Treshnish Islands Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands

For centuries travellers have found a safe haven

and sanctuary among the islands of the Hebrides.

This landscape of sheltered bays, sweeping horizons

and distant headlands has drawn a host of visitors -

all looking to escape the turmoil of the modern world.

One of the great attractions of the Western Isles is its wildlife

and these islands are home to some of the great

spectacles of the natural world.

To experience it for myself,

I'm heading to the Treshnish Islands,

which lie in a chain about three miles west of Mull.

To get there I'm joining Ian Morrison, who regularly makes

the crossing with visitors who are all hoping to meet

the island's rather special inhabitants.

Ian, what's the island right on the bow here?

That's Lunga - this is the one we're headed for now.

This is where we go every day.

Does anyone live on Lunga? No, just puffins and guillemots

and razorbills and kittiwakes and fulmars

and shags and a whole lot of other birds.

So it's a seabird city? Absolutely.

For those uninitiated in the ways of the wild,

getting ashore on Lunga can be something of an ordeal.

And once safely on land, you're here to stay,

at least until the boat returns with the jetty.

And then what? There's nothing much here except the puffins, of course.

And there are plenty of them

to entertain even the most cynical of city dwellers.

Ian, why do people come out here to Lunga?

Well, you can see them all arrayed on the edge of the cliff there.

These are the boys - these puffins. That's the whole reason.

They do come out for all the other birdlife as well.

There's thousands of guillemots and lots of other seabirds.

That's the main reason.

What would you say is a great allure of puffins over other seabirds?

They are very, very attractive and very comical.

Some places they call them sea parrots...

Various other names that they've got that indicate a comical creature.

And the way they get about, they huff around.

Do you think we identify with them in some way?

Aye, probably. I think we're probably quite like them really.

I believe that's why they're studying us, you know?

I tell the people that they're doing an ongoing study

of Homo sapiens and they...

The people should be on their best behaviour.

Ian describes these encounters as puffin therapy -

a way of decluttering the urban mind and getting close to nature.

People feel, or seem to be, a lot happier

when they come off the island after two hours communing with these

creatures than they are when they arrive.

I love them more than any other little bird on this whole planet.

I just adore them.

They don't seem bothered when we're

inches away from them. They seem quite happy.

There seems some kind of mutual respect between humans and animals.

It's brilliant. I've never seen it anywhere else.

Last year we missed out on this tour, we couldn't get on it.

So we came back really this year just to come and see the puffins,

and it's been incredible.

I think that's what I love about them - the humour of the birds.

There are very funny. I just wish I could talk their language!

Having soaked up some soothing puffins vibes, I'm heading

back to the east coast and the islands of the Firth of Forth.

Here the infamous Bass Rock is home to another impressive seabird city.

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 tonnes of their droppings.

Faced with the daunting prospect of attempting to land on this

seabird stronghold, I've enlisted the help

of tour guide Maggie Shedden.

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

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

That'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 just under 160,000 birds

if you include the chicks and the non-breeders.

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, you're incredibly lucky.

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

At first, they were prized for their feathers, oil and flesh.

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

Various shooting parties used to come out,

they would sit off the Bass,

blast the gannets out of 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.

You know, they are huge birds,

wingspan of just under six feet. And it was just so easy.

Such an easy target. That's not sustainable, is it? No.

By the time the 20th century came,

there was probably only about 3,000 gannets left here. Really?

The colony 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.

At 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.

Well, this is really the curtain wall to fortify this island.

So, the island was a fortress at one time?

It was a fortress and a prison. A prison!

A prison for the Covenanters, a well known group of men

who disagreed with the king of the time over religion.

So, actually, many of them were 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.

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 deprivation, 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 break-out

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 had been very sympathetic to the Jacobites

and they landed them some basic supplies. Cheese and wine?

Cheese and wine, yes! That's basic supplies in my world!

That's the French mood. 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 solan 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 starving. But it worked. The ploy worked.

They were given... Immediately given an honourable discharge

and the rock was very quickly defortified.

It just goes to show that cheese and wine

can be an effective 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.