Episode 3 Home Ground

Hello and welcome to Home Ground,

the series celebrating the richness of rural life.

Yes. Tonight, Jo and I will be introducing

you to a host of stories

and people who use the countryside for work, rest and play.

And here's what's coming up on tonight's programme.

Come on, darling.

That's my baby.

From Game Of Thrones to Bafta Award-winners,

I meet the stars of the big screen with a difference.

We were on the lookout for birds, but ended up surrounded by dolphins.

Just your average day out on the Antrim coast.

THEY SHOUT, JO LAUGHS

And I'm repairing dry stone walls with a special group of volunteers.

Later in the programme,

we'll have a full weather forecast for you for the week ahead.

First tonight, I'm on Carrick-a-Rede

and, just for a change, this rope bridge isn't the main attraction.

Last year, more than 300,000 visitors came here to cross

this rope bridge,

but I'm here to see what's tucked in around the far side -

the fisherman's cottage and fishery.

Two years ago, the crane at the fishery was smashed during

a winter storm, so, a few weeks ago, the National Trust embarked

on a project to replace it

and help restore the fishery to how it used to be.

The crane really tells the story of why the bridge,

the rope bridge itself, is here in the first place.

This was a working salmon fishery,

a really important part of our history here,

and cultural heritage...

at the site.

So, for over 300 years, there has been salmon fishing here

and, because it's quite an inaccessible place,

it was easier to store the boat on the island

than to take it back to the nearest harbour,

which would have been Ballintoy.

It was a good hour and a half's row from here.

So, they winched the boat up onto the island and stored it overnight,

and they had to fish the next day again.

And it hasn't been a straightforward job.

Every part of the crane has had to be carried over the bridge,

down to the fishery, and then assembled at the far side.

Well, Frank and his team have been hard at it.

And today, I'm back to meet them as they apply the final touches.

-Well, Frank, how are you doing?

-Hello, Jo.

-You're making great progress here.

-We are indeed.

It's gone really well so far, thankfully.

Super. Another hard day at the office.

-Indeed. It's not easy.

-Somebody's gotta do it.

Listen, people flock here in their thousands -

it's not hard to see why.

-Primarily for the rope bridge.

-Yeah.

But not many talk about the cottage or even know that it's here.

No, it's hidden inside of the cliff here, so...

But, I mean, the cottage and the fishery was the main reason

for the bridge being replaced.

It's beautiful, but it's fairly remote.

You wouldn't want to get stuck here on your own for too long, would you?

No. It is very remote, it's very difficult,

and I think it was probably one of the most difficult

fisheries on the north coast

while it was in operation. The sheer...

problems of getting the boat and the fish onto the island...

and then getting them back up to the ice house,

which was right up the roadside...

was a big task.

Do you know? It's not till you're down here that you appreciate

just how hairy it is and how difficult

it would have been for fisherman, you know,

at the end of a busy day, to start trying to bring this boat up here.

I can't imagine.

Yeah. I think that's the one thing that, for us,

is the appreciation we have gained for the effort that those

guys had to go through...

to catch fish.

Such a precarious place.

The whole coastline here was dotted with fisheries,

but this was one of the better ones and Carrick-a-Rede itself

-translates as "to rock in the road"...

-Yeah.

..so we're standing on the rock that was in the road of the fish,

as they hugged the coastline, trying to find the rivers

to go back to spawn.

So, it was the perfect place to catch fish...

although it left it more difficult.

We're doing the finishing touches.

-Just putting the steel straps on and securing all the bolts...

-Right.

..so it's nice and tight,

and all the joints are nice and tight.

Well, you've a willing volunteer here. Have I got a job at all?

We'll certainly get you a job, all right.

-SHE LAUGHS

-I'll be glad to hand it over.

If you just want to step on in.

Through here, yeah. Great. OK.

'There's no salmon fishing here any more,

'but this project aims to preserve the history of Carrick-a-Rede.'

Very helpful. You can see I'm a dab hand at this.

I mean, this is all about preservation, really, isn't it?

We need to be able to tell this story for years to come.

It's really important to hold on to our heritage and our past,

and be able to tell those stories.

So the crane, hopefully, will be here for ever,

the salmon fishery restored, and now people can access it

and enjoy a wider experience here at Carrick-a-Rede,

rather than just the bridge.

-And see it as it once was, in all its glory.

-Indeed, yeah.

You know what? I think I'm going to leave this to the professionals.

-Stick to my day job.

-SHE LAUGHS

All right.

If you've been watching Game Of Thrones

then it's highly likely you'll recognise some of this

stunning coastline from the series, but maybe you haven't noticed

some of the stars from Richhill in County Armagh.

The animals of Forthill Farm

have been in some of the biggest productions around.

I've been to meet some four-legged celebrities.

'Kenny Gracey is a farmer who knows all about diversification.

'His family have been farming this land just outside Tandragee

'for more than 300 years.'

But, in more recent times, things have taken a twist.

Kenny has turned his hand to training and supplying animals

to the growing TV and film industry here

and I am here to meet a few of the stars.

Hilda and Mabel are in here.

-Big girls.

-Now, you don't see too much or too many like them,

but a lot of the films

that are being done at the moment are medieval.

I don't think they're too happy you've just woken them up.

Oh, no, they're happy. They're as happy as Larry.

They just... They want to talk to me.

Sure...you could lie down with them, you know?

They are just saying hello, aren't you?

They just love a wee bit of a scratch.

A scratch behind the ear.

-Yeah.

-Like us all.

-Sure, yeah. Oh, dear, dear.

The old back leg up, there. KENNY LAUGHS

-But these are specifically bred by you.

-Yeah.

I...experimented with three or four different breeds,

crossed them back and forth,

till I got a pig to look like the Iron Age, the old breeds.

Here, Hilda. Come back, come back. So...

-It turned out...

-Hilda, behave yourself!

-It turned out very well.

-It did, surely.

Had those in the Game Of Thrones a few times,

and a couple of other films.

Come on, darling. Come on.

That's our Jana. That's my baby.

Hello, darling.

Look, here's a man come to see you. Yes.

Give us a kiss.

-Yes, you're my baby, aren't you?

-Amazing.

These are normally so timid, these creatures, aren't they?

That's right. I hand-reared her, and...

She actually lives with the dogs,

her and the two deerhound-wolfhound cross.

Big dogs, I have, in the house, there.

They are all best friends.

So, yeah. Aren't you?

Jana has secured a role

in a forthcoming Ridley Scott sci-fi film.

But for Kenny, this is more than just a sideline.

In difficult times, it's helped subsidise his farm.

I'm not a modern farmer, and modern techniques -

I'm working with the old breeds because it is a passion that I have

and it is not as profitable, either, so sometimes,

I'm on a hiding to nothing,

but I love the animals, and it's just...

The joy and the comfort and the solace they give you

at times is unbelievable,

especially when you have to calm them down

and work them, and when you take them out onto the set

and they do the things that even the directors and the producers can't...

They just can't believe it,

when you bring what is really a wild animal

out on set and you take it into the middle of a forest,

that normally, it should run away, and it just stands there,

or it lies down.

'And Kenny doesn't just represent stars of the small screen -

'he also has a few award winners.'

-Bafta winners.

-Bafta winners, yeah.

CHEEPING

-Boogaloo.

-Boogaloo?

What are you going to call yours, Malachy?

Graham.

Well, there's Boogaloo.

If I can get Boogaloo...

Is Jana allowed in there, yeah?

She'll come in. She'll probably chase them.

Graham, come here.

-Oh, dear...

-Careful.

That's Graham.

Boogaloo was a wee bit lighter in colour.

You didn't!

You washed that chicken in my good sink?

Well, how am I supposed to wash him, Mummy?

You're not so quick to wash yourself!

We had to have them pretty quiet,

because if you saw Boogaloo and Graham,

the two wee lads had to handle them,

so they walked down the street on their shoulder.

Smells fine.

Come on, big man.

Go on, there is a man here to see you.

Come on. Down that way. Go on, come on.

Come on, Logan.

'I started this herd up about the mid '90s.

'I love the breed.'

They are thought to be the animals

that are depicted in the old cave drawing.

I'm walking about through them here, they're great -

I had them on Blandings.

Oh, look at that.

Isn't that good, boy? Eh? Yeah?

Sure, look at that, eh? Sure, he just loves it.

Look at his lips.

He is drooling, he's liking that so much.

He loves it, doesn't he?

Higher or lower, big man?

I was asked to train a pig to go on a lead.

This boar was actually in Dani's Castle as a little pig,

eight weeks old.

When the chips are down,

you can always count on your own flesh and blood.

Now, he's three years old.

He is a bit bigger.

He's a lot bigger.

He hasn't been on a lead lately, so...

And bearing in mind he looks quite relaxed, we'll see how it goes.

-We'll see how it goes, will we? Will we try it?

-We'll try it.

Squeaker? Mr Squeaker, come on, boy.

Come on, Grunter, come on. Up you get, come on.

Hello? Wakey wakey!

How are you doing, boy? Are you all right?

He WAS doing all right!

He's still all right. What about you?

How are you doing? Look at his tusks, look.

Get up, come on, you lazy, big brute!

Up you get, come on!

All right, do you remember you used to be on a lead, boy?

Do you remember that?

Remember as a wee piggy, we had you on a lead?

We are going to try you again.

Here, come over to the side.

Here, you take him.

I'll try - I'm sorry to get you up. I know you were resting, there.

You're the Barbara Woodhouse of the pig world.

Walkies!

Come on, big fella.

-Walk on.

-Walk on.

So...tell me about those days, working for the BBC.

What was it you were on again?

Well, the birdlife along these shores is healthy and clear to see,

but what about elsewhere along our coastline?

Ruth has been to the Copeland Islands

off the North Down coast, to take part in a quay survey.

'I am at Bangor Marina,

'where I am meeting my skipper for the day, Shane Wolsey.'

Come in the boat, here.

-Thank you.

-Take care, it's a bit slippy.

'We are off to the Copeland Islands

'to do a once-in-a-decade survey of nesting sea birds

for the British Trust of Ornithology.

So, Shane, tell me a bit more

about what the British Trust of Ornithology,

the BTO, actually do.

Well, the BTO is actually a science organisation

as opposed to a conservation body.

So what we do is collect data

and we collect data mostly about birds,

but we also collect data for mammals and other things as well.

The data feeds into conservation and environmental policy-making.

-And environmental planning, management.

-Yeah.

There are three Copeland Islands -

Big Copeland, Mew and Lighthouse.

And they're around three miles off the north Down coast.

While few of us will ever visit them,

they're teeming with bird life.

-What are we looking for?

-It's really any birds at all on the shore

or on the sea. Flying in there.

So birds like curlew and oystercatcher,

which are waders, that's the primary

reason we're surveying but we'll record any other ducks or any gulls.

Also shore birds, sea birds and wildfowl

on the rocky shore.

You're counting all these by eye and writing them down individually

but when you've got a big flock of birds like we just had over

there, what do you do?

A lot of it's down to experience.

It's using methods to try and count those birds quickly.

I've been doing this so long so you know what ten birds looks like

so you can quickly go, 10, 20, 30, 40 or 20, 40, 60.

You get an approximation.

Curlews, lapwings and terns have been in severe decline over

the past 30 years in Northern Ireland.

So these ten-year surveys off the coast are crucial.

There's a large flock of curlew on the rocks there.

Curlew, now that's pretty special.

A lot of the birds here will use these islands for roosting.

They have declined as a breeding species.

The lapwing has declined as well.

Is it encouraging to see so many curlews especially?

It is and it isn't, because at this time of year

a lot of the birds aren't actually from here.

-They're from Scotland and from other parts of Northern Europe.

-Yes.

In actual fact...

It's good to see that the numbers are still high

but it doesn't really relate to our population

because our populations are really so small they they're insignificant

compared to the birds that are still coming in from other areas.

Is that not to do with figures in Northern Ireland?

It just means Northern Ireland is still a very important

wintering spot for these birds.

Places like this are important because there are precious few

places like that now left where you can go and you'll not see anybody.

Sea birds like guillemots, lapwings, tern all nest on the ground

and often in burrows.

And, unusually, the birds in the Copeland Islands have no

natural competition.

None of the islands have rats, cats, ferrets, mink, foxes, dogs,

those predators. And so for sea birds,

ground nesting sea birds, it is an absolutely fabulous place.

How the Copelands have got away with a history without any ground

predators, I do not know.

It's incredible.

Presumably as well,

because it's an undisturbed place for nature, it must be a great

barometer of which birds are doing well and doing badly because

if they're not doing well, they're unlikely to do well anywhere.

That's right.

Once we've finished at the Copelands,

we nip up the coast to see if we can find more nesting birds.

But it's not long until we realise we've got company.

There he is.

The dolphins are coming straight for us. Absolutely beautiful.

Just here off the coast of Northern Ireland, it's incredible.

So close to the boat, just wonderful creatures, wonderful creatures.

Amazing.

Dolphins do swim off the coast here but it's rare to get so many.

Especially when there's a camera crew in tow.

Oh!

SHE LAUGHS

-This is amazing. Is this unusual?

-It is astonishing.

And with bottlenose dolphins, this is just fantastic.

-I've never seen such a display before.

-Really?

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

So, Shane, how has today gone?

We have got the sections of the coast that I wanted to survey,

surveyed.

So we did that and we saw some quite interesting bits,

a lot of duck out on the island.

Some peregrines there at the cliffs.

But also to have had the privilege of seeing those bottlenose

dolphins today has been unbelievable.

Absolutely unbelievable. It's been superb.

I'm very pleased that I've been made by the survey to get off my...

..rear end and go and do something. It's been brilliant.

We're a good bit into May now and it does feel a little bit milder.

Let's see what the forecast has in store for the week ahead.

Now, the Mourne Mountains attract thousands of visitors each year

but with all the footfall, many of the paths and dry stone

walls are suffering.

So I joined a special group of volunteers to help repair

the damage.

The dry stone walls that wind along the Mourne Mountains

are a distinctive part of the landscape here

and a treasured part of its heritage.

Stretching for hundreds of miles, the Mourne Heritage Trust takes

a lead role in their preservation.

John, this is a perfect example of one of the

many walls around the Mournes.

Absolutely and you can see over the passage of time,

you can see this bulge. If you look

here, you can see the stones are now leaning out towards the lane.

Is that one of the big problems you face, these walls starting to...?

Over the passage of the next few years this will fall.

And then once it...

It's like dominoes, it'll just keep falling and falling.

So that's where we come in and try and get, get it done at an

early stage and get those all... Those all fixed up again.

-It's maintaining it and spotting the problem, really...

-Yeah.

-..before it gets, gets too much.

The problem is, it's a big stretch on resources

but...most of these are all owned by farmers or land managers

or mountain trustees and they will be trying their best

to continuously take down and repair different sections each year

and try and keep on top of all this but the problem is, there's that

much of it and, as you know, the stone walls in the Mournes

are one of the most iconic features we have,

right up through to our Mourne Wall which spans the entire length of the

Water Commissioner's land, owned by Northern Ireland Water.

So an extra pair of hands is always welcome.

Today, I'm joining a project that gives migrants and asylum seekers

the opportunity to volunteer and help repair

and maintain these walls. You come from Colombia, what do you make

of all this?

You know, in my city we had a small mountain, not like that,

so I think this is beautiful.

I've found this is a peaceful place for me. So, yeah, I like that.

-And different from your life in Belfast?

-Yes!

SHE LAUGHS

Because I live in the south, so this is big houses...

Not a lot of space for green space, yeah.

-So is this something you're going to keep up?

-Yeah.

-I am learning a lot.

-SHE LAUGHS

And I suppose...there's nothing better than...

a bit of hard work.

It's not hard work! We are just helpers. Not a hard job.

It's hard work for me!

LAUGHTER

'These volunteers are here as part of the Amal Project,

'run by Mediation Northern Ireland.'

It is getting out of Belfast, it is being in somewhere beautiful.

It is having a conversation with someone who sees you

as, you know, another human being who

has a right to be here as much as anybody else.

And it's making a contribution, the same as anybody else.

But life is still difficult, because in the end of the day what

most of the people who come to Amal want is

to be able to have a job... To be able to, you know...

To integrate here, to have friends, to rebuild some sense

of family or community.

-It's...

-Good.

-Is that OK?

-No...

-SHE LAUGHS

-Er...

-HE EXHALES

-..probably...

-You're being very diplomatic here.

Flat face to the front.

The more stones you use, the worse your selection gets.

'Thankfully, a local stonemason is on hand to keep me right.'

Whenever you're building the front of the wall...

-there's the back of the wall to build as well.

-Uh-huh.

-There's two sides to the wall.

-It looks fabulous on the other side.

-You get this bit looking nice...

-Like a dog's dinner.

You have to get the other side looking nice as well.

-Even though the sheep wouldn't be as fussy.

-So let's take a step back and...

admire.

Dry-stone walling at its finest.

Huh?

Oh, there we go, there we go.

Sold?

Mohamed is originally from Algeria

and has been living here for two years.

I worked as a police officer in my country.

-Uh-huh.

-And I had some trouble

and I leave my country and I came here...since two years.

-Two years, yes.

-Difficult decision to have to leave?

Yes, yes, it's very hard.

It's, you know, it's look like...

You are newborn.

Totally, totally newborn.

You come here, you haven't friends. You know, in my country I had

-nearly 1,000 friends and...

-You're trying to make a new life here?

-Yes.

-So, does something like this help, can you get to meet people?

Yes. I think, yes, it's very helpful.

But why did you have to leave home?

-Is it too personal to ask?

-I had a problem with my government,

-a very serious problem. This is why.

-Life-threatening?

-Yeah.

And...they tried to kill me.

It was... I had just one night to have a good decision.

I leave everything, my home, my parents, my friends, everything.

-To come here?

-Yes.

Hard to imagine.

HE SIGHS

-It's not easy.

-Difficult to talk about?

-Yes...

It's not easy.

Whenever you do begin to understand some sense of what their life

has been like, you can't help but be touched and

understanding that, well, you know, we're all human

and some people have it tougher than others.

-Nearly there. Final stone, Mohamed.

-Yes...

There we go.

Perfect. Happy?

Happy enough.

That's a good morning's work.

Perfect, Mohamed, just another 200 mile to go.

LAUGHTER

-I have to say, I am very impressed with your handiwork, there. Well done.

-What are you laughing at(?)

What are you laughing at? That dry-stone wall will never be the same but...I'll take the compliment.

-LAUGHTER

-Listen, if you're heading to the Balmoral Show this week,

-we'll see you there.

-That's it for this episode.

Next week, we're back at our usual time of 7.30. We'll see you then.

Bye-bye.