Brand Scotland How Scotland Works

Scotland is changing.

The population has never been higher.

More than five million people live and work here.

The country is more diverse,

with more people speaking Polish than Gaelic at home.

The ethnic mix is richer than ever.

I find myself speaking with words like "wee."

Scotland's industries are evolving and digital businesses booming.

Engineering and old industries are being replaced by the new.

The growth and the jobs and the amazing new stuff is here.

More than two million foreign visitors a year

are boosting the Scottish economy.

You can swim with dolphins all over the world.

This is where you get to swim with monsters.

Wonderful!

So how does modern Scotland work?

What does it mean to be Scottish in 2015?

How are Scotland's jobs and industries

competing on a global stage?

How do others see us?

This series goes to the heart of contemporary Scottish life

to reveal...

Scotland has one of the most recognisable brands in the world.

It's romantic and seductive.

And it's worth billions to the Scottish economy each year.

Scotland's iconic attractions

draw millions of tourists from across the globe.

Scottish branding boosts exports to record levels.

Whisky is now worth £135 every second.

When they take that sip and they smell the peat

or they smell the heather, somehow that transports them

to a country which they may have never visited,

but which exists somewhere in their mind.

So what is the secret to brand Scotland's global appeal?

How is the image of Scotland being updated for the 21st century?

What happens when Scotland meets the world?

Edinburgh, 7am.

The start of another week for tour guide Mike Disbury.

Mike takes personal pride in welcoming foreign visitors to Scotland.

For many, it will be their first time in the country.

People who have virtually no connection to Scotland at all

quite often leave here with what I think is a little bit of the heart

belonging to Scotland in a strange sort of way, you know?

Mike is one small cog in Scotland's huge tourism machine.

Dozens of coach companies operate from this Edinburgh depot alone.

So many different companies,

Heart of Scotland and all the big coach companies,

turn up here in August in particular.

You can't move in here, it's full of coaches from all over Europe,

all departing here.

Mike has been a driver and guide for over a decade.

He's become familiar with the preconceptions that visitors have

when they arrive in Scotland.

I had an American women who came to Edinburgh and she was like...

AS AMERICAN: "Oh, my God, I mean, I knew they were castles in Scotland,

"but I didn't know, like, everyone lived in a castle."

She just sees the stone buildings and goes,

"Everybody's living in, like, a castle." You know?

I think it is, it's that sense of history,

it weighs quite heavy on people when they get here.

They know that Scotland's been around for a long time.

It is a fairly ancient country.

In a 2013 survey, American news channel CNN

named Scotland the number one tourist destination in the world.

Almost two and a half million foreigners visit Scotland each year.

Add in tourists from within Scotland and the rest of the UK,

and that goes up to 15 million.

And they all need somewhere to stay.

Edinburgh has almost 13,000 hotel bedrooms.

Hostels like this one cater for the thrifty traveller.

Mike's tours are aimed at this niche market.

The international backpacker.

Morning, guys.

Put anything big in the back, guys.

Take out anything you'll need for the day.

Cameras, sunscreen, that kind of thing.

Today, Mike is driving this group all the way to Skye.

It is the first leg of a three-day round trip.

Right, guys.

So we're just going to leave the world's greatest city,

which is Edinburgh just here, and we'll go over the Firth of Forth,

you can see the Forth coming in here.

We'll go through the Kingdom of Fife, around the fair city of Perth.

Soon as we get north of Perth, we'll get into the Highlands.

When we get to Loch Ness, don't know if any of you want to take

the Loch Ness challenge today to go for a swim in Loch Ness.

The water is the same temperature all year.

It's always seven degrees Celsius, so you'll be fine, like.

So, all excited?

-ALL:

-Yes.

-All right! Choo-choo! Let's go.

Mike's passengers are a truly international group.

They come from China, Chile, the Netherlands,

New Zealand and the USA.

2014 was a record-breaking year for foreign tourists visiting Scotland.

Americans were the most numerous, with the Germans coming in second.

Ireland, Sweden, Canada and Poland were also in the top ten.

And visitors from China increased as well.

Most of Mike's passengers are seeing Scotland for the first time.

So his route will take in as many Scottish icons as possible.

All right, guys, just approaching the Firth of Forth just now.

We're going to go over...

one of the world's most impressive suspension bridges,

finished in 1964, the Forth Road Bridge.

It's absolutely nothing compared to the bridge that stands

next to it, which is just called the Forth Bridge,

because it's the original bridge over here.

It carries the trains over.

So that is arguably the greatest bridge built in the history

of the world, just cos at 1890, that really is quite incredible.

So Scotland is attracting ever more foreign visitors to our shores.

Scots are also hard at work

exporting the taste of Scotland across the globe.

And there's one product that defines Scotland above all others -

whisky.

Scotch is one of the most famous products on earth.

For billions of people, Scotland and whisky are inextricably linked.

Global sales are booming.

It's shipped to 200 countries.

Annual exports are worth £4 billion.

The single most valuable market is America...

..currently worth 330 million a year.

Georgie Bell is a brand ambassador

for the biggest Scotch whisky producer, Diageo.

She has come to WhiskyFest New York to launch a new product,

a single malt from the Mortlach distillery on Speyside.

# I want to be a part of it New York, New York... #

It's a chance for me to do a malt liquor seminar, introduce people

to the new range, cos we've just launched here in the United States.

# They are longing to stray... #

Hundreds of American whisky fans have gathered here

to taste 350 whiskies from across the globe.

Whisky producers from all corners of Scotland are here to create

a buzz around their newest brands.

Scotch still inspires an intense devotion

that other whiskies struggle to match.

For these aficionados,

its appeal is as much about a romantic idea of Scotland

as it is about taste.

People love snippets of information on the history

and the distillery,

the little intricacies in every single different distillery

and how each different distillery has its own spirit and character.

The image of whisky is changing slowly.

Slowly but surely and you do sometimes get,

or I do sometimes get a little bit of a quizzical look

as to, "Is she lost? What is she doing here?

"Why is that young, little, not really traditional looking

"whisky girl standing in front of me?"

# Oh, New York... #

Whisky expert Steve Broom has given talks about Scotch

all around the world.

He is also attending the WhiskyFest.

Even he is sometimes surprised by the global fame

of Scotland's national drink.

It was when I was in Tunisia that I first realised how interlinked

Scotch and Scotland were, because people were asking me

where I was from and I was going, "Ecosse,"

and they were going, "Never heard of it."

And after about a week of this and getting increasingly frustrated,

I suddenly went, I went, "You know, Scotch whisky."

They went, "Ah, Scotch Land!"

And it's something that I think we tend to forget in Scotland,

we don't realise how important this is to people,

how people identify with Scotland through that drink in a glass,

that when they take that sip

and they smell the peat or they smell the heather, they smell the honey,

they smell the fruits, that somehow that transports them

to a country which they may have never visited

but which exists somewhere in their minds.

Today, Scotland isn't just exporting whisky,

it's also exporting know-how,

skills passed down from generation to generation of distillers

for more than 200 years.

How are you?

This Taiwanese distiller has begun making its own style of whisky

using traditional Scottish techniques and equipment.

Our chairman, Mr Lee, he's a whisky aficionado himself

and he loved whisky, so initially it was Scotch that he was drinking,

but then, you know, he wanted to have his own distillery

and that's why we set up our own distillery,

but most of the equipment is from Scotland

and it's a distillery making whisky the Scottish way,

except that it's produced in Taiwan.

That's right, with the heat of Taiwan.

So Taiwanese culture then becomes important for your whisky.

Yes, that's right. Since day one, we have noticed

that because of the heat, our whisky matures differently

with more pronounced fruitiness,

subtropical fruitiness in the whisky.

-Scotland and Taiwan working together.

-That's right.

Scotch blends were the first global brands.

Scotch was the first global spirit. America was incredibly important.

They became more important during Prohibition

because we opened our order books when the Irish closed theirs,

so Mr Capone got Scotch,

and look, there's 114 distilleries operational in Scotland at the moment

and they all do something just a little bit different

from their neighbour to make something that's singular,

something that's individual,

something that speaks of its place on the Earth,

and a specific spot on this small, slightly damp country

in the far north-west of Europe, and that's what people love about it.

In Scotland, whisky distilling is now a huge hi-tech industry.

It supports over 35,000 UK jobs.

Scotland has more than 100 distilleries.

Most are owned by big companies.

But the international market is now so buoyant

that small-scale micro-distillers are getting in on the action.

They're taking whisky back to its roots - on the farm.

One of the newest on the block is Daftmill in Fife.

Distilling, like farming, is a centuries-old tradition.

Can you see that up there?

The datestone?

Is that when you first came there?

Yeah, that's when we started this.

Farmer Francis Cuthbert has been growing barley used for whisky

for over 20 years.

Now he's gone into the whisky business for himself.

We're growing malting barley for making whisky,

but we sold the barley on to other distillers

and when the lorry left the farm road end,

we never really knew where it went.

So now we have full traceability from field to bottle.

It's pretty much the same as what farmers did 200 years ago.

How do you know when it's ready?

The kernels - well, it will change colour, it will go golden.

And the little peas of grain will be quite hard.

If you burst them at the moment,

they're still at the milky or soft dough stage.

If you bite it and it cracks, then it's dry enough.

Francis built his distillery on the farm.

Compared to most in Scotland, it's tiny.

Distilling is a long game.

Three years in, Francis has yet to bottle a single drop.

But he's confident he can produce a spirit that will appeal

to whisky connoisseurs worldwide.

Many things influence the taste.

The water we use, the barley we use, the yeast types we use,

and probably most importantly are the type of cask we use.

These are bourbon barrels. They've come from Kentucky.

Because trees are grown in different bits of the forest

and on different sides of the hill,

each cask matures the whisky slightly differently

and whether it's in the bottom of the warehouse or the top of the warehouse

affects it, so the whisky in every cask tastes slightly different.

The big companies blend them all together

to make a very consistent product.

We might bottle individual casks that are very different, so that you can

have several different whiskies and you can celebrate the difference.

And he's hopeful that his long-term investment will pay off.

Exports of Scotch went up by more than 80% over the last decade.

It seems the world can't get enough of uisge beatha, the water of life.

We're in the middle of a whisky bubble, if you like.

Whisky is the hot thing worldwide.

Sales have increased rapidly.

Some of the big companies have been caught with low levels of stock.

They're terrified that they can't meet demand,

so everyone is ramping up production.

There is a great deal of interest coming from overseas,

especially Northern Europe and America.

Even before its product hits the market, this newcomer is generating

a lot of interest among whisky buffs from all over the world.

Some even travel to see it for themselves.

There's somebody from Moscow,

Switzerland, San Francisco,

Pittsburgh, Berlin, Denmark...

Most of the visitors are into whiskies.

They are into visiting distilleries.

They are whisky geeks, if you like.

So they tend to be very knowledgeable.

Once people get the bug, they become very obsessive about it.

Francis is in no hurry to bottle his first batch.

It has to be ready, and that takes time.

He isn't trying to compete on volume, but on quality.

How do we compare? Our nearest neighbour, Cameron Bridge,

is doing over 100 million litres a year now of pure alcohol.

We aim to do 20,000 litres of pure alcohol.

Before they upgraded, I reckoned it would take us 11 years

to produce what they produce in a day. Now it'll take much longer.

Francis' micro-distillery may be dwarfed by the big players in Scotch

but this scarcity could make its whisky all the more exclusive.

Scotch whisky gets its unique character from the climate,

soil and water.

When you drink it, you really are imbibing a little bit of Scotland.

Much of Scotland's other world-famous food and drink

uses Scottishness as a selling point.

Salmon, oatcakes, haggis,

even teacakes are all clearly branded as coming from Scotland,

and the world can't seem to get enough of the taste of Scotland.

In the past decade, exports of Scottish food and drink

have increased by over 50%.

Annually, Scotland exports £500 million worth of fish and seafood

and £100 million worth of livestock,

although exports of haggis to America are still banned

thanks to a US law that prohibits the consumption of sheep lungs.

All this global demand is keeping producers very busy.

From farm to factory,

even Scotland's most traditional foods are going hi-tech.

In a field outside Cupar in Fife

stands this enormous Scottish porridge factory.

This £50 million facility produces porridge for the whole world.

Many of the oats are grown locally by farmers like John Hutcheson.

So in this shed we have about 550 tonnes,

which represents the whole of the 2014 harvest.

These oats are processed into porridge

on an automated computerised production line.

SHOUTED OVER MACHINE NOISE:

This is one of our high-speed filling lines.

We have four of these lines.

Three of them fill at 900 sachets a minute.

So this particular line, the sachets are all joined together,

then cut up into the individual sachets,

which are then transferred through to this part of the line,

which then puts them into cardboard cartons,

at this product, ten at a time,

and then these cartons are then weighed,

put through an X-ray machine to check for any foreign bodies,

and then they go up through a spiral,

they're transferred along to what we call the case packer.

Six cartons are then put into a cardboard case,

which is then transferred along,

and then goes up a spiral conveyor to an auto-palletiser.

So over the next 12 months,

our estimate is that we'll make 750 million sachets of porridge,

and overall in total combination of porridge through the year,

that this product and our other products will make

80,000 tonnes of porridge oats.

And finally, the taste test.

Now, this is the quality or sensory

that we do six times in a 24-hour period.

We need to ensure that what we have here is

what we want to go out the door.

Looks good, tastes good.

Global demand for porridge is rising.

And in recent years, a huge new market has opened up.

Shipments of porridge oats to the Middle East and North Africa

have grown by 25%,

where they form a key part of a Muslim diet during Ramadan.

Because oats are easy to digest and release their energy slowly,

it turns out they're the perfect food to eat after fasting all day.

And it's not just porridge manufacturers who are finding

untapped international markets for Scotland's natural bounty.

Seaweed is one of Scotland's most abundant wild plants.

From the Western Isles to the beaches of Fife,

it thrives in clear, cold Scottish waters.

One of our most popular seaweeds is this beastie here,

Laminaria digitata,

sometimes referred to as kombu or kobu from the Japanese word "happy".

The amino acids, the proteins that lie within that leaf,

come out to the surface and enhance the taste of all food,

so this will go in a miso soup, for instance, or you can bake with it.

If you put it in a lemon cake, you won't taste the seaweed,

but you'll just feel a deeper taste note of the lemon.

And it grows all around us.

Fiona Houston and her business partner, Rory MacPhee, aim to turn

their love of Scottish seaweed into a profitable export business.

For centuries, seaweed was a staple food among the coastal population.

This has been traditionally eaten in Scotland and Ireland for centuries.

We found some old documents from medieval, from the seventh century,

where they found that when they were valuing a croft,

that a rock, a big rock with dulse growing on it

was valued as much as a cow,

so it's full of iron and all sorts of nutrients

and it's really, really tasty.

What we're trying to do is export it around the world.

We're not so concerned about trying to convert people who think

we're crazy, cos there's all sorts of places all over the world where

seaweed is eaten on a daily basis.

I'm a real believer that Scotland can build big markets in south-east Asia

based upon just this incredibly clean, pure sea we've got,

and seaweed likes cold water,

and we've got cold water in Scotland, believe you me.

Exporting Scottish seaweed to Asia

might sound like an unlikely business proposition.

This stuff isn't obviously part of Scotland's global brand,

but the market in the Far East is huge.

Japan is one of the biggest consumers of seaweed.

Since the Fukushima nuclear accident

they are importing more due to safety fears.

And Rory sees a deeper affinity between Scotland and Japan.

The fascinating thing is, the cultures,

the Gaelic culture and the Japanese culture, totally distinct

but they share a love of the sea,

and seafood, and actually, we're both island races

and the way that the sea kind of works around Japan

and around the Western Isles is kind of the same.

Eating seaweed, working with seaweed,

it's like hands across the ocean in friendship.

The UK market for Scottish seaweed could also be significant.

It's all about educating the consumer.

Mmm! Look at that! That's interesting.

Mmm! Right, let's get down and see what we've got.

OK, now, what we're looking at, guys,

is this wonderful seaweed called bladderwrack,

so I'm going to cut you off each a little bit

and you're going to nibble on it.

Close your eyes, close your eyes and nibble. I'll go first.

-It's not great but it's not bad, is it?

-No.

What do you think, Callum?

I think it's not that bad either.

Strictly speaking, this wild seaweed belongs to the Queen.

The Crown Estate owns most of Scotland's coastal seabed.

To legally harvest it, Rory and Fiona had to obtain a licence.

So the next stage of their business plan will see them start to farm seaweed on an industrial scale

at a state-of-the-art facility by Loch Fyne.

What we're doing is using a natural resource in a sustainable way,

and that is what Scotland is really good at,

that's what all our fantastic food and drink companies are doing,

they're building businesses with the environment in mind

and that's really important.

Once it's processed, packed and ready to go,

this seaweed needs to be dispatched to markets abroad.

Scotland's transport and distribution system

handles over £15 billion worth of international exports every year.

Food and drink counts for around a third of this.

All those products - whisky, porridge, seaweed

and everything else - have to be packaged and loaded into containers

before they can be shipped out of the country.

The same goes for Scotland's other major exports like timber, chemicals

-and even recycled waste.

-I don't think a lot of people appreciate

when they're on the motorway or the car,

when they see a lorry going by with a container,

where that container has actually came from or where it's going to.

Scotland's biggest container port, Grangemouth on the Firth of Forth,

handles over 150,000 of these containers every year.

Lifting these huge metal boxes from shore to ship takes a steady hand

and a head for heights.

The biggest are 45 feet long.

Each must be placed in exactly the right spot

to avoid destabilising the load.

The staff here work 24/7, shipping Scottish products around the world.

I've a rough idea of where they're going because of the plan I've got.

It tells me, kind of, because we get different cargo

that goes on different ships, so going to different ports,

so we're here to ensure that they're loaded in the correct places.

Yeah, it could be anything from whisky to rice to anything,

potatoes - there's umpteen things, I believe, that's in these containers.

This port only handles containers,

but the last few years have seen an upsurge in a different kind

of high-value cargo being imported into Scotland by ship.

Tourists.

Scotland's iconic brand attracts millions of visitors

from all over the world.

The romance of Scottish history and culture draws them here

to experience Scotland for themselves.

They arrive by air, rail, road

and, increasingly, by sea.

Cruises into Scotland are booming.

390,000 passengers now dock here each year.

From Lerwick to Leith, Scotland's ports have never been so busy.

Disembarking this volume of visitors is a huge operation.

There's 647 passengers on board.

I'll get back to you just as soon as I'm clear here

but there's a lot happening round about here just now.

David Briggs is port agent at Leith's cruise liner terminal.

This ship was booked in in September 2012,

so there's a tremendous amount of effort goes into all this.

Today's ship, the Azamara Journey, has come from Denmark.

BAGPIPES PLAY "SINGIN' IN THE RAIN"

It will spend just 24 hours here before sailing north.

The world-famous Scottish weather

is making a special effort to welcome its passengers.

What a yucky day.

I've probably got a smudge in my mascara now.

Do you know, I play for them all.

It's a really busy time at the moment.

Had four cruise liners in on Friday.

Leith can handle ships up to 210 metres long.

It's just three miles from Edinburgh Castle,

but this probably isn't the image of Scotland

these visitors have been dreaming of.

A lot of the foreign visitors

who have perhaps never been in Scotland before,

who are really excited and thrilled to be here,

you know, some of them do expect that when the ship berths,

that they're maybe at the foot of the castle,

so they expect to maybe step off the ship and maybe just meander

through the terminal, then they'll climb up the stairs to the castle.

There's no time to wait for the rain to clear, it's straight onto

the waiting coaches for a whirlwind three-hour tour of the capital.

Now we're heading up Leith Walk.

Lovely rainy Scotland.

We have a saying here that...

more rain means more whisky,

so don't complain too much.

Edinburgh is Scotland's number-one tourist destination.

In the UK, it's second only to London.

3.7 million visitors spend a night here each year.

For the modern tourist who wants to experience

Scotland in a single afternoon, this is the place to be.

It's got hills, a castle...

bagpipers and acres of tartan.

The cruise passengers are whisked straight to one of the city's

top attractions - Edinburgh Castle.

Where are you guys from?

-Apple Valley, California.

-Oh.

-High desert.

What's your first impression of Scotland?

The shopping and the tartans and the bagpipes.

Can't forget the bagpipes.

For visitors like these with only a few hours

to experience what Scotland has to offer,

shopping becomes a way of taking a bit of the country home with them.

Tourists spend over a billion pounds in the city every year.

The ancient Royal Mile has become a strip of souvenir shops...

..but not everyone welcomes this tartan invasion.

Heritage groups have called for it to be controlled.

They worry it turns Edinburgh's historic heart

into a travesty of Scottishness.

The traders would disagree.

While tourists keep coming,

Scotland's brand is there to be exploited.

Right across the country from Edinburgh to the far north,

tourist spending is a big part of Scotland's economy.

In the Highlands, where other jobs are scarce,

tourism is now a key source of income for thousands of people.

Luckily, many visitors find the lure of the Highlands irresistible.

Scotland's hills and glens are world renowned for their beauty...

..and one of its 30,000 lochs is perhaps

the best-known stretch of water on Earth.

Backpacker tour-guide Mike has taken a detour on the way to Skye

so his passengers can meet the famous resident of Loch Ness.

Perhaps the most famous bit of freshwater in the world

and it's got a monster in it, what more do you want?

Loch Ness contains more water than all the lakes

and rivers in England and Wales combined.

Just like haggis and all those kilts,

it defines Scotland in the eyes of the world.

Mike's passengers have flown thousands of miles for this...

..who could resist a dip?

You can swim with dolphins all over the world but...

this is where you get to swim with monsters.

There's not many places in the world you can say that.

I made eye contact with him. Yes, I did.

He left quickly.

Nice one.

Loch Ness, like Scotland's romantic castles, glens and islands,

is both a real place and a kind of mythical destination.

Warm you up in moments.

Oh, yeah, thank you.

Wonderful.

It's a lifelong dream. I can now die happy.

When do my testicles come back?

That's what I mean, in about a week you'll get them back.

In a globalised world, these iconic attractions,

which exist nowhere else on Earth, are ever more valuable.

Whisky and Loch Ness, how Scottish do you want it?

Swimming in the icy-cold water.

For one Edinburgh family in particular,

selling Scottishness has become big business.

At the top of the Royal Mile's tourist strip

just below the castle, is the Tartan Weaving Mill.

Here, tourists flock to see the iconic cloth

being made before their eyes.

BAGPIPES PLAY

Naturally, it also sells bagpipes.

In charge of this tartan emporium is 27-year-old Bana Singh Gold.

So this is a basic practise chanter

and I'll show you how it works, yeah?

HE PLAYS AMAZING GRACE

That's that.

Bana's dad is Surinder Singh.

25 years ago, Surinder opened his first of many

souvenir shops in Edinburgh.

We've got about 15 to 20 shops on the Royal Mile

and every kind of shop has got a different kind of...a look to it.

Like we do... We have got John Morrison's Kiltmakers

that do bespoke kilts,

made to measure with the actual... You know, the real quality materials.

And everything in that shop's made in Scotland

and the other shops which is like the souvenir side,

like if you want a cheap Jimmy hat or key rings

and all the kind of touristy kind of merchandise.

Now Bana has taken over the family's flagship store.

I know the heritage, I know the culture,

I know the tartans, I could name probably 500 tartans just...

People say, "What tartan's that?"

And I'll go, "Oh, that's that." And if I'm abroad or here

or there, I can say, "Oh, that's the Campbell or that's the Mackay

"or you're from the Ferguson clan" or whatever it might be, you know?

So people look at me and say, "Wow, how do you know that?"

And I'm like, "I have been working in the Scottish tourism

"and tartan industry since I was 13-year-old, you know,

"so it just comes natural now."

Bana's customers come from all over the world.

He needs to cater to all their different national tastes.

Basically when an English person comes in our shop,

the only thing they're going to buy is shortbread cos

they don't want anything that says Scotland all written on it, mostly.

This is one of our capes

and this is a new size that we've actually created and that's

just for the Chinese customers that are a little bit shorter.

But the shop's main attraction are its hundreds of different tartans.

Visitors are fascinated by tartan's family associations,

so Bana and his family have designed their own.

A lot of Scottish people who haven't got a clan can actually wear it

and still be a part of Scotland.

Just like us, really.

That's what... It kind of came...

We never had our own tartan, because obviously we're Sikh.

And then we thought, "Right, let's make our own tartan

"and it can be a part of us, and we've done something for Scotland."

Scotland's ethnic minority population

has been growing since the 1960s.

But, in previous eras,

far more people were leaving Scotland than arriving.

Beginning in the 18th century,

millions of Scots left for all corners of the British Empire,

attracted by the promise of adventure,

or in search of a better life.

This process exported Scottishness all around the world.

BAGPIPES PLAY

Today, one of Scotland's most iconic annual events,

the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, reflects this Scottish diaspora.

The Tattoo was first staged in Edinburgh in 1950.

Since then, the live show has been seen by over 30 million people.

Originally a show for massed pipes and drums,

today's Tattoo features acts from across the globe.

Each summer, over 75,000 foreign visitors buy tickets.

The worldwide TV audience is 100 million.

It's Scotland's biggest global stage.

Here, the image of Scottishness is projected to the world.

PIPES AND DRUMS PLAY A MARCHING BEAT

FIREWORKS CRACKLE

In charge of this huge logistical operation

is CEO Brigadier David Allfrey.

We've never turned off a show.

It doesn't matter what the weather does, we crack on,

and the cast are extraordinary.

If the weather is a bit...sporting,

they just soak it up without complaint.

It's very much part of the show.

In fact, some of our overseas contributors don't wear very much,

so it is really very cold and sometimes a little bit wet.

Rehearsals bring together performers from more than a dozen countries.

Thanks to the Scots who left in previous centuries,

many of these visitors have strong ties to Scotland.

-We're feeling naughty...

-THEY LAUGH

Well, many of us have a Scottish heritage.

I have Scottish blood in me. I'm a Maxwell.

My surname's Maxwell, so I come from the Maxwell clan. So...

It's eight generations.

My ancestor, Thomas Maxwell, who left here on a ship...

..in the 1820s, and arrived in New Zealand in the 1820s.

We were complaining about the long flight, 44 hours,

so to put our journey and their journey into context, it's, um...

Trying to imagine what they went through, going by sea -

there was no GPS or anything like that at that time, but it's...

really, really, um...

exciting and a very happy time for me

and lots of our other members that have that Scottish ancestry.

When the...

the Scottish traders married into our Maori race

and populated New Zealand.

So the Tattoo has gone global.

But to say it represents modern, multiethnic Scotland

would be a stretch.

Its core appeal is still the massed pipes and drums

of the Highland Regiments.

This image of Scotland, as a land of kilted warriors,

is something that global storytellers and audiences

can't seem to resist.

The archetype, from Braveheart to Pixar's heroine in Brave,

just won't go away.

Probably because it's worth big bucks.

Today, a new screen version of Scotland's romantic Jacobite era

is being produced for the world market.

OK, nice and quiet the floor, guys. Still everywhere.

This multimillion dollar Hollywood production

is based in a brand-new film studio

in a disused electronics factory in Cumbernauld.

So this is our prop department.

And this is equally the size of any studio prop house

in the United States.

This is A Stage, this is our largest sound stage.

It has that highest ceiling,

we've brought in soundproofing for the entire thing.

We've added the entire grid system and put in electrical.

Soundproof walls - did these big airlock double doors.

Ronald D Moore is one of America's

most successful television producers.

He is the man behind the acclaimed reboot

of the sci-fi show Battlestar Galactica.

Looking for his next hit,

he has turned to a Scottish historical drama

about a time-travelling nurse

who finds herself in the 18th-century Highlands.

He's confident that this image of Scotland still sells.

With a budget of £50 million,

Outlander is the most expensive production ever filmed here.

-Here we go.

-Still!

It's expected to be seen by a huge worldwide audience.

Shooting in Scotland itself was a key part of the process.

We never seriously scouted any other country other than Scotland

so, right from the beginning, we said,

"It is about this place, we should try to take advantage of it,"

and we knew that a lot of Scotland had not been shot -

if ever, or at least in many years.

So we'd have a lot of interesting backgrounds and landscapes

that the audience wasn't used to seeing.

And I like the weather, personally.

I live in Los Angeles, and LA is a desert -

you're not supposed to live there, in my opinion, and it's too hot.

And you come here and it's actually kind of pleasant and it rains

and it's moist and it's not dry heat, you know?

So I enjoy the people and the weather the most.

In pursuit of authenticity, Outlander's largely Scottish crew

were challenged to shoot in some extreme conditions.

One of our directors, who is from Hollywood,

has commented that some of the locations

and some of the scenes that we've shot that Hollywood crews

wouldn't have managed it and she was astounded that we'd made it through

some of the rain and the mud and the bad weather

and the tough conditions.

So, apart from toughness aside,

Scotland does have a lot of talent here

and this show definitely goes to prove that Scotland can

work at the highest levels within the film and television business.

We were aware of all the Scottish pieces from Brigadoon to

Braveheart and Rob Roy and there's a great romance,

almost mysticism, to Scotland in the popular imagination,

at least in the States, and we wanted to cut against that.

We wanted to make this piece more real,

give it a sense of authenticity

so that the audience believe that they are really on this

journey with Claire,

that when she travelled back in time that they were going to a real

place, so we kind of deliberately set out to sort of not do a lot of things

that other productions have done when they've tried to portray Scotland.

I believe that you have secrets...

Since it started airing in the States, this series has been

inspiring viewers to write in with enquiries about Scotland.

Visit Scotland has started organising tours of the locations.

One aspect above all seems to have sparked the audience's imagination.

Some of the dialogue is in Gaelic without subtitles.

Gaelic consultant Adhamh O Broin has been teaching the cast how to

speak an historically accurate version of the language.

HE SPEAKS GAELIC

Good. You've got that dead vowel again.

Foghlam. Foghlam.

There's a sort of huge burst of worldwide interest

in the language and culture extending past the whisky

and the bagpipes and extending much closer to the heart of where

this culture comes from.

Even though it is a work of fiction for the screen, the producers take

the idea of authenticity with the Scottish culture extremely

seriously and that when people get interested in it,

they should get interested in something that they can visit

Scotland and then touch that living vein, you know,

with the soul of Scotland running through it rather than just buying

a bunch of stuff, sticking it in a bag and jumping on the plane home.

You know, they can take a real piece of Scotland home in their hearts

now because they've known what to look for when they came here.

Giving visitors a sense of the reality behind Scotland's romantic

image is something that tour guide Mike also feels passionate about.

His tour has arrived at Eilean Donan Castle on Lochalsh.

Of all Scotland's thousands of castles,

this is perhaps the most iconic and most photographed.

It is quite important on our tours because it's such an iconic castle.

People have seen it,

travelled far around the world, seen it on postcards and things.

They may not know it's called Eilean Donan but a lot of people

when they see this for the first time, they go,

"Oh, I've seen that in postcards in Edinburgh" or wherever they are.

Eilean Donan has become the definitive Highland stronghold.

But this castle isn't all it seems.

The original medieval fortress on the site

was almost completely destroyed in 1719

and was later rebuilt in the 20th century.

A lot of people argue that it's quite fake

but I'd just argue it's a restored castle rather than a fake castle.

Mike tries to explain to all his passengers that the true story

of Scotland is more complex than the legend and more interesting.

I suppose it is important that the real history of places is

conveyed to people as well and that this is a place that things

happened and I think they get a lot more out of that.

It's the stories that we tell

and adding something more mystical into the landscape or making

it matter more, I think,

that can make someone like Scotland a lot or love it.

It can make that difference.

Scotland's landscape can sometimes seem like a theme park

but understanding that real people live

and work here gives these visitors a richer sense of the country.

As they finally approach the Isle of Skye, Mike takes time to

relate a local tale of a battle for freedom from the more recent past.

It's been a few years since the tolls have been taken off

but it was about £25 one-way and it was just so expensive,

the bridge, that people would pay in 1p pieces

and people have criminal records for refusing to pay the tolls

and it was the Scottish government that ended up buying the bridge

and freeing it of tolls so it's just like all other roads

and bridges in Scotland.

The Skye Bridge is now free which still pleases me to this very day.

And now the exciting bit.

Are you ready? Here we go.

We're going to land on the Isle of Skye.

So, guys, welcome to the Isle of Skye.

APPLAUSE

Whoo-hoo!

Nah. That wasn't too enthusiastic. Let's do a really enthusiastic one.

Welcome to the Isle of Skye!

CHEERING

The village of Kyleakin will be their resting place for the night.

They've driven 270 miles today and taken in the Forth Bridge,

Loch Ness, and Scotland's most famous castle.

I'll see you in the pub. If not, 9:00 here. Yeah, fantastic, good stuff.

There's time for one more hit of Scotland before bed -

the local pub and their encounter with the national dish.

-How is the haggis?

-Yes, I like it.

He think it's better than that food.

Do you know what's in it?

-LAUGHTER

-No.

What's in it?

Yeah. What's in it? Tell us.

The intestines of a sheep.

Oh. It's OK.

The pub's owner, Willie Park,

and many local people here rely on these visitors for their livelihood.

Tourism is hugely important.

Lots of businesses would not be here if it wasn't for tourism.

But this meeting of people from all over the world, here

in a small corner of the Highlands, is about more than just money.

They enhance the experience for the staff and the local people.

It's part of the social fabric of this village, actually.

People all around the world would almost give their hind teeth

to have a culture or a national dress like Scotland has.

It's recognised throughout the world and I think we should embrace that,

I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

I do understand the shortbread tin image of Scotland is something

that's maybe not something we should be pushing all the way

but it's certainly part of us and we shouldn't shy away from it, I think.

No!

For Mike's tourists too, immersing themselves in Scotland,

even for one day, has given the romantic image of the country depth.

You think of the kilts and the bagpipes, the stereotypical

and the Braveheart, but I didn't know anything about true Scotland.

When I got here, I just instantly fell in love with the country

because the people are just so nice, they're very proud

and they should be, should be very proud of everything here.

I think it's vitally important that when they arrive here,

we don't just give them the Disneyworld image of Scotland,

we give them a bit more and we realise this is a working, living

place that means so much to the people who are here

in the modern day, not just from whatever's happened in the past.

So Scotland still has one of the most seductive brands

of any country in the world.

It's founded on the romance of the Scottish landscape and history.

But it also plays a key role in the modern 21st century nation

because Brand Scotland is the foundation of hi-tech industries

and hundreds of thousands of jobs.

And tonight, in Edinburgh,

the brand is about to get another massive global boost.

Up at the castle esplanade,

the Tattoo is swinging into action for another evening.

But tonight's performance is no ordinary event.

It is being filmed for a huge worldwide TV audience.

Producer, Brigadier David Allfrey

rallies the troops for what promises to be a blustery show.

We need to hang on to our bits tonight.

I think it's going to be a bit draughty.

'Who's here from Australia tonight?'

-CHEERING

-'Ah, good on you. Welcome to you!'

The audience seems undaunted by the weather.

It's a sell-out crowd.

The performers have been braving wind and rain all week,

but the show must go on.

-Are you all dried out after yesterday?

-Just about.

Because that was damn wet, wasn't it?

Well done, everybody.

The brigadier has never allowed bad weather to cancel a performance.

He's not about to start tonight.

So, ready for a bit of a blowy night?

-Yes, sir.

-Yeah? It is going to be.

We want to be hanging on to kilts and plaids and everything else.

Otherwise the audience will get a little more than they bargained for.

Well done. Well done, everybody.

PIPE BAND PLAYING

Each show has a live audience of almost 9,000 people.

Many will have travelled thousands of miles to be here.

The dancers, drummers and pipers

are ready to give them a Scottish spectacle they'll never forget.

You, presumably, are all going to be wonderful again?

-Are you going to be all right in wind in this?

-It's cold tonight.

-It is.

Please take care, particularly between shows.

-Are you all right with the "a pointe" at the beginning?

-Yeah, we're good.

Brilliant. Really.

Isn't it the way? Always late.

Up in the control room, Brigadier Allfrey monitors the images

that are being filmed and beamed across the world.

We're at the moment talking to Doordarshan,

the Indian state broadcaster,

who has an audience of 500 million, so...

if those combine with channels that are in China, we are chasing -

and I hope this doesn't feel or sound arrogant -

we are chasing a one billion television audience.

Which is very important to us. And this is all part of that story.

With a potential TV audience of a billion people,

the show needs to defy the elements and go off with a bang.

Once the massed pipes and drums swing into action,

the Scottish weather doesn't stand a chance.

APPLAUSE

This is Scotland being projected onto a massive global stage.

And the audience during this...will spontaneously clap,

not just at the end.

They're clapping now, because this is so good.

DISTANT APPLAUSE Look at that. Almost on cue.

-WOMAN:

-This won't be the last Tattoo, will it?

-This one?

Absolutely not. 65 years, ready for another 65.

And when you see stuff like this, this is just phenomenal.

HE HUMS ALONG

And then there's a thistle to end.

You know, iconically Scottish.

Da-DUM. And ends on the beat. Lovely.

APPLAUSE Just very, very good.

With its modern mix of nationalities,

the Tattoo reflects the impact Scotland has made on the world,

and the world's influence on Scotland.

But at heart, it remains a classic Scottish spectacle.

Its worldwide TV appeal proves that Scotland's romantic global image,

Brand Scotland, is as strong as ever.

Maybe some of those far-flung television viewers

will decide to visit for themselves.

Next time, how is the face of Scotland changing?

We do see ourselves as Asian Scots.

And I think that the lines between cultures

become a little bit less distinguished.

Which is really nice.

How do we live in the 21st century?

CHEERING

I'm just thrilled that I've got the health to be able to do this.

And who are the people that call themselves Scots?

-Welcome to Scotland.

-Welcome to the world!

Welcome to the world.