0:00:05 > 0:00:10In 1840, one man transformed travel in Britain.
0:00:10 > 0:00:18His name was George Bradshaw, and his railway guides inspired the Victorians to take to the tracks.
0:00:18 > 0:00:24Stop by stop, he told them where to travel, what to see, and where to stay.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28Now, 170 years later, I'm making a series of journeys across the length
0:00:28 > 0:00:35and breadth of the country to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54I've travelled almost halfway along
0:00:54 > 0:00:57the stunning West Highland Line.
0:01:00 > 0:01:04Using a late 19th century Bradshaw's guide, I'm continuing my journey
0:01:04 > 0:01:08up the west coast of Scotland from Ayr to Skye.
0:01:08 > 0:01:16The Scots have been blessed with beautiful coasts, with rivers of sweet water, with wonderful rolling
0:01:16 > 0:01:19countryside, and today I'll discover
0:01:19 > 0:01:23how the Scots have managed to harvest the best from each.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28The line was completed only at the end of the 19th century,
0:01:28 > 0:01:33so I've exchanged my usual 1860s Bradshaw's for a later edition.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36I'll be using it to plan my route and trace how the railways brought
0:01:36 > 0:01:39a new generation of traveller to Scotland.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43On this leg of the journey, I'll be discovering how Victorian
0:01:43 > 0:01:47railway engineers conquered Britain's most desolate wilderness...
0:01:47 > 0:01:49The bogs on the moor
0:01:49 > 0:01:53sucked everything up that the engineers laid.
0:01:53 > 0:01:59Part of the railway you see here, north of the station has been floated on brushwood and turf.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02..visiting a shooting estate that was a favourite of the political elite...
0:02:02 > 0:02:04These guys, they were tough.
0:02:04 > 0:02:10There was a whole sort of cult of course amongst very many of these people of being tough.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12And deer stalking was part of that.
0:02:12 > 0:02:17..and learning how the railways helped make whisky world famous.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21This is from pretty much the exact time of the railways arriving in Oban.
0:02:21 > 0:02:22I can see the railway here, can't I?
0:02:22 > 0:02:25Here's the station, here's the train, puffing along.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28Yes, that would be one of the first pictures of the railway.
0:02:35 > 0:02:36Starting in Ayr,
0:02:36 > 0:02:38I've now covered almost 140 miles
0:02:38 > 0:02:40of the route, heading north.
0:02:40 > 0:02:43Now the West Highland line is taking me through some
0:02:43 > 0:02:50of Scotland's wildest terrain, from boggy moors to towering peaks, on my way to the isle of Skye.
0:02:52 > 0:02:57Today's route begins in coastal Oban, then shifts inland to the
0:02:57 > 0:03:01wilderness of Rannoch Moor, before climbing up to Corrour,
0:03:01 > 0:03:04Britain's highest mainline station.
0:03:04 > 0:03:10My journey passes through rough country that posed challenges to the hardy folk who dwelled here.
0:03:10 > 0:03:15As we move into Argyllshire, my Bradshaw's guide is as helpful as ever.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19"Oats, potatoes and black cattle are the chief products
0:03:19 > 0:03:26"of this backward district, which has a mossy soil and wet climate unfavourable to agriculture."
0:03:26 > 0:03:29Oh, dear, that's not very positive, is it?
0:03:35 > 0:03:38Bradshaw's may have thought the countryside backward.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42But Scotland's rain was key to a booming business.
0:03:42 > 0:03:49My first stop is Oban, a town that grew up on the back of a thriving whisky trade.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51Isn't it grand that this stuff is made in Scotland?
0:03:51 > 0:03:53Aye, that's true.
0:03:53 > 0:03:59Before the railways arrived, this was an isolated place, difficult to reach except by boat.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03It was the ideal location to make whisky.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06I'm meeting distillery manager Brendan McCarron.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09I notice distilleries in Scotland are quite often
0:04:09 > 0:04:13spread around in remote places, what's the historic reason for that?
0:04:13 > 0:04:15Yeah, the distilleries are spread out remotely.
0:04:15 > 0:04:20There were various reasons of water and raw materials, but the main one was to avoid paying tax.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24- Avoid paying tax?- Yeah, it started off as an illicit industry.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28Tax costs you money so if you make it where no-one sees you, you don't pay the tax.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32Here at Oban you've been established a couple of hundred years at least?
0:04:32 > 0:04:39We were established in 1794, so we were one of the very first distilleries to become legal.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43As business grew, the distillery owners invested in Oban,
0:04:43 > 0:04:46turning it into a busy town.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49When the railways arrived in 1880, trains linked with steamships to
0:04:49 > 0:04:54the Inner Hebrides, and Oban became a major tourist hub.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56The whisky trade received another boost.
0:04:56 > 0:05:02All our raw materials came in by train over different periods, in different amounts.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05But I suppose the really huge one that came in for us was people.
0:05:05 > 0:05:10People flocked to Oban after the railway opened and that's what gets people understanding your whisky,
0:05:10 > 0:05:15knowing how good your whisky is, and that's what sells it. It was massive actually.
0:05:17 > 0:05:22In the 1880s, Oban whisky was in such demand that the distillery's owner, J Walter Higgin, rebuilt
0:05:22 > 0:05:28the plant, carefully preserving the old stills that guaranteed quality.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32This is from pretty much the exact time of the railways arriving in Oban
0:05:32 > 0:05:34and you can tell that because of the signature...
0:05:34 > 0:05:37- that's J Walter Higgin. - J Walter Higgin's signature.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41And a lovely engraving of the harbour at Oban.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43And I actually I can see the railway here can't I?
0:05:43 > 0:05:45Here's the station, here's a train puffing along.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48Yeah, that'll be one of the first pictures of the railway.
0:05:48 > 0:05:50Oh, that's wonderful.
0:05:50 > 0:05:51And obviously you don't drink that?
0:05:51 > 0:05:54No, definitely not. It's far too old!
0:05:55 > 0:06:00The Oban whisky that we make in the main is matured for 14 years, so it's a long time.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04And it's always matured in an ex-American bourbon cask.
0:06:04 > 0:06:06So we buy them off the bourbon makers
0:06:06 > 0:06:09and we use their old casks to make our whisky.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12Bourbon used to be imported from America through Oban
0:06:12 > 0:06:17and canny Scottish distillers would reuse the empty casks.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21They discovered that the barrels enhanced the whisky's flavour.
0:06:21 > 0:06:23Oh, the fumes, Brendan!
0:06:23 > 0:06:28Yeah, this hasn't been reduced with water, so this is about 58% alcohol.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31- Right. That's why it's knocking me out, is it?- It's got a real kick.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34So, you really wouldn't want to be tasting this, would you?
0:06:34 > 0:06:37You can taste it at that strength, you just wouldn't want to.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39You wouldn't want to go out for the night on it.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43You wouldn't. And you want to know it's cask strength before you drink it,
0:06:43 > 0:06:45but it's worth trying at that strength.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54Yep...
0:06:54 > 0:06:57Very smoky, orangey.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00It's got a slight smokiness to it and it has got oranges in it also.
0:07:00 > 0:07:06Some people pick up salt. And also because it's been in a cask, in the 14 you will pick up a
0:07:06 > 0:07:09a kind of sweetness, honeyness, which is influenced by the cask.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12Well, I think I've just not drunk enough yet. Let me see if I can find the honey and the salt!
0:07:12 > 0:07:14Help yourself.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19Silly old me, there they are!
0:07:19 > 0:07:23- Honey and salt. I just needed the second sample.- Excellent.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27A man knows his limits, and I must leave to investigate
0:07:27 > 0:07:30another of Oban's 19th century industries.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32The Bradshaw's guide says that "From the great abundance
0:07:32 > 0:07:37"of seaweed which is cast ashore vast quantities of kelp is made,"
0:07:37 > 0:07:43and I'm wondering what Victorians did with vast quantities of kelp.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45I'll have to find out.
0:07:48 > 0:07:50I'm heading for Oban's dramatic and rocky coastline,
0:07:50 > 0:07:54the perfect habitat for seaweed, to meet Professor Laurence Mee,
0:07:54 > 0:07:58director of the Scottish Association for Marine Science.
0:07:58 > 0:08:00- How are you? - All right, Michael.
0:08:00 > 0:08:05Now, my Bradshaw's guide, written in the middle/late 19th century,
0:08:05 > 0:08:08- talks about a vast abundance of seaweed...- Yes.
0:08:08 > 0:08:13..and enormous quantities of kelp being harvested, but for what purpose?
0:08:13 > 0:08:18Well, that's right. Kelp was harvested even from the middle ages along the coast of Scotland.
0:08:18 > 0:08:24The soils here are very poor and to eke out an existence, crofters,
0:08:24 > 0:08:31the local farmers, soon discovered that harvesting kelp and mixing it with the poor soils just by basically
0:08:31 > 0:08:38turning over the turf, adding kelp, they could grow vegetables and have a much better existence.
0:08:38 > 0:08:43So kelp was a primary source of fertilisers for them from very early on.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47And then at the latter part of the 18th century
0:08:47 > 0:08:52they discovered that by burning kelp you can produce these
0:08:52 > 0:08:59chemicals, sodium carbonate is one of them, which are primary constituents in glass.
0:08:59 > 0:09:04And it became a major source for the glass industry of its primary chemicals.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08Sodium carbonate or potash extracted from seaweed helps make
0:09:08 > 0:09:13glass transparent and lowers the temperature at which it melts.
0:09:13 > 0:09:19By 1800, Scotland was producing 20,000 tonnes of kelp per year.
0:09:19 > 0:09:24Suddenly the entire industry collapsed in about 1820, when potash
0:09:24 > 0:09:28mines were discovered in Germany and a cheap substitute became
0:09:28 > 0:09:33available, and the entire population became destitute as a result in a very short time.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37Later on, kelp again became useful.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39A new industry grew up using seaweed
0:09:39 > 0:09:42to produce iodine and food additives.
0:09:42 > 0:09:47Now, scientists like Laurence believe it could contribute to a greener future.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50What we're seeing now is it's potential as a biofuel.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54Just to give an example, an area about half the size of
0:09:54 > 0:10:00a football pitch of cultivated laminaria, that is these long gooey ones,
0:10:00 > 0:10:08can be converted into enough fuel to fuel a household for a year.
0:10:08 > 0:10:15Or, with higher technology it is possible perhaps to even go to the holy grail of transport fuels.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17But in contrast to Bradshaw's time,
0:10:17 > 0:10:22future harvests will come from farmed rather than wild seaweed.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24I can't help noticing that you are carrying
0:10:24 > 0:10:25a very strange piece of equipment.
0:10:25 > 0:10:27What is that for?
0:10:27 > 0:10:33What we do is we grow the tiny larvae and we get them to settle on these strings.
0:10:33 > 0:10:35And once they are growing, after about a month,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38the string can be unwound, wound on to a rope and
0:10:38 > 0:10:41lowered into the sea and then we have a cultivar
0:10:41 > 0:10:45and a way of producing our own seaweed without disturbing
0:10:45 > 0:10:47- the natural environment to collect it.- That is very cunning.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49It's clever stuff really.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52- It looks very Heath Robinson, doesn't it?- It does.
0:10:52 > 0:10:53If you don't mind me saying so.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55It is very Heath Robinson, but it works
0:10:55 > 0:10:57and that's the most important thing about it.
0:10:57 > 0:11:02Who knows, perhaps one day our trains will be powered by seaweed?
0:11:04 > 0:11:09I'm now quitting the coast and moving inland.
0:11:09 > 0:11:14I'm travelling towards Rannoch Moor, 1,000 feet above sea level, and as
0:11:14 > 0:11:19the route steadily climbs, I'm anticipating breathtaking scenery.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29Bradshaw's says that the landscape,
0:11:29 > 0:11:31"is mountainous throughout, on rocks of mica slate
0:11:31 > 0:11:33"and granite, covered with heath.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37"Glens of much picturesque beauty are met with."
0:11:42 > 0:11:44This wilderness is truly beautiful,
0:11:44 > 0:11:46but it posed innumerable difficulties
0:11:46 > 0:11:48for the railway's builders,
0:11:48 > 0:11:51not least here where the line
0:11:51 > 0:11:54diverts around the horse shoe curve.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56It snakes along the contour,
0:11:56 > 0:11:58spanning the glens
0:11:58 > 0:12:00on spectacular viaducts.
0:12:06 > 0:12:07Yet the greatest test
0:12:07 > 0:12:09for the Victorian engineers lay ahead -
0:12:09 > 0:12:14how to cross the soggy expanse of Rannoch Moor.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29Well, Rannoch Moor really is a forbidding, wind blown, desolate
0:12:29 > 0:12:35sort of place and the interesting thing is that the railway station is right in the heart of it.
0:12:35 > 0:12:40And actually, Rannoch is much more accessible by rail than it is by road.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43It just makes you wonder what they must have gone through
0:12:43 > 0:12:47to build a railway line across this rock and this peat bog.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53Despite being one of the bleakest spots in Britain,
0:12:53 > 0:12:56railway mania demanded that the engineers
0:12:56 > 0:13:00of the West Highland Line find a means to traverse it.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03Doug Carmichael knows the story.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05- Hello, Doug.- Hello, Michael, pleased to meet you.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08Welcome to the Moor of Rannoch, the great table land of Scotland.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10It's an amazing moor.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14I imagine it must have been hellish to build a railway across it.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17It certainly was. Thomas Telford, the road builder,
0:13:17 > 0:13:23decided he might be able to get a road to Fort William via the moor, but he gave up - too hard.
0:13:23 > 0:13:31Rannoch Moor is a 50 square mile plateau of granite, topped with peat bogs up to 20 feet deep.
0:13:31 > 0:13:37In 1889, a small party of men was sent to inspect the route across this hostile environment.
0:13:37 > 0:13:44There were seven gentlemen set out quite far north of here, to walk 40 miles in January.
0:13:44 > 0:13:48They were all just businessmen in normal business attire.
0:13:48 > 0:13:50No big boots, anything like that.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53They found that the weather was against them all the way.
0:13:53 > 0:13:59The darkness came down, they were lighting matches in the middle of a moor to see where they were going.
0:13:59 > 0:14:04They were falling into the bogs continually and things weren't very good.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10Their near-death experience on the moor didn't discourage the engineers.
0:14:10 > 0:14:15They persevered and devised a technique to master the bog.
0:14:15 > 0:14:21Part of the railway you see here, north of the station has been floated on brushwood and turf.
0:14:21 > 0:14:23The bogs on the moor,
0:14:23 > 0:14:26sucked everything up that the engineers laid,
0:14:26 > 0:14:32but they kept putting more and more brushwood, more and more turf and finally hundreds of wagon loads
0:14:32 > 0:14:36of ash from the industrial south were brought up, laid on top and finally,
0:14:36 > 0:14:39they had a track bed across the moor.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42It must have been terrible when the navvies came to build the line?
0:14:42 > 0:14:47Yes, indeed, 5,000 navvies were employed between Craigendoran and Fort William.
0:14:47 > 0:14:52They had to go through exceedingly hard rock as you'd expect in the Scottish Highlands,
0:14:52 > 0:14:56and of course didn't have the equipment at the end of the 19th century
0:14:56 > 0:14:59as we expect now, as we accept now, indeed.
0:14:59 > 0:15:04There was a lot blasting, there was some loss of life actually because of blasting.
0:15:04 > 0:15:09What had been the importance of this railway historically in more than 100 years it has now existed?
0:15:09 > 0:15:13The importance of it was that it took a railway into a land,
0:15:13 > 0:15:17which had never seen civilisation, let alone a railway.
0:15:17 > 0:15:19There were no roads, there were hardly any tracks.
0:15:19 > 0:15:26People from the Highlands could never get down to the Central Belt in Scotland for any reason.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29When the railway came, all of a sudden they found they could come out
0:15:29 > 0:15:33of Fort William, go down to Glasgow, albeit on quite a long trip,
0:15:33 > 0:15:40but of course to them it was luxury sitting in a train, as opposed to a horse and cart or walking.
0:15:42 > 0:15:49Our ideas of luxury may have moved on since then, but we recognise it when we see it and,
0:15:49 > 0:15:53occasionally, we see it in the Highlands.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56So here on the bridge at Rannoch,
0:15:56 > 0:15:59with literally not another human being in sight,
0:16:01 > 0:16:03I can hear the sound of...
0:16:03 > 0:16:08a locomotive powering up the slope towards the station.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12Here comes...
0:16:12 > 0:16:15a very special train.
0:16:15 > 0:16:17The Royal Scotsman.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24Car after car of luxury
0:16:24 > 0:16:28and great food and comfy beds.
0:16:28 > 0:16:35The Royal Scotsman was launched in 1990 to recreate the elegant travel of the Edwardian era.
0:16:35 > 0:16:39It attracts guests from around the globe, and while it makes
0:16:39 > 0:16:43a brief stop at Rannoch Moor, I'm gate-crashing pre-dinner cocktails.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45May I join you just for a moment?
0:16:45 > 0:16:47Certainly!
0:16:47 > 0:16:52- So, are you enjoying your trip on this luxurious train?- Very much so.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56And what about you, are you a railway enthusiast?
0:16:56 > 0:16:59This is my first time, I actually spent a day on the British Pullman
0:16:59 > 0:17:04and loved it and every time Mum sees a piece of tartan or a bagpipe she bursts into tears.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08So basically we decided to come and do Scotland.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11This was the best way to do it. So we're doing the whole week.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15We sort of do one side and then we go back and then reload and then do the other.
0:17:15 > 0:17:19- Would that be a glass of champagne in your hand?- Yes, that's right.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23Whenever you want one, you just put your finger up, they look after you very well here.
0:17:28 > 0:17:34As the party continues, I feel like the poor relation, peering in to the family feast.
0:17:34 > 0:17:35They've left me behind!
0:17:38 > 0:17:41No exclusive cabin on board for me tonight, but even in this lonely
0:17:41 > 0:17:45spot, I've found somewhere warm and cosy to lay my head.
0:17:45 > 0:17:51A hotel that was originally built to house men labouring to construct the railway.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55Well, I've come about 50 metres from the railway station
0:17:55 > 0:18:01and it seems that almost the only thing in Rannoch, other than the station, is this charming hotel.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04I'm really excited by the idea of staying somewhere inaccessible,
0:18:04 > 0:18:07somewhere that's really difficult to reach except by train,
0:18:07 > 0:18:10so this is where I'm staying!
0:18:14 > 0:18:17- Hello. - Well, hello.- Michael Portillo.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21- Liz Conway, lovely to meet you. - Checking in if I can.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24Yes, I've got your key all ready. I've got everything ready for you.
0:18:24 > 0:18:31Even in summer, I feel cut off here but hotel owner, Liz Conway, must cope in every season.
0:18:31 > 0:18:36We're in this splendid isolation but we have had the worst winter up here in 50 years.
0:18:36 > 0:18:43We had, we were cut off for three days and some of our neighbours had no water for up to three months.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46You don't have any neighbours, what are you talking about?!
0:18:46 > 0:18:49We do, we have a couple of neighbours, there's five of us live in Rannoch.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52- Five?- Five of us.- In the metropolitan borough of Rannoch!
0:18:52 > 0:18:55Yes, five. But as I said,
0:18:55 > 0:19:00we're in this splendid isolation because although we're in the middle of nowhere, we have our trains.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02And we can get to anywhere here.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06I'm feeling really excited about staying in such an isolated spot,
0:19:06 > 0:19:09particularly that you reach best by railway.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12Well, 50% of our business comes from the railway.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15So it's very much a part of our lives.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18We hardly ever use a car, only to go to the vets.
0:19:18 > 0:19:19That's the time we use the car.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22We use the railway for everything.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24Your dogs don't like the train?!
0:19:24 > 0:19:26No, it's cats actually, it's cats!
0:19:41 > 0:19:48Morning. It's time for me to resume my journey, and I'm going to enjoy being plucked from this remoteness,
0:19:48 > 0:19:53by a train that's come directly from London.
0:19:53 > 0:20:00The first train of day for those headed north is the sleeper, which left Euston last night,
0:20:02 > 0:20:06here it is at 8.45.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08Anybody who gets off here
0:20:08 > 0:20:12can expect a very nice breakfast if they just go into the hotel,
0:20:12 > 0:20:16but tacked on the end of the sleeper is a car of seats,
0:20:16 > 0:20:21which is very useful for local residents and local journeys.
0:20:24 > 0:20:25Morning.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44(Very comfortable.)
0:20:44 > 0:20:47(I'm whispering because everyone's asleep.)
0:20:49 > 0:20:57This Caledonian sleeper will take me, as no road can, just seven miles along the track to Corrour.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00We're passing through a forbidding landscape, but one
0:21:00 > 0:21:05in which Victorians nonetheless created a lucrative industry.
0:21:05 > 0:21:12My Bradshaw's guide says that the deer shooting of this county are worth £70,000 a year.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15"Vast tracks are preserved for deer stalking."
0:21:15 > 0:21:21Well, the sums of money may well have changed, but this is still deer stalking country.
0:21:21 > 0:21:26I've quite often been out with deer stalkers. I don't shoot deer myself, but even if you are not one
0:21:26 > 0:21:33shooting, the walk, when you have to follow the deer over the hills, the walk is absolutely amazing.
0:21:42 > 0:21:48At over 1,300 feet, Corrour is the highest mainline station in the UK.
0:21:48 > 0:21:52It was built to serve the nearby estate, so despite its remoteness,
0:21:52 > 0:21:57the rich and powerful could enjoy the king of sports.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01Estate owner Sir John Stirling Maxwell took advantage of the new line
0:22:01 > 0:22:08to create with his hunting lodge, a rural paradise for the ruling class.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16Professor Jim Hunter is an expert on Highland history.
0:22:16 > 0:22:18- Hi, Jim, good to see you. - Good to meet you.
0:22:18 > 0:22:25As a former politician, even in this lovely fresh air, I get the smell of power.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28This was a place where powerful people used to come, wasn't it?
0:22:28 > 0:22:33Very much so, yes. And in the late 19th, early 20th century, just about
0:22:33 > 0:22:39everybody who was anybody, not just politically but financially, industrially as it were,
0:22:39 > 0:22:42this was where they gravitated around this time of year.
0:22:42 > 0:22:47And of course many of them would have come from Westminster or from
0:22:47 > 0:22:51manufactories in Birmingham or wherever to these estates by train.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55Oh, absolutely, in fact the arrival of the railways in the Highlands here
0:22:55 > 0:22:59round about the 1890s, some other parts of the Highlands a bit earlier,
0:22:59 > 0:23:04that was critical in opening up the area to these kinds of people from the south.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08And they would come mob-handed, they would come with an entire entourage
0:23:08 > 0:23:15of servants and perhaps take a shooting lodge or a big house here and be here for two or three weeks.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21Hunting, shooting and stalking were so integral to the life cycle of
0:23:21 > 0:23:25the good and the great, that they dictated the political calendar.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29In the period we're talking for much of that period anyway,
0:23:29 > 0:23:33typically Parliament wouldn't sit at all during what we would regard
0:23:33 > 0:23:35as the autumn and winter, from July to February,
0:23:35 > 0:23:39there was to be no interference with the hunting season, is that right?
0:23:39 > 0:23:46Yeah, the hunting, the whole deer stalking thing was very much a big thing for many of these people.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50And I think it's worth emphasising that these guys, they were tough.
0:23:50 > 0:23:55There was a whole sort of cult of course amongst very many of these people of being tough.
0:23:55 > 0:24:00It was the era of big game hunting and all that kind of thing. And deer stalking was part of that.
0:24:02 > 0:24:08By the late 19th century, the demand for sporting estates far exceeded supply.
0:24:08 > 0:24:13The wealthy from south of the border paid up to £5,000 per season
0:24:13 > 0:24:19for a Scottish lodge, from which they could shoot grouse, hook salmon and stalk deer.
0:24:19 > 0:24:26So the rugged pleasures of a terrain like Corrour's could command £200,000 in today's money.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29What a fantastic, tranquil spot.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32Beautiful, isn't it.
0:24:32 > 0:24:34- Gorgeous. Loch Ossian?- Yeah.
0:24:34 > 0:24:39I'm following in the footsteps of Victorian sportsmen with head stalker Donald Rowantree.
0:24:39 > 0:24:47I'm a late 19th traveller and I've just arrived on the train and I'm on my way to the shooting lodge.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49How do I make my journey?
0:24:49 > 0:24:53Well, you're going to come off the train, which is a beautiful journey as well in itself,
0:24:53 > 0:24:58meet the horse and cart at the station, your pony man, he'll take you in there, day or night.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02Trek just over a mile journey from the train station behind us here,
0:25:02 > 0:25:04right down to the loch side where you'll meet the paddle steamer.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07- It will take you down to Loch Ossian. - Paddle steamer?
0:25:07 > 0:25:09A paddle steamer indeed.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12It's quite impressive.
0:25:12 > 0:25:19Alas, the paddle steamer is long gone, replaced by a newer form of transport.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22Not designed for comfort.
0:25:22 > 0:25:29The estate stretches across 57,000 acres of splendid Scottish countryside.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32Donald regularly patrols this huge area to monitor the deer
0:25:32 > 0:25:39and has brought me to a spot where I can appreciate the grandeur of this wilderness.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41- Wonderful view.- Beautiful.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45- In the 19th, no vehicles, all of this would have been done by pony? - This would be pony, yes.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48We'd have walked right from lodge, all the way up to the hill
0:25:48 > 0:25:54with the pony man in tow and come out here for a spy and select our beast and then move on from there.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57And once you had your beast, he would just be slung on the pony would he?
0:25:57 > 0:26:01He'd signal the pony man. They used to have little signal fires and flags and if you left a stone
0:26:01 > 0:26:05on a certain knoll here, that would mean keep coming forward or we've shot a beast.
0:26:05 > 0:26:07There was all little signals they'd leave.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11So yeah, we'd move the pony in, sling him on the back of the pony.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13Then take him on back down to the larder.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16As the estates flourished, Victorian landowners began to
0:26:16 > 0:26:22import new species of deer like the Japanese Sika to vary their herds.
0:26:22 > 0:26:28These days, deer numbers are on the rise, and although some object to stalking,
0:26:28 > 0:26:34the estate believes it's the best way to control the population, which might otherwise harm the ecology.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38Donald takes the responsibility very seriously.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42How long have you been a stalker and how long has your family been stalking?
0:26:42 > 0:26:45I've been stalking with my father since I was about nine.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48He's been stalking with his father and his father's father,
0:26:48 > 0:26:52so I'm fourth generation of stalker, or ghillie as we like to call it.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55I've got an attachment, I've been brought up, it's in the blood.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58The day I lose respect for the animals is the day I've done enough.
0:27:00 > 0:27:07When the first Bradshaw's guide was published, the Highlands were a world away from industrial Britain.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10But the West Highland Line abolished distance.
0:27:10 > 0:27:18Whisky flowed down its tracks to the south and overnight sleepers disgorged stalkers and anglers.
0:27:22 > 0:27:27I enjoy the paradox that these remote hills and valleys, which are
0:27:27 > 0:27:33almost unreachable by car, have a daily direct rail service to London.
0:27:33 > 0:27:41The trains that bring now hardy walkers, used to bring men of power and indeed still do.
0:27:41 > 0:27:46So that the Highlands, whilst quiet, are certainly not any kind of backwater.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56On my next journey, I'll be unravelling one of
0:27:56 > 0:27:59the 19th century's great geological mysteries.
0:27:59 > 0:28:04So Charles Darwin who got so much right, actually got this wrong?
0:28:04 > 0:28:05Yeah, he sees it as a blunder.
0:28:05 > 0:28:10Experiencing one of Britain's most stunning journeys by steam train.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13The Jacobite has panted its way up the steep incline,
0:28:13 > 0:28:19somehow the wheels gripping the wet rails and now we're on the wonderful Glenfinnan viaduct.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22And admiring Ben Nevis, where Victorian scientists went
0:28:22 > 0:28:26to extraordinary lengths in their quest for knowledge.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29We're talking about people going up to take readings. Is that right?
0:28:29 > 0:28:33They didn't have to go up there, they actually had to live up there.
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0:28:55 > 0:28:58E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk