battle of Culloden, about 100 miles east of here. | 0:15:44 | 0:15:50 | |
The old society then began to fall apart. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:54 | |
The former clan chiefs gradually evolved into landlords | 0:15:54 | 0:15:58 | |
that began treating their land as a commercial asset. | 0:15:58 | 0:16:01 | |
Sheep farming was introduced on a very large scale | 0:16:01 | 0:16:05 | |
and part of what was associated with that | 0:16:05 | 0:16:08 | |
was the removal of very large numbers of people who were being evicted | 0:16:08 | 0:16:12 | |
to make way for the new sheep farms. | 0:16:12 | 0:16:14 | |
The area was comprehensively depopulated. | 0:16:14 | 0:16:17 | |
Once the old Highland culture was broken, | 0:16:17 | 0:16:19 | |
there was little need for the army to remain here and the barracks were abandoned. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:24 | |
The last people to use them were victims of the Highland Clearances, families seeking shelter | 0:16:24 | 0:16:29 | |
after being forcibly evicted from their land to make way for sheep. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:34 | |
Where are we with Highlands right now? | 0:16:34 | 0:16:37 | |
If your equivalent is standing here in 100 years' time, how will he reflect on this period of history? | 0:16:37 | 0:16:44 | |
I think it will be seen as a period of remarkable change. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:47 | |
For many decades, for the better part of 200 years, | 0:16:47 | 0:16:51 | |
the Highlands were an area where people were leaving, | 0:16:51 | 0:16:54 | |
either for overseas or to cities in the south. | 0:16:54 | 0:16:57 | |
But we have seen in the last 20, 30 years a reversal of that pattern. | 0:16:57 | 0:17:02 | |
I would think and hope that if we were to be able to come here 100 years from now, | 0:17:02 | 0:17:08 | |
we would see a place that was flourishing. | 0:17:08 | 0:17:11 | |
The next stage of my journey | 0:17:16 | 0:17:18 | |
takes me briefly south then east at a fork in the road. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:22 | |
I'm heading into Glen Beag, a dead-end, which is slightly unusual for Harold. | 0:17:22 | 0:17:27 | |
But what I find there makes it worth it. | 0:17:27 | 0:17:30 | |
These amazing structures are known as brochs. | 0:17:30 | 0:17:34 | |
The word comes from Old Norse and means "a fortification". | 0:17:34 | 0:17:38 | |
Although in ruins, these erections are the two finest brochs on the mainland of Scotland. | 0:17:38 | 0:17:45 | |
The lower broch has a wall 11ft thick and 30ft in height | 0:17:45 | 0:17:49 | |
despite some 7ft in masonry having been taken when the Bernera Barracks were built. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:55 | |
Hundreds of these dry stone towers were constructed during the Iron Age, | 0:17:55 | 0:18:00 | |
but the people who built them and why they built them are shrouded in mystery. | 0:18:00 | 0:18:05 | |
Playwright and local broch enthusiast Eddie Stiven tells me more. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:10 | |
This is some structure! | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
Who built it? What was it used for? | 0:18:17 | 0:18:20 | |
They were built about 2,000 years ago, which would tend to mean it they were built | 0:18:20 | 0:18:25 | |
by the people who were here before the Scots got here, | 0:18:25 | 0:18:28 | |
who people generally refer to, | 0:18:28 | 0:18:30 | |
and certainly the Romans referred to them, as the Picts. | 0:18:30 | 0:18:33 | |
The painted people. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:36 | |
They were partly Celtic, partly indigenous, | 0:18:36 | 0:18:39 | |
they are a bit of a mystery. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:41 | |
It is a bit of a mystery why they built these buildings here. | 0:18:41 | 0:18:45 | |
I think way you get more information about the people | 0:18:45 | 0:18:48 | |
at that time is the information in the legendary material that was written and handed on orally. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:53 | |
A lot of that has been recorded both in Ireland and in the Highlands of Scotland. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:57 | |
There are two main cycles, | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
and they speak about warrior queens in this area. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:05 | |
There is a cycle which is usually called the Ulster Cycle. | 0:19:05 | 0:19:12 | |
And in that set of stories, the boy hero of Ulster, who is called Cu Chulainn, | 0:19:12 | 0:19:18 | |
he came to Skye across the water for his training in arms | 0:19:19 | 0:19:23 | |
from a wonderfully named warrior queen, Scathach. | 0:19:23 | 0:19:29 | |
The shadowy one. | 0:19:29 | 0:19:30 | |
And she taught him what I guess was early Celtic martial-arts training, | 0:19:30 | 0:19:36 | |
according to the legends. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:38 | |
And she, in turn, had an enmity with a warrior queen who lived on the mainland and, who knows, | 0:19:38 | 0:19:45 | |
it may have been here. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:47 | |
The stories of warrior queens led to much speculation about Pictish society, | 0:19:47 | 0:19:51 | |
but one thing is clear - they must have been a skilful and determined people | 0:19:51 | 0:19:56 | |
to build such advanced and puzzling structures. | 0:19:56 | 0:20:00 | |
These walls are hollow, intramural galleries going all the way up. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:06 | |
I believe there is an engineering reason for that | 0:20:06 | 0:20:09 | |
because it keeps the structure lightweight. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:12 | |
If it were to be built of solid stone, it would collapse under its own weight. | 0:20:12 | 0:20:16 | |
The hollow walls contain stone staircases, and inside each broch | 0:20:16 | 0:20:20 | |
there may have been several wooden floors or platforms. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:25 | |
As you can see, there are ledges, or scarcements, they call them, | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
which would have perhaps taken a floor here, | 0:20:28 | 0:20:32 | |
and right up the top you can see another one, maybe an observation gallery floor | 0:20:32 | 0:20:37 | |
that you could look over the top from. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:39 | |
There are several hundred of these brochs scattered across Scotland | 0:20:39 | 0:20:44 | |
in all sorts of locations, but that variety and number | 0:20:44 | 0:20:48 | |
simply adds to the mystery of why they were built. | 0:20:48 | 0:20:52 | |
Do you think this was a defensive structure? | 0:20:52 | 0:20:55 | |
It may have been, it may have been in defence of attacks | 0:20:55 | 0:21:01 | |
from other tribes living locally. | 0:21:01 | 0:21:04 | |
So, there was no major outside threat | 0:21:04 | 0:21:06 | |
that this society was defending against. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:09 | |
But the most common theory these days is they were built for status. | 0:21:09 | 0:21:15 | |
You know, "This is what I can build, this is my house," and show off a bit. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:20 | |
When you consider that in the rest of the British Isles at that time | 0:21:20 | 0:21:24 | |
outside of the classical buildings built by the Romans, | 0:21:24 | 0:21:29 | |
everybody else was living in fairly simple rude huts, | 0:21:29 | 0:21:34 | |
this is a pretty impressive structure for its age. | 0:21:34 | 0:21:37 | |
Strongholds, dwellings, status symbols or simply shelter from the harsh winter weather, | 0:21:37 | 0:21:42 | |
whatever these brochs were used for, the people who built them must have been a force to be reckoned with. | 0:21:42 | 0:21:48 | |
No wonder the Romans didn't make it this far north. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:50 | |
Though, if they had, their road-building skills would have been welcome. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:55 | |
Because of the remoteness of the North West Highlands, | 0:21:55 | 0:21:58 | |
it is as well to go prepared for mechanical and tyre trouble. | 0:21:58 | 0:22:02 | |
A few spare spokes, plenty of repair material | 0:22:02 | 0:22:06 | |
for covers and tubes, even spare cotters and brake blocks, are all advisable. | 0:22:06 | 0:22:12 | |
It says much for the reliability of the modern lightweight bicycle | 0:22:12 | 0:22:16 | |
that it stands up to the rough hammering of Highland roads. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:20 | |
Harold mentions in his book that there are no smooth roads round here at all. | 0:22:23 | 0:22:28 | |
He would love this. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:29 | |
Cyclists' paradise, brand new tarmac. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:32 | |
Retracing my tracks west down Glen Beag, | 0:22:34 | 0:22:37 | |
I turn left again at the coast, heading southwards. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:40 | |
Then it's on to high ground on the headland of Sandaig | 0:22:40 | 0:22:43 | |
as the road sweeps past the edge of the cliffs | 0:22:43 | 0:22:46 | |
to reveal some breathtaking views across the Sound of Sleat. | 0:22:46 | 0:22:50 | |
The road is rough and in all the nine miles there are only two farms, | 0:22:55 | 0:22:59 | |
the roadmender's house at Shantaig and the shoreside farm of Rarsaidh. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:05 | |
What Harold would not have known about, because it was hidden from view, | 0:23:08 | 0:23:12 | |
was a cottage down on the bay that would soon become one of the most famous places | 0:23:12 | 0:23:17 | |
in this part of Scotland thanks to the arrival of two outsiders, | 0:23:17 | 0:23:21 | |
the naturalist Gavin Maxwell and his otter who he brought from Iraq. | 0:23:21 | 0:23:26 | |
Maxwell was the author of the highly influential book Ring of Bright Water, | 0:23:26 | 0:23:31 | |
which made him and his otters unforgettable. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:35 | |
Gavin Maxwell was a remarkable figure - one-time explorer, special agent and even shark hunter! | 0:23:35 | 0:23:42 | |
He moved here to a house that was known in his books as Camusfearna. | 0:23:42 | 0:23:46 | |
And helping to care for the otters that were his passion was a young Londoner | 0:23:46 | 0:23:50 | |
who would later become a famous naturalist and television presenter. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:55 | |
To hear more about their extraordinary lives here, I'm meeting up with Terry Nutkins, | 0:23:57 | 0:24:01 | |
who's agreed to show me where he and Gavin Maxwell and Edal the otter once lived. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:07 | |
-Right, Clare. So, here is your first view of Camusfearna. -And that is where the house was, down there. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:14 | |
Just to the right of that telegraph pole is where we lived and that is where Gavin Maxwell is buried. | 0:24:14 | 0:24:21 | |
Maxwell chose this place for its remoteness and isolation - even now, it's still a tricky spot to get to. | 0:24:21 | 0:24:29 | |
Who needs a bridge?! | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
This is it. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:34 | |
This is where the house stood that we lived in at Camusfearna. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:38 | |
Of course, Gavin Maxwell, Gavin Maxwell's ashes are below this stone. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:44 | |
This is where the house stood. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:46 | |
Now, the stone's in this position quite literally because Gavin Maxwell's desk was here. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:52 | |
And this is where he sat and wrote Ring of Bright Water and the trilogy and the life of the otters. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:58 | |
Absolutely. On this very spot. | 0:24:58 | 0:25:01 | |
It was a masterpiece. It was beautifully written. | 0:25:01 | 0:25:05 | |
Um... It inspired people, | 0:25:05 | 0:25:10 | |
especially people that lived in places like London and Manchester, to come and see wildlife. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:15 | |
And it was all there. | 0:25:15 | 0:25:17 | |
It's on our doorstep, really. It is only Scotland. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:20 | |
It was quite an adventure for a young boy who was born | 0:25:20 | 0:25:24 | |
in the middle of London, in Marylebone, overlooking a railway station. | 0:25:24 | 0:25:29 | |
It was quite incredible to come from that concrete jungle into this wilderness. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:34 | |
He may have left behind the noise, the people and the pollution, but also gone were the comforts of life. | 0:25:34 | 0:25:41 | |
We didn't have electricity, we didn't have running water, as such. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:45 | |
We had paraffin lamps and Tilley lamps, and that is how we lived. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:49 | |
It was a very different lifestyle. I loved it. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:52 | |
But, as Terry found out, adventure and danger go hand in hand. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:58 | |
Edal, the otter, bit these two fingers off. | 0:25:58 | 0:26:01 | |
She attacked me and it took me quite a while to get away from her, | 0:26:01 | 0:26:05 | |
but when I did get away from her, I found my hands were like mincemeat, | 0:26:05 | 0:26:08 | |
they had been torn to shreds. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:10 | |
Did that change your relationship with otters? | 0:26:10 | 0:26:13 | |
You don't keep an otter as a household pet. | 0:26:13 | 0:26:16 | |
That is one thing Gavin learned and we all learnt - they are not domestic dogs or domestic animals. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:20 | |
And they are unpredictable, being wild animals. | 0:26:20 | 0:26:24 | |
Maxwell's remote existence with the otters had captured the public imagination, | 0:26:24 | 0:26:30 | |
but the popularity of the book shattered the dream. | 0:26:30 | 0:26:33 | |
Maxwell was suddenly famous, and even this place offered no escape. | 0:26:33 | 0:26:38 | |
He couldn't cope with it. He was not a strong man that way. | 0:26:38 | 0:26:41 | |
So, he could not deal with it, but he did not want anyone to know that. So he started drinking more. | 0:26:41 | 0:26:46 | |
He started smoking more. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:47 | |
And the pressures became more because we started spending more money. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:52 | |
And next thing, agent on the phone - "You have to write a sequel. We're broke." | 0:26:52 | 0:26:59 | |
So, he wrote The Rocks Remain, the sequel to Ring of Bright Water, which was a disaster | 0:26:59 | 0:27:03 | |
because it was written in a hurry. | 0:27:03 | 0:27:05 | |
And it didn't have the same beauty, | 0:27:05 | 0:27:08 | |
the same anything, as Ring of Bright Water. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:10 | |
But that was the beginning of the end, really. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:13 | |
One night in 1968, Camusfearna burned to the ground. | 0:27:14 | 0:27:19 | |
Maxwell escaped, but Edal the otter died in the fire. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:23 | |
It was all very sad and Gavin... was devastated by it. | 0:27:23 | 0:27:30 | |
Because this is the place he loved, this was his Ring of Bright Water. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:34 | |
This was his haven. | 0:27:34 | 0:27:37 | |
Harold's route has taken me to the edge of the mainland, | 0:27:44 | 0:27:47 | |
the gateway to Skye along the military road that brought troops both in and out, | 0:27:47 | 0:27:52 | |
past the mysterious ruined brochs and down to the remote place | 0:27:52 | 0:27:57 | |
where one writer brought millions of people closer to nature | 0:27:57 | 0:28:01 | |
and encouraged them to experience the great outdoors. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:04 | |
Harold would have approved. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:07 | |
We have seen throughout this journey how outsiders have come in, | 0:28:07 | 0:28:11 | |
and whether it's 18th century invaders or Sitka spruces, | 0:28:11 | 0:28:14 | |
they found it hard to leave and they've changed the look of the landscape, | 0:28:14 | 0:28:19 | |
but they haven't changed its essential soul, its nature. | 0:28:19 | 0:28:22 | |
This is still a wild and remote part of Scotland. | 0:28:22 | 0:28:26 | |
Thoroughly worth the effort of getting here, hard to get to - and pretty hard to leave as well. | 0:28:26 | 0:28:32 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:28:39 | 0:28:42 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 |