0:07:30 > 0:07:35The mountains of Mourne welcome us to Northern Ireland.
0:07:35 > 0:07:41I'm here to celebrate a local hero whose fame first took off at Newcastle.
0:07:41 > 0:07:47As an Ulsterman, I'm passionate about Northern Ireland's engineering excellence.
0:07:47 > 0:07:53Look at this! An original 1948 tractor conceived and designed in Northern Ireland,
0:07:53 > 0:07:57the little grey Fergie's a brainchild of local man
0:07:57 > 0:08:02Harry Ferguson, but Ferguson's idea was more than just a tractor.
0:08:02 > 0:08:09Born in County Down in 1884, farmer's son Harry Ferguson grew into a great engineer.
0:08:09 > 0:08:16In the 1920s, he was the first to combine a tractor and a plough together into a single unit.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19Ferguson's new mechanism of links and springs
0:08:19 > 0:08:23meant the driver could raise and lower the plough on his own.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26It revolutionised agriculture worldwide.
0:08:34 > 0:08:39But before breaking new ground with his tractors, the young Harry Ferguson's eyes were on the skies.
0:08:42 > 0:08:49In 1910, only seven years after the Wright brothers had mastered powered flight on the sand dunes
0:08:49 > 0:08:57of America's east coast, a dashing 26-year-old Harry Ferguson planned to put Ireland on the aviation map.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01He came here to Newcastle, County Down.
0:09:01 > 0:09:06The town had offered a £100 prize to the first person to fly three miles across the bay.
0:09:09 > 0:09:15Aviation enthusiast Ernie Cromie has a 3rd scale model of Harry's flying machine.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18So where did he come to the design, how did he come up with this?
0:09:18 > 0:09:24Basically by looking at other aircraft which some of the early pioneers had made,
0:09:24 > 0:09:28people like Bleriot and so on, at air shows in Rheims and Blackpool,
0:09:28 > 0:09:33and then deciding, right, that looks reasonably good, and I'll have a little bit of that.
0:09:33 > 0:09:40The controls were pretty basic, really, a throttle lever, mechanism to control the elevators
0:09:40 > 0:09:44at the rear of the aircraft, and also rudder,
0:09:44 > 0:09:50and then to turn the aircraft in the air, it was basically by a system of wing warping,
0:09:50 > 0:09:52to alter the degree of lift on either wing.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55- Wing warping, bending the wings. - Exactly.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57We're talking about wood and... what was the material he used?
0:09:57 > 0:10:00Well, it would have been Irish linen, what else?
0:10:00 > 0:10:03He left the ground, in something made out of wood and linen.
0:10:03 > 0:10:04That's right.
0:10:06 > 0:10:12On the 8th August 1910, Harry's Ferguson's ambition reached for the skies.
0:10:12 > 0:10:18For three long miles, he battled against winds whipping over the Irish Sea.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21Harry held his nerve. The first person to see this stretch
0:10:21 > 0:10:27of Ireland's coast from the air. He pocketed the £100 prize.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38Soaring north on our wheel around the Irish Sea,
0:10:38 > 0:10:41we're heading for an aquatic adventure...
0:10:43 > 0:10:45..at Strangford Lough.
0:10:48 > 0:10:55At the Lough's inlet, turbulent tides surge into an inland sea of eye-popping proportions...
0:10:57 > 0:11:00..where Miranda's looking out for some old mates.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09It's July in Strangford Lough, and it's at this time of the year that
0:11:09 > 0:11:11the common seals give birth,
0:11:11 > 0:11:16and at low tide the shores here are dotted with newborn pups and their parents.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18It's a challenging time of year for the baby seals,
0:11:18 > 0:11:25but also for their mothers who need to be in peak condition to ensure the pups get the best start in life.
0:11:25 > 0:11:31To see how parents and pups are coping, I'm joining David Thompson from the Natural Trust.
0:11:31 > 0:11:37He watches out for the welfare of these timid creatures, today with paddle power.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40We can get closer than you would with a noisy motor boat.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44We still need to follow certain protocols, good practice,
0:11:44 > 0:11:46obviously not point the boats at the seals,
0:11:46 > 0:11:52go nice and calmly and quietly and gently, appear that we're going past them, not towards them.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59What's so special about the Lough, why do the common seals love it here?
0:11:59 > 0:12:01What they favour is this sheltered environment.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04But it's not as turbulent, you know, the weather is not as wild.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08And what they really need are the islands and the pladdies,
0:12:08 > 0:12:12the reefs, to haul out on, and the islands in particular,
0:12:12 > 0:12:15because that's where they give birth to the babies.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19This is a crucial time for the seal pups.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21They're vulnerable, hungry infants
0:12:21 > 0:12:24who rely completely on their mothers for milk.
0:12:27 > 0:12:32And the mums must rely on their skills at hunting.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35To get a sense of their struggle, I've got to get wet.
0:12:38 > 0:12:43When you plunge into the waters around the UK, the first thing that hits you is the cold.
0:12:44 > 0:12:49Like us, seals are warm blooded, but they've got a thick layer of blubber
0:12:49 > 0:12:52insulating them from the chilly seas.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58Watching them swim, you see their streamlined bodies glide forward with
0:12:58 > 0:13:02a simple flick of a flipper conserving precious energy.
0:13:06 > 0:13:11My eyes have evolved to focus in air, so to see underwater I actually need to use a mask.
0:13:11 > 0:13:16Seals spend most of their time underwater so their eyes are beautifully adapted for
0:13:16 > 0:13:22the water, and they also work very well at low light conditions, ideal for the murky depths below.
0:13:24 > 0:13:29And if it's too murky to make anything out, they feel
0:13:29 > 0:13:34their way with sensitive whiskers, hoping for a tickle from their prey.
0:13:35 > 0:13:42The cool waters of Strangford Lough are a fridge full of treats, but these are big beasts
0:13:42 > 0:13:47with very big appetites, especially when they've got little ones to feed.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51There wouldn't be enough food in Strangford Lough to sustain
0:13:51 > 0:13:56150, 200 common seals, and then we've nearly as many grey seals in the system.
0:13:56 > 0:14:00There isn't enough food to sustain all those animals right through a 12-month year.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04They go out there, this is seal highway,
0:14:04 > 0:14:09it's a motorway into the Irish Sea, and they go out there because there ain't enough in here for them.
0:14:09 > 0:14:15So they are going through the narrows into the Irish Sea and they're coming back in here.
0:14:15 > 0:14:19A hungry seal's only way out is through this pinch point.
0:14:19 > 0:14:26350 million cubic metres of seawater are forced through this narrow funnel by each tide.
0:14:29 > 0:14:34The fearsome current makes it ideal for this tidal turbine.
0:14:34 > 0:14:41Installed in 2008 to generate electricity, it's like an upside down wind turbine.
0:14:41 > 0:14:46The submerged blades are driven by surging water,
0:14:46 > 0:14:49blades that might also slice through seals
0:14:49 > 0:14:51who navigate through the narrows for a snack.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56To check the turbine won't block their way,
0:14:56 > 0:15:01the animals' movements have been monitored with electronic tags.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06One of those spying on the seals is Bernie McConnall.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09That is a big tag, isn't it?
0:15:09 > 0:15:11Half of it is battery, it's enormous.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14Well, as far as we're concerned, energy is everything because
0:15:14 > 0:15:19inside of here is a mobile phone, and it's just the same mobile phone as we would have
0:15:19 > 0:15:25but there is no recharging facilities on these haul-out sites.
0:15:25 > 0:15:30So they can't plug in every night to recharge the batteries, so we have to have a large battery
0:15:30 > 0:15:34that will last the six months that this tag will collect and send information.
0:15:36 > 0:15:40Tagging very shy seals is easier said than done.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44The only way is to ambush them.
0:15:44 > 0:15:50It might look extreme but it causes little stress to these slippery customers.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54The transmitters are glued to the fur, a job that's timed
0:15:54 > 0:15:58so the tags fall off when a seal sheds its winter coat.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03There's a data logger which will record what
0:16:03 > 0:16:07depth the animals are swimming at, and there's a GPS device that will tell us where they are.
0:16:07 > 0:16:13So with a combination of these two bits of information we know, are the animals feeding on the seabed, are
0:16:13 > 0:16:18they feeding in mid water, we also know are they staying in the Lough or are they foraging elsewhere.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22And there's good news.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26The early data from the tags suggests that the seals go safely
0:16:26 > 0:16:29by the turbine as they venture out to feed.