0:00:07 > 0:00:09# Katie Morag
0:00:09 > 0:00:11# Far away across the ocean
0:00:11 > 0:00:13# Katie Morag
0:00:13 > 0:00:15# Over the sea to Struay
0:00:15 > 0:00:17# Katie Morag
0:00:17 > 0:00:20# Far away across the ocean
0:00:20 > 0:00:22# Katie Morag
0:00:22 > 0:00:24# Over the sea to Struay
0:00:24 > 0:00:26# Katie Morag. #
0:00:26 > 0:00:29LAUGHTER
0:00:29 > 0:00:30I love parties,
0:00:30 > 0:00:35and I reckon Grannie Island's are the best in the whole wide world.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39They go on way past our bedtime, but as long as we've
0:00:39 > 0:00:43brushed our teeth and put on our jammies, we're allowed to stay up.
0:00:43 > 0:00:48Grannie Island doesn't call them parties, she calls them ceilidhs.
0:00:55 > 0:01:00Right then, boys and girls, ladies and gentleman, let's gather round.
0:01:00 > 0:01:06Who's ready tonight for some REAL entertainment?
0:01:06 > 0:01:10Most people think ceilidhs are all about dressing up in kilts
0:01:10 > 0:01:13and whirling each other around the room,
0:01:13 > 0:01:16but at Grannie Island's ceilidhs we don't just dance,
0:01:16 > 0:01:20we sing songs, play music, and tell stories as well.
0:01:41 > 0:01:43Oh, when I get my breath back.
0:01:43 > 0:01:45It's time to pin the tale on the island!
0:01:45 > 0:01:47Now, whose turn is it?
0:01:47 > 0:01:49Me, me, me, me, me!
0:01:49 > 0:01:52I think, Agnes, you'll find it's Hector!
0:01:52 > 0:01:54Come on, Hector. There you go.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58There you go, boy. That's it.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04Oh, you're a big lad.
0:02:04 > 0:02:06- Hector... Right, can you see?- No.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08I'm going to spin you round.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12Round and round and round and now you're on your own...
0:02:12 > 0:02:16We always play pin the tale at Grannie Island's ceilidhs.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20The children take turns sticking a wee pin in the map of Struay.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24Then one of the grown-ups tells us a tale about that part of the island.
0:02:28 > 0:02:30Oh! It's the village.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33Now, who knows a story about the village?
0:02:33 > 0:02:36There must be hundreds of good stories about the village!
0:02:36 > 0:02:40- Oh! I know a great one! - Bel it is then!- OK.
0:02:40 > 0:02:41Oh!
0:02:43 > 0:02:45SHE CLEARS HER THROAT
0:02:47 > 0:02:51This story is one of the oldest you'll ever have heard
0:02:51 > 0:02:55and every single word of it is true.
0:02:55 > 0:02:56HE CLEARS HIS THROAT
0:02:56 > 0:02:59Well...some of it is anyway!
0:02:59 > 0:03:02Now most folk in the olden days were very poor,
0:03:02 > 0:03:04but they worked hard and got by.
0:03:04 > 0:03:09But one year disaster struck and the reason was...tatties.
0:03:09 > 0:03:10Potatoes.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14Now, the tatties got sick, so people couldn't eat them.
0:03:14 > 0:03:19So no tatties, no food, and everyone became very, very hungry indeed.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23One of those hungry souls was a young lad from Ullapool named
0:03:23 > 0:03:25Calum MacAulay.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28Calum had no family around him, or a home to call his own,
0:03:28 > 0:03:32so he wandered the country looking for food and shelter.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36One day, just across the sea here, at Ardnamurchan,
0:03:36 > 0:03:40he spotted an old wooden rowboat abandoned on the beach.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43Calum was starving, so he decided to row across to the big
0:03:43 > 0:03:47island of Mull and try his luck there.
0:03:47 > 0:03:51Now, Calum was a kind boy, and handsome too, with bright
0:03:51 > 0:03:55green eyes, and lovely red hair, rather like you, Hector McColl!
0:03:55 > 0:03:58And though he'd hardly been to school,
0:03:58 > 0:04:02he was as clever a lad as you could ever meet.
0:04:02 > 0:04:07But Calum was not a good sailor, in fact, he was a rotten sailor!
0:04:07 > 0:04:11And instead of rowing south to Mull, he headed west...
0:04:11 > 0:04:14After a while, Calum began to panic,
0:04:14 > 0:04:17thinking he'd have to row all the way to America!
0:04:17 > 0:04:22Finally, he caught sight of a pretty wee island with five tall mountains
0:04:22 > 0:04:24along the top of it.
0:04:24 > 0:04:26And that island was Struay!
0:04:26 > 0:04:30At last Calum reached the shore and he set off along the path,
0:04:30 > 0:04:32until he came to the village.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35He went up to the very first door and knocked on it.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39Now, people in the old days were normally kind to travellers,
0:04:39 > 0:04:43but in these hard times, folk were wary of strangers.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46Eventually, a young woman came to the door,
0:04:46 > 0:04:49a pretty girl by the name of Fiona.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52Calum said he was sorry to trouble her,
0:04:52 > 0:04:56but did she have a crust of bread, or a handful of oats he could have?
0:04:56 > 0:04:59Fiona felt sorry for Calum, but explained that they were
0:04:59 > 0:05:02a poor family and didn't have anything to spare.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06He thanked her anyway and went on to the next house,
0:05:06 > 0:05:10where he heard the exact same story - times were hard, nothing to spare.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13And the same at the next, and so on, and so on.
0:05:13 > 0:05:19Calum was about to give up, when he spotted an old iron pot
0:05:19 > 0:05:24lying near the village well and that's when he had an idea.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27He washed the pot out, filled it with water
0:05:27 > 0:05:30and built a little fire and put the water on to boil.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33And then he started looking for a rock.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37His search went on for quite a while, some stones were too big,
0:05:37 > 0:05:41some too small, some too round, others not quite round enough.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45And then, finally, he found the perfect one,
0:05:45 > 0:05:48and he rinsed it in the well and plopped it in the pot.
0:05:48 > 0:05:49STONE PLOPS
0:05:49 > 0:05:52There was no TVs and computers then,
0:05:52 > 0:05:56so if folk wanted entertainment, they looked out their windows!
0:05:56 > 0:05:59And that's exactly what everyone was doing!
0:05:59 > 0:06:02Staring at this mysterious stranger,
0:06:02 > 0:06:07boiling up a pot of water with nothing in it except a rock.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09Fiona was the first to come out,
0:06:09 > 0:06:13she was desperate to know what on earth he was up to.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16So she walked right up to him, and asked.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20"Well, surely it's obvious," Calum replied.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24"I'm making a lovely big pot of stone soup."
0:06:24 > 0:06:29"Stone soup?! I've never heard of such a thing."
0:06:29 > 0:06:32"Well, you don't know what you're missing," Calum said.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36"I've eaten roast beef in Orkney and pies in Dundee,
0:06:36 > 0:06:39"pork chops in Glasgow and cheese in Tiree."
0:06:39 > 0:06:40LAUGHTER
0:06:40 > 0:06:43"But there's not a dish in the whole of Scotland
0:06:43 > 0:06:45"as delicious as stone soup."
0:06:47 > 0:06:50Fiona looked at him in amazement.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53Calum looked at the pot and sighed.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57"Of course, to make it absolutely perfect, I should really add
0:06:57 > 0:06:59"a little something, a carrot maybe.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03"Still...it'll be fine the way it is."
0:07:03 > 0:07:06Fiona thought for a moment and then she spoke up.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10"Well, um, I might have a couple of carrots."
0:07:10 > 0:07:14"Well," Calum said, "That would be a treat, right enough,
0:07:14 > 0:07:18"and when the soup's made, I'll share it with you."
0:07:18 > 0:07:21So, Fiona fetched carrots, and Calum added them to the soup.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24As he and Fiona sat watching the pot simmer,
0:07:24 > 0:07:26more people came out of their houses.
0:07:26 > 0:07:31Calum smiled at them and tasted a spoonful of the broth.
0:07:31 > 0:07:36"Mmm," he said, "As good a stone soup as I've ever tasted!
0:07:36 > 0:07:40"Of course, some sliced up onion would add a finishing touch,
0:07:40 > 0:07:42"but I mustn't be greedy."
0:07:43 > 0:07:47At that, an old woman announced that she had a small bag of onions.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51If Calum were to share the soup with her and her family,
0:07:51 > 0:07:53she'd gladly add them to the mix.
0:07:53 > 0:07:54Calum was delighted!
0:07:54 > 0:07:57The onions were added, and a short while later,
0:07:57 > 0:08:02Calum declared it the finest broth in the whole of the Hebrides!
0:08:02 > 0:08:06By this time, the entire village was gathered round the large pot,
0:08:06 > 0:08:11and they had to admit that the stone soup was smelling very fine indeed.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13But one of the neighbours said,
0:08:13 > 0:08:16"Maybe a wee bit of ham wouldn't do any harm?"
0:08:16 > 0:08:18"Oh, no indeed," said Calum.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22"The people of the Borders were known for adding ham
0:08:22 > 0:08:23"to their stone soup."
0:08:23 > 0:08:27"Well," said the neighbour, "I might have a few slices,"
0:08:27 > 0:08:28and in they went.
0:08:28 > 0:08:30They all wanted to add something now.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33Some brought beans, others had peas, barley,
0:08:33 > 0:08:36all manner of wonderful things.
0:08:36 > 0:08:41After two hours, Calum declared the stone soup was well and truly ready.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44Everyone rushed into their houses
0:08:44 > 0:08:47and emerged with bowls and spoons of all shapes and sizes.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50They filled their plates and filled them again,
0:08:50 > 0:08:54until there wasn't one single drop left.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56Then, someone found a fiddle
0:08:56 > 0:09:00and they danced and danced till the sun went down.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04In the years that followed, if you ask folk on Struay to
0:09:04 > 0:09:08name their favourite food, you would only get one answer.
0:09:08 > 0:09:10"Why, stone soup, of course.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14"All you need is a pot of water and a nice round stone...
0:09:14 > 0:09:18"though you can add a bit of this and a bit of that
0:09:18 > 0:09:20"if you're feeling fancy."
0:09:20 > 0:09:23Now, Calum decided to stay on Struay.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27He'd taken a liking to Fiona and she to him.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30Soon they were married and every Sunday he would make
0:09:30 > 0:09:33a great, big, delicious pot of stone soup
0:09:33 > 0:09:37with that very same rock he used the first day they met.
0:09:37 > 0:09:42It was always enough to feed them and their seven children!
0:09:42 > 0:09:46The rock was passed down to their oldest daughter
0:09:46 > 0:09:48and she passed it on to hers
0:09:48 > 0:09:51until eventually it came to Grannie Island!
0:09:51 > 0:09:56Because Calum was her great-great-great-grandfather.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00And I have that very stone right here!
0:10:00 > 0:10:03CHEERING
0:10:10 > 0:10:14Well, that brought a tear to my eye. Thank you, Bel!
0:10:14 > 0:10:18Alistair and Jane, how's about giving us another tune?!
0:10:18 > 0:10:19Eh? Wow!
0:10:19 > 0:10:21WHOOPING
0:10:21 > 0:10:24We love the ceilidh stories and always want to hear more,
0:10:24 > 0:10:28but Grannie Island says the same thing, "Time for another tune!"
0:10:31 > 0:10:34And by the time the grown-ups have finished dancing,
0:10:34 > 0:10:36we're usually fast asleep.
0:10:39 > 0:10:41MUSIC CONTINUES
0:10:46 > 0:10:49Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd