Islands of the Forth: Fortress Islands of the Forth Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands

'When we think of Scottish islands,

'most of us think of The Atlantic and the Hebrides,

'or the wild, northern isles of Orkney and Shetland.'

But there's another group of fascinating

and often overlooked islands much closer to home.

These lie within sight of Edinburgh

in the Firth Of Forth.

'Islands have drawn people since the dawn of human history

'and, in this series, I'm retracing the steps of some early

'visitors who fell under the spell of Scotland's magical islands.

'On this grand tour, I'm going to discover how the

'islands of the Forth became fortresses to defend our shores.

'Or prisons from which there was no escape.'

'The historical riches and natural beauty of the Firth Of Forth,

'have attracted visitors since the very early days of tourism.'

There's an old rhyme in this guidebook which gives an

indication of where these tourists went and what there was to see.

It says, "Inchgarvie, Inchmickery, Inchcolm, Inchkeith,

"Cramond, Fidra, Lamb, Craigleith,

"around the Bass Rock to the Isle of May,

"then past Car Craig to Dalgety Bay."

Which pretty much describes the route I'm taking today.

'Sailing from west to east, I'm island hopping from Inchgarvie

to the Bass Rock, discovering a bewildering history

that includes war, witchcraft, meditation and incarceration.

'My journey starts here, in the shadow of the Forth Bridge.

'South Queensferry has for decades been the traditional

'starting point for daytrippers, seeking to enjoy an island cruise

'and marvel at one of the world's most iconic structures.'

I never tyre of the Forth Bridge.

This has to be the best way to appreciate its sheer scale.

It's truly immense.

'This historic crossing is rightly famous.

'But what is less well-known

'is the island which supports it,

'Inchgarvie.

'When the bridge was constructed in 1882,

'this rocky islet was used as a foundation

'for one of its gigantic legs.

'Like a stepping stone, as this huge structure

'vaults across the Firth.

'But this island has played more than just a supporting role

'in the history of the Forth.

'Because of the strategic importance of these waters,

'Inchgarvie has had some form of fortification on it

'since the Middle Ages.

'And, even in more recent times,

'this rocky outcrop has been used to defend our coastline.

'In 1939, Britain declare war on Nazi Germany.

'It was here, on the 16th October,

'that the first air raid of the war took place.'

AIR RAID SIRENS

'Joining me this trip is someone

'who saw the whole event unfold.

'Ed Thompson was just ten at the time.'

In here there's an artist's impression of the night of the raid.

Here we are. It's very dramatic.

We were on the Dundee train, just about 2:30, and

we had just gone through the stone arch at the entrance to the bridge.

There was the most enormous whoosh,

and the water rose up as high as the top of the bridge.

The little boat that was tied up alongside, which was HMS Southampton,

it went up in the air in the fountain and crashed back down again.

And then, further down the river, there were more explosions.

And your train would have been stopped here.

I could see the men scattering about down at Inchgarvie from the train.

This is the original newspaper from the day after it happened.

According to the newspaper, there were 15 people hurt.

It says, "a number of casualties but no deaths."

"Slight casualties on warships".

It wasn't until many years later

that I discovered what I had seen was 15 people getting killed.

-How come that wasn't reported at the time?

-I think it was security.

-Was that a news blackout?

-Yes.

Well, I was about 40 before I discovered it!

'Reports claimed that four of the German planes were shot down.

'In reality, it was two.

'The surviving crew were captured and imprisoned at Edinburgh Castle.'

-It was the first air raid?

-It was the very first air raid of the war.

Extraordinary, and you witnessed it.

That scene must have lived with you, in your imagination, for years.

-As if it was yesterday.

-Amazing.

'Continuing my journey,

'I'm going even further back into the history of these islands.

'To visit a place which was the sacred isle

'of the Firth Of Forth...

'..Inchcolm.'

MONKS SINGING

'These monastic buildings date back to the 13th century.'

'The ruined Abbey is the island's crowning glory.

'But its religious history is much older.

'According to legend, St Columba came here in the sixth century,

'an event immortalised in the name

'Inchcolm, which in Gaelic means Columba's Isle.'

Because of its associations with St Columba,

Inchcolm was known as the Iona of the east

and became a significant religious centre.

Nowhere is safe during war, not even a sacred island like this.

During the frequent wars with England,

Inchcolm suffered greatly.

In fact, things got so bad, that after a series of vicious

attacks, the monks abandoned the Abbey

and the island for ever.

'The monks, their prayers and religious chanting

'have long gone.

'In the five centuries which followed,

'pilgrims were eventually replaced by tourists

'and by the start of the 20th century, Inchcolm had become

'one of the east coast's most popular destinations

'for daytrippers, and so it remains.

'Today the island is owned by Historic Scotland

'and two of its staff are the only residents.

'Lucy Cooke has agreed to show me around the Abbey.'

-You are going to take me up to the bell tower.

-I am, indeed.

Nice and slowly.

-Narrow, winding stair.

-Absolutely.

-A very small doorway.

-One of the best I've seen.

-Very small monks.

-They must've been.

'There's a real sense of the past here.

'This was a place of meditation and contemplation.

'And, up here, is the best place to fully appreciate this island.'

-Here we are.

-Wow! Magnificent view!

It's not bad at all, is it?

We've got Edinburgh across there.

-Amazingly close, too.

-Aye, really close.

You can see the Castle, Arthur's Seat.

Then the bridge is behind us.

And then the whole of Fife around that side.

-It's a perfect spot.

-It is.

'But Inchcolm hasn't always been a place of spiritual contemplation.

'It's also had a part to play in defending our shores during wartime.

'I've been told that somewhere on the island

'is a secret military tunnel.'

And this is it!

It's designed to make access to a gun emplacement at the far end,

easier and safer, in the event of enemy attack.

It's dark in here.

'Apparently, over 200 men were stationed on Inchcolm

'during the First World War.

'The defences were upgraded during the Second World War

'when the guns were once again made ready to defend the coast

'from the Germans.'

Inchcolm wasn't the only island to be fortified.

In fact, most of the islands in the Forth were.

To discover more about this violent past,

I'm heading to the most heavily fortified of them all,

Inchkeith.

'Inchkeith stands guard at the mouth of the Forth.

'To get there, I'm taking a fast riverboat across the Firth.

'With me on board is Ron Morris,

'who has studied the extraordinary story of how these islands

'were used to protect our shores.

'Despite lying just two miles off the East Coast,

'Inchkeith is rarely visited.

This island has a colourful history.

'In the Middle Ages it was here that victims of the Black death

'were sent to die.

'Today this island is uninhabited

'and amongst the derelict buildings

'nature is gradually reclaiming its territory.'

It's a jungle of wildflowers, nettles, thistles...

'It's hard to imagine that this was once

'the nerve centre of a huge military operation.'

I've a map here

that can show the extent how the island itself

became a major fort. In fact, it became the Gibraltar of the Forth.

-This was The Rock?

-This was The Rock.

Where are we?

We are about here.

Looking down towards the West Fort.

There was a battery here,

a battery here and a battery here

and one of the south end, all six-inch guns.

There was three 9.2-inch guns in the high ridge of the island,

right down the spine of the island.

There was a whole network of other batteries on the islands

and the shores of the Forth, which supported Inchkeith.

This is really the epicentre of a military compound.

-It very much is. This is the most important coast artillery site in Scotland.

-That's extraordinary.

How many men would have been stationed here?

Up to 1,000 personnel at one time on the island.

Sounds pretty crowded!

'The huge guns positioned here where never called into action.

'In 1956, they were decommissioned and the troops left.'

I suppose it's worth saying though that Inchkeith,

and all the other fortifications around here

worked as a deterrent?

Yes, it certainly served its purpose because the German Navy

never made any attempt to make any

attack in the Firth Of Forth.

'As I explore the island alone,

'I reflect on how everyone who has come here has left their mark.

'Throughout the centuries, Inchkeith has seen

'the arrival of soldiers, the terminally ill

'and even royalty.

'But, perhaps the most intriguing inhabitants of these islands,

'arrived in 1493.

'Two young children being brought up under bizarre conditions.'

King James IV was something of a philosopher.

He wanted to conduct an experiment into the origins of language.

Theologians at this time believed the very first language

spoken on earth was the language of Adam and Eve.

In other words, Ancient Hebrew.

They also argued that because we are all descendants of Adam and Eve,

we should all be able to speak ancient Hebrew naturally.

'To see if this were true,

'King James put two babies in the care of a deaf woman

'and sent them to live alone on Inchkeith.

'If the theologians were right, reasoned the King,

'then the language which the children would naturally develop,

'would be Hebrew. Thereby further vindicating the truth of Scripture.'

Unfortunately, this ambitious

if somewhat inhumane experiment proved absolutely nothing.

When the children were eventually returned to civilisation,

no-one could understand a word that they said.

Some people thought that the sounds that they made were nothing more

than brutish grunts.

Others interpreted the same noises as Ancient Hebrew.

Since no-one had ever heard Ancient Hebrew before,

they couldn't have known.

'And, as for what happened to the children,

'history is silent.'

'It's clear that these islands have a fascinating

'and diverse history,

'but I'm happy to leave thoughts of war behind

'and, in the hope of losing myself in nature,

'I'm heading east.'

'My next destination is the biggest island in the Firth Of Forth,

'the Isle Of May, which is still pretty small.

'In fact, it's under a mile long and just a few hundred yards wide.'

It might seem perverse travelling to the Isle Of May in July

but the name, May, has nothing to do with the merry month

and everything to do with the old Viking Norse word, Mhaigh,

which means "Gull Island"

and there are plenty of them about!

'The importance of the Isle Of May to wildlife was recognised

'when it was designated a national nature reserve.

'This may seem like an idyllic, unspoilt place

'but this island harbours a sinister past.

'Here you can experience, not only the natural world,

'but also the supernatural.

'Enter the wicked witch, Eppie Lang,

'whose fate was curiously bound up with the story

'of the first lighthouse to be built on the island.

'For as long as boats have sailed the Firth Of Forth,

'there have been shipwrecks

'and many of them came to grief on the Isle Of May.'

The predecessor to the lighthouse you can see on the hill

was built in 1630

and was actually Scotland's very first lighthouse.

You can see the remains of it,

just a stump to the right of the existing lighthouse.

During its construction,

the architect was drowned in a terrible storm.

These were dark and superstitious times

and some people believed that a witch, Eppie Lang,

had raised the tempest

to punish the architect for breaking the heart of a local lass.

'Eppie was tried as a witch

'and found guilty of being in league with the devil.

'As was customary at this time, she was burned to death.

'And the wind that had done her bidding,

'fanned the flames to a scorching fury.

'The wicked witch was dead!

'Ding! Dong!'

'Leaving the Isle Of May, I head back across the waters of the Forth.

'Shipwrecks that were caused by witches,

'or more likely by bad weather and rotten luck,

'are very much part of the history of these islands.

'And today, the seabed beneath the Firth Of Forth

'not only tells a story,

'but could be a source of untold wealth.

'I'm joining diving expert, Mark Blythe,

'to discover what lies beneath the waves.'

Mark, we're bobbing around in the middle of the Firth of Forth here.

As I understand it, it's quite a famous place

for wrecks of all kinds.

There is a lot of wrecks on the seabed.

Probably around 100 wrecks,

around this area.

These waters must be pretty treacherous. It is dark and cold.

Is it a challenging diving environment?

Probably one of the most challenging places in Scotland to dive.

In the darker, murkier waters, there is a lot of current.

-It will be cool too, I imagine?

-Temperatures vary, as well.

This year we got down to 3.1 degrees.

You could dive the Arctic probably easier than you could in the Forth.

It would be better visibility and only one degree colder.

I have to say, you're not really painting a very enticing picture.

Why would anybody want to dive in such a dark,

cold place where there is hardly any visibility?

Well, really, if you can dive in the Firth,

you can dive anywhere in the world.

What is the allure, do you think, of diving on a wreck?

It's really the mystery of what's in front of you

and because they have been down so long, they are absolutely covered

in anemones, Dahlia anemones,

dead man's fingers...

Very bright and very orange

and white.

Wrecks will always be an allure for divers.

There's so much history and it's untouched,

virtually from when it sunk.

You've got moments in time, in a way, frozen on the seabed.

-Yeah.

-Those dramatic moments.

-We are above a wreck here.

-HMS Saucy.

It was sunk in 1940.

Left Burntisland about 7:30 in the evening.

By 7:40 it was off radar. Quite a tragic sinking.

There were around about 25 crew on it. I believe five or six survivors.

19 perished, all from a little town

in England called Brixham, in Cornwall.

It was kind of the worst maritime disaster for that town

throughout the war because you had fathers, sons, uncles...

That's the scene of a tragedy.

A war grave. What sort of thoughts go through your mind?

You just have to pay respect when you're down there.

You obviously don't touch anything.

And all these wrecks have a story to tell.

Very much so. Very much so.

And you sometimes think of the moment of tragedy, when it struck.

And you never know if the remains are still on the wreck today.

People come from all over the world to dive with Mark in these waters,

but he's also involved in an ambitious search for sunken gold -

the treasure ship of King Charles I.

Sunk around 1645 and it had, basically,

-Henry VIII's dinner service on it.

-Really?

So, a lot of history steeped behind that one.

I've worked on a project for a few years,

but we haven't actually discovered anything yet.

But...that would be a big one to find certainly.

If you did find it, would you tell anybody?

Once I got a couple of plates for my breakfast in the mornings, yeah.

'But even the lure of sunken treasure can't tempt me

'to brave these icy waters.'

Oh! The Firth of Forth is freezing.

Leaving Mark and his diving chums to their search, I make my way to the

final destination of my voyage among the islands of the Forth -

the infamous Bass Rock.

And in this light,

it almost looks as if there's been a fresh fall of snow on the summit,

but this is July and not even Scotland can be that cold.

When you get a little closer, you realise that what you're

actually seeing are thousands upon thousands of gannets...

..and several tons of their droppings.

Faced with the daunting prospect of attempting to land on this

sea bird stronghold,

I've enlisted the help of tour guide Maggie Shedden.

Now, Maggie, we're some distance from the Bass.

I cannot only see the gannets up there, but I can hear them.

It's an incredible noise. There must be thousands of them there.

It's incredible, isn't it?

I mean, it's the largest single rock colony for gannets in the world.

I would say we're looking at possibly just under 160,000 birds.

If you include the chicks and the non-breeders.

And I think what makes it

so special is we're just half-an-hour from the city.

We're not wild and remote,

so to have this on the doorstep of a city, we're incredibly lucky.

But being so close to the mainland meant the gannets were easy prey.

At first, they were prised for their feathers, oil and flesh,

but in the Victorian age, they were hunted just for sport.

The shooting parties used to come out, they would

sit off the Bass, blast the gannets out the sky with guns and whatnot.

I mean, how difficult is it to hit a gannet?

You know, you would sit in a boat, just fire your gun.

They're huge birds, wingspan of just under six feet,

and they were just such an easy target.

That's not sustainable, is it?

By the time the 20th century came, there was

-probably only about 3,000 gannets left here.

-Really?

The colony had dropped quite dramatically.

-So, it's come back from the brink, really.

-It has.

Hunting these birds was banned and numbers gradually recovered.

Visiting this bird sanctuary is by special permission only.

And if that doesn't deter visitors, what might is the noise and,

I have to say, the smell.

Bass Rock, you have to take a really nice, deep breath...

as you approach the Rock. It really has a very unique aroma to it.

-Eau de Bass.

-That's it.

The Bass Rock has always intrigued me.

Robert Louis Stevenson, whose cousins built the lighthouse here,

featured it prominently in his novel Catriona.

"With the growing of the dawn, I could see it clearer and clearer.

"The sloping top of it green with grass.

"The clan of white geese that cried about the sides

"and the black broken buildings."

It's easy to see how he drew inspiration

from the Rock's dark history.

Maggie, what's this wall I can see to the left here?

It looks almost like an old castle.

This is really the curtain wall to fortify this island.

So, this island was a fortress at one time.

-It was a fortress and a prison.

-A prison?

A prison for the covenanters -

one group of men who disagreed with the king at the time

over religion. So, it was actually many of our ministers

and preachers that were sent here.

So, they were incarcerated out here with not much

prospect of getting back off.

It was a dreadful place to be sent.

I mean, it is called the "Alcatraz of the north" sometimes.

And once you get behind this prison gate here there is no escape.

The island is sheer all the way around.

And you've got to remember, on this rock, they had food.

The guards had food.

It was rich, there was a well, but the prisoners got none of this.

They drank out of puddles and that was just putrid.

-Total depravation, really.

-Absolutely.

And, at the same time, they would witness friends

and colleagues being hung across here,

near to Tantallon Castle.

So, I'm sure many a person walked this path with reluctance.

-Chilling place.

-Welcome to the prison.

One 17th century prisoner described the hellish conditions they were

forced to endure.

"We are shut up, not permitted to converse,

"envying the birds their freedom.

"Shut up day and night to hear only the sighs

"and groans of our fellow prisoners."

Escape from here was thought to be impossible,

but in 1691, four Jacobite prisoners staged an audacious breakout,

which would eventually bring these walls tumbling down.

The guards came down to collect coal at the landing site

and they left just one guard in charge.

They overpowered the guard, they closed the prison gate

and they held the Bass Rock for almost three years.

They held it for three years?

The authorities were mortified.

They tried everything in their power to take the rock back.

They bombarded it, they tried to starve them out,

they stopped shipping coming in,

but under the cover of darkness anything can happen here and did.

The French have been very sympathetic to the Jacobites

-and they landed them some basic supplies.

-Cheese and wine.

Cheese and wine, that's basic supplies in my world.

-As the French would.

-Absolutely.

And after three years, when the authorities said,

"We have to discuss terms", they were invited out here.

And when they came out, they were treated to this wonderful

banquet of sole and goose - the gannet -

fine French wines and cheeses.

This was food for a king. This was like a banquet.

Well, the authorities thought they were living like this every day

when, in fact, they were actually starving,

but it worked. The ploy worked.

They were immediately given an honourable discharge

and the Rock was very quickly de-fortified.

It just goes to show that cheese and wine can be an affective weapon.

Absolutely.

-Let's go and have a look at the rest of the island.

-Yes.

It's ironic to think that to escape from here,

those captives had to turn their prison into a fortress again.

And I suppose that today this island still provides a safe haven

for this protected species.

The gannets defend the Bass Rock well.

The noise and the smell are overpowering,

yet this sea bird city is close to the human world.

Edinburgh is just over there,

a short gannet glide from this island fortress in the Forth.

And if I can make good my escape from the Rock,

my next journey will take me over the sea to Skye.

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