Scotland in Miniature - The Isle of Arran Grand Tours of Scotland


Scotland in Miniature - The Isle of Arran

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In the days before rail and road opened Scotland up to mass tourism,

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getting around could be uncomfortable and time-consuming.

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But there was a place where early visitors could enjoy the full range

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of awe-inspiring landscapes without ever having to endure

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the inconvenience of travelling huge distances.

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So I've packed my old guidebook,

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and I'm off on a Grand Tour of Arran,

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an island that claims to be Scotland in miniature.

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First published in 1846,

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Black's Picturesque Guide To Scotland is a lavishly illustrated

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encyclopaedia of where to go, what to see, and how to get there.

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It was the Lonely Planet Guide of its day,

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packed full of useful hints on everything

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from native customs, tipping, and the etiquette of wearing a kilt.

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It once guided my own family when we went on holiday,

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and 40 years on, I'm dusting it down and setting off to explore

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the highways and byways of 21st century Scotland,

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using Black's as both an inspiration and a reference.

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For my first Grand Tour, I'm heading for the island that claims

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to have a little bit of everything.

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Arran is just 56 miles in circumference

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but according to my guide, it's a microcosm of Scotland.

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Black's says, "From the rugged mountain to the swelling hill,

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"the open valley, or the contracted glen, there is that diversity

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"of surface that is rarely found condensed into so small a compass."

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For Victorian travellers, this was the ideal destination,

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a place with stunning scenery, ancient history

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and beautiful beaches.

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A place that's a distillation of all that's best in Scotland.

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A place tourists can explore without too much tedious travel.

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I'm making a trip around Arran's rugged coastline,

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scaling the magnificent Goatfell,

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searching for the island's wildlife

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and hanging out at Scotland's only nudist beach.

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But my journey begins on the western shore, here at Drumadoon Bay

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and the scene of a famous encounter.

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The King's Cave is one of several large caves along this coastline.

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And according to local legend, as they say,

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none other than King Robert the Bruce

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found inspiration here to overcome the oppression of the English.

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In a cave just up there, Bruce saw the spider.

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Every school kid knows the story.

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Outlawed and on the run after countless defeats,

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Robert the Bruce shelters in a cave.

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His situation seems beyond hope.

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Wow, this is a huge space in here.

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Depressed, he watches a spider spin a web.

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But the wind breaks it.

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Undaunted, the spider tries again.

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Again, the web breaks.

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This keeps on happening, and the spider keeps on trying

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until it's successful.

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Robert the Bruce is impressed.

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He'll be like the spider.

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He'll try and try again until he defeats the English.

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Now it's a great story, but unfortunately it's entirely made up.

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And even if there had been a cave, it wouldn't have been here,

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but on Rathlin Island off the coast of Ulster.

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And as for the spider...

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Well, history is entirely silent on the subject,

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until Sir Walter Scott picks up the story

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and weaves an altogether different kind of web.

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Pure fiction.

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There is evidence in these caves of a long history of human occupation.

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The first people to use them

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were probably hunters who moved here thousands of years ago

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as glaciers melted at the end of the last Ice Age.

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But it was Scott's fanciful interpretation of history

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that prompted Arran hoteliers to peddle the myth

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of Bruce and the spider,

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and to refer to this cave as the King's Cave,

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making it a convenient location where Victorian tourists

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could encounter a critical moment in Scotland's history.

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The thing that does strike me is all the graffiti.

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The walls are covered with it.

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And this isn't just modern graffiti.

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It dates back to the beginnings of tourism in Scotland.

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There's one there from 1879. It's outrageous!

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These Victorian visitors came to the island in their thousands

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in the summer season.

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Many of them would have arrived at my next destination,

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Lochranza, the northern gateway to the island.

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These seekers of summer fun transformed Arran

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into one of Scotland's best-loved holiday destinations.

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But it wasn't seekers of summer fun

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who blazed the holiday trail on Arran.

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The first visitors weren't interested

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in frolicking on the beach.

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They wanted to bang rocks.

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Geology was the great scientific obsession of the 18th century,

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and Arran's ancient rock formations would provide vital clues

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to the most pressing scientific question of the time,

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the age of the Earth.

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One of the best ways to see Arran's coastal rock formations

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is from the sea, so I'm taking to the waves with my guide,

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Calum McNicol, who knows every inch of this beautiful coastline.

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So, Calum, I understand the first tourists to come to Arran

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were interested in rocks and not beaches, is that right?

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Aye, that's right. This section of coastline here

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really started the industry of tourism back in the 1800s.

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The first visitors to the islands were geologists.

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There was a Scottish farmer turned scientist called James Hutton

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and some would say he was the forefather of geology.

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He was quite a radical thinker, you know,

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and the age of the Earth was really an unknown.

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Hutton came up with a theory that the rocks

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had been lain down on the ocean bed

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over the course of tens or hundreds of millions of years.

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In 1787, he visited the island

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and he used this stretch of coastline here to back up his theory.

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Now, I've read that the thing that really put Arran on the map

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was this exquisitely-named Hutton's Unconformity.

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Now, what on earth is that?

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Well, Hutton's Unconformity is an area of coastline

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which shows us two distinct, different rock formations.

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This was really quite a significant moment.

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In scientific history, it was incredibly important.

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Well, I can't wait to see this Unconformity.

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I can see some sandstone up there.

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Other sorts of stone covered in seaweed.

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Hello!

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Have you seen Hutton's Unconformity?

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It's up here somewhere.

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It's unmistakable.

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Yeah, this is it here.

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This is what turned the world on its head in the 1800s.

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I'm not really convinced I can see what you're talking about, Calum.

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To the untrained eye, it's nothing more than a bunch of rocks,

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but to a geologist, it's an incredible sight.

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The rocks on the right are folding in one direction

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and the rocks on the left are folding in a completely

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different direction. And that contradiction of the folds

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suggested to Hutton, back in the day,

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that they came from a different era in geological time.

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Must admit I'm a bit underwhelmed, Calum.

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In 1785, Hutton first published his Theory Of The Earth,

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which challenged conventional ideas on how our planet was formed.

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He controversially asserted that the world was much older

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than previously thought and concluded,

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"We find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end."

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So he sat here and he mused upon nature, these rocks,

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and came up with a revolutionary theory

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that people have been in awe of ever since.

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And to this day, we get geologists from all over the world

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who ply back and forward along this stretch of the coastline

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looking at the rocks and getting excited about his theory.

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And after Hutton, and after the Victorian scientific tourists,

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came tourists in search of nothing more than pleasure,

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and they still come. And I guess,

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doing what we're doing is a perfect way of combining

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a little bit of history, little bit of geology

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and a lot of fantastic scenery.

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For many visitors, a trip to Arran is not complete

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without climbing the mountain which dominates its landscape -

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Goatfell.

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I'm about to do just that.

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For the intrepid Victorian tourist,

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an ascent of this summit was de rigueur.

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And my copy of Black's urges its reader upwards.

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"The spectator finds himself surrounded by a sea

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"of jagged peaks and massive boulders.

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"His eye may wander down into

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"the vast hollows beneath his feet.

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"The view on a clear day amply repays the labour."

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Goatfell is a fascinating mountain.

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It's part of a range of jagged peaks that once formed

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the rim of a gigantic, collapsed volcano.

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And to do all the peaks in this mountain range,

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it's quite a challenge, especially when the cloud is coming down,

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cos it's very easy to get lost on these narrow, twisting ridges.

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Now I think that the weather is beginning to deteriorate,

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so I'm going to play it safe, and head back down the hill.

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Like all Scottish mountains,

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Goatfell is not to be under-estimated

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and has claimed the lives of several walkers

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since visitors first began scaling its heights for pleasure.

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But not all the fatalities were accidents.

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Back in Victorian times, one tourist met a grisly end

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in these dramatic surroundings.

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Descending to the appropriately bleak Glen Sannox,

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I meet up with local historian, Stuart Gough,

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who is well-versed in the secrets of Goatfell's sometimes bloody past.

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Now, Stuart, there was a very infamous death

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took place up on Goatfell. What happened and who was involved?

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It was in July 1889 when two men - a Scotsman, John Watson Laurie,

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and Englishman, Edwin Robert Rose,

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walked together up Goatfell, but only one came back down.

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-Only one came... Who came back down?

-Laurie came back.

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-Laurie the Scotsman came back down.

-The Scotsman came back.

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And what happened to Rose?

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Well, his body was discovered two weeks later

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in Glen Sannox there, behind us.

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In a bad state.

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Decomposed, and head smashed in.

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Hidden under a huge boulder.

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-So the suspicion was that Laurie had wielded a boulder...

-Yes.

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-..and smashed in Rose's head.

-Correct.

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-And then tried to hide the corpse.

-Hide the body, hide the corpse.

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What I think's curious, though, Stuart, is the fact that

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-both these men were tourists.

-Yes, indeed.

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They were both on holiday and met up on a pleasure cruise.

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It wasn't such a pleasurable cruise, was it?

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-One did the other one to death.

-Indeed.

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Two men went up and only one came back.

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And here lies the body of poor Rose

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who died up on the hill and it's...

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-Absolutely.

-..strangely poetic, really, because...

-Yeah.

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..he was found under a boulder and he remains under a boulder here.

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It's very poetic, as you say.

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When Rose's body was discovered, Laurie went on the run.

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But after a nationwide manhunt, he was captured.

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There was a trial, what happened to him?

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Well, the verdict was guilty.

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The sentence was death by hanging.

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And two days before he was due to be hanged in Greenock Jail,

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Queen Victoria commuted his sentence to life imprisonment.

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He ended up going to jail for 41 years, dying in Perth Prison.

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He was Britain's longest-serving prisoner.

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There's a grisly twist to this story.

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The murder victim's boots were missing.

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During the trial, the local police admitted to removing them

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and burying them on the beach.

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There's an old tradition on Arran

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that if a murdered man's boots

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are not given this ritualistic treatment,

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then his ghost will walk the hills until judgment day.

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Back on the shoreline,

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I'm indulging in an altogether more innocent pursuit.

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A favourite Victorian family pastime was rock pooling,

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a simple pleasure involving a shrimp net and a bucket.

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Now, of course, you had to remove your shoes and socks,

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expose bare flesh and dip a toe in water.

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Very daring!

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Of course, we're not put on this Earth to enjoy ourselves,

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and in the 1800s, a lot of people had difficulty in accepting

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pleasure for pleasure's sake.

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So they tried to dress it up as being educational,

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or morally beneficial.

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Rock pooling was a classic example of this

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and it was a brilliant way of justifying a trip to the seaside

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because it chimed in perfectly with good old Victorian values.

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What on earth's that?

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How strange.

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Writers of the day were keen to endorse rock pooling.

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The Reverend Charles Kingsley,

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who penned the best-selling moral fable, The Water Babies,

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wrote in glowing terms about the noble hobby.

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"Let no-one think that this is a pursuit fitted

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"only for effeminate or pedantic men.

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"Rather, that the qualifications required

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"are as many and as lofty as those

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"for the perfect knight-errant of the Middle Ages."

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Heroic stuff indeed!

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Now, in days gone by,

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rock-poolers like Kingsley would have taken the specimens

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they found on the shore home with them at the end of their holiday.

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Now today, this isn't encouraged.

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Instead, looking and learning and leaving behind is the best policy.

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Anyway, let's face it, wee crabs like this make rubbish pets.

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Ouch! Get off!

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By the early 1900s,

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Arran had become THE place for the in crowd.

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Wealthy families would rent houses for the whole summer.

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And one of the most influential Scottish families

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holidayed here at Brodick Castle,

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where I'm headed next.

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I've been invited to the Castle, to drop in on Lady Jean Fforde,

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who's a direct descendent of the powerful Dukes of Hamilton,

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who once owned the entire island and a good deal more besides.

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Brodick Castle dates back to 1510, when the Hamiltons

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were closely connected to the Scottish Royal Family.

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Today, it's owned by the National Trust,

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but back in the 1930s, this was where the young Lady Jean

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spent her holidays.

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Lady Jean, this is an absolutely wonderful house.

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And you spent every summer here?

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Every summer.

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1st of May until the 30th of September.

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It must have been wonderful as a child.

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Yes, but it was strict manners.

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-Really?

-Oh, yes.

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A child doesn't know what grandeur is...

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It's home.

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There were enamel and gold swans over here...

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and ducks, which were very exotic.

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And we'd come running in here and she'd say, "Mind the ducks!"

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That has passed on in the family. If you're about to put your foot in it,

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the other members said, "Mind the ducks."

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And you have no idea how frightening it is to go through that door

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to go to bed, and the whole of the wall of the staircase

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is covered with stags' heads

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and they all had glass eyes.

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And the light caught the glass eyes

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and you ran up those stairs at the rate of knots...

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-Pretty scary stags.

-..with these animals looking at you.

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What was it like here in the 1930s?

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Well, it was great fun, really,

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because there were a lot of friends round about, you know,

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a lot of tennis parties and then riding.

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You're riding side saddle, look at that.

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We had a boat, we went out,

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netting fish and lobster potting.

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So, would it be right to say that at that time, in the 1930s,

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-there was such a thing as an Arran set?

-Oh, yes.

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Yes, you certainly could.

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People came down for a month and stayed.

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And the same people took the same house year in, year out.

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And you had some fairly illustrious people staying here as well.

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Yes. Prince Rainier.

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This is the European royalty we're talking about here.

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Yes, absolutely.

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On several occasions,

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Lady Jean's cousin, Prince Rainier of Monaco,

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came to Arran on holiday.

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Here, he's wearing a kilt.

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A kilt with, it looks like, a leopard-skin sporran

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-which I think...

-It does look like.

-..wouldn't be allowed today .

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No, it wouldn't.

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What did Prince Rainier and his family make of Scotland?

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Oh, they loved it.

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It was so different to what they were accustomed to.

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This is on Arran. That's Prince Rainier.

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Princess Antoinette, known as Tiny. And me.

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In 1956, Prince Rainier married movie star Grace Kelly,

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although Arran was not their honeymoon destination.

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But she was the most adorable person.

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I mean, film star, nothing, or princess, nothing,

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as a person to meet, she was very nice.

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Really nice.

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As Lady Jean grew up, Arran remained close to her heart,

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and the summers spent here as a child and a young woman

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have provided her with countless precious memories.

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Well it sounds to me,

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Lady Jean, as if you had very happy times here as a child.

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Oh, yes. Oh, very.

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Very happy.

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Leaving the genteel surroundings of the Castle behind,

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I take to the water again,

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to head down to the southern tip of the island at Kildonan.

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Now, being in a kayak is a brilliant way of spotting wildlife,

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but there's one beautiful creature I'm desperate to see,

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and that's the elusive otter.

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Now I'm paddling ashore to meet a woman who can help me find one.

0:21:230:21:27

This coastline is one of the best places to see the otter,

0:21:270:21:31

but you have to know where to look.

0:21:310:21:34

This is a fantastic stretch of coastline.

0:21:340:21:37

We usually see seals and other sea birds, gannets,

0:21:370:21:40

golden eagles, and hen harriers and red deer.

0:21:400:21:43

It's just a brilliant place for watching wildlife.

0:21:430:21:46

'Lucy Wallace lives here and runs tours

0:21:460:21:48

'for keen wildlife enthusiasts.'

0:21:480:21:50

So is that quite a new development,

0:21:500:21:52

do you think, in tourism,

0:21:520:21:54

people coming to a place like Arran to enjoy the wildlife?

0:21:540:21:57

I think people have always come to Arran to enjoy the wildlife,

0:21:570:22:00

but I think that perhaps the tourism industry

0:22:000:22:03

is learning to value its wildlife a little bit better,

0:22:030:22:07

and starting to understand and appreciate

0:22:070:22:09

what our wildlife means to our visitors,

0:22:090:22:12

and make the most of that.

0:22:120:22:16

-Well, let's hope we can see an otter.

-Fingers crossed.

0:22:160:22:19

-It's a heron.

-A heron.

0:22:240:22:26

Now, Lucy, I've always wanted to know the answer to this question.

0:22:270:22:31

Are sea otters, the ones that live in the sea,

0:22:310:22:34

are they the same or different from the otters you find in rivers?

0:22:340:22:38

In the UK, the only otter species we have

0:22:380:22:41

is the Eurasian Otter, Lutra lutra.

0:22:410:22:43

-Lutra lutra!

-Lutra lutra.

0:22:430:22:45

And they are found both in the rivers and along the coastline.

0:22:450:22:48

-Right, so they are the same animal.

-They are the same animal, yeah.

0:22:480:22:51

Members of the weasel family, so Mustelas.

0:22:510:22:53

Are they really? Are they weasels?

0:22:530:22:55

-They are, they're big aquatic weasels.

-Right.

0:22:550:22:57

A large aquatic weasel.

0:22:570:22:58

Well, I still haven't seen this large aquatic weasel yet.

0:22:580:23:02

I know. Starting to worry me.

0:23:020:23:03

Along the coast we go.

0:23:050:23:07

'As the light begins to fade,

0:23:070:23:09

'it looks like we might be out of luck, and then...'

0:23:090:23:12

-Ooh! I've got an otter.

-Got an otter?

0:23:120:23:15

I've got an otter. Just there on the rock.

0:23:150:23:17

-Where?

-Er, flat-top rock...

0:23:170:23:19

-Yeah.

-Just at the back there, yeah.

0:23:190:23:21

-Oh, I see it.

-Yeah.

0:23:210:23:23

Very well camouflaged, though. Almost the same colour as the rock.

0:23:230:23:26

Yeah, they're...

0:23:260:23:28

That chocolate-brown colour makes them quite hard to spot.

0:23:280:23:31

They dive down for, ooh, maybe 20 seconds or so.

0:23:310:23:34

20 seconds, well, that must be about 20 seconds now.

0:23:340:23:37

-So...

-Oh, there he is! Well done.

0:23:370:23:40

-And he's disappeared again. Just a tail.

-Up and down.

0:23:400:23:43

Diving straight down.

0:23:430:23:45

-We see it for a second and it disappears.

-Yes.

0:23:450:23:48

You do have to kind of keep your wits about you and...

0:23:480:23:52

..it can be very, very fleeting.

0:23:530:23:55

-Wait a minute. There's another one.

-So that's lovely.

0:23:550:23:58

It's absolutely brilliant, isn't it?

0:23:580:24:00

These wild animals are swimming around just so close to our shore

0:24:000:24:04

and they're really not aware of it.

0:24:040:24:07

They're not bothered by us, are they?

0:24:070:24:09

-No.

-They're just getting on with wild, natural behaviour,

0:24:090:24:13

as it should be. It's just lovely to see.

0:24:130:24:16

Well it's a great privilege, it really is.

0:24:160:24:19

Very often when people come out with me, and I can really sympathise,

0:24:190:24:22

cos it was the same for me before I moved to Arran,

0:24:220:24:24

-they've, they've never seen an otter before.

-Ah-ha.

0:24:240:24:27

So to be able to stand and watch one for a few minutes like this is...

0:24:270:24:30

-Well, that's an indulgence.

-..really fantastic.

0:24:300:24:32

It is an indulgence, isn't it? We're really lucky.

0:24:320:24:35

I once saw an otter wrestling with a lobster

0:24:350:24:38

-that was bigger than it.

-Really?

0:24:380:24:40

-Mmm.

-Who came off best?

0:24:400:24:41

-The otter.

-Really?

0:24:410:24:42

Oh, yes.

0:24:420:24:43

Fantastic.

0:24:450:24:46

And how are the otter numbers doing, then?

0:24:500:24:52

Well, anecdotally we think their numbers are growing, so...

0:24:520:24:56

-That's a great thing, all right.

-..they seem to be doing really well.

0:24:560:24:59

So many animals are actually in decline.

0:24:590:25:01

-It's great to hear a good news story about otters.

-That's right,

0:25:010:25:04

and as you probably know,

0:25:040:25:05

otters went into a drastic decline in the 20th century,

0:25:050:25:09

but they seem to be bouncing back now,

0:25:090:25:12

-and that's definitely associated with a decreasing pollution.

-OK.

0:25:120:25:16

And the Clyde, the Firth of Clyde is definitely

0:25:160:25:18

a lot cleaner than it was, which is good news for otters.

0:25:180:25:22

Good news for otters and good news for Arran.

0:25:230:25:26

Oh, you...

0:25:280:25:30

'But as any tourist to Scotland will tell you,

0:25:320:25:35

'there's one Scottish creature you really want to avoid.'

0:25:350:25:39

Urgh!

0:25:390:25:40

Ah!

0:25:400:25:41

Now it's often struck me as mysterious, to say the least,

0:25:410:25:45

that the dreaded midge - phew! -

0:25:450:25:47

never gets a mention in Black's

0:25:470:25:50

or any of the other guidebooks and journals that I've read.

0:25:500:25:55

Now, why is this?

0:25:550:25:56

Were there fewer midges in those days?

0:25:560:25:58

Are the ones that plague us today the result of global warming?

0:25:580:26:03

Well, no-one can tell me,

0:26:030:26:05

but personally, I suspect a conspiracy of silence.

0:26:050:26:09

Even modern tourist literature is silent

0:26:090:26:12

on the subject of these horrible little beasts.

0:26:120:26:15

And no wonder. We don't want to put off the tourists, do we?

0:26:150:26:19

The Highland Midge has a reputation

0:26:190:26:22

for being one of the most ferocious biting insects

0:26:220:26:25

in Scotland, if not the world.

0:26:250:26:28

I actually seem to have midges inside this net.

0:26:280:26:32

And how did they get in there?

0:26:320:26:34

'It's actually the female midge that does the biting -

0:26:340:26:37

'no surprise there -

0:26:370:26:39

'and they can make the summer months pretty unpleasant.'

0:26:390:26:43

Not supposed to fly in wind. And these ones do.

0:26:440:26:48

'The best way to avoid being bitten is simply to cover up,

0:26:480:26:52

'which makes my final destination all the more surprising.

0:26:520:26:56

'To finish off my tour of Arran,

0:26:570:27:00

'I'm heading for Cleat's Shore,

0:27:000:27:02

'a beach which attracts a very different type of holidaymaker,

0:27:020:27:05

'and one who would certainly have been frowned upon in Black's day.

0:27:050:27:10

'Believe it or not,

0:27:160:27:17

'Arran is home to Scotland's only official nudist beach.

0:27:170:27:23

'Europeans have been happily casting aside their clothing

0:27:260:27:29

'in the name of healthy living and exercise

0:27:290:27:32

'since the start of the 20th century.

0:27:320:27:35

'But it wasn't until the 1920s that British naturism flourished,

0:27:380:27:43

'complete with its own philosophy of life.

0:27:430:27:46

'The first official nudist beach in Britain

0:27:520:27:54

'opened on the south coast of England in 1978.

0:27:540:27:59

'Although this was followed by several more,

0:27:590:28:02

'there is only one in Scotland.

0:28:020:28:05

'I wonder why.'

0:28:060:28:07

This is most strange. It's very peculiar.

0:28:130:28:17

I followed the track through a couple of fields,

0:28:170:28:20

I've come down to the beach.

0:28:200:28:21

But as you can see, the place is utterly deserted!

0:28:210:28:24

There's no pink flesh on display at all, apart from my own.

0:28:240:28:30

Now, having come this far,

0:28:300:28:32

I think it would be a mistake for me not to face the challenge

0:28:320:28:36

and take the plunge.

0:28:360:28:38

Brace yourself! Here we go!

0:28:380:28:40

Oh! Oh! Brrr!

0:28:400:28:43

Join me on my next Grand Tour,

0:28:450:28:48

when I'm heading to the south-west to discover my feminine side.

0:28:480:28:52

Right, OK...

0:28:560:28:58

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