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The seas around Scotland | 0:00:08 | 0:00:10 | |
are a paradise of islands - | 0:00:10 | 0:00:12 | |
700 at least. | 0:00:12 | 0:00:14 | |
Some rise up in majestic splendour, | 0:00:14 | 0:00:18 | |
others barely break the surface. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:22 | |
The Scottish Isles are home | 0:00:24 | 0:00:26 | |
to some of the most close-knit communities in Britain, | 0:00:26 | 0:00:30 | |
people ringed by the sea. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:32 | |
It's their provider, their adversary, | 0:00:32 | 0:00:34 | |
and their inspiration. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:36 | |
We're sampling the delights of the Scottish Isles. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:05 | |
My journey will take me across the islands of the Outer Hebrides. | 0:01:07 | 0:01:11 | |
I'll be heading for Port of Ness, | 0:01:11 | 0:01:13 | |
but I begin in the south, on Eriskay. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:16 | |
Arriving somewhere new, | 0:01:19 | 0:01:21 | |
my first instinct is to make for the centre of town. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:25 | |
Never mind the centre, where's the town? | 0:01:25 | 0:01:28 | |
There are just 100 or so islanders, | 0:01:32 | 0:01:35 | |
but they're spread over six square miles. | 0:01:35 | 0:01:39 | |
With so much space to do their own thing, | 0:01:41 | 0:01:44 | |
I'm keen to know what binds Eriskay people together. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:47 | |
What is it that creates an island's special community? | 0:01:47 | 0:01:54 | |
The focus of village life is the local shop. | 0:01:54 | 0:01:57 | |
This is a real Aladdin's cave. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:05 | |
The islanders run the shop themselves, to suit their needs. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:10 | |
-Wooden clothes pegs! -Yes. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:12 | |
I didn't know those were still available. | 0:02:12 | 0:02:14 | |
This isn't just the only shop on Eriskay, it's the Post Office too. | 0:02:14 | 0:02:18 | |
-Hello. -Hello. -Are you Patrick? | 0:02:20 | 0:02:21 | |
-I am Patrick, yes. -How do you do? I'm Nick. Can I come round the back? -You can indeed, yes. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:26 | |
-Hello there. -Hello. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:30 | |
I couldn't help noticing, Patrick - | 0:02:30 | 0:02:32 | |
are these all your customers on the island, | 0:02:32 | 0:02:34 | |
the people you deliver letters to? | 0:02:34 | 0:02:35 | |
That's all the customers on the island, yes. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:37 | |
-You've got them labelled by all their Christian names. -Labelled by name, yes, yes. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:41 | |
-Most of the other Post Offices, they go by the numbers. -Yeah. -But I just go name and that's it. | 0:02:41 | 0:02:47 | |
You must know the island better than anybody. Would you take me for a spin? | 0:02:47 | 0:02:50 | |
I will indeed, yes. | 0:02:50 | 0:02:52 | |
How many jokes do you have to put up with about Postman Pat, given your name is Patrick? | 0:02:53 | 0:02:57 | |
Quite a few actually, quite a few. | 0:02:57 | 0:03:00 | |
What were you doing before you were Eriskay's postie? | 0:03:00 | 0:03:03 | |
Well, I was 15 and a half when I left home and went to sea, | 0:03:03 | 0:03:06 | |
into the Merchant Navy. | 0:03:06 | 0:03:07 | |
I did that for 20 years, | 0:03:07 | 0:03:10 | |
but every time I was coming home, it was getting harder to go away. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:14 | |
So I became the postman, and 20 years later I'm still here. | 0:03:14 | 0:03:17 | |
There's something about the islands out here that really draw you back. | 0:03:17 | 0:03:23 | |
Strong ties bind people to this place, | 0:03:23 | 0:03:27 | |
and the islanders aren't the only ones drawn back here. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:30 | |
There's another group of regular returners...offshore. | 0:03:30 | 0:03:35 | |
-Permission to board. I'm Nick. -Hi. I'm Ben. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:38 | |
'My guide's Ben Wilson. | 0:03:38 | 0:03:41 | |
'For over ten years, | 0:03:41 | 0:03:43 | |
'Ben's been following a family of bottlenose dolphins, | 0:03:43 | 0:03:46 | |
'who've shown up every summer. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:48 | |
'I'm hoping they haven't changed their plans this year.' | 0:03:51 | 0:03:56 | |
Right here! Right in front of us here, right under the boat. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:05 | |
There's a small community of animals. There's about 12 individuals. | 0:04:05 | 0:04:08 | |
Ben and his colleagues want to know what it is | 0:04:08 | 0:04:11 | |
that brings the dolphins back here. | 0:04:11 | 0:04:13 | |
In the summer, | 0:04:13 | 0:04:15 | |
we tend to find them within about 10km of this spot. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:19 | |
There's definitely a food supply that's keeping them here. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:23 | |
Where they go in the winter? Don't really know. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:25 | |
So I guess that's the jigsaw we've got to build up. | 0:04:25 | 0:04:28 | |
Shared experience and fun keep communities together, | 0:04:28 | 0:04:33 | |
at sea and on land. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:34 | |
I've been invited to the social event of the year. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:43 | |
The golden wedding anniversary of Roddy and Peggy MacInnes, | 0:04:43 | 0:04:48 | |
islanders born and bred, | 0:04:48 | 0:04:50 | |
who're having a ceilidh. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:51 | |
It looks like everyone on Eriskay has turned out tonight. | 0:04:53 | 0:04:57 | |
There's a first for everything. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:03 | |
For me, that's Scottish dancing. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:07 | |
I've never needed a map so badly! | 0:05:11 | 0:05:14 | |
We're on a tour of the Scottish islands, | 0:05:32 | 0:05:35 | |
some 700 individual worlds, | 0:05:35 | 0:05:40 | |
separated and united by the great seaway between them. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:46 | |
For hundreds of years, | 0:05:46 | 0:05:47 | |
sailors and navigators have charted courses over the water. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:51 | |
But until recently, | 0:05:51 | 0:05:52 | |
what lay beneath in the deep ocean | 0:05:52 | 0:05:55 | |
was a complete mystery. | 0:05:55 | 0:05:57 | |
The quest to discover the secret life of the sea | 0:05:57 | 0:06:01 | |
began in the waters off Scotland. | 0:06:01 | 0:06:04 | |
Historian Tessa Dunlop is in Oban on the west coast. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:09 | |
She's on the trail of a great 19th century adventure. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:14 | |
This state-of-the-art research vessel | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
owes its existence to a voyage undertaken in the 19th century | 0:06:19 | 0:06:23 | |
by HMS Challenger. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:25 | |
Challenger was at sea for nearly four years. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:27 | |
It was an epic voyage around the globe | 0:06:27 | 0:06:30 | |
to make the first ever survey of the world's oceans. | 0:06:30 | 0:06:33 | |
The voyage of HMS Challenger | 0:06:35 | 0:06:38 | |
revolutionised our view of what lives in the deep sea. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:41 | |
It was one of the greatest adventures in science, | 0:06:41 | 0:06:44 | |
and it began off the coast of Scotland. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:48 | |
'It took 50 volumes to report the findings of Challenger's global odyssey. | 0:06:48 | 0:06:52 | |
'Professor Laurence Mee knows the secrets of these books | 0:06:52 | 0:06:56 | |
'and their rare creatures.' | 0:06:56 | 0:06:59 | |
It's one of the original specimens from the Challenger expedition. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:02 | |
Obviously it's a starfish. It comes from the deep sea off Nova Scotia, | 0:07:02 | 0:07:06 | |
so these animals live at depths below 1000 metres. | 0:07:06 | 0:07:09 | |
Before that, people assumed there was nothing down there. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
This was a colossal scientific endeavour. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:14 | |
The brains behind the Challenger expedition | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
was a brilliant Scottish scientist, Charles Wyville Thomson. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:22 | |
-Hi, Laila. -Hi. Good morning. | 0:07:22 | 0:07:24 | |
'People used to think the deep ocean was a barren, dead zone. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
'Wyville Thomson thought otherwise. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:30 | |
'He set out to find proof of life below. | 0:07:30 | 0:07:34 | |
'In 1868, Thomson began his search in Scottish seas.' | 0:07:34 | 0:07:39 | |
Wyville Thomson was actually based at the University of Edinburgh, up here in Scotland. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:43 | |
He persuaded the Admiralty to lend him a small ship, | 0:07:43 | 0:07:46 | |
which set off and studied the region between the Faroes and the Scottish coast. | 0:07:46 | 0:07:51 | |
They found sponges, | 0:07:51 | 0:07:53 | |
they found cold water corals on reefs just beyond us, | 0:07:53 | 0:07:55 | |
and organisms with multiple legs | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
that people did not believe could live in those dark, deep, high-pressure depths. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:02 | |
If such wonders were to be found in home waters, | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
what would be discovered elsewhere? | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
Buoyed with success, | 0:08:12 | 0:08:14 | |
Wyville Thomson persuaded the British government | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
to fund the Challenger expedition, | 0:08:17 | 0:08:19 | |
the most ambitious scientific endeavour of the age. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:23 | |
In 1872, they set sail on an epic voyage around the globe. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:30 | |
They journeyed for three and a half long years. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:33 | |
Challenger crossed all the great oceans. | 0:08:33 | 0:08:37 | |
They travelled as far as the Antarctic, | 0:08:37 | 0:08:40 | |
zig-zagging their way across the Atlantic, | 0:08:40 | 0:08:44 | |
before finally returning home. | 0:08:44 | 0:08:47 | |
Everywhere they went, | 0:08:47 | 0:08:48 | |
they took samples and looked for new creatures. | 0:08:48 | 0:08:51 | |
The Challenger was also the first official expedition | 0:08:53 | 0:08:56 | |
to have a photographer. | 0:08:56 | 0:08:59 | |
They captured images of new cultures around the world, all on photographic plates. | 0:08:59 | 0:09:03 | |
The people, costumes, traditions, | 0:09:03 | 0:09:06 | |
were recorded for the first time photographically. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:08 | |
They took the first ever photo of an Antarctic iceberg. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:13 | |
This is a rare image of a warrior from the Philippines. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:16 | |
The Challenger revealed a world never seen before, | 0:09:19 | 0:09:21 | |
above and below the waves. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:25 | |
This is a dredge. | 0:09:27 | 0:09:28 | |
It's very similar to the one used on the Challenger | 0:09:28 | 0:09:30 | |
and it's used for collecting animals that live on the sea bed. | 0:09:30 | 0:09:34 | |
We can use similar dredges even in the very deep ocean, | 0:09:34 | 0:09:37 | |
thousands of metres deep. | 0:09:37 | 0:09:39 | |
-That is chock-full, isn't it? -It is. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:43 | |
It's mainly mud, stones, old shells, but there will be some animals. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:47 | |
-What is that? It's got purple legs. -That looks like a hermit crab. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:51 | |
Yes, little spider crab here. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:56 | |
It's always exciting. You never know what you're going to find. | 0:09:57 | 0:10:01 | |
And, of course, if you're doing this in deep water, | 0:10:01 | 0:10:03 | |
-you can find species that no-one's ever seen. -Which is what they were doing on the Challenger. | 0:10:03 | 0:10:08 | |
They were sampling down to over 5,000 metres depth, | 0:10:08 | 0:10:12 | |
so they were catching things that no-one had ever seen in human history. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:15 | |
And now, today, how many species do we know of? | 0:10:15 | 0:10:18 | |
There may be somewhere in the region of 1.5 million species in the oceans, | 0:10:18 | 0:10:23 | |
most of which we haven't even discovered yet. | 0:10:23 | 0:10:25 | |
Once, scientists believed the deep sea was lifeless. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:33 | |
Now, thanks to Wyville Thomson, | 0:10:33 | 0:10:36 | |
we know the depths are teeming with weird and wonderful creatures. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:40 | |
140 years after the science of oceanography started in Scottish waters, | 0:10:40 | 0:10:46 | |
we've still only discovered a small fraction | 0:10:46 | 0:10:49 | |
of the secret life of the sea. | 0:10:49 | 0:10:53 | |
The locals have learned to make the most of their island companions, | 0:11:20 | 0:11:26 | |
whether they're fish, fowl, or any other creatures. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:29 | |
In the far north, there's a small animal business on Shetland | 0:11:33 | 0:11:37 | |
that's enjoyed big success. | 0:11:37 | 0:11:40 | |
Miranda is sizing up the stock. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:44 | |
For over 4,000 years, these little ponies have roamed around Shetland, | 0:11:44 | 0:11:49 | |
and you'll find them throughout the islands, grazing by the roadside, | 0:11:49 | 0:11:52 | |
over on the hills, and even down on the beach. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:55 | |
Come on, then. | 0:11:55 | 0:11:57 | |
You come across them everywhere, | 0:11:57 | 0:12:00 | |
and they cope with all weathers, which is just as well. | 0:12:00 | 0:12:04 | |
THUNDER | 0:12:04 | 0:12:07 | |
That's a doorbell! | 0:12:10 | 0:12:11 | |
-Hello. -Hi. Lovely to meet you. I'm Miranda. -That's fine. | 0:12:15 | 0:12:18 | |
Hi. Are you going to go out in the weather? It's rainy out there. | 0:12:18 | 0:12:21 | |
Aye, I'll get my hat. Just hold on a minute. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:23 | |
Jim's family have been breeding Shetland ponies here longer than anyone else on the islands. | 0:12:23 | 0:12:28 | |
-How's that? -Great! All dressed for it. | 0:12:28 | 0:12:31 | |
'Shetland ponies are renowned for their strength, | 0:12:32 | 0:12:35 | |
'and of course, their size.' | 0:12:35 | 0:12:38 | |
This is a standard pony, which can be up to 42 inches at the shoulder. | 0:12:38 | 0:12:44 | |
-And that's a really short one! -These are miniatures, | 0:12:44 | 0:12:47 | |
and they can be up to 34 inches at the shoulder. | 0:12:47 | 0:12:51 | |
So, a show Shetland pony - what are you looking for? | 0:12:51 | 0:12:54 | |
You want a nice head, | 0:12:54 | 0:12:56 | |
and I like them slightly dished, which is concave here. | 0:12:56 | 0:13:01 | |
They have to have big brown eyes, intelligent and kind. | 0:13:01 | 0:13:04 | |
The forelock should have a lot of hair on it. | 0:13:04 | 0:13:09 | |
-A shaggy look. -That's right. -Typical Shetland look. -That's right. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:12 | |
And they're renowned for being a very tough breed. How tough are they? | 0:13:12 | 0:13:16 | |
Well, as far as strength goes, | 0:13:16 | 0:13:19 | |
they're the strongest horse for their size in the world. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:22 | |
And they don't need to be stabled in the winter time, | 0:13:22 | 0:13:27 | |
they're always outside. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:28 | |
-Even up here, when it's really cold? -Even up here. This is where they live. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:32 | |
This is the place for them, out on the hills. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:34 | |
They're tough characters. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:36 | |
-A bit like the islanders here, I would imagine. -Oh, no, no. | 0:13:36 | 0:13:40 | |
We're not tough, we're very gentle. | 0:13:40 | 0:13:42 | |
Today, Shetland ponies are sold worldwide as pets and show horses, | 0:13:49 | 0:13:54 | |
but just look at this photograph, going back over 150 years. | 0:13:54 | 0:13:58 | |
The ponies from that island were destined for a life in heavy industry. | 0:13:58 | 0:14:02 | |
They were to swap the fresh air of Shetland | 0:14:02 | 0:14:05 | |
for the coal dust and claustrophobia of a life underground as a pit pony. | 0:14:05 | 0:14:10 | |
'I'm with John Scott, and we're going to the Isle of Noss. | 0:14:13 | 0:14:17 | |
'It was the site of a breeding programme to produce a super-pony, | 0:14:17 | 0:14:21 | |
'fit for hauling loads of coal. | 0:14:21 | 0:14:24 | |
'The finest mares and stallions | 0:14:26 | 0:14:29 | |
'were kept on the island in splendid isolation. | 0:14:29 | 0:14:32 | |
'This building was used to breed the best of the bunch.' | 0:14:32 | 0:14:35 | |
They finally bred this stallion, who they named Jack of Noss, | 0:14:35 | 0:14:40 | |
who was the kind of ultimate of what they had been breeding for. | 0:14:40 | 0:14:43 | |
He was, I think the kind of Brad Pitt of the pony world, you know. | 0:14:43 | 0:14:47 | |
Brad Pitt pit pony! Great. | 0:14:47 | 0:14:48 | |
And so he became...the foundation of the whole stud-book, | 0:14:48 | 0:14:54 | |
and so every Shetland pony in the stud-book | 0:14:54 | 0:14:58 | |
has got blood from Jack of Noss. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:00 | |
-From right from here? -Right from here. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:02 | |
It wasn't looks the breeders were after, but size and strength. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:08 | |
And they succeeded. | 0:15:08 | 0:15:10 | |
The Shetland pony could haul tubs of coal weighing up to a tonne. | 0:15:10 | 0:15:15 | |
Those dark days are over. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:18 | |
Jack of Noss has long gone, | 0:15:18 | 0:15:20 | |
but his hardy characteristics live on in the DNA of these Shetland ponies. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:25 | |
That's why they'll comfortably bear the weight of an adult. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:29 | |
So I couldn't resist a ride. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:31 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:15:43 | 0:15:45 | |
Whoa, whoa, whoa. | 0:15:47 | 0:15:51 | |
Many of the Scottish Isles | 0:15:57 | 0:15:59 | |
have managed to export their products far out across the seas. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:05 | |
The Outer Hebrides can boast their own global brand. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:09 | |
That's what brought me to Tarbert, on Harris. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:14 | |
This is what I'm after. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:19 | |
Harris Tweed. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:23 | |
-Hello there. -Hi there. -May I look at your jackets? | 0:16:23 | 0:16:26 | |
Yes, of course. Just got some over here. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:28 | |
-Look at those. They're very evocative. -Yeah, they are. | 0:16:28 | 0:16:31 | |
They're the colours of Scotland, with the grey rock, the heather... | 0:16:31 | 0:16:35 | |
And then this one seems to have little traces of blue in it, and awesome colours. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:40 | |
It's got lots of colours in it. Would you like to try one? | 0:16:40 | 0:16:42 | |
-Yeah, why not? -We can try this one. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:46 | |
This will be a sartorial leap for me, | 0:16:46 | 0:16:49 | |
to get rid of the old anorak and present Coast in a genuine Harris... | 0:16:49 | 0:16:53 | |
-Oh, it's very comfortable. -How's that for you? -It's lovely. | 0:16:53 | 0:16:57 | |
Oh, yes. Now, that really is an improvement, don't you think? | 0:16:57 | 0:17:00 | |
-Yes. -Coast and beyond! | 0:17:00 | 0:17:02 | |
There's a reason why the colours of Harris Tweed mirror the landscape. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:09 | |
Originally, the dyes were produced by local plants and lichens. | 0:17:09 | 0:17:14 | |
'Textile designer Alice Starmore | 0:17:14 | 0:17:17 | |
is going to show me how it was done.' | 0:17:17 | 0:17:19 | |
-Very good to meet you. -You too. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:21 | |
-Looks like you've got things started already. -Yes. I have lit the peat fire. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:25 | |
I have the water, which obviously you need for dyeing as well. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:28 | |
I have the fleece, and the only thing I need now is the crottal lichen, | 0:17:28 | 0:17:32 | |
which is going to actually give me the colour. | 0:17:32 | 0:17:35 | |
What are we looking out for? | 0:17:35 | 0:17:37 | |
Well, we're looking out for a very unassuming, | 0:17:37 | 0:17:39 | |
and drab, grey, crusty stuff, | 0:17:39 | 0:17:43 | |
which actually is black crottal. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:45 | |
And here is a very nice crop of it. | 0:17:45 | 0:17:48 | |
Oh, is this it here? | 0:17:48 | 0:17:49 | |
-This is it. -It looks like a spillage of very old porridge. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:52 | |
It does, but the dye comes out of it very easily. | 0:17:52 | 0:17:57 | |
It's a beautiful rich bronze-brown shade that you get from it, | 0:17:57 | 0:18:00 | |
and you can see that it's actually ready to come right off the rock here. | 0:18:00 | 0:18:04 | |
The Harris people would say that was ripe and ready. | 0:18:04 | 0:18:07 | |
'Some lichens are protected, but this one's safe to pick. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:12 | |
'Even so, we're just taking enough to dye one small fleece.' | 0:18:12 | 0:18:16 | |
-Now for the exciting part. -Time to get the pot. | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
'First, take one scoured fleece and moisten with peat-rich spring water.' | 0:18:19 | 0:18:25 | |
We're not just bunging it in, we're going to layer it a bit. | 0:18:25 | 0:18:28 | |
It's important that the dye should be as even as possible. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:31 | |
-It's a bit like making lasagne! -It is a bit, yes! | 0:18:31 | 0:18:34 | |
And it is - the whole thing is a little bit like cooking. | 0:18:34 | 0:18:37 | |
Pour in the water. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:39 | |
Yes. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:41 | |
And as it slowly comes to the boil, rather like a stew, | 0:18:41 | 0:18:45 | |
all the products will come out and dye the fleece. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:50 | |
'While we wait for the chemistry to cook, | 0:18:50 | 0:18:54 | |
'Alice has some samples to show me. | 0:18:54 | 0:18:56 | |
All colours produced from local lichens and plants.' Look at that. | 0:18:56 | 0:19:00 | |
It's like silverweed and ragweed. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
Here are the crottal colours, | 0:19:03 | 0:19:05 | |
and here is the rich dark colour that you would get from cooking it overnight, as it where. | 0:19:05 | 0:19:11 | |
OK, it's been cooking for some time now, Alice. | 0:19:11 | 0:19:15 | |
-It's a rich, deep colour, isn't it? -It's beginning to get orange. | 0:19:15 | 0:19:18 | |
Look at that. | 0:19:18 | 0:19:20 | |
That's it in the early stages, so you can see what a slow and painstaking process it was. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:25 | |
The rules governing the Harris Tweed trademark are strict. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:32 | |
The cloth must be woven by the people of the Outer Hebrides | 0:19:32 | 0:19:37 | |
in their own homes. | 0:19:37 | 0:19:38 | |
MECHANICAL WHIRRING | 0:19:38 | 0:19:41 | |
I can hear clattering machinery. | 0:19:41 | 0:19:43 | |
'Donald John Mackay has been busy with the fabric for over 40 years.' | 0:19:46 | 0:19:50 | |
My goodness! | 0:19:50 | 0:19:52 | |
So, Donald, how is the loom powered? | 0:19:52 | 0:19:54 | |
-By my feet. -Oh, I see, so handmade really means... | 0:19:54 | 0:19:59 | |
-Means foot power, yes. -So you cannot have an electric... -No! No, no, no. | 0:19:59 | 0:20:04 | |
What's this roll going to be used for? | 0:20:04 | 0:20:06 | |
This is going to Nike for shoes and bags. | 0:20:06 | 0:20:10 | |
-Really? -Yes. -To Nike? -Yes. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:13 | |
-The big sports manufacturer? -Yes, the big... Yes, yes, yes. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:16 | |
That's incredible. And what about the threads themselves? | 0:20:16 | 0:20:19 | |
See, each thread is made up of many, many colours. | 0:20:19 | 0:20:22 | |
-Isn't that extraordinary? When you look closely, it's a whole rainbow of colours. -Comes alive. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:27 | |
Comes alive, exactly! It really comes alive. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:29 | |
Well, that's Harris Tweed for you. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:31 | |
Harris is separated from Lewis in name only. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:42 | |
They're parts of the same island, | 0:20:42 | 0:20:45 | |
separated not by water, | 0:20:45 | 0:20:47 | |
but by a range of mountains. | 0:20:47 | 0:20:50 | |
Across those peaks, on the east coast, | 0:20:50 | 0:20:53 | |
lies the capital of Lewis, Stornoway. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:56 | |
A disaster at sea nearly a century ago shocked this community so much, | 0:21:00 | 0:21:06 | |
the pain is still raw today. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:10 | |
It's a tragic tale, not often told to outsiders, | 0:21:10 | 0:21:15 | |
that Neil knows well. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:17 | |
In the First World War, | 0:21:21 | 0:21:22 | |
half the male population of Lewis served in the armed forces. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:28 | |
Many never returned, | 0:21:28 | 0:21:30 | |
but some perished cruelly close to home. | 0:21:30 | 0:21:34 | |
More than 200 servicemen died in a disaster off the Scottish coast, | 0:21:34 | 0:21:39 | |
just days after the Great War ended. | 0:21:39 | 0:21:43 | |
It's late on New Year's Eve 1918, | 0:21:48 | 0:21:52 | |
a cold, dark, end to a terrible year. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:56 | |
But the men on board the Iolaire are in high spirits | 0:21:56 | 0:21:59 | |
because they're going home. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:01 | |
The war is over. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:02 | |
These are just a few of the 280-odd souls who were packed aboard, | 0:22:02 | 0:22:08 | |
mostly sailors of the Royal Naval Reserve. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:10 | |
Men from the islands, the Outer Hebrides, | 0:22:10 | 0:22:13 | |
who'd survived the horrors of the First World War. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:16 | |
They were on a large civilian yacht, pressed into war service | 0:22:20 | 0:22:23 | |
and renamed Her Majesty's Yacht Iolaire. | 0:22:23 | 0:22:27 | |
By 1.50 in the morning, the boat was almost home. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:31 | |
The servicemen aboard could see the harbour lights of Stornoway. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:35 | |
They knew their loved ones would be lining the quayside at Stornoway, | 0:22:35 | 0:22:39 | |
just half a mile away. | 0:22:39 | 0:22:41 | |
But most of the men crammed aboard the Iolaire that night | 0:22:41 | 0:22:44 | |
would never see their families again. | 0:22:44 | 0:22:48 | |
Minutes later, in stormy seas, | 0:22:48 | 0:22:52 | |
the Iolaire struck a notorious reef - the Beasts Of Holm. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:55 | |
They were only 30 yards from land, | 0:22:58 | 0:23:01 | |
but of the 285 men on board, just 80 survived. | 0:23:01 | 0:23:07 | |
More than half of those that did survive | 0:23:09 | 0:23:11 | |
owed their lives to one man aboard the stricken ship, | 0:23:11 | 0:23:14 | |
John Finlay MacLeod, a Lewis man, | 0:23:14 | 0:23:17 | |
a boat builder, in fact. | 0:23:17 | 0:23:18 | |
Somehow, amid the chaos, | 0:23:18 | 0:23:20 | |
he managed to half-scramble, half-swim ashore | 0:23:20 | 0:23:23 | |
with a line tied around his wrist. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:25 | |
This monument stands on the spot where John Finlay swam ashore. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:33 | |
Interviewed in 1973, he recalled that night. | 0:23:33 | 0:23:37 | |
40 survivors owed their lives to the courage of John Finlay MacLeod, | 0:24:04 | 0:24:09 | |
but 205 men died on that last night of 1918. | 0:24:09 | 0:24:14 | |
When dawn finally broke that New Year's Day, | 0:24:14 | 0:24:17 | |
the people of Lewis were greeted to a dreadful sight. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:21 | |
There's a photograph showing the wreck of the Iolaire, | 0:24:21 | 0:24:25 | |
the bulk of her still submerged, and just the mast sticking out. | 0:24:25 | 0:24:30 | |
As news of the Iolaire disaster spread, | 0:24:33 | 0:24:36 | |
people walked the coastline, looking for relatives. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:41 | |
At Sandwick Bay, they found only dozens of bodies. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:45 | |
Servicemen returning from the Great War. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:50 | |
These Scots didn't die on the foreign field, but in home water, | 0:24:50 | 0:24:55 | |
within sight of safety. | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
Relatives and friends, looking for loved ones, | 0:24:58 | 0:25:01 | |
picked their way through the wreckage of the Iolaire | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
and what they found were toys, | 0:25:04 | 0:25:07 | |
presents that fathers never got the chance to give to children. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:11 | |
In a remote part of Lewis, | 0:25:15 | 0:25:17 | |
four-year-old Marion Smith was waiting for her father. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:20 | |
-Oh, hello. Come in. -Hello, Marion. | 0:25:20 | 0:25:24 | |
'Kenneth Smith survived the Great War, but only his suitcase made it back home.' | 0:25:24 | 0:25:28 | |
In his possessions that they found on the beach, | 0:25:28 | 0:25:32 | |
-they found this box that we have here. -Mm-hm. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:34 | |
Inside it are ration cards, | 0:25:34 | 0:25:40 | |
with which they were issued. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:43 | |
-So that's your dad, Kenneth Smith. -Yes. | 0:25:43 | 0:25:46 | |
And he should have been on leave from the 30th December 1918 | 0:25:46 | 0:25:51 | |
until the 14th January 1919. | 0:25:51 | 0:25:54 | |
That made it home and he didn't. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:57 | |
What do you remember about your mum | 0:25:58 | 0:26:01 | |
on the night when the news arrived at the house? | 0:26:01 | 0:26:04 | |
She was sitting down, and the neighbours were coming in, | 0:26:04 | 0:26:09 | |
and also people whom I didn't know were coming in. | 0:26:09 | 0:26:12 | |
And they all hugged her and they all cried, | 0:26:12 | 0:26:16 | |
and my grandfather just sat, | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
and I would go over and lean across his knees. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:25 | |
And I remember the tears dropping off his cheeks | 0:26:25 | 0:26:29 | |
onto the top of my head. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
I couldn't understand what had happened. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:36 | |
The clock stopped | 0:26:36 | 0:26:39 | |
and the world changed. | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
The people of Lewis were grieving their loss, | 0:26:46 | 0:26:49 | |
but alongside grief came anger. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:52 | |
Why had the Iolaire foundered on the Beasts Of Holm? | 0:26:52 | 0:26:57 | |
Why had so many died within yards of the shore? | 0:26:57 | 0:27:00 | |
'John Macleod has examined the events of that tragic night.' | 0:27:01 | 0:27:06 | |
The boat was very under-crewed. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:09 | |
The officer had never sailed at night. | 0:27:09 | 0:27:11 | |
It was quite stormy. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:12 | |
They weren't familiar with the waters, and they lost their way. | 0:27:12 | 0:27:15 | |
The Iolaire didn't have enough lifeboats for all the men. There weren't enough life jackets. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:19 | |
It was a disaster waiting to happen. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:21 | |
You would think that they were so close | 0:27:21 | 0:27:23 | |
that it ought to have been possible to escape the tragedy. | 0:27:23 | 0:27:26 | |
You've these huge breakers hammering in, | 0:27:26 | 0:27:29 | |
so the men who'd jumped into the water were mostly beaten to death. | 0:27:29 | 0:27:32 | |
They wasn't drowned, they were smashed against the rocks time and time again, | 0:27:32 | 0:27:36 | |
like being caught in the most nightmarish washing machine. | 0:27:36 | 0:27:38 | |
The appalling deaths in the Iolaire disaster | 0:27:40 | 0:27:44 | |
happened just after the Great War ended, | 0:27:44 | 0:27:47 | |
a war that had already killed 866 men of Lewis. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:51 | |
A terrible sacrifice. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:53 | |
Of those who'd volunteered, one in six were dead. | 0:27:54 | 0:27:57 | |
But the needless loss of all those men aboard the Iolaire | 0:27:57 | 0:28:01 | |
was the cruellest blow, | 0:28:01 | 0:28:02 | |
and yet for many years, the response from Lewis was silence. | 0:28:02 | 0:28:07 | |
Because what could anyone say that mattered? | 0:28:07 | 0:28:10 | |
And that's why, beyond the islands, | 0:28:10 | 0:28:12 | |
the name Iolaire is essentially unknown, | 0:28:12 | 0:28:15 | |
because this was a very private tragedy. | 0:28:15 | 0:28:18 | |
Amongst the list of names here, Seaman Kenneth Smith. | 0:28:18 | 0:28:23 | |
For his widow, Christina, | 0:28:23 | 0:28:26 | |
his death and her grief | 0:28:26 | 0:28:28 | |
were not something to be shared. | 0:28:28 | 0:28:30 | |
Did she ever talk to you about your dad and about what happened? | 0:28:30 | 0:28:36 | |
No, she didn't. | 0:28:36 | 0:28:39 | |
She never talked about the tragedy at all. | 0:28:39 | 0:28:44 | |
I remember that she only wore black. | 0:28:46 | 0:28:50 | |
Black, black. | 0:28:50 | 0:28:53 | |
If she was baking, she still wore black. | 0:28:53 | 0:28:57 | |
And to this day...I remember. | 0:28:57 | 0:29:02 | |
I just didn't like the colour, and I still don't. | 0:29:02 | 0:29:06 | |
To have come so close to coming home, | 0:29:06 | 0:29:10 | |
you know, to drown, to die on the doorstep of home. | 0:29:10 | 0:29:14 | |
Yes, well, as the song said, | 0:29:14 | 0:29:16 | |
these brave men | 0:29:16 | 0:29:18 | |
who'd gone so far | 0:29:18 | 0:29:19 | |
through the dangers of the war, | 0:29:19 | 0:29:22 | |
by the irony of fate | 0:29:22 | 0:29:24 | |
were drowned at home. | 0:29:24 | 0:29:27 | |
Many would envy the sense of community on the Scottish Isles. | 0:29:40 | 0:29:46 | |
Language and traditions | 0:29:46 | 0:29:48 | |
bind people together, | 0:29:48 | 0:29:51 | |
but some of those traditional customs | 0:29:51 | 0:29:54 | |
may seem at odds with life elsewhere in our islands. | 0:29:54 | 0:29:57 | |
I've reached my final stop at the tip of the Hebrides, Port of Ness. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:06 | |
It looks like the end of the line, | 0:30:10 | 0:30:12 | |
but this little harbour is actually the point of departure | 0:30:12 | 0:30:16 | |
for a group of men who set sail every August. | 0:30:16 | 0:30:18 | |
It's a voyage the men of Ness have been undertaking for centuries, | 0:30:18 | 0:30:22 | |
sons following fathers who followed their fathers. | 0:30:22 | 0:30:25 | |
They've all been heading for the same spot, | 0:30:25 | 0:30:27 | |
a lonely rocky island, 40 miles from here, called Sula Sgeir. | 0:30:27 | 0:30:32 | |
Nobody lives there, | 0:30:34 | 0:30:36 | |
but it's home to thousands of gannets. | 0:30:36 | 0:30:38 | |
The men of Ness come to Sula Sgeir to hunt for birds. | 0:30:41 | 0:30:45 | |
It was a tradition captured on film in the 1950s. Take a look at this. | 0:30:47 | 0:30:52 | |
They're after the young gannets, known in these parts as guga. | 0:30:55 | 0:31:00 | |
The guga-hunting season is August, | 0:31:00 | 0:31:03 | |
when the chicks are almost fully grown. | 0:31:03 | 0:31:06 | |
There's no shortage of people to buy them. | 0:31:06 | 0:31:10 | |
Guga is an age-old delicacy in these parts. | 0:31:10 | 0:31:14 | |
50 years on, the small boy in the film is doing as his father did. | 0:31:15 | 0:31:20 | |
John MacFarlane is now the leader of the annual guga hunt, | 0:31:22 | 0:31:25 | |
a time-honoured custom first recorded in 1549. | 0:31:25 | 0:31:31 | |
It's a big thing in Ness, our community, | 0:31:31 | 0:31:34 | |
in this part of the island, up the Butt of Lewis end. | 0:31:34 | 0:31:37 | |
If you mention the community of Ness to someone, | 0:31:37 | 0:31:39 | |
it's always associated with the guga, with the guga hunt. | 0:31:39 | 0:31:42 | |
The Ness gannet. | 0:31:42 | 0:31:45 | |
It's... It's a Ness thing. | 0:31:45 | 0:31:48 | |
Once, the men of Ness could take as many guga as they could carry. | 0:31:48 | 0:31:53 | |
But now, they operate under a licence | 0:31:53 | 0:31:56 | |
to take no more than 2,000 birds a year. | 0:31:56 | 0:32:00 | |
The Scottish Government licenses the hunt, | 0:32:00 | 0:32:04 | |
which it's argued is culturally important. | 0:32:04 | 0:32:06 | |
The ritual hasn't changed in living memory. | 0:32:08 | 0:32:13 | |
We lift them out of the nest with a 10ft pole, | 0:32:13 | 0:32:16 | |
with a clamp at the end, around its neck. | 0:32:16 | 0:32:19 | |
I pass it on to the next person behind me, | 0:32:19 | 0:32:23 | |
who gives it a whack on the head. | 0:32:23 | 0:32:25 | |
From the time I pick it out of the nest, to the time it's dead | 0:32:25 | 0:32:28 | |
is about three seconds. | 0:32:28 | 0:32:30 | |
We start plucking them, | 0:32:30 | 0:32:32 | |
taking the feathers off. | 0:32:32 | 0:32:35 | |
The next part is what we call the factory. | 0:32:35 | 0:32:37 | |
Two of the boys actually take the down off the birds | 0:32:37 | 0:32:41 | |
by dipping them into the fire. | 0:32:41 | 0:32:44 | |
And they're passed onto the next two guys, who actually split them open, | 0:32:44 | 0:32:48 | |
to leave four quarters of ripe prime guga. | 0:32:48 | 0:32:53 | |
We then salt them and make a brown pile of them. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:58 | |
There's a special way of doing it, so that the meat doesn't go off. | 0:32:58 | 0:33:02 | |
We build a chute to the bottom of the island. | 0:33:04 | 0:33:07 | |
When we're going home, the gugas go down on the chute. | 0:33:07 | 0:33:11 | |
What do you say to people | 0:33:11 | 0:33:13 | |
who find the idea of killing wild sea birds... | 0:33:13 | 0:33:18 | |
distasteful, abhorrent? | 0:33:18 | 0:33:20 | |
I don't see any difference between that | 0:33:20 | 0:33:23 | |
and going into a supermarket and buying a chicken or a turkey. | 0:33:23 | 0:33:27 | |
Those who oppose us going to the island, | 0:33:27 | 0:33:30 | |
if you could put a guga and a chicken together, | 0:33:30 | 0:33:35 | |
how could you explain to the chicken why it should be killed | 0:33:35 | 0:33:39 | |
and the wild guga go free? | 0:33:39 | 0:33:43 | |
There's no difference. | 0:33:43 | 0:33:45 | |
It's for human consumption. | 0:33:45 | 0:33:48 | |
Guga and guga hunting may not be to everyone's taste, | 0:33:50 | 0:33:53 | |
but the annual journey to Sula Sgeir | 0:33:53 | 0:33:56 | |
is a centuries-old tradition, | 0:33:56 | 0:33:58 | |
one fiercely defended by the men of Ness and their community. | 0:33:58 | 0:34:03 | |
The Outer Hebrides are famously wild, rugged and beautiful. | 0:34:06 | 0:34:12 | |
They share a quality that's far less conspicuous. | 0:34:12 | 0:34:15 | |
The people I've met have a real sense of community, of belonging. | 0:34:15 | 0:34:20 | |
A conviction that their island is truly their home. | 0:34:20 | 0:34:24 | |
And that, maybe, is what it means to be an islander. | 0:34:24 | 0:34:28 |