0:00:02 > 0:00:07This is the beautiful landscape of Scotland's Highlands and islands,
0:00:07 > 0:00:11a place whose secrets were seldom revealed to outsiders.
0:00:11 > 0:00:16200 years ago, travelling here for pleasure would have been unthinkable.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19But then this happened - the power of steam.
0:00:21 > 0:00:26Within a century, a network of railways had spread across the entire country,
0:00:26 > 0:00:31connecting the industrial cities of the south to the mountains and glens of the north,
0:00:31 > 0:00:37and with the trains came the tourists, all clamouring for a piece of the real Scotland.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43In Victorian times, many holidaymakers followed routes
0:00:43 > 0:00:49suggested by the most influential guide book of all, Black's Picturesque Guide to Scotland.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54In this series, I'm taking my own well-thumbed copy of this fascinating book.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57It's been in my family for generations and was always kept
0:00:57 > 0:01:03in the glove compartment of my father's car when WE went on holiday.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07Now it's inspired me to make six journeys of my own.
0:01:07 > 0:01:12Letting its pages guide me, I want to retrace the steps of the early tourists
0:01:12 > 0:01:17to find out how Scotland became a jewel in the crown of tourist destinations.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21On this grand tour, I'm in search of the real Scotland,
0:01:21 > 0:01:27finding out how tourists came looking for an authentic experience in this fabulous landscape.
0:01:39 > 0:01:44On this journey, I'm catching a train from Fort William on my favourite scenic railway line,
0:01:44 > 0:01:51travelling west to the fishing port of Mallaig before sailing on to the fabled Isle of Skye.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57This is the West Highland Line, which has been voted
0:01:57 > 0:02:01the most beautiful stretch of railway in the world,
0:02:01 > 0:02:05and if that isn't impressive enough, it's also a star of the silver screen.
0:02:05 > 0:02:10Among many film appearances, it's had a major role in Harry Potter,
0:02:10 > 0:02:14when this train becomes the Hogwarts Express.
0:02:14 > 0:02:18But today, it has a different role to play as the Jacobite steam train,
0:02:18 > 0:02:22a tourist delight and a steam enthusiast's heaven.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25It's hard to imagine what would make a railway buff more excited
0:02:25 > 0:02:32than sitting on a famous steam train pulling period carriages travelling through such iconic scenery.
0:02:35 > 0:02:42The Jacobite train beautifully conjures up the golden age of steam railways when Victorian ingenuity
0:02:42 > 0:02:47cut distances and time in a way that previously would have been unimaginable.
0:02:47 > 0:02:5318th-century travellers to Scotland took eight days to get from London to Edinburgh by stagecoach.
0:02:53 > 0:03:00By 1848, steam trains had cut the journey time to 12.5 hours.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04For the first time in history, large parts of the Highlands had become
0:03:04 > 0:03:11easily and quickly accessible, but more importantly, the steam train had democratised travel,
0:03:11 > 0:03:16making holidays and tourism possible for more than just the very rich.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20Increasingly, Victorians were able to leave the dull routine of their daily lives
0:03:20 > 0:03:27and make the great escape, and what they wanted to see was their version of the real Scotland.
0:03:30 > 0:03:35Railways promoted themselves heavily in newspapers, magazines and posters.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39Images of dramatic landscapes, mountains and tranquil lochs
0:03:39 > 0:03:42offered the prospect of a quick getaway,
0:03:42 > 0:03:45an intoxicating idea for work-weary Victorians
0:03:45 > 0:03:48toiling in the big cities of the south.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52And to help them on their way, railway companies produced a variety
0:03:52 > 0:03:56of line-side guides pointing out sights of interest along the route.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59The writer of this line-side guide
0:03:59 > 0:04:04sees the railway line with its tunnels and cuttings and bridges as part of Scotland's heritage,
0:04:04 > 0:04:10part of Scotland's scenery and is at great pains to point out how unobtrusive it is.
0:04:10 > 0:04:16And he writes, "Never was there a railway that disfigured less the countryside through which it passed,
0:04:16 > 0:04:21"like a mere scratch on the mountain, it glides from valley to valley."
0:04:21 > 0:04:23Indeed so.
0:04:25 > 0:04:31Watching the Jacobite steam train puffing its way across the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct, it's easy
0:04:31 > 0:04:35to see why Victorians thought it actually enhanced the view.
0:04:35 > 0:04:40It's a sight that's still a major attraction.
0:04:40 > 0:04:45Just beyond the viaduct is Glenfinnan Station, a lovingly preserved example
0:04:45 > 0:04:49of Victorian railway architecture at its charming best.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52I'm meeting up with railway historian John Ransom
0:04:52 > 0:04:54in the station museum to find out
0:04:54 > 0:04:57how early tourism flourished on the West Highland Line.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00Firstly, the railways up from England
0:05:00 > 0:05:04were tremendously important in bringing people to the Highlands.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07Every member of the great and good in Victorian Britain had his
0:05:07 > 0:05:12shooting estate up on the Highlands and the whole lot came up here in the first couple of weeks of August.
0:05:12 > 0:05:17That was the grouse fortnight, as they called it, then they all went back again at the end of it.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20And it wasn't just the landowner and his wife, it was his children and his
0:05:20 > 0:05:25nannies and his servants and his horses and carriages and everything else, all came up by train.
0:05:27 > 0:05:33The Old Station Museum is a shrine to the golden age of steam, but during the tourist season,
0:05:33 > 0:05:37holidaymakers can enjoy the excitement of the real thing.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41On the train it's just magic, you know, the, the clickety, clickety clack and, you know, and you
0:05:41 > 0:05:46hear the train chugging, the engine pulling and everything, that's just magnificent, that's really brilliant.
0:05:46 > 0:05:50I love the train and I love the sound of the train, you know, going
0:05:50 > 0:05:54really slowly and yes, not really, you know, you can see the landscape.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57It's unbelievable, it's unbelievable.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01I've been through some wonderful railway journeys in my lifetime
0:06:01 > 0:06:04but I think this will take an awful, awful lot of beating.
0:06:06 > 0:06:11Following in the tracks of the early railway tourists, I'm leaving the station and
0:06:11 > 0:06:15making the short walk down the road to the shores of Loch Shiel.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19My guidebook teasingly describes this place
0:06:19 > 0:06:21as "a silent solitary spot, yet
0:06:21 > 0:06:25"it was here that the first movement was made towards rebellion
0:06:25 > 0:06:28"which threatened to convulse the Empire."
0:06:29 > 0:06:33This monument was built with the tourist just as much in mind
0:06:33 > 0:06:39as the event it commemorates, the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44There is probably nothing that competes
0:06:44 > 0:06:49in terms of tragedy and romance than the failed Jacobite Rebellion.
0:06:49 > 0:06:52The Jacobites were led by the romantic figure
0:06:52 > 0:06:54of Prince Charles Edward Stuart.
0:06:54 > 0:06:59In July 1745, he landed here on a mission impossible
0:06:59 > 0:07:03to reclaim the British throne for the exiled Stuart monarchy.
0:07:03 > 0:07:09It was a doomed enterprise right from the start, but perversely it was precisely because it
0:07:09 > 0:07:13was such a tragic failure that the Jacobite Rebellion became the stuff
0:07:13 > 0:07:17of legend and popular mythology and in defeat,
0:07:17 > 0:07:21Bonnie Prince Charlie achieved celebrity status.
0:07:24 > 0:07:28The Jacobite Prince was only in Scotland for a year,
0:07:28 > 0:07:32but everywhere he went became hallowed ground for the Victorians.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36They just couldn't get enough of this tragic royal hero.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40To help them, obliging travel agents and publishers produced guides
0:07:40 > 0:07:43on all things Jacobite in Scotland,
0:07:43 > 0:07:46and even today, the eponymous Jacobite steam train recalls the time
0:07:46 > 0:07:52when Bonnie Prince Charlie was forced to flee through this wild landscape.
0:07:54 > 0:07:59Even Queen Victoria, whose great-great-grandfather, George II,
0:07:59 > 0:08:01had destroyed the Jacobite dream for ever,
0:08:01 > 0:08:05felt a romantic connection with the tragic prince.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09After visiting Glenfinnan she wrote, "I feel a sort of reverence in going
0:08:09 > 0:08:13"over the scenes in this most beautiful country which I am proud
0:08:13 > 0:08:18"to call my own, where there is such a devoted loyalty to my ancestors,
0:08:18 > 0:08:22"for Stuart blood is in my veins."
0:08:22 > 0:08:27Very "sturm und drang", blood and soil, very German,
0:08:27 > 0:08:29but then, of course, she was.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39The Jacobite trail takes me to Arisaig, where I leave the train
0:08:39 > 0:08:44and get my first view of the sea and the islands of the Inner Hebrides.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49Ever mindful of the Victorian passion for all things Jacobite,
0:08:49 > 0:08:53Black's Guide excitedly notes that gold was landed here
0:08:53 > 0:08:56at the height of the Rebellion.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00Two French ships were intercepted in the loch by the Royal Navy
0:09:00 > 0:09:02but after a fierce gun battle,
0:09:02 > 0:09:06they escaped, leaving the treasure behind them.
0:09:06 > 0:09:11Intriguingly, the treasure was never recovered and to this day,
0:09:11 > 0:09:14its whereabouts remains a mystery.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18And it's also treasure that links Arisaig with the fictional pirate
0:09:18 > 0:09:24Long John Silver, the loveable antihero of Treasure Island.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28According to local legend, an Arisaig man called John Silver
0:09:28 > 0:09:34was working on the construction of Barra Head Lighthouse when he met the architect Thomas Stevenson
0:09:34 > 0:09:40and his son Robert Louis Stevenson, who later became the famous author.
0:09:40 > 0:09:45Now this, say local folk, is how the pirate in Treasure Island got his name,
0:09:45 > 0:09:48Long John Silver.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55For me, Arisaig's greatest treasure has to be this,
0:09:55 > 0:09:59the stunning views of the Inner Hebrides.
0:09:59 > 0:10:04I'm meeting up with photographer Peter Cairns to ask him about the relationship between
0:10:04 > 0:10:08modern iconic landscape images of Scotland
0:10:08 > 0:10:11and the image promoted by my copy of Black's Picturesque Guide Book.
0:10:11 > 0:10:16I think the word picturesque is in many ways relative,
0:10:16 > 0:10:20because if you're a Victorian living in an increasingly industrialised,
0:10:20 > 0:10:23urbanised environment in the south then, you know,
0:10:23 > 0:10:28Scotland was picturesque, Scotland was wild, this was a wild landscape
0:10:28 > 0:10:30and to a large degree, it still is.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34Of course now we do paint Scotland, in inverted commas, or portray
0:10:34 > 0:10:40Scotland as this picturesque, wild landscape with minimal human impact.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43And, of course in reality, that's not necessarily realistic,
0:10:43 > 0:10:47but I think it's that notion that we create, that dream, that aspiration.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50As a photographer, would that lead you, that idea of the
0:10:50 > 0:10:54picturesque and the wild, lead you to frame out objects like pylons
0:10:54 > 0:10:57or industrial plants or fish farms?
0:10:57 > 0:11:00Are you kind of conscious that these things might be blots on the landscape?
0:11:00 > 0:11:04Yes, very much so, and, and I have to say I sort of wrestle with
0:11:04 > 0:11:08that whole conundrum all the time, and I'm not alone doing that.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12You know, most landscape photographers do that.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15Whether that creates a misrepresentation of the landscape,
0:11:15 > 0:11:17I guess is debatable, but you're right,
0:11:17 > 0:11:20photographers generally speaking,
0:11:20 > 0:11:23perpetuate this notion of pristine, of a pristine landscape
0:11:23 > 0:11:26which perhaps is unrealistic in this day and age.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32It seems to me there's a long tradition
0:11:32 > 0:11:35of hiding the real Scotland from the tourist,
0:11:35 > 0:11:38but in this place, there's no need to airbrush the picture.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41There are no blots on the landscape,
0:11:41 > 0:11:44there's nothing to hide, and for my money,
0:11:44 > 0:11:49even a grey day like today has an authentic beauty of its own.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52It's grey, but still very beautiful.
0:11:52 > 0:11:57Absolutely, and it's Scotland, you know, it's a classic landscape of Scotland.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00It may not be a stereotypical postcard view,
0:12:00 > 0:12:04but it has a beauty of its own, it's layer upon layer of grey.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06I think it's stunning.
0:12:06 > 0:12:07Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15From Arisaig, the West Highland Line takes me to the port of Mallaig,
0:12:15 > 0:12:19from where I take the car ferry over the sea to Skye,
0:12:19 > 0:12:23a journey celebrated by the famous Jacobite song.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26The ferry makes landfall at Armadale Pier,
0:12:26 > 0:12:30where I'm the only passenger to disembark on foot.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33Everyone else, it seems, is making the onward journey
0:12:33 > 0:12:34by car or motorbike.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38Of course, in Victorian times,
0:12:38 > 0:12:41people didn't have the luxury of bringing cars over to the island,
0:12:41 > 0:12:43so in my search for the real Scotland
0:12:43 > 0:12:48I'm going to see if I can't find some local buses to take me on my way.
0:12:48 > 0:12:53Now interestingly, Black's guidebook warns against some pretty sharp practices
0:12:53 > 0:12:57perpetrated by the islanders and here it says somewhat pompously,
0:12:57 > 0:13:01"numerous complaints have been received from tourists
0:13:01 > 0:13:05"about the extortions practised on the Isle of Skye".
0:13:05 > 0:13:09"Overcharging at hotels is commonplace, and charges for guides,
0:13:09 > 0:13:12"ponies and boats justly complained of."
0:13:12 > 0:13:17Now that was in 1862, and I'm sure things have changed.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24The guidebook expressed the hope that the evils of overcharging would disappear
0:13:24 > 0:13:29once local people experienced the wholesome influence of reasonable,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32educated tourists from the south.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35Interestingly, the early tourist Sarah Murray,
0:13:35 > 0:13:38who visited these parts at the turn of the 19th century,
0:13:38 > 0:13:43was also concerned about the influence of tourism on local people.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46She was worried that Highland culture was slowly being eroded
0:13:46 > 0:13:47and after a trip to the Hebrides
0:13:47 > 0:13:54she wrote that "the language and habits of the Highlanders will shortly be wholly laid aside."
0:13:54 > 0:13:59Now that's a concern that continues to exercise people to this very day.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04In many ways, Sarah Murray's fears have been realised.
0:14:04 > 0:14:06Over the last 200 years,
0:14:06 > 0:14:10much of the culture and language of the island has been lost.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13However, a number of recent Government initiatives
0:14:13 > 0:14:15now support Gaelic.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20Travelling the island, drivers can't fail to notice the bilingual road signs like this one here.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24Port Righ, Gaelic for Port of the King.
0:14:24 > 0:14:25In English, Portree.
0:14:27 > 0:14:32Caol Loch Aillse in Gaelic, Kyle of Lochalsh in English.
0:14:32 > 0:14:38Now the Government have also supported the publication of several handy phrase books like this,
0:14:38 > 0:14:43and to see how useful it's been, I'm going to put this one to the test.
0:14:43 > 0:14:49I want to ask how to get to the post office, or oifis a' phuist,
0:14:49 > 0:14:51and I want to buy a postcard -
0:14:51 > 0:14:55that's cairt-phuist - and a stamp - stampa.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58- Latha math.- Latha math.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02HE STARTS TO ASK QUESTION No, you're wasting your time. I don't speak Gaelic.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05Cait a bheil oifis a' phuist?
0:15:07 > 0:15:09- Em...- English.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12Cait a bheil oifis a' phuist?
0:15:12 > 0:15:15Oh, I'm, I'm sorry, my English was a little bit better.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18I'm not, er, I'm German.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21Cait a bheil oifis a' phuist? Oifis a' phuist?
0:15:23 > 0:15:27TRIES TO REPLY IN GAELIC
0:15:27 > 0:15:30Cait a bheil oifis a' phuist?
0:15:30 > 0:15:32HE REPLIES
0:15:32 > 0:15:33Tapadh leat.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39It works. It works! It's fantastic.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41- It's fantastic. Are you a Gaelic speaker?- No.- No?
0:15:41 > 0:15:44- Better than you, I think. - Better than you.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48'That's me told! But it has to be said, in English.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51'So where are all the Gaelic speakers?
0:15:51 > 0:15:53'Perhaps I'll find one in the Post Office,
0:15:53 > 0:15:56'where I still have to buy a postcard and a stamp.'
0:15:58 > 0:16:02- Er...- Cairt-phuist. - Cairt-phuist.
0:16:02 > 0:16:03Mm-hm.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07THEY CORRECT HIS PRONUNCIATION
0:16:07 > 0:16:12HE ASKS FOR A STAMP IN GAELIC AND SHE REPLIES
0:16:16 > 0:16:19'A genuine Gaelic speaker at last, but as I've already found out
0:16:19 > 0:16:21'on this quest for the real Scotland,
0:16:21 > 0:16:25'things are not always as they first appear.'
0:16:25 > 0:16:28Where did you learn Gaelic? Did you learn the Gaelic at home, or...?
0:16:28 > 0:16:31I had a bit from home, I learnt most of it at the Gaelic College.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35- Oh, right.- Yes.- Right.- So I've actually just finished my first year.
0:16:35 > 0:16:39- Oh, right.- At the college, but I did have Gaelic before I came. - Uh-huh.
0:16:39 > 0:16:40And where did you learn that?
0:16:40 > 0:16:44From a book, actually. My grandmother had Gaelic, but she died before I was born,
0:16:44 > 0:16:48- so I taught myself from a book. - Where are you from originally? Are you from Skye?
0:16:48 > 0:16:53My family are originally from Skye, but I grew up in England when my dad was working as a minister.
0:16:53 > 0:16:54I've moved back in the last year.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58- So it's in the blood?- Yes. - It's in the genes.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03This modern, and I have to say rather belated interest in Gaelic,
0:17:03 > 0:17:06would have bewildered most Victorian tourists,
0:17:06 > 0:17:08many of whom considered the language
0:17:08 > 0:17:11to be evidence of Highland primitivism.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15Unfortunately, the few who might have shown an interest in Gaelic
0:17:15 > 0:17:18would have found my copy of Black's disappointing.
0:17:18 > 0:17:23It is resolutely silent on the subject, preferring instead
0:17:23 > 0:17:27to promote the romantic myth of the island's Jacobite connections.
0:17:27 > 0:17:29Interestingly, some Victorians
0:17:29 > 0:17:33were keen to have an alternative, more authentic experience,
0:17:33 > 0:17:35a piece of the real Scotland,
0:17:35 > 0:17:39and to find out more, I've come to this church.
0:17:42 > 0:17:49THEY SING IN GAELIC
0:17:53 > 0:17:59Church going was an important event for all Victorians, but to English tourists, there was something
0:17:59 > 0:18:03utterly exotic about a Gaelic service and Gaelic hymn singing.
0:18:03 > 0:18:08Historian Kathy Haldane Grenier has written about how church going
0:18:08 > 0:18:11became a tourist attraction in its own right.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13One of the key differences
0:18:13 > 0:18:17between England and Scotland, as understood in the 19th century,
0:18:17 > 0:18:19was religious difference,
0:18:19 > 0:18:22so religion is an entry point into Scottishness
0:18:22 > 0:18:26that was seen as something that's genuinely Scottish,
0:18:26 > 0:18:31that this is an experience not staged by the tourist industry, that this is
0:18:31 > 0:18:36something ordinary people do and so you're able to take part
0:18:36 > 0:18:39in a shared experience with Scots.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43So in a sense, this is tied up with the idea of the search for the authentic Scotland.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47By coming to a Gaelic service, you're participating in something which is
0:18:47 > 0:18:50authentically Highland, authentically Gaelic.
0:18:50 > 0:18:55Right, I think that's true, so I think they are looking at
0:18:55 > 0:19:02Scottish religiosity through their preconceptions of what they want Highland crofters to be.
0:19:02 > 0:19:09And to some degree if you're a tourist, you never really stop being a tourist, so as much as
0:19:09 > 0:19:16they see themselves as participating in a genuine local experience, they're still spectating, they're
0:19:16 > 0:19:18still looking through preconceptions,
0:19:18 > 0:19:22and understanding things in a way that works best for them.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26SINGING
0:19:31 > 0:19:37Personally, I've always found the sound of Gaelic psalm singing extraordinarily moving,
0:19:37 > 0:19:41even if I can never be anything more than a spectator,
0:19:41 > 0:19:42and I think it's fair to say
0:19:42 > 0:19:47that the desire to have an authentic experience when we're travelling
0:19:47 > 0:19:49is something that many of us share.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53But it strikes me that the very idea of being a tourist
0:19:53 > 0:19:56makes the search for the authentic more elusive.
0:19:56 > 0:20:01In the modern world, to be called a tourist implies being lumped in with the herd.
0:20:05 > 0:20:12To avoid the dreadful tourist label, we like to describe ourselves today in more exciting terms as
0:20:12 > 0:20:15backpackers, mountaineers, cyclists, kayakers,
0:20:15 > 0:20:18or whatever our particular bag is.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22The whole concept of tourism has been revised to make
0:20:22 > 0:20:26our own experience of Scotland seem like the authentic one.
0:20:28 > 0:20:34Hopping aboard a Haggis Tour, I'm meeting up with guide Kay Gillespie.
0:20:34 > 0:20:36I want to find out how the quest for an authentic experience
0:20:36 > 0:20:41of Scotland has re-invented the traditional coach tour.
0:20:41 > 0:20:46What makes a Haggis Tour different from other tours, do you think?
0:20:46 > 0:20:49- We pride ourselves in being, in being passionate...- Passionate?
0:20:49 > 0:20:53We've chosen what we think are the best places in Scotland to visit.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56We like to take our customers off the beaten track.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00- Right.- We teach them the history, we show them the scenery.- Uh-huh.
0:21:00 > 0:21:02- We let them try whisky.- Right.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06- We take them for a party.- Right. - We have them dancing in the car parks outside the hostels.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09You've had them dancing in the car parks?
0:21:09 > 0:21:13We certainly did. We did Strip The Willow, courtesy of our lovely driver Joe.
0:21:13 > 0:21:14We start in Edinburgh.
0:21:14 > 0:21:19We make our way up through Stirling, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs.
0:21:19 > 0:21:21We do a stop at Glencoe.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24On this occasion, we came right up to the Isle of Skye.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28- Right.- We visit quite a few places. We try and pack quite a lot into our three days.
0:21:29 > 0:21:36The Haggis bus stops to allows its passengers to admire an incomparable view of the Cuillins.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39- Are you guys ready?- Yeah.
