0:00:06 > 0:00:10The island of Skye. In Gaelic, Eilean a' Cheo.
0:00:10 > 0:00:15The island of mist, long famed in myth and legend.
0:00:16 > 0:00:21According to song and tradition, the time-honoured way of reaching
0:00:21 > 0:00:25the island is to take a boat over the sea to Skye.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31I've always been drawn to islands, and in this series,
0:00:31 > 0:00:34I'm setting out to discover the magic
0:00:34 > 0:00:36of Scotland's amazing island riches.
0:00:38 > 0:00:43There are over 280 offshore islands big enough to lay claim to the name
0:00:43 > 0:00:46and that's not counting the myriad of stacks
0:00:46 > 0:00:51and skerries that surround 6,000 convoluted miles of coast.
0:00:53 > 0:00:54In this programme,
0:00:54 > 0:00:58I'm exploring the neighbouring islands of Skye and Raasay,
0:00:58 > 0:01:02where some communities have won and others lost,
0:01:02 > 0:01:04in the struggle for survival.
0:01:17 > 0:01:22Lying just off the West Coast across the famous Kyle of Lochalsh,
0:01:22 > 0:01:25Skye is the second largest island in Scotland
0:01:25 > 0:01:28and has a growing population of nearly 10,000.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34But neighbouring Raasay struggles to hold on to its population,
0:01:34 > 0:01:36which has shrunk to less than 200.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39But island life has never been easy.
0:01:40 > 0:01:45Technically, Skye ceased to be an island in 1992
0:01:45 > 0:01:48with the opening of the controversial Skye Bridge
0:01:48 > 0:01:52which spans the narrow waters of the Kyle of Lochalsh.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58In the old days, car ferries shuttled back and forth
0:01:58 > 0:02:03across the kyle, carrying locals and, of course, tourists, who have
0:02:03 > 0:02:08become such an important part of the island's means of economic survival.
0:02:08 > 0:02:13But in 1968, the ferry could only take four cars at a time.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17As a result, you could wait for hours just to get across.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22The solution was to build a bridge, and seeing from the water
0:02:22 > 0:02:27the transforming effect of this fixed link really strikes home.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30Now, people drive over the sea to Skye.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34Up to 20,000 cars and their passengers on a busy day.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42The bridge doesn't cross the kyle in a single leap,
0:02:42 > 0:02:46it hops across, and the place where it rests its legs for a while
0:02:46 > 0:02:51is Eilean Ban, an island with a unique story to tell.
0:02:51 > 0:02:53- Hi, Julie. - Welcome to Eilean Ban.
0:02:53 > 0:02:58Julie helps run the Eilean Ban Trust which takes care of the island.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02As a tour guide, she is well acquainted with
0:03:02 > 0:03:05the historical significance of these waters.
0:03:05 > 0:03:07Way back when the Vikings were here,
0:03:07 > 0:03:11it was a very important area for them to come through these narrows
0:03:11 > 0:03:15because it was much safer than right out there in the Outer Minch.
0:03:15 > 0:03:20- There's also a legend, Saucy Mary. - Saucy Mary?- Yeah, well...
0:03:20 > 0:03:24- Was she saucy? - I really couldn't say.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27She was allegedly a Norwegian princess who
0:03:27 > 0:03:31lived in the old ruined castle over there, and the legend goes
0:03:31 > 0:03:36that she had a chain which she stretched across from Kyleakin
0:03:36 > 0:03:40to Kyle and she wouldn't let anybody else by without them paying a toll.
0:03:40 > 0:03:42Which is rather ironic, really,
0:03:42 > 0:03:45- because when they first built the bridge...- They had a toll.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48- They had a toll.- I remember. - It was very expensive, yes.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54For many years, Eilean Ban was inhabited by lighthouse keepers
0:03:54 > 0:03:55and their families.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59After they left in the 1960s, the author and naturalist,
0:03:59 > 0:04:04Gavin Maxwell, bought the island shortly before he died.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07He'd risen to fame with the book and the film,
0:04:07 > 0:04:12Ring of Bright Water, which told the story of his life with otters.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17Julie's colleague, Margaret Scott, shows me around Maxwell's
0:04:17 > 0:04:23former home, which is now a museum to a remarkable life.
0:04:23 > 0:04:27- Right, so this is where he lived. - Yes.- Wow, what a fantastic room.
0:04:27 > 0:04:28It is, isn't it?
0:04:28 > 0:04:33It's where he lived for the last 18 months or so of his life and he
0:04:33 > 0:04:37wanted it to be a long room, a long sitting room to entertain friends.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40So he knocked two rooms together.
0:04:40 > 0:04:42It's not what you'd expect on a wee island,
0:04:42 > 0:04:44to see something quite as grand as this, Margaret.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48- It's almost sumptuous really, in a way.- It is.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51He was an aristocrat and people forget that.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54They think he was a down-and-out writer.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56So he had blue blood running through his veins?
0:04:56 > 0:04:57Yes, blue blood.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00- His mother was the daughter of the Duke of Northumberland.- Really?
0:05:00 > 0:05:04- Yes.- So he was really very posh then.- Yes, very posh.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07- Hence the antiques.- Yes.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12Despite being born with a silver spoon in his mouth,
0:05:12 > 0:05:14Maxwell was always hard up,
0:05:14 > 0:05:19often scrounging off relatives and even staying with chums
0:05:19 > 0:05:24for months on end, dreaming up unlikely schemes for making money.
0:05:24 > 0:05:29He had this idea of going fishing for basking sharks.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32He made quite a lot of money but, as usual, he did it for about
0:05:32 > 0:05:34two and a half years.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37He had a fishery on the Island of Soay, just off Elgol
0:05:37 > 0:05:43on the west coast of Skye and eventually he lost all his money.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46To think how he loved animals and yet he could go
0:05:46 > 0:05:49and stick these awful things into basking sharks...
0:05:49 > 0:05:51That is the aristocracy for you, isn't?
0:05:51 > 0:05:54They love animals, but they shoot them.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56- They do.- Hunting, shooting and fishing.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59Hunting, shooting and fishing, yes.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03Among the other mementos to an adventurous life, is this
0:06:03 > 0:06:07photograph of Maxwell behind the wheel of his fabulous Bentley
0:06:07 > 0:06:10racing car at Silverstone.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14And in this cabinet, the remains of an ornate service revolver.
0:06:14 > 0:06:21During the war, he was employed by the MoD to train
0:06:21 > 0:06:25people in the Special Operations Executive,
0:06:25 > 0:06:30- to sort of look after themselves behind enemy lines.- Right.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32So this gun was actually given to him
0:06:32 > 0:06:37by the Norwegian Government and this is actually a James Bond type gun,
0:06:37 > 0:06:41- because it goes into a thing like a pen.- Really?- Yes.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44You're supposed to be able to make it into a gun, a useful gun,
0:06:44 > 0:06:46in 30 seconds in the dark.
0:06:46 > 0:06:47But I've never tried it.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51At one time, Maxwell turned his hand to painting,
0:06:51 > 0:06:56trying but failing to earn a crust as a society portrait artist.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58That's an interesting portrait.
0:06:58 > 0:07:03This is Kathleen Raine and she was a big influence on Maxwell's life.
0:07:03 > 0:07:08She fell in love with him really and was in love with him all her life.
0:07:08 > 0:07:09Were they lovers?
0:07:09 > 0:07:14No, because he was actually gay, so it was never reciprocated.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17Although he did marry. He married another friend.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21- Here's a complex man. - A very complex man, yes.
0:07:22 > 0:07:25Who was that character there, that young girl?
0:07:25 > 0:07:29We don't actually know and it's not a young girl, it's a young boy.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31Right. Was it a muse figure?
0:07:31 > 0:07:36We just don't know, it is just one of those mysteries.
0:07:36 > 0:07:41- What sort of man do you think he was?- Troubled.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45He just couldn't settle at times. He liked to travel.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49The people in the village here
0:07:49 > 0:07:52said he was a very standoffish kind of man.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54He wouldn't chat to you in the pub or anything like that.
0:07:54 > 0:07:56- That's why he lived on an island. - Yes.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59They say no man is an island, but I gather Maxwell was.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01- He had one of his own. - He had one of his own.
0:08:07 > 0:08:08Leaving Eilean Ban,
0:08:08 > 0:08:12well, it seems that Maxwell had struggled to find happiness.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15I cross the kyle to the island of Skye,
0:08:15 > 0:08:19which has attracted waves of people since prehistoric times.
0:08:22 > 0:08:27The story of human settlement on Skye goes back thousands of years.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30The ancestors of the Gaels settled here.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34The Vikings stayed for a while and intermarried with the locals.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38That rounded mountain you can see over my shoulder brings
0:08:38 > 0:08:43together both the Viking and the Gaelic heritage of the islands.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47There's an enormous pile of stones, a cairn up on the summit
0:08:47 > 0:08:51and it's said that a Viking princess was buried there.
0:08:53 > 0:08:58Some say that this Viking was the toll-collecting Saucy Mary
0:08:58 > 0:09:02herself, who in death wanted to be close to the winds
0:09:02 > 0:09:05blowing from her Norwegian homeland.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08Ever since, the mountain has been known as Beinn na Caillich.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11The Hill of the Old Woman.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16At least, that's what I have read in the journals
0:09:16 > 0:09:19and accounts of some of the early visitors to the island,
0:09:19 > 0:09:23who began turning up here towards the end of the 18th century.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27But before that time, very few people outside the Highlands
0:09:27 > 0:09:30and Islands knew much about Skye at all.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36The Right Honourable Mrs Sarah Murray was one of the very
0:09:36 > 0:09:39first outsiders to explore the island.
0:09:39 > 0:09:44Travelling from London, she made several trips to the Hebrides
0:09:44 > 0:09:47between 1799 and 1802.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51Sarah Murray was an extraordinary woman.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55She was an 18th-century lady from Chelsea who loved Scotland
0:09:55 > 0:10:00with a passion, and nothing about the bad roads, bad food,
0:10:00 > 0:10:04midges or indifferent weather, would dampen her enthusiasm
0:10:04 > 0:10:08for the landscape and the people who made a great impression on her.
0:10:08 > 0:10:13She described them as honest and brave, despite their poverty.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21But Sarah Murray realised that she was witnessing the end of an era.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25She came here at a time of great upheaval and change,
0:10:25 > 0:10:31when poor tenants on Skye were forced to leave the land they loved.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34In the 18th century, it wasn't usual for genteel ladies
0:10:34 > 0:10:37to have opinions about things that mattered,
0:10:37 > 0:10:40but Sarah Murray was an exceptional person.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44She had witnessed for herself the melancholy departure of many
0:10:44 > 0:10:49emigrants, as she described it, and was quick to apportion blame.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52Greedy landlords screwing - and that's her word, not mine -
0:10:52 > 0:10:55screwing their tenants for every last penny.
0:10:59 > 0:11:04"In a very few years," she wrote, "the Hebrides will be deserted
0:11:04 > 0:11:07"and the honest, brave race of West Highlanders
0:11:07 > 0:11:12"and their language will be totally extinct."
0:11:17 > 0:11:21Sarah Murray made that prediction long before the worst
0:11:21 > 0:11:25of the evictions, known in folk memory as the Clearances,
0:11:25 > 0:11:28emptied the island of whole communities.
0:11:29 > 0:11:3270 years later, another woman also wrote
0:11:32 > 0:11:36passionately about the cruel treatment of the people.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39Unlike Sarah Murray, she was a native of Skye,
0:11:39 > 0:11:44her name was Mary Macpherson, or Mairi Mhor.
0:11:44 > 0:11:46Singer-songwriter Fiona Mackenzie
0:11:46 > 0:11:51has a strong sense of connection to the woman who used song to
0:11:51 > 0:11:54campaign with the Highland Land League for justice.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02She was inspired by her people, by her language, by the countryside.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04She had a big struggle.
0:12:04 > 0:12:10She didn't start writing songs or poetry until she was in her 50s,
0:12:10 > 0:12:13when she was living in Inverness.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16She was falsely accused of stealing a scarf
0:12:16 > 0:12:19and was then imprisoned in the Tollbooth in Inverness
0:12:19 > 0:12:21and that was what inspired her to start writing.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25Because of the injustice of not being able to make herself
0:12:25 > 0:12:26understood in the courts.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29She only spoke Gaelic, she had no English, and all the proceedings
0:12:29 > 0:12:33in the court were in English, so she didn't know what was happening.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35That was her transforming moment in her life,
0:12:35 > 0:12:38in a sense, it turned her from an ordinary woman
0:12:38 > 0:12:40to somebody who we'd say is politicised now.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42Absolutely, absolutely.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45From then on, she took up the mantle of somebody who could
0:12:45 > 0:12:47speak for the ordinary man.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50She felt a deep injustice that people around her weren't allowed to
0:12:50 > 0:12:54work their own land, that they had been working for generations.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58She discovered this ability to be able to put over
0:12:58 > 0:13:01cases for people using her songs.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06So she was adopted by all the Land Leaguers in the elections
0:13:06 > 0:13:10and she'd get up and sing in front of audiences
0:13:10 > 0:13:15and encourage people to support the Land Leaguers and incite people
0:13:15 > 0:13:18to stand up for themselves and stand up for their language and country.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23After years of struggle, the people of Skye,
0:13:23 > 0:13:27buoyed up by the songs of Mairi Mhor,
0:13:27 > 0:13:31won the right to make a decent living off the land of their ancestors
0:13:31 > 0:13:34without the constant fear of eviction hanging over their heads.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43The next stop on my grand tour is Raasay,
0:13:43 > 0:13:49a long, narrow island stretching 40 miles from north to south.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53In legend, it's known as the Island of the Big Men.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57John Willie Gillies - a pretty tall man himself -
0:13:57 > 0:14:00is a crofter who's lived here all his working life.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04In Raasay itself, a lot of the local people,
0:14:04 > 0:14:06they were brought up on crofts,
0:14:06 > 0:14:08so the previous generation were brought up on crofts,
0:14:08 > 0:14:10it's what they did. So if you go back in time,
0:14:10 > 0:14:12everybody comes from crofting, one way or another.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15We gather in the sheep now, we're shearing the hogs -
0:14:15 > 0:14:19the ones - the ewe lambs - that were born and kept for stock from last year.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21What happens to the fleeces?
0:14:21 > 0:14:23Fleeces go in a bag and they go away to the Wool Marketing Board.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26- And we get very little for them. - THEY LAUGH
0:14:26 > 0:14:29It's worse than last year. I think we get half what we got last year.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32- How much are you getting a fleece? - It's... I don't know.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35We'll be getting one pound something a kilo, I think it is.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39A kilo in weight of wool. Yeah.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42Over the years, have you seen many changes in crofting?
0:14:42 > 0:14:45The number of crofts that are actually being worked?
0:14:45 > 0:14:50There's less people working crofts now. It's difficult.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52People's expectations are higher.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55And this is why people just don't do it any more.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58There's easier ways of making money,
0:14:58 > 0:15:00and there's ways of making lots more money too.
0:15:00 > 0:15:01If you go back into history,
0:15:01 > 0:15:05there was a great struggle back in the 19th century.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09- Crofters retained the right to stay on the land.- That's right, yeah.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13And do people still feel that strongly?
0:15:13 > 0:15:15Yes, people still feel that as well.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18But that's what it was designed for.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22When people got crofts, that's what they wanted it for -
0:15:22 > 0:15:24a security and a place to live.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26And you have a responsibility.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28It doesn't matter what you've got -
0:15:28 > 0:15:30it's like looking after your car, or whatever -
0:15:30 > 0:15:32if you don't look after it, it falls to pieces.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39Maintaining the health of crofting life has been a struggle,
0:15:39 > 0:15:41especially on the islands.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44Up until the Second World War,
0:15:44 > 0:15:46there were several crofting communities
0:15:46 > 0:15:48at the north end of Raasay.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52Journalist Roger Hutchinson tells me how people began to leave
0:15:52 > 0:15:58because the only road on the island stopped two miles short of their homes,
0:15:58 > 0:16:01cutting them off from the 20th century.
0:16:01 > 0:16:07110, 120 years ago, the motor car arrived in the Highlands of Scotland.
0:16:07 > 0:16:12And the Inverness County Council had to start providing roads
0:16:12 > 0:16:13for them to drive along.
0:16:13 > 0:16:18And when they eventually got round to here on Raasay,
0:16:18 > 0:16:21they built a road from the south end of the island
0:16:21 > 0:16:24up to about a mile south of here,
0:16:24 > 0:16:26at a place called Brochel.
0:16:26 > 0:16:32So everybody in the south end of Raasay had access to new motor cars
0:16:32 > 0:16:35which meant whenever they needed to see a doctor, somebody could appear,
0:16:35 > 0:16:39everybody in the north end was left in the Middle Ages.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45Repeated pleas to the council to build the vital road link
0:16:45 > 0:16:48to these isolated communities were in vain.
0:16:48 > 0:16:50But then, 40 years ago,
0:16:50 > 0:16:56crofter Calum MacLeod decided to take things into his own hands.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00His story has become the stuff of legend.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03Working with a barrow, a pick axe and a shovel
0:17:03 > 0:17:06for nearly 20 years, he built the road himself.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10When he began to build the road
0:17:10 > 0:17:13he'd have been about 56 years old.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18He bought a book on the building and maintenance of motor roads
0:17:18 > 0:17:21and Calum used that as a reference work,
0:17:21 > 0:17:24and taught himself how to become a roads engineer.
0:17:26 > 0:17:32In 1973, the BBC made a documentary film on Raasay.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36In it, Calum McLeod makes an appearance, building his road.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41Amazingly, the Herculean task of road building
0:17:41 > 0:17:44was undertaken in Calum's spare time.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47As well as being a full-time crofter,
0:17:47 > 0:17:52he also worked as an assistant lighthouse keeper and a postman.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54What made him do it?
0:17:54 > 0:17:55Determination.
0:17:55 > 0:18:00The insistence upon proving a point to the council,
0:18:00 > 0:18:03after decades of denial on their part
0:18:03 > 0:18:05that such a thing was possible.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09And a love of community and place, I think.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13Which is an extremely Gaelic sentiment.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20Calum's dogged determination eventually paid off.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24His road now linked the community of Arnish, where he lived,
0:18:24 > 0:18:26to the rest of the island.
0:18:26 > 0:18:28But it came at a cost.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32The great irony, of course, is that by the time he'd finished,
0:18:32 > 0:18:36there were just two people living up at the north end of the island -
0:18:36 > 0:18:38himself and his wife, Lexie.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41Well, that's not just ironic, it's tragic, isn't it?
0:18:41 > 0:18:44Makes it a kind of magnificent Pyrrhic victory.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48He'd done it, you know, and it's still here.
0:18:48 > 0:18:50But, of course, it was too late.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53The people had gone.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59After a hike of nearly two miles,
0:18:59 > 0:19:02we'd come to the end of Calum's Road,
0:19:02 > 0:19:06and the house he lived in with his wife and daughter.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09It's also the spot where Calum died.
0:19:09 > 0:19:15His wife found him collapsed in his wheelbarrow after a heart attack.
0:19:15 > 0:19:17He was 76 years old.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19It was a terrible irony,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22because previously,
0:19:22 > 0:19:27whenever people from this end of the island died,
0:19:27 > 0:19:30their remains, their coffin,
0:19:30 > 0:19:33were taken by boat from Arnish Bay over there,
0:19:33 > 0:19:38down the coast to the south end of Raasay to be buried in the cemetery.
0:19:38 > 0:19:43Well, of course, they could get the hearse right up to Calum's door to collect him.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46So he was the last man out of northern Raasay
0:19:46 > 0:19:49down the road he had built with his own bare hands.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52The whole story is fantastically symbolic, is it not?
0:19:52 > 0:19:54Extraordinary.
0:19:59 > 0:20:05Leaving Raasay, I reflect upon all other struggles faced by island communities.
0:20:05 > 0:20:10As Roger told me, history often portrays the people as victims
0:20:10 > 0:20:13living on the fringes of the modern world.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16But Calum MacLeod was nobody's victim.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19Through physical effort and willpower,
0:20:19 > 0:20:22he had tried to give his community a future.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25And if that took a road, then he'd build it.
0:20:29 > 0:20:31Island people have always been self-reliant,
0:20:31 > 0:20:34and when they weren't building roads,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37they were busy creating landmarks of other kinds.
0:20:37 > 0:20:42Stone walls, or dry stane dykes, as they are usually called,
0:20:42 > 0:20:45are a common sight across Scotland.
0:20:45 > 0:20:51On Skye, they are a silent testament to the crofters who built them.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54Sadly, today, many are in a poor state of repair
0:20:54 > 0:20:56because there are few people around
0:20:56 > 0:20:59with the necessary skills to rebuild them.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02Shona McLeod is an exception.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05One of the few women in Scotland qualified for the job.
0:21:05 > 0:21:11Joining her at the south end of Skye, I've come to watch her at work
0:21:11 > 0:21:14rebuilding a traditional black house.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17Shona says this is her dream job,
0:21:17 > 0:21:20despite the inevitable midges.
0:21:20 > 0:21:22In the old days, I suppose,
0:21:22 > 0:21:26when people were building their own homes in a village,
0:21:26 > 0:21:32would there be a particular dedicated stonemason?
0:21:32 > 0:21:34Or how would it work?
0:21:34 > 0:21:37Well, I think there would have been. I'm assuming there would have been.
0:21:37 > 0:21:41But a lot of crofters had to do so many lengths of wall
0:21:41 > 0:21:46for them to stay in their crofts, when they were doing the Clearances.
0:21:46 > 0:21:48Because there was a lack of food.
0:21:48 > 0:21:55So what they did was - instead of having to pay a percentage of what they had grown -
0:21:55 > 0:21:58they had to build a certain length of wall.
0:21:58 > 0:22:01I know they did that in Sutherland.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04They used to have to bind their fingers in bandages,
0:22:04 > 0:22:06because they didn't have any gloves then.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09And what was the purpose of a lot of the walls that we see today
0:22:09 > 0:22:11crossing the countryside, do you know?
0:22:11 > 0:22:13Basically, just to keep the stock in,
0:22:13 > 0:22:15but it's purely to give them something...to do.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19I suppose if you're keeping the poor people occupied,
0:22:19 > 0:22:21- there's less chance of rebellion. - Yes!
0:22:21 > 0:22:24And they'll be knackered after doing this all day!
0:22:24 > 0:22:28To rebuild a wall, Shona often has to demolish it first.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32This can provide an unusual glimpse into the past.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36I always used to find these empty bottles in the wall.
0:22:36 > 0:22:37What sort? Whisky bottles?
0:22:37 > 0:22:40Whisky bottles. Aye. But it would only be in a certain...
0:22:40 > 0:22:43You'd find a bottle and then you'd take about 10m down
0:22:43 > 0:22:45and there'd be another load of them.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48But what they did is, they'd have their Friday drink after the walling,
0:22:48 > 0:22:51- and they'd pop the bottle in the wall.- Is that right?
0:22:51 > 0:22:54- Is that a tradition you maintain? - No!- That's a shame!
0:22:57 > 0:23:02Leaving Shona to wrestle with the medium-sized boulders,
0:23:02 > 0:23:03I head for the hills,
0:23:03 > 0:23:08and the rocks that make up Skye's famous mountain range -
0:23:08 > 0:23:13the Cuillin - where I have an appointment with a dramatic peak
0:23:13 > 0:23:18called Am Basteir, which in Gaelic means The Executioner.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20Scary stuff!
0:23:24 > 0:23:30Unfortunately, on the morning of the climb, the weather breaks.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32It's a long and wearisome trek
0:23:32 > 0:23:35to get to the bottom of the imposing cliffs.
0:23:35 > 0:23:40To keep me from putting a foot wrong in a dangerous place
0:23:40 > 0:23:43is climbing guide Mike Lates.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51I suppose people have been coming up here for a number of years.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54This is a pretty well trodden route, this one.
0:23:54 > 0:23:59Yeah, these hills have been explored since...
0:23:59 > 0:24:041836 was the first ascent on Sgurr nan Gillean up there in the mist.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09But they were discovered quite late in mountaineering terms,
0:24:09 > 0:24:10both in terms of Britain -
0:24:10 > 0:24:13where rock climbing was going on in the Lake District already -
0:24:13 > 0:24:16and it terms of world mountaineering,
0:24:16 > 0:24:18there was a lot of alpinism going on already -
0:24:18 > 0:24:20Mont Blanc had been having climbed
0:24:20 > 0:24:23a good 60 years before Sgurr nan Gillean was discovered.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26So were the Cuillins kind of overlooked in that case?
0:24:26 > 0:24:32Yeah, they were just more difficult to access than the Alps themselves really.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35Really? It was more difficult for climbers to come here than...
0:24:35 > 0:24:37Yeah, until the Kyle railway was built.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40When that came through across from Inverness,
0:24:40 > 0:24:43it suddenly opened it up, and what the climbers discovered -
0:24:43 > 0:24:45they were quite good alpinists already -
0:24:45 > 0:24:49was that they'd got their own mini-Alps on their back doorstep.
0:24:49 > 0:24:54And what they really liked was that they could have an alpine scale adventure
0:24:54 > 0:24:57and still get back to the luxuries of the Sligachan Hotel in the evening.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00- That's what I'm looking forward to! - THEY BOTH LAUGH
0:25:02 > 0:25:06These Victorian gents rated their Cuillin adventures
0:25:06 > 0:25:09just as highly as their alpine ones.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13Although the mountains here are all under 1,000m,
0:25:13 > 0:25:16they can still challenge the most accomplished mountaineer.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19Which is why Skye became a climber's mecca.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25And it was in this Victorian heyday
0:25:25 > 0:25:29that the first ascent of our route up Am Basteir was made.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31It's one of the easier climbs,
0:25:31 > 0:25:33but it still deserves respect -
0:25:33 > 0:25:35especially on a day like today.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38- This is no place to have a slip. - Absolutely not.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41No, no. We're about to get a view over into the back of the Cuillin
0:25:41 > 0:25:42and you'll see.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45A pretty similar drop on the other side of us.
0:25:45 > 0:25:46All very forbidding, I have to say.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49- OK.- My life is in your hands. - Enjoy!
0:25:49 > 0:25:50THE GUIDE LAUGHS
0:25:53 > 0:25:57The route follows the line of the narrow ridge,
0:25:57 > 0:26:02when dramatic cliffs fall steeply on either side.
0:26:02 > 0:26:07As the clouds lift, the view ahead is less than reassuring.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12The crux of the route is called the Bad Step -
0:26:12 > 0:26:14a five-metre cleft in the ridge -
0:26:14 > 0:26:18which requires some delicate footwork to negotiate gracefully.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23Right, that's going to go down...
0:26:23 > 0:26:26Oh! Oh, that's a nice big hole.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29'But finesse on rock is not my strong point,
0:26:29 > 0:26:33'I'm just happy to get down in one piece.'
0:26:33 > 0:26:34Whoo!
0:26:34 > 0:26:36Whoo-hoo. I made it!
0:26:39 > 0:26:43After the Bad Step, the ridge becomes alarmingly narrow.
0:26:43 > 0:26:48And it's not easy keeping my balance as I gingerly wobble my way across.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51Nice and steady, you can do it.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53I don't know, I don't know.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55Stand up, and one bold jump for mankind.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58I'll try it.
0:27:03 > 0:27:04- Woo-hoo! - GUIDE LAUGHS
0:27:04 > 0:27:06At long last,
0:27:06 > 0:27:09after three hours of hair-raising, heart-stopping climbing,
0:27:09 > 0:27:14I am more than relieved to reach the summit in time for lunch.
0:27:14 > 0:27:15Wahey!
0:27:15 > 0:27:16- Are we there yet?- Yeah.
0:27:16 > 0:27:18We are!
0:27:18 > 0:27:19Congratulations, Paul.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21Well, thanks. That's absolutely terrific.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23Top of Am Basteir.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27On top of The Executioner. A fantastic place to be.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32As I chomp through my Scotch egg,
0:27:32 > 0:27:37Mike tells me that we're perched on the lip of an ancient volcano.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40We're sat on the rim of the magma chamber here.
0:27:40 > 0:27:42The actual height of the crater
0:27:42 > 0:27:45that you classically envisage with a circular volcano
0:27:45 > 0:27:48would have been another three kilometres above us.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52What blows me away is that it's all happened since the dinosaurs died out.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55It went up to 15,000 feet, and has got worn down to this.
0:27:58 > 0:28:02At that rate of erosion, there won't be much left of the Cuillin
0:28:02 > 0:28:04in another 60 million years.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09But that still leaves plenty of time to appreciate
0:28:09 > 0:28:12these extraordinary mountains.
0:28:12 > 0:28:16This is a fabulous, if slightly precarious place,
0:28:16 > 0:28:19for me to end my grand tour of Skye -
0:28:19 > 0:28:23with this stupendous view of the Cuillin mountains behind me,
0:28:23 > 0:28:27and on the horizon, just appearing through the mist,
0:28:27 > 0:28:29more islands for me to explore.
0:28:29 > 0:28:30Fantastic.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd