Browse content similar to Inverness to Plockton. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
In 1840, one man transformed travel in the British Isles. | 0:00:05 | 0:00:10 | |
His name was George Bradshaw, and his railway guides | 0:00:10 | 0:00:13 | |
inspired the Victorians to take to the tracks. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:16 | |
Stop by stop, he told them where to travel, | 0:00:18 | 0:00:21 | |
what to see and where to stay. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:23 | |
Now, 170 years later, I'm making a series of journeys | 0:00:25 | 0:00:29 | |
across the length and breadth of these isles | 0:00:29 | 0:00:31 | |
to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains. | 0:00:31 | 0:00:34 | |
I'm continuing my journey through the Scottish Highlands. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:56 | |
This morning, I boarded the overnight sleeper train from London | 0:00:56 | 0:00:59 | |
on its last leg to Inverness. | 0:00:59 | 0:01:02 | |
Today, I'm looking forward to vistas of land and sea | 0:01:02 | 0:01:05 | |
and to discovering how tracks laid in Victorian days | 0:01:05 | 0:01:09 | |
helped to inspire authors and even a cultural revival. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:13 | |
'On today's leg, I ride a picturesque railway...' | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
I have no words. I'm out of superlatives. | 0:01:18 | 0:01:21 | |
'..visit Scotland's smallest station...' | 0:01:21 | 0:01:24 | |
Nearly everyone has joined the queue to get off at the single door | 0:01:24 | 0:01:28 | |
that opens at the incredibly short platform at Beauly. | 0:01:28 | 0:01:32 | |
'..and I go on a spa break, Victorian style.' | 0:01:32 | 0:01:35 | |
After you've been hosed down with warm salty water, | 0:01:35 | 0:01:39 | |
your doctor will probably have prescribed you | 0:01:39 | 0:01:42 | |
a glass of sulphurous water. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:43 | |
And would I be cured? | 0:01:43 | 0:01:45 | |
You might well be. THEY CHUCKLE | 0:01:45 | 0:01:47 | |
Using my 1880s Bradshaw's, this trip started in Stirling, | 0:01:50 | 0:01:54 | |
passed through Perthshire, moved on to the Granite City of Aberdeen, | 0:01:54 | 0:01:58 | |
and is now taking me west to Banffshire, | 0:01:58 | 0:02:01 | |
thence to the classic lochs of the Highlands, | 0:02:01 | 0:02:04 | |
to finish at John O'Groats. | 0:02:04 | 0:02:06 | |
On today's leg, I'm taking a detour west, along a Highland railway. | 0:02:08 | 0:02:12 | |
From Inverness, I'll head first to Beauly, then Dingwall, | 0:02:12 | 0:02:16 | |
and finally cross-country to the coastal town of Plockton. | 0:02:16 | 0:02:19 | |
My Bradshaw's tells me that Inverness lies, as it were, | 0:02:22 | 0:02:25 | |
"at the back of Scotland, | 0:02:25 | 0:02:27 | |
"in a part formerly little visited or accessible. | 0:02:27 | 0:02:31 | |
"Invernesians speak purer English than any other Scotch people." | 0:02:31 | 0:02:35 | |
I'm wondering whether it was the previous remoteness of the city | 0:02:35 | 0:02:39 | |
that led its inhabitants to speak such refined version of the English tongue. | 0:02:39 | 0:02:44 | |
Dubbed the capital of the Highlands, | 0:02:47 | 0:02:49 | |
over the centuries, Invernesians have spoken at least three languages. | 0:02:49 | 0:02:53 | |
First inhabited by the Picts, whose ancient language has disappeared, | 0:02:55 | 0:02:59 | |
the area was then occupied by Gaelic-speaking Irish settlers, | 0:02:59 | 0:03:03 | |
but subsequent invasions pushed Gaelic to the brink of extinction, | 0:03:03 | 0:03:08 | |
and English to the fore. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:09 | |
I wonder whether the townsfolk rejoice | 0:03:11 | 0:03:14 | |
that Bradshaw's dubs them "speakers of the purest English," | 0:03:14 | 0:03:17 | |
or whether they feel prouder of their Gaelic heritage? | 0:03:17 | 0:03:20 | |
Hello. I'm just wondering, are you from Inverness? | 0:03:23 | 0:03:25 | |
Not originally, not ME, but my parents are. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:28 | |
Did you ever hear it said, as my guidebook says, | 0:03:28 | 0:03:30 | |
that the purest English is spoken in Inverness? | 0:03:30 | 0:03:33 | |
I never understood why people would say that, | 0:03:33 | 0:03:35 | |
cos there's a very distinct accent here. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:37 | |
Any of your family speak Gaelic? | 0:03:37 | 0:03:40 | |
Erm...very few, actually. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:43 | |
-Hello. -Hi, there. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:44 | |
-Do you hear people speaking Gaelic in the town? -Not usually, no. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:48 | |
Do you think it's a pity if Gaelic is not much spoken today? | 0:03:48 | 0:03:51 | |
Yeah, yeah... | 0:03:51 | 0:03:53 | |
I think it should be taught more in schools, and stuff like that. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
I think it would be nice to, you know, keep it going. | 0:03:56 | 0:03:59 | |
So, it's only as you get older you start to appreciate, you know, | 0:03:59 | 0:04:02 | |
what it means to keep your traditional languages | 0:04:02 | 0:04:05 | |
and stuff like that. | 0:04:05 | 0:04:06 | |
In the 17th and 18th centuries, | 0:04:08 | 0:04:11 | |
Scotland's Privy Council called for the abolition of Gaelic, | 0:04:11 | 0:04:15 | |
and wearing tartan was criminalised. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:18 | |
But in the 19th century, | 0:04:18 | 0:04:20 | |
Queen Victoria's love affair with Scotland | 0:04:20 | 0:04:22 | |
made all things Highland fashionable... | 0:04:22 | 0:04:24 | |
RADIO V/O: "Tha na Bord na Gaidhlig ag iarraidh an sgoil Ghaidhlig..." | 0:04:24 | 0:04:28 | |
Ever since, there's been a gradual thawing of antipathy toward Gaelic. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:32 | |
And here at the BBC, the language is nurtured. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:36 | |
This is BBC nan Gaidheal, a Gaelic-language radio station, | 0:04:39 | 0:04:44 | |
and Donald Morrison is just finishing his morning show. | 0:04:44 | 0:04:47 | |
And you're off air... | 0:04:50 | 0:04:52 | |
An hour and a half, that's it. MICHAEL CHUCKLES | 0:04:52 | 0:04:55 | |
So, how long have you had the Gaelic-language radio station? | 0:04:55 | 0:04:58 | |
It started off very small, to be honest. | 0:04:58 | 0:05:01 | |
When Gaelic first came to Inverness, there was the Gaelic minute. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:06 | |
They had a minute a day. HE LAUGHS | 0:05:06 | 0:05:08 | |
Now, from Inverness, we broadcast this hour-and-a-half news programme in the morning. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:12 | |
That's in combination with the other output of Radio nan Gaidheal, | 0:05:12 | 0:05:16 | |
which is a Scotland-wide radio station. | 0:05:16 | 0:05:18 | |
Why do you think the broadcasts in Gaelic are so valued? | 0:05:18 | 0:05:22 | |
Well...because it's...it's... | 0:05:22 | 0:05:24 | |
I think an academic once, a few years ago, | 0:05:24 | 0:05:27 | |
described Gaelic radio, Radio nan Gaidheal | 0:05:27 | 0:05:30 | |
as the cement that binds the Gaelic communities together. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:34 | |
Bear in mind the Gaelic communities are spread from the Western Isles | 0:05:34 | 0:05:38 | |
to mainland Highland, an enclave here in Inverness, | 0:05:38 | 0:05:42 | |
Glasgow, throughout Scotland, | 0:05:42 | 0:05:44 | |
and I think the radio is the thing that brings them all... | 0:05:44 | 0:05:47 | |
into the one...sort of community pot, if you like, | 0:05:47 | 0:05:51 | |
and it's also in their own language, of course. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:54 | |
Have you any idea whether the number of Gaelic speakers in Scotland | 0:05:54 | 0:05:57 | |
is going up at the moment? | 0:05:57 | 0:05:59 | |
It's stabilised at the moment. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:02 | |
When the figures for the new census come out, | 0:06:02 | 0:06:05 | |
we'll have a better idea. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:06 | |
It's a pretty worrying situation. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:09 | |
You know, for years, Gaelic has been declining. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:12 | |
The policy at the moment for the language developers | 0:06:12 | 0:06:15 | |
is to stabilise it and then to grow, | 0:06:15 | 0:06:18 | |
but, you know, here in Inverness, a minority language like that, | 0:06:18 | 0:06:22 | |
it IS in a pretty precarious state, unfortunately. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:25 | |
Since 1871, The Gaelic Society of Inverness | 0:06:27 | 0:06:31 | |
has also been trying to rejuvenate the language. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:35 | |
Allan Campbell is a former chairman. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:38 | |
Which language did you learn first? | 0:06:40 | 0:06:41 | |
Well, Gaelic was my first language, | 0:06:41 | 0:06:43 | |
and I went to school at the age of five in the west of Skye, without... | 0:06:43 | 0:06:47 | |
Well, maybe I had one or two words of English, | 0:06:47 | 0:06:50 | |
but I'm still learning English, Michael. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:52 | |
-When did you start to learn English? -Oh, the day I went to school... | 0:06:52 | 0:06:55 | |
because, although my primary school teacher was a native Gaelic speaker, | 0:06:55 | 0:07:01 | |
we were forbidden to speak Gaelic in school. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:04 | |
And, so, here, in an area that was formerly very remote, | 0:07:04 | 0:07:09 | |
Gaelic, at one time, predominated? | 0:07:09 | 0:07:11 | |
Oh, yes. Gaelic was, at one time, | 0:07:11 | 0:07:13 | |
the language of a large proportion of Scotland. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:17 | |
-What happened to Gaelic before the 19th century? -Quite a lot. | 0:07:17 | 0:07:21 | |
Many people will say today that it's astonishing that Gaelic survives, | 0:07:21 | 0:07:24 | |
because it has been the subject of persecution | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
and legal suppression for centuries. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:31 | |
The Gaelic Society has seen two relatively recent successes. | 0:07:33 | 0:07:38 | |
Several schools now teach in Gaelic, and the society's lobbying | 0:07:38 | 0:07:43 | |
led to the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act of 2005, | 0:07:43 | 0:07:47 | |
which recognises Gaelic as equal to English as a Scottish language. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:52 | |
Why does it matter? | 0:07:52 | 0:07:54 | |
Well, I think it matters because Gaelic is part of this country. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:59 | |
Gaelic belongs to Scotland. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:01 | |
As you make your journey through Scotland, Michael, | 0:08:01 | 0:08:04 | |
and you see all these mountains, rivers and railway stations, | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
many of them will have names whose origin is Gaelic, | 0:08:08 | 0:08:13 | |
and you might actually learn a bit of the language as you go along the way. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:17 | |
I hope you do, and enjoy it. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:18 | |
Would you, for the moment, send me on my way | 0:08:18 | 0:08:22 | |
with a farewell in Gaelic? | 0:08:22 | 0:08:24 | |
Well, indeed... | 0:08:24 | 0:08:25 | |
Turas math, a Mhicheil. Tha mi an dochas gun chord Alba riut. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:30 | |
That's very, very kind of you. Thank you so much, Allan. Bye, bye. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:33 | |
It's been a struggle to keep Gaelic cherished as a living language. | 0:08:37 | 0:08:41 | |
As I leave Inverness, I turn my attention to another thing | 0:08:42 | 0:08:45 | |
for which the community has had to fight. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:47 | |
My next stop is Beauly, | 0:08:51 | 0:08:52 | |
which Bradshaw's tells me is a place of importance | 0:08:52 | 0:08:55 | |
on account of its cattle fairs and belonging to Lord Lovat. | 0:08:55 | 0:08:59 | |
Lord Lovat was deputy chairman of the Highland Railway Company | 0:08:59 | 0:09:03 | |
and had a private waiting room at Beauly station, | 0:09:03 | 0:09:06 | |
but, even so, train services ceased there in 1960... | 0:09:06 | 0:09:10 | |
But I'm alighting there today, | 0:09:10 | 0:09:12 | |
so clearly that wasn't the end of the story. | 0:09:12 | 0:09:15 | |
'And I've heard that to keep down the cost of rebuilding the station, | 0:09:17 | 0:09:21 | |
'its platform is minute.' | 0:09:21 | 0:09:23 | |
-Are you getting off at Beauly? -Yes. | 0:09:23 | 0:09:26 | |
-And it's a good service? -Yes. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:28 | |
And I'm told there's only one door we can get off at, at Beauly... | 0:09:28 | 0:09:32 | |
-Yes, that's right. -Which one's that? | 0:09:32 | 0:09:34 | |
-This one. -That one there. MICHAEL LAUGHS | 0:09:34 | 0:09:36 | |
So, do you have to form yourselves into a queue to get off the train? | 0:09:36 | 0:09:40 | |
Yes, you'll see that in a moment. | 0:09:40 | 0:09:41 | |
Oh, will I? I can't wait! | 0:09:41 | 0:09:44 | |
You'll be caught in the rush. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:46 | |
This is the most extraordinary sight. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:53 | |
Nearly everyone in this carriage has joined the queue to get off | 0:09:53 | 0:09:57 | |
at the single door that opens at the incredibly short platform at Beauly. | 0:09:57 | 0:10:01 | |
Beauly station closed in 1960, | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
but a campaign led by Frank Roach succeeded, | 0:10:05 | 0:10:09 | |
and it reopened in 2002. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:10 | |
-Hello, Frank. -Hello, Michael. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:17 | |
Welcome to Beauly, the shortest railway platform in Britain. | 0:10:17 | 0:10:20 | |
It's wonderful to see such a small place | 0:10:20 | 0:10:23 | |
that has railway services still, | 0:10:23 | 0:10:25 | |
and I think you had something to do with that, didn't you? | 0:10:25 | 0:10:28 | |
That's right. The station actually closed in 1960, pre-Beeching, | 0:10:28 | 0:10:32 | |
and gradually, over the years, congestion has increased... | 0:10:32 | 0:10:35 | |
there is a bridge into Inverness | 0:10:35 | 0:10:37 | |
that gets a lot of congestion in the morning peak... | 0:10:37 | 0:10:41 | |
So, I decided it would be interesting to try and reopen the station, | 0:10:41 | 0:10:44 | |
so I put the funding package together and persuaded various parties | 0:10:44 | 0:10:47 | |
that a short platform would be an obvious solution. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:50 | |
Well, Frank, I think while I'm here, I need to measure this phenomenon. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:55 | |
Perhaps you'll join me... | 0:10:55 | 0:10:57 | |
..as we pace it out? | 0:10:58 | 0:10:59 | |
One, two, three, | 0:11:05 | 0:11:07 | |
four, five, six, | 0:11:07 | 0:11:09 | |
seven, eight, nine, ten, | 0:11:09 | 0:11:12 | |
11, 12, 13, | 0:11:12 | 0:11:14 | |
14, 15, 16, | 0:11:14 | 0:11:17 | |
17... | 0:11:17 | 0:11:18 | |
..18 on the Portillo scale, equals 15 metres. | 0:11:20 | 0:11:23 | |
Frank, any prospect of opening other mini stations on the line? | 0:11:23 | 0:11:27 | |
Yes, we've got pretty advanced plans to reopen Conon Bridge, | 0:11:27 | 0:11:30 | |
which is six miles up the track. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:32 | |
Again, a mini platform looks to be on the cards, | 0:11:32 | 0:11:35 | |
and predictions suggest 40,000 people could use it every year, | 0:11:35 | 0:11:39 | |
and this from a village of under 3,000 people. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:42 | |
Just itching to get back on the tracks? | 0:11:42 | 0:11:44 | |
Absolutely. They've seen the success at Beauly, and want to be part of it. | 0:11:44 | 0:11:48 | |
'Sadly, the town for which I'm bound now | 0:11:48 | 0:11:51 | |
'hasn't succeeded in reopening its station, | 0:11:51 | 0:11:54 | |
'so I shall use a car from the next stop, Dingwall.' | 0:11:54 | 0:11:58 | |
My next destination is the village of Strathpeffer, | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
where, my Bradshaw's tells me, | 0:12:01 | 0:12:03 | |
"the large Ben Wyvis Hotel, 156 feet long, | 0:12:03 | 0:12:07 | |
"has been built over an excellent sulphur spa." | 0:12:07 | 0:12:11 | |
Taking the waters and bathing enjoyed a vogue in Victorian times, | 0:12:11 | 0:12:15 | |
and I'm anxious to know how the little Strathpeffer | 0:12:15 | 0:12:19 | |
joined the elite of British spa towns. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:22 | |
Originally no more than a few farms, | 0:12:24 | 0:12:26 | |
Strathpeffer grew when sulphurous springs were discovered | 0:12:26 | 0:12:30 | |
in the 1770s. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:32 | |
The first pump room was built in 1819, | 0:12:32 | 0:12:35 | |
but Strathpeffer truly flourished from 1885, | 0:12:35 | 0:12:39 | |
once it had a railway station. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:41 | |
Grand hotels and substantial Victorian villas were built | 0:12:41 | 0:12:45 | |
to accommodate the steady stream of visitors | 0:12:45 | 0:12:47 | |
who came to "take the waters." | 0:12:47 | 0:12:50 | |
Local businessman Steve Macdonald | 0:12:50 | 0:12:53 | |
takes Strathpeffer's history seriously. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:56 | |
-Steve, hello. -Michael! | 0:12:57 | 0:12:59 | |
What a splendid machine! | 0:12:59 | 0:13:00 | |
HE LAUGHS Pleased to meet you. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:02 | |
I'm just wondering whether George Bradshaw | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
might have ridden on one of these? | 0:13:05 | 0:13:06 | |
He died in 1853. Were these popular in the mid-1800s? | 0:13:06 | 0:13:10 | |
They were, yes. They were very popular then. That was the heyday. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:13 | |
Let's park that fellow up somewhere, shall we? | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
Now, after the glorious opening of Strathpeffer station in 1885, | 0:13:16 | 0:13:21 | |
presumably people were really pouring in to take the waters? | 0:13:21 | 0:13:24 | |
Trains came directly from London, | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
and brought patients of Harley Street doctors | 0:13:27 | 0:13:30 | |
to houses that had been built especially for patients to the area, | 0:13:30 | 0:13:35 | |
and people promenaded around the village and went to tea dances, | 0:13:35 | 0:13:39 | |
took the waters, went for healthy walks... | 0:13:39 | 0:13:42 | |
Mid to late 19th century, it was the place to be. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:46 | |
I'm a Victorian gentleman with a skin complaint. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:49 | |
I'm coming to Strathpeffer for my health. What routine can I expect? | 0:13:49 | 0:13:52 | |
Well, when you get up in the morning, | 0:13:52 | 0:13:55 | |
your doctor will probably have prescribed you | 0:13:55 | 0:13:57 | |
a glass of sulphurous water, which you'd drink... | 0:13:57 | 0:14:01 | |
probably sip during the day. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:04 | |
After you'd recovered from that, | 0:14:04 | 0:14:06 | |
you might well have a bath in peat mixed with sulphurous water. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:11 | |
You would probably lie in that for an hour. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:14 | |
It might be followed by a massage, | 0:14:14 | 0:14:16 | |
after you've been hosed down with warm, salty water, | 0:14:16 | 0:14:20 | |
then you might well go for a brisk walk | 0:14:20 | 0:14:23 | |
on one of the paths that have been laid around here. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:26 | |
In the afternoon, you may well go to a tea dance, | 0:14:26 | 0:14:31 | |
and have dinner in the evening at the regular time, | 0:14:31 | 0:14:34 | |
and then repeat every day until you're cured. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:39 | |
And would I be cured? | 0:14:39 | 0:14:41 | |
You might well be... THEY LAUGH | 0:14:41 | 0:14:43 | |
I wouldn't like to say. | 0:14:43 | 0:14:44 | |
The Ben Wyvis Hotel, as advertised in my Bradshaw's. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:54 | |
I believe that the peat baths have now given way to hot baths, | 0:14:54 | 0:14:58 | |
and I shall reject a sulphurous drink, | 0:14:58 | 0:15:00 | |
because I believe that the Highlands have a better tipple to offer. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:04 | |
Rested, refreshed and refuelled, I'm excited about the day ahead, | 0:15:21 | 0:15:26 | |
which will take me along one of the most remote lines in Britain. | 0:15:26 | 0:15:30 | |
In the quiet of this isolated station, | 0:15:35 | 0:15:38 | |
I could hear the train maybe a mile away | 0:15:38 | 0:15:40 | |
clattering its way through the glens, | 0:15:40 | 0:15:42 | |
and now, here it is, approaching the platform. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:44 | |
I'm now travelling on what my Bradshaw's calls | 0:15:51 | 0:15:53 | |
the Dingwall and Skye Rail, "a line 53 miles long | 0:15:53 | 0:15:57 | |
"that runs westwards through fine mountain scenery | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
"near Ben Wyvis and Rogie Falls." | 0:16:00 | 0:16:03 | |
In the years just before my guide was published, | 0:16:03 | 0:16:05 | |
this area had been opened for the first time to train passengers, | 0:16:05 | 0:16:09 | |
and judging by the large numbers on board today, | 0:16:09 | 0:16:12 | |
I say, "Rejoice! This rural and remote railway is resurgent." | 0:16:12 | 0:16:17 | |
First train of the day, and it's absolutely heaving with people. | 0:16:36 | 0:16:39 | |
Is it often like this? | 0:16:39 | 0:16:40 | |
It started to get very popular with bus parties, | 0:16:40 | 0:16:43 | |
so we get bus parties joining the train at Inverness, | 0:16:43 | 0:16:46 | |
the bus moves up to Kyle, and they get picked up there, | 0:16:46 | 0:16:49 | |
and it's part of their package, and the last four or five years | 0:16:49 | 0:16:52 | |
it's proved very popular, which is great for the line. | 0:16:52 | 0:16:54 | |
Well, let's hope more and more people | 0:16:54 | 0:16:57 | |
-find out about the wonders of this line. -Definitely. | 0:16:57 | 0:16:59 | |
May I ask, do you travel on the line very much? | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
Yes, quite often. Every sort of second day in the summer, anyway. | 0:17:02 | 0:17:05 | |
Why is that? | 0:17:05 | 0:17:07 | |
Well, I study in Skye, doing Gaelic, so I get the train to Kyle, | 0:17:07 | 0:17:11 | |
and then get a bus to Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the university there. | 0:17:11 | 0:17:14 | |
Do you feel lucky to have such a beautiful commute? | 0:17:14 | 0:17:17 | |
Yes, it's very nice. | 0:17:17 | 0:17:19 | |
Do you still watch the beautiful countryside go by, | 0:17:19 | 0:17:21 | |
or have you become kind of blase about it? | 0:17:21 | 0:17:23 | |
No, no, no! I always watch it. It's lovely, especially on a nice day. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:27 | |
The Highlands have been associated with Romanticism | 0:17:28 | 0:17:32 | |
ever since the Victorians began to explore them. | 0:17:32 | 0:17:35 | |
In 1880, Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson | 0:17:35 | 0:17:38 | |
may have alighted here at Garve because, | 0:17:38 | 0:17:41 | |
during a holiday with his wife, Fanny, he stayed in Strathpeffer. | 0:17:41 | 0:17:45 | |
He visited my next destination, | 0:17:49 | 0:17:51 | |
Rogie Falls, on the Blackwater River, | 0:17:51 | 0:17:54 | |
where I'm meeting professor of literature, Linda Dryden. | 0:17:54 | 0:17:57 | |
-Magnificent! Linda, it's the most glorious sight. -Isn't it? | 0:17:59 | 0:18:03 | |
Enough to inspire any Romantic writer, don't you think? | 0:18:03 | 0:18:06 | |
Well, indeed. In fact, Robert Louis Stevenson actually came here | 0:18:06 | 0:18:09 | |
and wrote a letter to his literary agent, | 0:18:09 | 0:18:12 | |
literary friend, Sidney Colvin, about this very place. | 0:18:12 | 0:18:16 | |
He says to Colvin, "I've lain down and died. | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
"No country, no place, was ever for a moment so delightful for my soul. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:24 | |
"Give me the cool breath of Rogie waterfall henceforth and forever, | 0:18:24 | 0:18:29 | |
"world without end." | 0:18:29 | 0:18:30 | |
And he signs off saying, just lets us know what a good time he's having, | 0:18:30 | 0:18:34 | |
"May you have as good a time as possible, so far from Rogie..." | 0:18:34 | 0:18:39 | |
In other words, I'm having the best time in the world. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:41 | |
Most interesting. | 0:18:41 | 0:18:43 | |
Do we think his visit to Rogie Falls had an enduring impact on him? | 0:18:43 | 0:18:47 | |
It's very difficult to say, but when he was writing Kidnapped, | 0:18:47 | 0:18:50 | |
he set a lot of that in the Highlands. | 0:18:50 | 0:18:52 | |
This passage here, to me, looks exactly like | 0:18:52 | 0:18:55 | |
we're looking at up there. | 0:18:55 | 0:18:57 | |
"And with that, he ran harder than ever down to the waterside | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
"in a part where the river was split in two among three rocks..." | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
-One, two... Can we see three rocks? I think... -Yes, mm-hmm. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
"It went through with a horrid thundering that made my belly quake, | 0:19:06 | 0:19:10 | |
"and there hung over the lynn a little mist of spray. | 0:19:10 | 0:19:13 | |
"Alan looked neither to the right nor to the left, | 0:19:13 | 0:19:16 | |
"but jumped clean upon the middle rock, | 0:19:16 | 0:19:18 | |
"and fell there on his hands and knees to check himself." | 0:19:18 | 0:19:21 | |
-Yes. -It looks it, doesn't it? | 0:19:21 | 0:19:22 | |
You can just imagine looking at that waterfall there. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:26 | |
Is Robert Louis Stevenson regarded as a great hero of Scottish writing? | 0:19:26 | 0:19:29 | |
SHE CHUCKLES It's with the publication of Treasure Island | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
that we get a great success for Stevenson. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:34 | |
He becomes famous not just in the UK, but in the States, | 0:19:34 | 0:19:38 | |
particularly after Jekyll and Hyde. | 0:19:38 | 0:19:40 | |
This is the problem, I suppose, with Robert Louis Stevenson | 0:19:40 | 0:19:43 | |
We read Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Jekyll and Hyde when we're children, | 0:19:43 | 0:19:47 | |
probably never go back to those books or back to Stevenson. | 0:19:47 | 0:19:50 | |
Absolutely. If you mention Robert Louis Stevenson, what comes to mind? | 0:19:50 | 0:19:54 | |
Treasure Island, Jekyll and Hyde or Kidnapped. Yes. | 0:19:54 | 0:19:57 | |
With my mind full of swashbuckling feats of derring-do, | 0:20:11 | 0:20:15 | |
I'm back to Dingwall and onward through this rugged terrain | 0:20:15 | 0:20:19 | |
to the west coast, and my next destination, Plockton. | 0:20:19 | 0:20:22 | |
I'm fulfilling a long-held ambition, to ride The Kyle of Lochalsh line. | 0:20:25 | 0:20:31 | |
Two hours of train travel with hardly a human habitation glimpsed, | 0:20:31 | 0:20:36 | |
radiant greens, imposing terrain... | 0:20:36 | 0:20:40 | |
The line has been described as a symphony in three movements. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:44 | |
First, pastoral, then mountainous and, finally, marine, | 0:20:44 | 0:20:49 | |
as the line, at last, reaches the sea | 0:20:49 | 0:20:51 | |
and the symphony reaches its glorious climax. | 0:20:51 | 0:20:55 | |
Oh! Every curve brings a more spectacular vista. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:20 | |
This line is wonderful. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:23 | |
I have no words. I'm out of superlatives. | 0:21:23 | 0:21:25 | |
My Bradshaw's says, "Several fine lochs penetrate the Atlantic coast, | 0:21:32 | 0:21:37 | |
"such as Loch Broom, Loch Ewe, Gairloch, Loch Torridon, | 0:21:37 | 0:21:41 | |
"and Loch Carron, where the Dingwall and Stromeferry rail terminates." | 0:21:41 | 0:21:47 | |
But it doesn't terminate there any longer, | 0:21:47 | 0:21:49 | |
and I want to know why this railway line to distant hamlets | 0:21:49 | 0:21:53 | |
was pushed yet further away from any centre of population. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:57 | |
The Dingwall and Skye Railway is certainly one of the most picturesque of routes, | 0:22:00 | 0:22:05 | |
but Victorian rail companies had to be more businesslike than romantic, | 0:22:05 | 0:22:09 | |
and I want to know about the economics | 0:22:09 | 0:22:11 | |
behind this vast and expensive engineering project. | 0:22:11 | 0:22:15 | |
I'm hopeful that local historian Pat Myhill will enlighten me. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:21 | |
I'm wondering why a line like this to such remote places | 0:22:23 | 0:22:28 | |
was built in the first place, Pat? | 0:22:28 | 0:22:30 | |
The Victorians were great improvers, great entrepreneurs, | 0:22:30 | 0:22:34 | |
and, so, they saw what a lot of people would regard as a wilderness | 0:22:34 | 0:22:39 | |
as an untapped resource, particularly the fisheries, | 0:22:39 | 0:22:43 | |
which were considered to be inexhaustible at the time... | 0:22:43 | 0:22:47 | |
But I think, really, what it comes down to | 0:22:47 | 0:22:50 | |
is a group of very, very large landowners | 0:22:50 | 0:22:53 | |
saw the benefits to them of bringing improved communications in. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:58 | |
There was a measure of altruism, certainly, | 0:22:58 | 0:23:00 | |
but there was also a great deal of self-interest in it for them. | 0:23:00 | 0:23:04 | |
How much difference would it make to the fisheries, | 0:23:04 | 0:23:07 | |
first in Stromeferry and then in Kyle, having a railway line? | 0:23:07 | 0:23:10 | |
Massive, because the price of fish | 0:23:10 | 0:23:12 | |
depends on the speed with which you can get it to the market. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:15 | |
The best markets, like Billingsgate, wanted very fresh fish, | 0:23:15 | 0:23:19 | |
so the price wasn't as good if you couldn't get them to market so quickly. | 0:23:19 | 0:23:23 | |
Therefore, if you could get a railway line in, | 0:23:23 | 0:23:26 | |
and you could get the fish down to London in little over 12 hours, | 0:23:26 | 0:23:30 | |
you're going to get a much much better price for them, | 0:23:30 | 0:23:32 | |
and, of course, that helped develop the fisheries industry itself. | 0:23:32 | 0:23:36 | |
I rode along the line today, and it was a lovely gentle ride. | 0:23:36 | 0:23:40 | |
Give me an idea of what it would have been like | 0:23:40 | 0:23:43 | |
in its early days at the end of the 19th century? | 0:23:43 | 0:23:45 | |
Uncomfortable, especially on a day like this. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:49 | |
The original carriages were six-wheelers, | 0:23:49 | 0:23:51 | |
that's a rigid wheel base, | 0:23:51 | 0:23:54 | |
and this is a twisty, tortuous switchback line, | 0:23:54 | 0:23:58 | |
lots of short bends and lots of ups and downs, | 0:23:58 | 0:24:01 | |
so they gave you a bumpy ride. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:03 | |
They were wooden, no toilets, no heating... | 0:24:03 | 0:24:07 | |
I really enjoyed my journey today. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:09 | |
How would you sell it to a prospective tourist? | 0:24:09 | 0:24:12 | |
Oh, as the greatest scenic, coastal railway journey in the country, | 0:24:12 | 0:24:17 | |
quite probably in the world. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:19 | |
That's pretty good, isn't it? | 0:24:19 | 0:24:20 | |
In Bradshaw's day, the catch around Plockton | 0:24:22 | 0:24:25 | |
consisted mainly of white fish and crab, | 0:24:25 | 0:24:27 | |
but now the waters of Loch Carron are fished for prawn. | 0:24:27 | 0:24:31 | |
Bob Rowe has agreed to show me how it's done. | 0:24:33 | 0:24:36 | |
-Hello, Bob. -Hi, how are you doing? -How are you? -Not bad. | 0:24:37 | 0:24:40 | |
Where are your markets for the prawns? | 0:24:42 | 0:24:44 | |
Well, we land to a company based in Dingwall, | 0:24:44 | 0:24:47 | |
and they're trying to develop a market in Britain, | 0:24:47 | 0:24:50 | |
so a lot of their stuff goes to hotels, restaurants, in the British Isles. | 0:24:50 | 0:24:54 | |
-Fresh? -Yes, fresh. Well, alive, they send them live, | 0:24:54 | 0:24:57 | |
because when they're landed, they go into this tank, | 0:24:57 | 0:24:59 | |
which is spraying fresh water on them to keep them alive. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:03 | |
Nowadays, I guess you're not sending the catch by train? | 0:25:03 | 0:25:07 | |
No, they don't go by train now. Most of them go by road. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:10 | |
I think that's more... Well, it's... | 0:25:10 | 0:25:12 | |
Because the bulk of it, you know, it's so bulky, | 0:25:13 | 0:25:16 | |
and also the timetabling, and... | 0:25:16 | 0:25:18 | |
I hadn't thought of that. In the days of the train, | 0:25:18 | 0:25:20 | |
-you had to fish to the... -Fish to the timetable, yeah. | 0:25:20 | 0:25:24 | |
So, if the train was timetabled for five o'clock, | 0:25:24 | 0:25:26 | |
then the fishermen would have to have their catch ashore | 0:25:26 | 0:25:29 | |
and packaged up, ready to go on the train for five o'clock. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:33 | |
So, nowadays because it goes by road, | 0:25:33 | 0:25:36 | |
they're not under that same pressure. | 0:25:36 | 0:25:38 | |
'These days, fishing boats are under pressure to maximise their catch, | 0:25:39 | 0:25:44 | |
'so they'd do well to leave ME ashore.' | 0:25:44 | 0:25:46 | |
I'm baiting the creel in order that it can go back into the water, | 0:25:48 | 0:25:50 | |
ready for the next lot of prawns. | 0:25:50 | 0:25:53 | |
I have to put this bit of herring in the middle here... | 0:25:53 | 0:25:56 | |
..and it just needs to be secured in that position | 0:25:57 | 0:26:01 | |
by sliding down that knot, | 0:26:01 | 0:26:03 | |
Now, the creels, with their bait, are going back overboard again | 0:26:03 | 0:26:07 | |
to try and catch more prawn, | 0:26:07 | 0:26:09 | |
and while Bob chucks them over the side, | 0:26:09 | 0:26:11 | |
the rope is running along the deck and I'm standing clear, | 0:26:11 | 0:26:15 | |
cos I don't want to go over with the creels. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:18 | |
Being a fisherman is still a pretty tough lot, isn't it? | 0:26:18 | 0:26:21 | |
Yeah, well, it's still the most dangerous job in the world, I think. | 0:26:21 | 0:26:24 | |
Well, you certainly have my respect. | 0:26:24 | 0:26:26 | |
OK, well, you did pretty good for a beginner, I think. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:29 | |
I'll be thinking about you the next time I'm on a warm train journey. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
-HE LAUGHS -I'm sure you will. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:34 | |
I'm sure I'll never make a trawlerman! | 0:26:35 | 0:26:38 | |
I think my skills lie at the consuming end of the food chain. | 0:26:38 | 0:26:42 | |
Since I'm in sight of the sea, | 0:26:45 | 0:26:47 | |
I thought this would be a good time to taste the catch of the sea. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:51 | |
It must be really fresh. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:52 | |
-Oh, thank you! -Your fish platter. | 0:26:52 | 0:26:54 | |
Oh, that looks wonderful. So, what have I got there? | 0:26:54 | 0:26:57 | |
You have some langoustines and squat lobsters, | 0:26:57 | 0:27:00 | |
they're from a local Plockton creel boat. | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
The crabs and the mussels are from Skye, | 0:27:03 | 0:27:05 | |
and they're hand-dived scallops from Loch Alsh, near Kyle. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:09 | |
-How wonderful! Thank you very much. -OK, enjoy your meal. | 0:27:09 | 0:27:12 | |
Hmm, start with the scallops... | 0:27:12 | 0:27:14 | |
Glorious. Glorious! | 0:27:19 | 0:27:21 | |
Today, I have enjoyed a feast of Scotland's natural beauty | 0:27:29 | 0:27:34 | |
on tracks laid by 19th-century railway builders. | 0:27:34 | 0:27:38 | |
The trains were the means by which fishermen in the remotest places | 0:27:38 | 0:27:42 | |
could supply their catches, still fresh, to distant cities. | 0:27:42 | 0:27:46 | |
Now, the line is thronged with tourists | 0:27:46 | 0:27:49 | |
who, like Queen Victoria herself, | 0:27:49 | 0:27:51 | |
are attracted by the majesty of the Highlands. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:55 | |
'On the next stretch of my journey, I'll learn how one man's vision | 0:27:56 | 0:28:00 | |
'helped to bring train travel to the Highlands...' | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
He really saw the social value of railways, | 0:28:03 | 0:28:05 | |
and in opening up the county of Sutherland. | 0:28:05 | 0:28:08 | |
'..discover how farming's changed since Bradshaw's day...' | 0:28:08 | 0:28:11 | |
We have about a tonne in the grain tank there. | 0:28:11 | 0:28:14 | |
That would hopefully produce about 400 litres of neat whisky. | 0:28:14 | 0:28:18 | |
Wow! | 0:28:18 | 0:28:20 | |
'..and re-live the drama of Scotland's Victorian gold rush...' | 0:28:20 | 0:28:24 | |
Gold! We've found gold! | 0:28:25 | 0:28:28 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:28:49 | 0:28:55 |