0:21:39 > 0:21:44As Kay entertains her tourists with a quirky re-telling of an old folk tale,
0:21:44 > 0:21:50I'm left wondering how much has really changed since the Victorians came looking for the real Scotland.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54To be a bit philosophical for a moment, I think it's only fair
0:21:54 > 0:21:59to say that the search for reality has always been a bit problematic.
0:21:59 > 0:22:06That's because our expectations lead us to see what we want to see and even those Victorians who thought
0:22:06 > 0:22:13they got close to an authentic experience of Scotland failed to notice or to understand
0:22:13 > 0:22:17the social injustice and poverty that was tearing the Highlands apart.
0:22:20 > 0:22:25Here at the Museum of Island Life, modern tourists have another chance
0:22:25 > 0:22:31to understand the issues that most Victorians failed to see clearly -
0:22:31 > 0:22:34the reality of Highland poverty.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36Many Victorians didn't see the poverty at all.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39Instead, they made the idiotic assumption,
0:22:39 > 0:22:43and one that many modern tourists continue to make when they visit other cultures,
0:22:43 > 0:22:47that because the material lifestyle of the people is simple,
0:22:47 > 0:22:49the people themselves were simple
0:22:49 > 0:22:54and were therefore unaware of their circumstances.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00This allowed tourists to see poverty not for what it was in reality,
0:23:00 > 0:23:03but as picturesque,
0:23:03 > 0:23:07neatly matching the images of the Highlands projected by Black's Picturesque Guide,
0:23:07 > 0:23:10and may explain why one lady visitor
0:23:10 > 0:23:13wrote indulgently of meeting, "a kindly old crone
0:23:13 > 0:23:17"who rejoiced in the peat smoke that filled her room."
0:23:17 > 0:23:22But at other times, tourists described these homes as miserable huts, and felt a sense
0:23:22 > 0:23:26of embarrassment when confronted by the obvious hardship
0:23:26 > 0:23:29facing the families that lived in them.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31Tourist like this were the majority.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35They glimpsed the real Scotland and didn't like what they saw.
0:23:35 > 0:23:40Finding it all too uncomfortable and difficult to reconcile with their expectations,
0:23:40 > 0:23:42they blocked out the poverty
0:23:42 > 0:23:46and concentrated instead on the landscape.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52This is the tiny harbour of Elgol.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55From here, the adventurous traveller can take a boat
0:23:55 > 0:23:59to reach the ultimate tourist destination on Skye.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03I've come here to meet my old friend John Hambrey.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07As students, we sailed the West Coast together. Today we're setting course
0:24:07 > 0:24:11for the dark heart of the impressively grim Cuillin Mountains.
0:24:14 > 0:24:20I think it's very telling that my copy of Black's guidebook urges the Victorian tourist to visit a place
0:24:20 > 0:24:26that is nothing but landscape, a place of no culture, no history -
0:24:26 > 0:24:28a place of utter desolation.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32It says a lot about the lengths Victorian tourists would go to,
0:24:32 > 0:24:35just to have an authentic experience of Scotland.
0:24:37 > 0:24:42But sailing into this heart of darkness confirms my belief
0:24:42 > 0:24:46that the West Coast of Scotland is a sailing paradise.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50Like me, John can't get enough of its watery delights.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53When did you get the sailing bug then, John?
0:24:53 > 0:24:56Well, I sailed little dinghies when I was a kid,
0:24:56 > 0:25:00but I was never actually that keen on it.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03The first time I got really excited
0:25:03 > 0:25:09was when I came with six students in a 24-foot boat that we hired out at Crinan.
0:25:09 > 0:25:14- Right. Right.- And we spent three weeks sailing, and fighting.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18- Right.- And drinking, and having a great time.
0:25:18 > 0:25:24I thought well, anyone could do this, I could charter a boat and come to these wonderful places.
0:25:24 > 0:25:31But I think it was, it was not far from here, on a beautiful sunset evening with
0:25:31 > 0:25:38the sun setting over Eigg and Rum and the Cuillin all going purple in the background,
0:25:38 > 0:25:41and a gannet dived behind the boat
0:25:41 > 0:25:45in a shower of gold.
0:25:45 > 0:25:50- So I had a kind of spiritual experience, I thought this is good, you know, this is pretty good.- Yeah.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54- There's not much better than this. - That was your epiphany moment. - That was it, yeah.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58- Has it ever been the same again?- No. - Never is, is it?
0:25:58 > 0:26:00It's always that first time.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03I don't know, every time I get out there, I still get a kick, actually.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09And, in here especially, this place is
0:26:09 > 0:26:12so different from your routine life coming in here that...
0:26:12 > 0:26:15Oh, it's an extraordinary-looking place.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20Leaving John and his boat anchored beneath the cliffs,
0:26:20 > 0:26:21I continue on foot
0:26:21 > 0:26:27to what I believe is one of the finest scenic locations in Scotland,
0:26:27 > 0:26:33an extraordinary body of water nestling beneath the towering rock pinnacles of the Cuillin Ridge.
0:26:33 > 0:26:38The place is called Loch Coruisk and it never fails to take my breath away.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42The geologist John MacCulloch
0:26:42 > 0:26:46first brought Loch Coruisk to public attention in 1819.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50I felt transported, as if by some magician.
0:26:50 > 0:26:55It appeared as if all living things had abandoned this spot to the spirit of solitude.
0:26:55 > 0:27:00I held my breath to listen for a sound, but everything was hushed.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07In this impressive landscape, it's worth remembering
0:27:07 > 0:27:13the 19th-century cult of the sublime, an ideal that drew so many early tourists to Scotland.
0:27:13 > 0:27:19The sublime was all about finding a landscape so impressive and awe-inspiring
0:27:19 > 0:27:23it made you think of the power of God Almighty who created it all.
0:27:23 > 0:27:28But this place was different. It was almost too much.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39The alien, Godless atmosphere seemed to go to people's heads.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43One tourist wrote that he felt on the brink of madness.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46"I came with a beating heart upon Loch Coruisk, a deep,
0:27:46 > 0:27:49"dark, solemn piece of still water
0:27:49 > 0:27:54"surrounded by such terrors that one is really afraid to look at them."
0:27:58 > 0:28:00The wild landscape of Loch Coruisk forced some tourists to
0:28:00 > 0:28:05conclude that their search for the Almighty in nature was in vain.
0:28:07 > 0:28:13The Victorians came and found only the echo of their own voices and their own footsteps.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16This was a landscape so desolate and terrible,
0:28:16 > 0:28:20a man could be driven mad with thoughts of suicide.
0:28:20 > 0:28:25It made you think that there was no God, that mankind was utterly alone.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29Perhaps here, in the dark heart of the Cuillins,
0:28:29 > 0:28:34the Victorians had found what they were looking for, the real Scotland.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37Ironic really, because there's nothing here.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42On the next part of my Grand Tour of Scotland,
0:28:42 > 0:28:47I'm following Black's Guide on a quest to find perfect health.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50Early tourists saw the country's wild beauty
0:28:50 > 0:28:54as a resource that not only calmed the soul,
0:28:54 > 0:28:56but also invigorated the body.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00A perfect balance of the physical and the spiritual.
0:29:00 > 0:29:05Early visitors came and stood in awe of places like this.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09They still do, of course, but increasingly our mountains,
0:29:09 > 0:29:11lochs and glens have become a sort of
0:29:11 > 0:29:15giant playground where we can escape the pressures of the modern world.
0:29:15 > 0:29:21This is a place that exercises the body and expands the mind.
0:29:28 > 0:29:30This grand tour starts on the shores
0:29:30 > 0:29:31of Loch Tay in Perthshire,
0:29:31 > 0:29:35goes north across the great wilderness of Rannoch Moor,
0:29:35 > 0:29:38through Glencoe and then across Loch Ness and north again
0:29:38 > 0:29:41to the old spa town of Strathpeffer.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46I'm in the picturesque Highland village of Killin,
0:29:46 > 0:29:49which makes the proud boast of being at the centre of Scotland.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52In the 19th century,
0:29:52 > 0:29:55Killin was a hub for road, rail and steamer connections that
0:29:55 > 0:29:58allowed tourists to get away from it all
0:29:58 > 0:30:03and benefit from an escape into Scotland's wilder country.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06When it comes to extolling the virtues of the Scottish landscape,
0:30:06 > 0:30:09my Victorian guide book doesn't hold back.
0:30:09 > 0:30:13Here it says, "There is no country whose ever-changing scenery
0:30:13 > 0:30:16"deserves more reflection than the Highlands of Scotland,
0:30:16 > 0:30:20"and we're bound to exclaim in the words of the modern poet,
0:30:20 > 0:30:23"then hurrah for the Highlands,
0:30:23 > 0:30:25"the stern Scottish Highlands,
0:30:25 > 0:30:28"the home of the clansman, the brave and the free.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32"Where the clouds love to rest on the mountain's rough breast,
0:30:32 > 0:30:36"ere they journey afar on the boundless sea."
0:30:36 > 0:30:40But looking at the clouds today, I fear they have not journeyed quite far enough.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43But otherwise, pure genius.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49In Victorian times, it was easy enough for ordinary folk
0:30:49 > 0:30:52to get to this health-giving landscape.
0:30:52 > 0:30:56According to Black's guide, a tourist could leave Edinburgh
0:30:56 > 0:31:02or Glasgow and complete a circular tour to Killin in a single day.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05Until the 1960s, Killin had its own railway station
0:31:05 > 0:31:09and there were regular steam boat services on Loch Tay.
0:31:09 > 0:31:14But the public transport links that once served the village are now all gone.
0:31:14 > 0:31:18Nowadays, tourists and day-trippers usually do the round trip
0:31:18 > 0:31:22from Glasgow by car, or for the more adventurous, by motorbike.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25At a pub overlooking the Falls of Dochart,
0:31:25 > 0:31:29I'm meeting up with members of the Mercury Motorcycle Club.
0:31:29 > 0:31:34Killin is a favourite time-honoured destination.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37In Killin, just now, we hold a rally every year
0:31:37 > 0:31:40and it's certainly a great place to come and visit.
0:31:40 > 0:31:44The people here are lovely and there's a great selection of pubs.
0:31:44 > 0:31:48We love every bit. The west coast has become famous for motorcycles,
0:31:48 > 0:31:50because of the small roads, the islands.
0:31:50 > 0:31:54There's places we've never seen on the west coast, we've never been to.
0:31:54 > 0:31:56And you could take a lifetime to explore it.
0:31:56 > 0:31:58It's really fantastic.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03Giving up on public transport,
0:32:03 > 0:32:07I hitched a ride with the club to continue my journey north.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10Early guide books made the unwise claim that the roads
0:32:10 > 0:32:15"to the Highlands of Scotland are the best and safest in the world."
0:32:15 > 0:32:17Now this was a wildly-exaggerated claim at the time
0:32:17 > 0:32:22and certainly not true now, judging by the horrendous potholes
0:32:22 > 0:32:24we encounter on the drive north.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27But it seems that right from the start,
0:32:27 > 0:32:31travel guides were keen to encourage tourists onto Scotland's roads.
0:32:31 > 0:32:35They held out the promise of freedom, of exciting journeys
0:32:35 > 0:32:38through spectacular scenery,
0:32:38 > 0:32:42where there was always something new just around the corner.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45Anyone who's ever driven north from Glasgow to the Highlands
0:32:45 > 0:32:47will recognise this place.
0:32:47 > 0:32:51Tyndrum, which means in Gaelic the house on the hillside.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55Now despite this rather evocative name, I think it's only fair to say
0:32:55 > 0:33:00that Tyndrum is, well, just a wee bit challenged in the picturesque department.
0:33:00 > 0:33:05What most visitors to Tyndrum won't know is that this busy place
0:33:05 > 0:33:07once served the needs of a different sort of tourist.
0:33:07 > 0:33:09Unlikely as it may seem,
0:33:09 > 0:33:13people used to come here for the good of their health.
0:33:13 > 0:33:16For 1,000 years, pilgrims stopped on their way
0:33:16 > 0:33:19to take the waters of a nearby holy well.
0:33:22 > 0:33:26The first person to write about the delights of Tyndrum was Sarah Murray.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30In 1796, this redoubtable lady traveller
0:33:30 > 0:33:33spent three months touring the Highlands.
0:33:33 > 0:33:35Forced to shelter from torrential rain,
0:33:35 > 0:33:38she spent an uncomfortable night at a hotel here.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43"There is little to see or admire in Tyndrum.
0:33:43 > 0:33:46"The landlord however wished me to see a holy well
0:33:46 > 0:33:50"near Strathfillan Kirk, whose waters, he told me,
0:33:50 > 0:33:53"cured every disease but that of the purse."
0:33:53 > 0:33:58I love Sarah Murray, she's never afraid to poke fun at her own failings.
0:33:58 > 0:34:02She completely misunderstood the man's Highland accent and thought
0:34:02 > 0:34:06purse must be a Gaelic name for some sort of disease.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09When she asked what purse might mean in English, he said,
0:34:09 > 0:34:13"Money, madam, it will not cure the want of that!"
0:34:13 > 0:34:14Indeed not.
0:34:16 > 0:34:23Just down the road from Tyndrum is the holy well the innkeeper wanted Sarah Murray to see.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27As a Highland version of the healing grotto of Lourdes,
0:34:27 > 0:34:29St Fillan's is a bit disappointing.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32But in the years before the Reformation,
0:34:32 > 0:34:34the priory of St Fillan stood nearby
0:34:34 > 0:34:38and pilgrims flocked here in the hope of a cure.
0:34:38 > 0:34:43The holy pool is actually on a bend in the river, but traffic
0:34:43 > 0:34:45on the busy A82 just over there
0:34:45 > 0:34:50does tend to undermine any religious atmosphere you might get.
0:34:50 > 0:34:53But this is where pilgrims in the Middle Ages came,
0:34:53 > 0:34:54looking for a cure.
0:34:54 > 0:34:59Now the holy pool was reputed to cure a range of diseases,
0:34:59 > 0:35:04but was particularly beneficial to those suffering from mental illness.
0:35:04 > 0:35:08I sometimes think that the cure was actually worse than the affliction.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12The poor patient, if you can call him that, was first bound
0:35:12 > 0:35:17hand and foot and then thrown into the icy waters of the pool.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21You might think it's an early form of shock therapy.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30Running close to the holy well of St Fillan is the West Highland Way,
0:35:30 > 0:35:33Scotland's most popular long-distance path,
0:35:33 > 0:35:36where modern pilgrims and devotees of healthy living
0:35:36 > 0:35:40can be seen making their way from the outskirts of Glasgow in the south,
0:35:40 > 0:35:48to Fort William in the north, a distance of 96 hard Highland miles.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51Now it often seems to me that distances in the Highlands
0:35:51 > 0:35:54are different from distances in other parts of the country,
0:35:54 > 0:35:56especially if you're on foot.
0:35:56 > 0:36:02As the day wears on, the miles seem to grow longer and longer and longer.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06Now interestingly, this might not just be subjective experience.
0:36:06 > 0:36:10In the past, travellers were often amazed at how long
0:36:10 > 0:36:13it would take them to get from one place to another.
0:36:13 > 0:36:18They didn't realise that Scots miles WERE longer than southern ones.
0:36:18 > 0:36:24In fact, the lang Scots mile was 176 ¼ yards
0:36:24 > 0:36:27longer than the English mile.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33North of Tyndrum, the route of the West Highland Way
0:36:33 > 0:36:36follows the old military road, built by General Wade
0:36:36 > 0:36:40after the Jacobite rebellion of 1715.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43The road was designed to provide easy access
0:36:43 > 0:36:46into the remoter parts of the Highlands.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49This was a wild place.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53And still is, which is why, for me, it is so attractive.
0:36:53 > 0:36:54But back in 1865,
0:36:54 > 0:37:00Black's guide describes this area in forbidding terms
0:37:00 > 0:37:05as a wild, dreary desolation, a wasteland without trees.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09Travelling across the wilds of Rannoch Moor on foot
0:37:09 > 0:37:12or in a carriage was tough going.
0:37:14 > 0:37:17Eventually, of course, places like Rannoch Moor
0:37:17 > 0:37:19stopped being seen as forbidding.
0:37:19 > 0:37:23I'm meeting up with geographer, Hayden Lorimer to find out
0:37:23 > 0:37:26how this magnificent scenery was transformed
0:37:26 > 0:37:30into a popular destination for tourists and travellers.
0:37:31 > 0:37:36Scotland was changing a great deal in the 1920s.
0:37:36 > 0:37:42Prior to the 1920s, the Highlands had been largely the preserve
0:37:42 > 0:37:46of the rich and the landed and the titled.
0:37:46 > 0:37:50- The hunting, shooting brigade?- The hunting and shooting brigade, yes.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53In 1919, there was still something approaching
0:37:53 > 0:37:583.5 million acres of land given over to sporting estates in the Highlands.
0:38:01 > 0:38:03But there was revolution in the air.
0:38:03 > 0:38:07The combination of cheap fares and increasing leisure time
0:38:07 > 0:38:09brought the masses to the wild places.
0:38:09 > 0:38:11For the first time in history,
0:38:11 > 0:38:16ordinary working people discovered a new kind of freedom,
0:38:16 > 0:38:20both in the landscape and more interestingly in politics.
0:38:20 > 0:38:25Some of the people coming out of Glasgow and the west of Scotland
0:38:25 > 0:38:29carried with them radical political ideas.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33These were people who had spent time working in the shipyards,
0:38:33 > 0:38:35in engineering works,
0:38:35 > 0:38:38and were great espousers of socialist ideology.
0:38:38 > 0:38:44So these were working people coming into the hills with ideological baggage, as well as tents?
0:38:44 > 0:38:47That's right, folks who were coming up from Red Clydeside
0:38:47 > 0:38:51certainly didn't like the idea that a very small number of people
0:38:51 > 0:38:53could own and dominate control
0:38:53 > 0:38:56of such a large proportion of the country.
0:38:56 > 0:39:01So socialism actually had its play in the landscape here, too.
0:39:01 > 0:39:05I think it not too much of an overstatement to say this was a place
0:39:05 > 0:39:08for social revolution to take place.
0:39:09 > 0:39:14Walkers and ramblers took on the big landowners and the sporting estates,
0:39:14 > 0:39:16eventually winning the right to roam.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20And all of us who enjoy the great outdoors today owe
0:39:20 > 0:39:21a debt of gratitude
0:39:21 > 0:39:23to those early pioneers -
0:39:23 > 0:39:27men and women who fought for the right to tramp the hills,
0:39:27 > 0:39:31a pleasure I've enjoyed ever since I was a teenager.
0:39:37 > 0:39:39This is Buachaille Etive Mor,
0:39:39 > 0:39:42an iconic mountain guarding the entrance to Glencoe.
0:39:42 > 0:39:47For me, it's a view that's bound up with boyhood adventure.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51Now this is something I've not done since I was 15 or so.
0:39:51 > 0:39:55On a Friday night after school, I'd hitchhike up here
0:39:55 > 0:39:59to Glencoe and pitch my wee tent beside the Jacksonville bothy
0:39:59 > 0:40:01on the other side of the river.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05That bothy was built by members of the notorious Creagh Dhu Climbing Club,
0:40:05 > 0:40:10whose members were really hardcore mountaineers and a lot of them were
0:40:10 > 0:40:13shipyard workers on Clydeside.
0:40:13 > 0:40:17Now legend has it that if you ever went inside that bothy,
0:40:17 > 0:40:20without their invitation, you would rue the day.
0:40:20 > 0:40:24Which I why I very sensibly always camped.
0:40:26 > 0:40:30For ordinary people, camping was a wonderful liberator,
0:40:30 > 0:40:33an affordable way to experience the great outdoors.
0:40:33 > 0:40:38As a youngster, I travelled all over Scotland with my tent on my back.
0:40:38 > 0:40:42It gave me enormous freedom and although Black's guide suggests
0:40:42 > 0:40:44some bracing walks,
0:40:44 > 0:40:48my own inspiration lay in the pages of a different book.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52Fortunately, I've managed to get the tent up before the rain's come on.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55But this was what I looked forward to all week as a schoolboy,
0:40:55 > 0:40:57it might be hard to imagine now.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00This was my inspiration.
0:41:00 > 0:41:01A magnificent book
0:41:01 > 0:41:04called Mountaineering In Scotland
0:41:04 > 0:41:06by my hero of the time, WH Murray -
0:41:06 > 0:41:10the reason why so many kids like me were bitten by the mountain bug
0:41:10 > 0:41:12and tomorrow, weather permitting,
0:41:12 > 0:41:16I hope to recapture some of that mountain magic.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24The following morning dawns with the usual cloud and rain.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28A damp start to my proposed ascent of Buachaille Etive Mor
0:41:28 > 0:41:32with professional mountain guide, Dave Cuthbertson.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35Mr Cuthbertson, how are you, sir?
0:41:35 > 0:41:38'Even before we can think of starting the climb proper,'
0:41:38 > 0:41:42there's an hour of lung-busting toil to the base of Curved Ridge.
0:41:42 > 0:41:47Scotland's mountains might be small, but they can be steep and punishing
0:41:47 > 0:41:51and I'm reminded of how Victorian guide books
0:41:51 > 0:41:55described the awesome spectacle of Scottish mountains.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00"We have wandered the Highlands with the citizens of Switzerland
0:42:00 > 0:42:03"and although their own hills are higher,
0:42:03 > 0:42:05"they have declared with enthusiastic rapture
0:42:05 > 0:42:08"that the mountains of Scotland outrival them
0:42:08 > 0:42:12"in point of variety and changefulness of aspect."
0:42:15 > 0:42:19Inspired by our own mountains, well-to-do Victorian climbers
0:42:19 > 0:42:24scaled the summits, clad in tweeds and hobnail boots.
0:42:24 > 0:42:28As we stop to rope up, I ask Dave how things have changed
0:42:28 > 0:42:32since the days of gentleman climbers like my hero, WH Murray,
0:42:32 > 0:42:35who developed the sport in the 1930s.
0:42:35 > 0:42:37After WH Murray's time,
0:42:37 > 0:42:40the likes of the young Glasgow working-class climbers,
0:42:40 > 0:42:43particularly those of the Creagh Dhu,
0:42:43 > 0:42:47really started to make their presence here in Glencoe
0:42:47 > 0:42:51and moved away from the more traditional obvious features
0:42:51 > 0:42:54that were being developed by the likes of WH Murray,
0:42:54 > 0:42:57and on to the much steeper walls between.
0:42:57 > 0:43:00Interestingly enough,
0:43:00 > 0:43:04the Creagh Dhu were responsible for an incredible rise
0:43:04 > 0:43:06in Scottish rock climbing standards,
0:43:06 > 0:43:10predominantly by working classes, I suppose.
0:43:16 > 0:43:20Our route on Curved Ridge takes us into the rocky heart of the Buachaille.
0:43:20 > 0:43:24It was up here on the big walls and buttresses above us
0:43:24 > 0:43:29that working-class climbers tested themselves on the mountain,
0:43:29 > 0:43:31forging harder and harder routes.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34I haven't been up here since I was 17
0:43:34 > 0:43:37and it's something of a personal pilgrimage.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40This is where I learned the rudiments of climbing
0:43:40 > 0:43:44and looking at the awe-inspiring scenery around me,
0:43:44 > 0:43:47I have considerable respect for my younger self.
0:43:47 > 0:43:50Eventually we reach the summit of Crowberry Tower,
0:43:50 > 0:43:53a magnificent end to a classic day out.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56After all these years, it's great to get back in touch with
0:43:56 > 0:43:58the mountain that filled me with
0:43:58 > 0:44:00such awe and excitement as a boy.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04I think that's part of the attraction, isn't it?
0:44:04 > 0:44:08It's that sort of strange element of the unknown.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11Although the climb may have been done before,
0:44:11 > 0:44:14or it may not have been done before,
0:44:14 > 0:44:19that is part of the attraction, to explore the unknown
0:44:19 > 0:44:23and to, in your own way, feel that you are pioneering.
0:44:23 > 0:44:25It's very rewarding.
0:44:31 > 0:44:33On a day like today, one of the greatest rewards
0:44:33 > 0:44:38has to be the fantastic views across the vast expanse of Rannoch Moor.
0:44:38 > 0:44:42From up here, the tourist traffic on the busy A82 looks tiny
0:44:42 > 0:44:47and insignificant as it enters the dramatic scenery of Glencoe.
0:44:47 > 0:44:51In 1796, tourists were almost unknown
0:44:51 > 0:44:54this far from the lowland cities.
0:44:55 > 0:44:57In Sarah Murray's day,
0:44:57 > 0:45:00the road beyond the King's House Hotel
0:45:00 > 0:45:02was too rough for her carriage.
0:45:02 > 0:45:06Ever resourceful, she hitched a lift in a peat cart.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08In this undignified conveyance,
0:45:08 > 0:45:12she made her way through the wild and romantic glen.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15"Huge towers of rock forming a multitude of stages
0:45:15 > 0:45:17"to the greatest height,
0:45:17 > 0:45:21"the whole mass appears an immense and inaccessible ruin
0:45:21 > 0:45:23"of the finest architecture,
0:45:23 > 0:45:29"mouldering, defaced and become uneven by the vast lapse of time."
0:45:29 > 0:45:34Quite simply, this is a place of superlatives
0:45:34 > 0:45:37and there's nothing quite like this anywhere else in mainland Britain.
0:45:37 > 0:45:42Traffic passing through Glencoe slows down not because the road
0:45:42 > 0:45:44is dangerous in any particular way,
0:45:44 > 0:45:49but simply because drivers and passengers can't resist admiring
0:45:49 > 0:45:51this fantastic landscape.
0:45:58 > 0:45:59Most modern visitors reach for
0:45:59 > 0:46:01their cameras when they get here,
0:46:01 > 0:46:05but ever since Sarah Murray bumped and rattled her way through the glen,
0:46:05 > 0:46:08writers and artists have been
0:46:08 > 0:46:10inspired by what they saw.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13The landscape artist Horatio McCulloch came here.
0:46:13 > 0:46:15Images like his became icons,
0:46:15 > 0:46:19encapsulating the magical essence of the Highlands.
0:46:19 > 0:46:23Art made Glencoe a must-see destination
0:46:23 > 0:46:26on the tourist trail for 200 years.
0:46:29 > 0:46:31Leaving the glories of Glencoe,
0:46:31 > 0:46:34my route takes me north to Fort William.
0:46:34 > 0:46:37In Black's day, most tourists would have made the trip by steamer
0:46:37 > 0:46:40before sailing through the Caledonian Canal,
0:46:40 > 0:46:45an inland waterway that connects Fort William to Inverness.
0:46:47 > 0:46:49This is Neptune's Staircase,
0:46:49 > 0:46:52the entrance to the Caledonian Canal.
0:46:52 > 0:46:56Completed in 1822 and designed by the great Scottish engineering
0:46:56 > 0:47:01genius Thomas Telford, the staircase is a series of eight locks
0:47:01 > 0:47:05that lift boats 70ft above sea level.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08While tourists were encouraged to admire the genius
0:47:08 > 0:47:10of Victorian science and engineering that had made
0:47:10 > 0:47:15all this possible, the Queen herself was less than impressed.
0:47:15 > 0:47:19Sailing through Neptune's Staircase in 1873,
0:47:19 > 0:47:23Victoria found the whole business exceedingly tedious.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27To make matters worse, curious spectators were able to look down
0:47:27 > 0:47:31upon Her Majesty as she sailed below.
0:47:31 > 0:47:36Remarking on this role reversal, the young Queen was overheard to say,
0:47:36 > 0:47:40"We are not amused".
0:47:43 > 0:47:48The canal enters the southern end of the celebrated Loch Ness.
0:47:48 > 0:47:49There's more freshwater here
0:47:49 > 0:47:52than in all lakes of England and Wales put together.
0:47:52 > 0:47:57Today, Loch Ness is synonymous the world over with the monster.
0:47:57 > 0:48:03In fact, Nessie has made Loch Ness the most famous lake in the world.
0:48:03 > 0:48:06But what's striking is that neither Sarah Murray nor Black's guide
0:48:06 > 0:48:08make any mention of a mysterious beast
0:48:08 > 0:48:11lurking in the 800ft-deep loch.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15I've joined Adrian Shine,
0:48:15 > 0:48:18who has studied the Loch Ness monster since the early 1970s,
0:48:18 > 0:48:22to find out when the modern myth of Nessie began.
0:48:22 > 0:48:27It was in 1933 that the manageress of the Drumnadrochit Hotel,
0:48:27 > 0:48:31now the Loch Ness Centre where the museum is,
0:48:31 > 0:48:34was driving back from Inverness when she saw something
0:48:34 > 0:48:37and yelled to her husband, "Stop! The Beast!"
0:48:37 > 0:48:38"The beast"?
0:48:38 > 0:48:41"The beast." Not, "Stop, you beast."
0:48:41 > 0:48:44"The beast." Which shows, there was a tradition,
0:48:44 > 0:48:47there was something that she knew about.
0:48:47 > 0:48:52Of course, you could say it's rather suspicious that it was a hotelier.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56Exactly, it's a bit of a conspiracy amongst hoteliers to boost
0:48:56 > 0:49:00the popularity of Loch Ness by inventing a Loch Ness monster.
0:49:00 > 0:49:04I had the privilege of meeting Mrs Mackay many years later.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08It turned out that she actually tried to conceal her story.
0:49:10 > 0:49:15Despite Mrs Mackay's reticence, the press got to hear about the beast.
0:49:15 > 0:49:18A series of silly-season articles quickly followed
0:49:18 > 0:49:20and Nessie was born,
0:49:20 > 0:49:23along with a string of photographs
0:49:23 > 0:49:25that seemed to show something in the loch.
0:49:25 > 0:49:28Adrian, you've studied this loch for the last 35 years.
0:49:28 > 0:49:32What conclusions have you come to about the authenticity
0:49:32 > 0:49:37of the legend, or whether there is in fact something living here?
0:49:37 > 0:49:40Well, eye witnesses are sincere and my problem is that 1,000 people
0:49:40 > 0:49:45have left recorded sighting reports.
0:49:45 > 0:49:48People you would trust in your everyday life,
0:49:48 > 0:49:50people who are sober,
0:49:50 > 0:49:54and they insist they've seen large creatures here.
0:49:54 > 0:49:58Yet science can't find them.
0:49:58 > 0:49:59From what Adrian is saying,
0:49:59 > 0:50:04it seems to me that Nessie belongs to the realm of myth and legend,
0:50:04 > 0:50:08feeding humanity's hunger for the mysterious and the unexplained.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11Loch Ness is a lost world in the same way
0:50:11 > 0:50:17that Jules Verne's great cavern under the earth was a lost world.
0:50:17 > 0:50:22The idea of such a thing still being with us, something so mysterious,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25so elusive, and yet, potentially, so terrible,
0:50:25 > 0:50:28I think appeals to something deep in human nature.
0:50:31 > 0:50:33From the mysterious waters of Loch Ness,
0:50:33 > 0:50:37my journey takes me over the hills to the Beauly Firth,
0:50:37 > 0:50:40where I join the route of a railway line that once took
0:50:40 > 0:50:43health-seeking Victorians to the village of Strathpeffer.
0:50:51 > 0:50:53Although the station is still here,
0:50:53 > 0:50:56the railway line that once connected it to the outside world
0:50:56 > 0:50:59has long gone, and my dramatic arrival
0:50:59 > 0:51:03is literally all smoke and mirrors, to give the impression
0:51:03 > 0:51:08of a busy railway station at the height of a great Victorian craze -
0:51:08 > 0:51:10taking the waters.
0:51:13 > 0:51:16Now a museum, the station once saw 20 trains a day arriving
0:51:16 > 0:51:20and departing with visitors queuing up to receive the benefits
0:51:20 > 0:51:23of drinking water saturated with mineral salts -
0:51:23 > 0:51:26a practice begun in Continental Europe,
0:51:26 > 0:51:29it spread to Britain in the 19th century.
0:51:29 > 0:51:33Elevated to a medical science, it became very fashionable
0:51:33 > 0:51:37to seek a spa cure for a host of medical conditions.
0:51:37 > 0:51:42In Scotland, Strathpeffer was the premier Highland resort.
0:51:42 > 0:51:47Today, Strathpeffer is no longer a spa,
0:51:47 > 0:51:51but the glory days have left their mark in the architecture of the town.
0:51:51 > 0:51:55Behind me is the Spa Pavilion, where all kinds of musical events
0:51:55 > 0:51:59were put on for the benefit of patients and their friends.
0:51:59 > 0:52:02Over there is the Pump Room, which is just about the only place
0:52:02 > 0:52:08in town where you can still get a good drink...of water, that is.
0:52:11 > 0:52:16Nowadays, the Pump Room is a curious combination of museum and bicycle hire shop.
0:52:16 > 0:52:20Among the exhibits, some of which seem in need of a reviving glass,
0:52:20 > 0:52:23I'm meeting up with historian Alastair Durie
0:52:23 > 0:52:27to learn more about the science formerly known as hydrotherapy.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31This is one of many such resorts
0:52:31 > 0:52:33throughout all of Europe in the 19th century.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36It looks like a bar here. We've got - what's that? Iron well.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39They're arranged in order of strength.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42The strongest here, the weakest down there,
0:52:42 > 0:52:45in terms of how much sulphur is in the water.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49That would help a doctor to schedule which treatment you would get.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52Do you want to try some?
0:52:52 > 0:52:57I think since I've made the effort to come this far I should have a wee sip, at least.
0:52:57 > 0:53:01Well, it should be said that this is supposed to be good,
0:53:01 > 0:53:05according to the label on the bottle -
0:53:05 > 0:53:09"Excellent against any lethargy of the body."
0:53:09 > 0:53:12So, that should cover everything.
0:53:16 > 0:53:20The ideal patient was one who needed regular treatment.
0:53:20 > 0:53:24An annual three-week break was quite often prescribed by doctors,
0:53:24 > 0:53:27with the patient's best interests at heart, of course!
0:53:27 > 0:53:30But not everyone was so impressed.
0:53:30 > 0:53:35The writer Robert Louis Stevenson wrote bitterly about his experience.
0:53:35 > 0:53:39"A beastly place inhabited by a wholly bestial crowd."
0:53:39 > 0:53:43Oh, dear - not much of an endorsement there!
0:53:43 > 0:53:45Do you notice an aroma?
0:53:45 > 0:53:47- Rotten eggs.- Yes.
0:53:47 > 0:53:49No doubt about that at all.
0:53:51 > 0:53:54And it tastes...
0:53:54 > 0:53:58Strange. A bit like a flat, old ale.
0:53:59 > 0:54:01Right, brilliant.
0:54:01 > 0:54:03To be honest, this is just a glass of smelly water.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07It's not going to cure anybody, is it? It's all psychosomatic.
0:54:07 > 0:54:10There are two things about this.
0:54:10 > 0:54:14Firstly, there are people where it doesn't really matter what you give them,
0:54:14 > 0:54:17it's if they believe it's going to do them good.
0:54:17 > 0:54:22Secondly, there are conditions which are genuinely helped by these chemicals.
0:54:22 > 0:54:26- Right.- Don't forget also that this is just one part,
0:54:26 > 0:54:29it's the most important part of the regime.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33You're also getting baths, you're getting massage,
0:54:33 > 0:54:34you're getting showers.
0:54:34 > 0:54:40All of these things would help with treating things like skin conditions and whatever.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43Excellent. I think you should try some of this, Alastair.
0:54:47 > 0:54:49Perfect. I won't need any more for some time.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52I don't think you want any more for some time!
0:54:52 > 0:54:57It's sometimes amazing to think that patients survived the cures
0:54:57 > 0:54:59that were prescribed at the spa.
0:54:59 > 0:55:03These later included therapies that used electric shocks and radiation,
0:55:03 > 0:55:05all for the good of your health.
0:55:05 > 0:55:10But ultimately, the fate of Strathpeffer was determined
0:55:10 > 0:55:15by something beyond the control of doctors and therapists - fashion.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19People eventually got bored with the whole idea
0:55:19 > 0:55:23of spas and health resorts and advances in modern medicine,
0:55:23 > 0:55:25especially the discovery of antibiotics,
0:55:25 > 0:55:30made taking the waters seem somehow primitive and old-fashioned.
0:55:34 > 0:55:37All this talk of health makes me feel in need of some therapy
0:55:37 > 0:55:40of my own, and as I head for the nearest bar,
0:55:40 > 0:55:44I reflect on how so many of us can be easily persuaded
0:55:44 > 0:55:46by health fads of one kind or another.
0:55:46 > 0:55:48In medieval times,
0:55:48 > 0:55:53lunatics hoped for a cure by immersion in St Fillan's Well.
0:55:53 > 0:55:59In the 1890s, people believed in the benefits of sulphurous water.
0:55:59 > 0:56:03In the 1930s, my grandmother was told by her doctor no less
0:56:03 > 0:56:06that smoking was actually good for her.
0:56:06 > 0:56:10Personally, I've always been inclined to believe in the benefits
0:56:10 > 0:56:14of vigorous exercise in Scotland's great outdoors,
0:56:14 > 0:56:19followed, of course, by a life-affirming pint of beer.
0:56:19 > 0:56:21Your good health.
0:56:23 > 0:56:27My next grand tour of Scotland takes me to the far north
0:56:27 > 0:56:30in search of perfect isolation,
0:56:30 > 0:56:34and then south again to the beaches of the east coast.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd