0:00:08 > 0:00:10The seas around Scotland
0:00:10 > 0:00:12are a paradise of islands -
0:00:12 > 0:00:14700 at least.
0:00:14 > 0:00:18Some rise up in majestic splendour,
0:00:18 > 0:00:22others barely break the surface.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26The Scottish Isles are home
0:00:26 > 0:00:30to some of the most close-knit communities in Britain,
0:00:30 > 0:00:32people ringed by the sea.
0:00:32 > 0:00:34It's their provider, their adversary
0:00:34 > 0:00:36and their inspiration.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05We're sampling the delights of the Scottish Isles.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11My journey will take me across the islands of the Outer Hebrides.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14I'll be heading for Port of Ness,
0:01:14 > 0:01:17but I begin in the south, on Eriskay.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21Arriving somewhere new,
0:01:21 > 0:01:25my first instinct is to make for the centre of town.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27Never mind the centre, where's the town?
0:01:32 > 0:01:35There are just 100 or so islanders,
0:01:35 > 0:01:38but they're spread over six square miles.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44With so much space to do their own thing,
0:01:44 > 0:01:47I'm keen to know what binds Eriskay people together.
0:01:47 > 0:01:54What is it that creates an island's special community?
0:01:54 > 0:01:57The focus of village life is the local shop.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05This is a real Aladdin's cave.
0:02:05 > 0:02:10The islanders run the shop themselves, to suit their needs.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12- Wooden clothes pegs!- Yes.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14I didn't know those were still available.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17- Special socks for wellington boots. - Yes.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19- Does it rain here? - Oh, not really.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24This isn't just the only shop on Eriskay, it's the Post Office too.
0:02:26 > 0:02:28- Hello.- Hello.- Are you Patrick?
0:02:28 > 0:02:33- I am Patrick, yes.- How do you do? I'm Nick. Can I come round the back?- You can indeed, yes.
0:02:35 > 0:02:37- Hello there.- Hello.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41Are these all your customers on the island, the people you deliver letters to?
0:02:41 > 0:02:43That's all the customers on the island, yes.
0:02:43 > 0:02:48- You've got them labelled by all their Christian names. - Labelled by name, yes, yes.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01I'm continuing my journey north along the Outer Hebrides
0:03:01 > 0:03:04to the island of Benbecula.
0:03:06 > 0:03:11This causeway links the communities of South Uist and Benbecula.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14But back in the 1960s,
0:03:14 > 0:03:17it wasn't only locals who were making this crossing.
0:03:20 > 0:03:25Trucks were rolling along these roads laden with rockets.
0:03:25 > 0:03:27That's because Benbecula
0:03:27 > 0:03:31was the headquarters of a missile testing range.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33It was the height of the Cold War
0:03:33 > 0:03:38and Britain was desperate to keep up with the nuclear arms race.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42As the military mobilised in defence of the realm,
0:03:42 > 0:03:46the islanders were preparing to face an invasion of their own.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50With the rockets came soldiers,
0:03:50 > 0:03:53young men from all over the UK.
0:03:53 > 0:03:58Watching over his "young chaps" was the redoubtable Colonel Cooper.
0:03:58 > 0:03:59They get on very well indeed.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02They have settled down very nicely, I think,
0:04:02 > 0:04:04and the locals have accepted them,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07and I think our relations are extremely cordial. I can say that.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14British military bases had their own shops and bars run by the NAAFI.
0:04:14 > 0:04:19Here the army and civilians might rub shoulders.
0:04:19 > 0:04:20Benbecula was no exception.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26'I've come to meet Margaret Macdonald.'
0:04:26 > 0:04:27Hello, Margaret.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30- 'A local girl.'- Hello.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33'She was just 19 when she went to work in the NAAFI shop.'
0:04:33 > 0:04:35This was where the NAAFI shop was.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38So you were in the NAAFI with your friends, who were also islanders?
0:04:38 > 0:04:40Yes, they were, they were all island girls.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43It was a meeting place in the NAAFI shop in these days.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46They knew the girls that were in the shop and we knew them
0:04:46 > 0:04:47and they used to come in...
0:04:47 > 0:04:51It was sort of a social event, really, they didn't come to shop.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53Really?
0:04:53 > 0:04:58'So it was good fun for the island girls. But what about the squaddies?
0:04:58 > 0:05:03'Lance Corporal John Saxton was 22 when he was posted to Benbecula.'
0:05:03 > 0:05:05Have you got room for a hitchhiker?
0:05:05 > 0:05:07- OK.- Hello, John.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13I'd been told before I got here that there's a girl behind every tree.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16- Well, you've seen what like it is here.- There's no trees.- Exactly.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19'John's taking me to the site of his old barracks.'
0:05:19 > 0:05:22It must have been a floodgate opening for the girls up here,
0:05:22 > 0:05:25because if you've only got a very small community
0:05:25 > 0:05:30and then you get 300 fellas coming in...it's heaven for somebody.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33It was really good, it was a very good social life,
0:05:33 > 0:05:37and they had lots of dances on the actual camp itself, in the NAAFI,
0:05:37 > 0:05:40and that's when I remember the buses - the green buses -
0:05:40 > 0:05:45going round the villages of North Uist and picking up local girls
0:05:45 > 0:05:46and taking them to the army camp.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49Jiving and twisting and things like that in those days.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53So if you went to the local dances, it was a hop,
0:05:53 > 0:05:56it was one of these things that had a single fella
0:05:56 > 0:05:59sat on a chair playing the accordion.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02And out of the hundreds of men who poured into that NAAFI,
0:06:02 > 0:06:05- did you meet anyone special? - I did, I did.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08He was in the Royal Signals here, he had come in from Germany.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11Oh, I met the wife up here.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13I met him in the NAAFI, I think, and, erm...
0:06:13 > 0:06:17I was at one of the dances and I spied her over - that'll do me fine.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21- I think it was a NAAFI... - You can't remember where you met your husband!
0:06:21 > 0:06:25This is me on my wedding day in 1969.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27It's a wedding photograph.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30I can see why you went for John, a handsome man, eh?
0:06:31 > 0:06:33'John and Margaret married.'
0:06:35 > 0:06:37Then John was posted to Cyprus.
0:06:39 > 0:06:45But for Margaret, the Mediterranean was no match for Benbecula.
0:06:45 > 0:06:51The pull of the island community was just too strong to resist.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54When John left the army, they came home.
0:06:59 > 0:07:04It's not just locals like Margaret who are connected to Benbecula,
0:07:04 > 0:07:07we all have a link to this island.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13Benbecula is still protecting us.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17It's the frontline of national defence.
0:07:17 > 0:07:194023.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24'Behind this fence
0:07:24 > 0:07:27'is a piece of kit that's been guarding Britain since the Cold War.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31'Squadron Leader Mark Philipson
0:07:31 > 0:07:34'has agreed to throw open the doors of his base to Coast.'
0:07:35 > 0:07:37'And there are lots of doors.'
0:07:56 > 0:08:00Wow, it looks like something from a James Bond set!
0:08:00 > 0:08:02This is the radar Type 92.
0:08:02 > 0:08:08It sees aircraft out to about 250 miles and up to about 90,000 feet.
0:08:08 > 0:08:13It is here to guard and look out into the western Atlantic, over the western part of Scotland.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16Now the Cold War is hopefully history, why do you still need this radar?
0:08:16 > 0:08:21Well, as 9/11 proved, you still have to be able to defend your airspace.
0:08:21 > 0:08:22The enemy, of course, has changed now
0:08:22 > 0:08:24and without bits of equipment like this,
0:08:24 > 0:08:28we wouldn't have a chance of finding the potential rogue airliner.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33And this is what the radar picks up.
0:08:33 > 0:08:39Each flashing green dot is a plane in airspace covered by Benbecula.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43And if among these innocent green dots there was a rogue aircraft,
0:08:43 > 0:08:44how would you spot it?
0:08:44 > 0:08:46By elimination,
0:08:46 > 0:08:49because we have to maintain awareness on what all of them are.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52So if we find something that we can't correlate or resolve,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55then by default that has to be a problem.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58In the Battle of Britain you picked up a phone and said, "Scramble",
0:08:58 > 0:09:01but what would you do if you found a rogue aircraft?
0:09:01 > 0:09:03We pass that up the chain and if they really don't like it,
0:09:03 > 0:09:06then we pick up a phone and say, "Scramble",
0:09:06 > 0:09:09and the fighters get airborne. So actually, not a lot has changed.
0:09:15 > 0:09:20While the RAF scans the skies for hostile intruders,
0:09:20 > 0:09:24others seek out the Scottish Isles for native wildlife.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44One of the most enchanting and elusive animals
0:09:44 > 0:09:46can be found on Shetland.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54Miranda's there on her own spying mission.
0:09:56 > 0:10:00I'm on the hunt for an animal that I've only seen a couple of times in the wild before,
0:10:00 > 0:10:04and here in Shetland is one of the very best places to find them.
0:10:04 > 0:10:06I'm looking for otters.
0:10:08 > 0:10:13Around one in ten of the UK's otter population lives on Shetland,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16but that doesn't make them easy to find.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23John Campbell is a full-time otter spotter.
0:10:25 > 0:10:27He's taking me to a bay
0:10:27 > 0:10:30where he's seen a family of these shy creatures.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33Fingers crossed, but the weather isn't helping.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37We can hear one of them squeaking, so we know they're out there,
0:10:37 > 0:10:41but it's just so misty we just can't see them, but hopefully...
0:10:41 > 0:10:43Do you hear that squeaking? OTTER SQUEAKS
0:10:43 > 0:10:47If we listen to those calls, that's them communicating with each other,
0:10:47 > 0:10:48the cubs trying to find the mother.
0:10:51 > 0:10:56'If you want to spot otters, it's a waiting game.'
0:10:59 > 0:11:03'We've been sitting here for ages and we still haven't seen them.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07'I've seen a seal...'
0:11:09 > 0:11:12'..and the midges are biting,
0:11:12 > 0:11:14'but no otters.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17'To cap it all, it's raining.'
0:11:19 > 0:11:22You'd think these watery beasts would be happy in the rain,
0:11:22 > 0:11:23but they're not.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26If they've been fishing in the sea for half an hour or so
0:11:26 > 0:11:27they get chilled,
0:11:27 > 0:11:30and they like to come ashore, get themselves dry,
0:11:30 > 0:11:32get themselves warmed up again.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35- Obviously, if it's pouring with rain they struggle to get dry.- Yeah.
0:11:35 > 0:11:37So what they tend to do is they'll go and fish
0:11:37 > 0:11:39and then go back to the holt,
0:11:39 > 0:11:43- which makes life awfully difficult for the likes of us trying to find them.- We can't see them.
0:11:48 > 0:11:53'At last, our patience is rewarded.'
0:11:55 > 0:11:59We've got a couple of cubs just playing in the water in front of us.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03It's just beautiful. They're completely oblivious to the fact we're watching them
0:12:03 > 0:12:05and they're just doing what kids do,
0:12:05 > 0:12:08just playing and rolling around each other
0:12:08 > 0:12:11and look really happy and very relaxed. It's really special.
0:12:13 > 0:12:19'There's one more member of the family who makes an appearance.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22'It's a male otter, it must be dad.'
0:12:24 > 0:12:27You never know where they're going to pop up,
0:12:27 > 0:12:29what they're going to do next
0:12:29 > 0:12:32and that for me is the excitement of seeing wild otters.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35I've watched wild otters for the last 35, 40 years
0:12:35 > 0:12:37and every time it's a buzz.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39- Yeah.- I absolutely love it.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54We're on a tour of the Scottish islands,
0:12:54 > 0:12:59some 700 individual worlds,
0:12:59 > 0:13:05separated and united by the great seaway between them.
0:13:05 > 0:13:06For hundreds of years,
0:13:06 > 0:13:10sailors and navigators have charted courses over the water.
0:13:10 > 0:13:11But until recently,
0:13:11 > 0:13:14what lay beneath in the deep ocean
0:13:14 > 0:13:16was a complete mystery.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20The quest to discover the secret life of the sea
0:13:20 > 0:13:24began in the waters off Scotland.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28Historian Tessa Dunlop is in Oban on the west coast.
0:13:28 > 0:13:33She's on the trail of a great 19th-century adventure.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39This state-of-the-art research vessel
0:13:39 > 0:13:42owes its existence to a voyage undertaken in the 19th century
0:13:42 > 0:13:44by HMS Challenger.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47Challenger was at sea for nearly four years.
0:13:47 > 0:13:49It was an epic voyage around the globe
0:13:49 > 0:13:52to make the first ever survey of the world's oceans.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57The voyage of HMS Challenger
0:13:57 > 0:14:00revolutionised our view of what lives in the deep sea.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03It was one of the greatest adventures in science
0:14:03 > 0:14:08and it began off the coast of Scotland.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11'It took 50 volumes to report the findings of Challenger's global odyssey.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15'Professor Laurence Mee knows the secrets of these books
0:14:15 > 0:14:18'and their rare creatures.'
0:14:18 > 0:14:21It's one of the original specimens from the Challenger expedition.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25Obviously it's a starfish, it comes from the deep sea off Nova Scotia,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28so these animals live at depths below 1,000 metres.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31Before that, people assumed there was nothing down there.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33This was a colossal scientific endeavour.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37The brains behind the Challenger expedition
0:14:37 > 0:14:41was a brilliant Scottish scientist, Charles Wyville Thomson.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43- Hi, Laila.- Hi, good morning.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47'People used to think the deep ocean was a barren, dead zone.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50'Wyville Thomson thought otherwise.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53'He set out to find proof of life below.
0:14:53 > 0:14:58'In 1868, Thomson began his search in Scottish seas.'
0:14:58 > 0:15:03Wyville Thomson was actually based at the University of Edinburgh, up here in Scotland.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06He persuaded the Admiralty to lend him a small ship,
0:15:06 > 0:15:10which set off and studied the region between the Faeroes and the Scottish coast.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12They found sponges,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15they found cold-water corals on reefs just beyond us,
0:15:15 > 0:15:17and organisms with multiple legs
0:15:17 > 0:15:21that people did not believe could live in those dark, deep, high-pressure depths.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27If such wonders were to be found in home waters,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30what would be discovered elsewhere?
0:15:30 > 0:15:32Buoyed with success,
0:15:32 > 0:15:36Wyville Thomson persuaded the British government
0:15:36 > 0:15:38to fund the Challenger expedition,
0:15:38 > 0:15:42the most ambitious scientific endeavour of the age.
0:15:44 > 0:15:49In 1872, they set sail on an epic voyage around the globe.
0:15:49 > 0:15:53They journeyed for three and a half long years.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56Challenger crossed all the great oceans.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59They travelled as far as the Antarctic,
0:15:59 > 0:16:03zigzagging their way across the Atlantic,
0:16:03 > 0:16:06before finally returning home.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08Everywhere they went,
0:16:08 > 0:16:10they took samples and looked for new creatures.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16The Challenger was also the first official expedition
0:16:16 > 0:16:19to have a photographer.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23They captured images of new cultures around the world, all on photographic plates.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25The people, costumes, traditions
0:16:25 > 0:16:27were recorded for the first time photographically.
0:16:27 > 0:16:32They took the first ever photo of an Antarctic iceberg.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35This is a rare image of a warrior from the Philippines.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41The Challenger revealed a world never seen before,
0:16:41 > 0:16:44above and below the waves.
0:16:46 > 0:16:47This is a dredge.
0:16:47 > 0:16:49It's very similar to the one used on the Challenger
0:16:49 > 0:16:54and it's used for collecting animals that live on the sea bed.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57We can use similar dredges even in the very deep ocean,
0:16:57 > 0:16:58thousands of metres deep.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02- That is chock-full, isn't it?- It is.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06It's mainly mud, stones, old shells, but there will be some animals.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10- What is that? It's got purple legs. - That looks like a hermit crab.
0:17:10 > 0:17:17Yes, little spider crab here.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20- It's always exciting. You never - know what you're going to find.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22And, of course, if you're doing this in deep water,
0:17:22 > 0:17:27- you can find species that no-one's ever seen.- Which is what they were doing on the Challenger.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31They were sampling down to over 5,000 metres depth,
0:17:31 > 0:17:34so they were catching things that no-one had ever seen in human history.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37And now, today, how many species do we know of?
0:17:37 > 0:17:42There may be somewhere in the region of 1.5 million species in the oceans,
0:17:42 > 0:17:44most of which we haven't even discovered yet.
0:17:47 > 0:17:53Once, scientists believed the deep sea was lifeless.
0:17:53 > 0:17:55Now, thanks to Wyville Thomson,
0:17:55 > 0:18:00we know the depths are teeming with weird and wonderful creatures.
0:18:00 > 0:18:05140 years after the science of oceanography started in Scottish waters,
0:18:05 > 0:18:08we've still only discovered a small fraction
0:18:08 > 0:18:12of the secret life of the sea.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32My journey along the Outer Hebrides
0:18:32 > 0:18:35continues towards the port of Leverburgh.
0:18:37 > 0:18:43This is a tale of a business tycoon with a big appetite for fish.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47Imagine, nearly 100 years ago,
0:18:47 > 0:18:48trying to turn this tiny port
0:18:48 > 0:18:51into the centre of Britain's biggest fishing business.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54That was the vision
0:18:54 > 0:18:57of an extraordinary English entrepreneur.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59Who was this man?
0:18:59 > 0:19:03Well, the answer's in the name he gave this port - Leverburgh.
0:19:03 > 0:19:08It was christened by the irrepressible Lord Leverhulme.
0:19:08 > 0:19:09At the turn of the 20th century,
0:19:09 > 0:19:11he was one of the richest,
0:19:11 > 0:19:13one of the most powerful men in Britain.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20In 1919, he used his vast wealth
0:19:20 > 0:19:23to buy the entire island of Harris.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31Lever had made it big making soap,
0:19:31 > 0:19:33Sunlight soap.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37Now he planned to clean up in the fish trade.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45His grand design centred on this little port.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48Back then, it was a town called Obbe.
0:19:48 > 0:19:49He spent a fortune,
0:19:49 > 0:19:55the equivalent today of £21 million.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57And yet, some 90 years on, when you look around,
0:19:57 > 0:20:03there's remarkably little to be seen of Lever's huge investment.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06'What happened to his big fish business?
0:20:06 > 0:20:08'I've come to meet Tony Scherr
0:20:08 > 0:20:12'who knows all about Leverhulme's ambitions for Harris.
0:20:12 > 0:20:17'He started with some unconventional home improvements at Borve Lodge.'
0:20:17 > 0:20:22When he came, all he could see was this cliff going across,
0:20:22 > 0:20:25and then he could see Taransay above the cliff.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28So, being Leverhulme,
0:20:28 > 0:20:32he decided the best thing to do was to get rid of the cliff,
0:20:32 > 0:20:34so he blew it up.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37That was the man, really.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39If he didn't like it, he blew it up.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41Or he changed it.
0:20:41 > 0:20:46Leverhulme was never one to sit back and admire the view.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49He was a man with a mission -
0:20:49 > 0:20:52to transform the lives of the islanders
0:20:52 > 0:20:54by building a monumental business.
0:20:56 > 0:21:02His plans were to make Leverburgh into a large fishing port
0:21:02 > 0:21:06and he produced a map with this in mind.
0:21:06 > 0:21:08And all these were the fishing grounds,
0:21:08 > 0:21:12but everything centred around the port of Leverburgh.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16He could put up his curing sheds, he could put up his kilns,
0:21:16 > 0:21:20- and to get as many as 10,000 people...- 10,000?!
0:21:20 > 0:21:22..10,000 people living in Leverburgh, yes.
0:21:22 > 0:21:24In Hebridean terms, that's a city.
0:21:24 > 0:21:25It is indeed.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29This was ambition on an epic scale.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35At the time, Leverburgh's population was less than 200,
0:21:35 > 0:21:39but Leverhulme was a man of extraordinary vision.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44He could see a more affluent Britain developing,
0:21:44 > 0:21:50a busy population demanding better, fresher food.
0:21:50 > 0:21:56'Harris didn't have many people, but it did have a lot of herring.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59'Donald MacLean knows these waters better than most.'
0:21:59 > 0:22:02- Have you got one?- Here he comes!
0:22:03 > 0:22:05He's not very old.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09Donald, back then, Lord Leverhulme was chasing the herring shoals,
0:22:09 > 0:22:13and, you know, the catches were absolutely enormous, weren't they?
0:22:13 > 0:22:15Yes, big, big catches of herring, very plentiful.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17My grandfather worked for Lord Leverhulme,
0:22:17 > 0:22:20he was a foreman round about the pier when they were building it.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22My auntie worked there as well.
0:22:22 > 0:22:27She worked at the herring, sorting the herring and curing the herring into barrels.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30Did that make him quite a popular figure with local people then?
0:22:30 > 0:22:33Oh, certainly, yes. Yes.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38Leverhulme invested a fortune in the port.
0:22:38 > 0:22:39He built a new pier,
0:22:39 > 0:22:41a smokehouse,
0:22:41 > 0:22:44and a refrigeration plant.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47On the face of it, a crazy scheme,
0:22:47 > 0:22:51but Leverhulme was the shrewdest of entrepreneurs.
0:22:51 > 0:22:57His plan was to control the fish business from sea to shop.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00To create an outlet for the catch landed at his Scottish port,
0:23:00 > 0:23:04he bought up 400 fishmongers throughout Britain
0:23:04 > 0:23:07and called them Mac Fisheries.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11By 1924, his plan no longer seemed so mad.
0:23:13 > 0:23:18Steam-powered trawlers landed a huge haul of herring -
0:23:18 > 0:23:22so many that women from the mainland were brought in to help.
0:23:22 > 0:23:27Leverhulme and Leverburgh had success within their grasp,
0:23:27 > 0:23:29yet within months,
0:23:29 > 0:23:34the entire business came crashing down.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40In 1925, Lord Leverhulme caught pneumonia and died.
0:23:45 > 0:23:5130,000 paid their respects at his funeral in Port Sunlight.
0:23:51 > 0:23:56In Leverburgh, sirens sounded on the pier and work stopped...
0:23:56 > 0:23:58for good.
0:23:58 > 0:23:59When Leverhulme died,
0:23:59 > 0:24:02his vision for Harris died with him.
0:24:02 > 0:24:09Today, there are just a few bleak reminders of his grandiose scheme.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14What do you think he'd think or say if he saw Leverburgh today?
0:24:14 > 0:24:18He would be an extremely sad man, I think,
0:24:18 > 0:24:22to see his dream come to naught.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31Many of the Scottish Isles
0:24:31 > 0:24:37have managed to export their products far out across the seas.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41The Outer Hebrides can boast their own global brand.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45That's what's brought me to Tarbert, on Harris.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51This is what I'm after.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56Harris Tweed.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58- Hello there.- Hi there. - May I look at your jackets?
0:24:58 > 0:25:00Yes, of course. Just got some over here.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03- Look at those. They're very evocative.- Yeah, they are.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07They're the colours of Scotland, with the grey rock, the heather...
0:25:07 > 0:25:12And then this one seems to have little traces of blue in it, and awesome colours.
0:25:12 > 0:25:14It's got lots of colours in it. Would you like to try one?
0:25:14 > 0:25:17- Yeah, why not?- We can try this one.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21This will be a sartorial leap for me,
0:25:21 > 0:25:25to get rid of the old anorak and present Coast in a genuine Harris...
0:25:25 > 0:25:29- Oh, it's very comfortable. - How's that for you?- It's lovely.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32Oh, yes. Now that really is an improvement, don't you think?
0:25:32 > 0:25:34- Yes.- Coast and beyond!
0:25:37 > 0:25:41There's a reason why the colours of Harris Tweed mirror the landscape.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45Originally, the dyes were produced by local plants and lichens.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49'Textile designer Alice Starmore
0:25:49 > 0:25:51'is going to show me how it was done.'
0:25:51 > 0:25:53- Very good to meet you.- You too.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56- Looks as if you've got things started already.- Yes. I have lit the peat fire.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00I have the water, which obviously you need for dyeing as well.
0:26:00 > 0:26:04I have the fleece, and the only thing I need now is the crottal lichen,
0:26:04 > 0:26:07which is going to actually give me the colour.
0:26:07 > 0:26:08What are we looking out for?
0:26:08 > 0:26:11Well, we're looking out for a very unassuming
0:26:11 > 0:26:15and drab, grey, crusty stuff,
0:26:15 > 0:26:17which actually is black crottal.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20And here is a very nice crop of it.
0:26:20 > 0:26:21Oh, is this it here?
0:26:21 > 0:26:24- This is it.- It looks like a spillage of very old porridge.
0:26:24 > 0:26:29It does, but the dye comes out of it very easily.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32It's a beautiful rich bronze-brown shade that you get from it
0:26:32 > 0:26:36and you can see that it's actually ready to come right off the rock here.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39The Harris people would say that was ripe and ready.
0:26:39 > 0:26:44'Some lichens are protected, but this one's safe to pick.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48'Even so, we're just taking enough to dye one small fleece.'
0:26:48 > 0:26:51- Now for the exciting part. - Time to get the pot.
0:26:51 > 0:26:57'First, take one scoured fleece and moisten with peat-rich spring water.'
0:26:57 > 0:26:59We're not just bunging it in, we're going to layer it a bit.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03It's important that the dye should be as even as possible.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06- It's a bit like making lasagne! - It is a bit, yes!
0:27:06 > 0:27:09And it is - the whole thing is a little bit like cooking.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11Pour in the water.
0:27:11 > 0:27:13Yes.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17And as it slowly comes to the boil, rather like a stew,
0:27:17 > 0:27:22all the products will come out and dye the fleece.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26'While we wait for the chemistry to cook,
0:27:26 > 0:27:28'Alice has some samples to show me,
0:27:28 > 0:27:30'all colours produced from local lichens and plants.'
0:27:30 > 0:27:35- Look at that. - It's like silverweed and ragweed.
0:27:35 > 0:27:37Here are the crottal colours
0:27:37 > 0:27:43and here is the rich dark colour that you would get from cooking it overnight, as it were.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46OK, it's been cooking for some time now, Alice.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50- It's a rich, deep colour, isn't it? - It's beginning to get orange.
0:27:50 > 0:27:52Look at that.
0:27:52 > 0:27:57That's it in the early stages, so you can see what a slow and painstaking process it was.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04The rules governing the Harris Tweed trademark are strict.
0:28:04 > 0:28:09The cloth must be woven by the people of the Outer Hebrides
0:28:09 > 0:28:10in their own homes.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13MECHANICAL WHIRRING
0:28:13 > 0:28:15I can hear clattering machinery.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22'Donald John MacKay has been busy with the fabric for over 40 years.'
0:28:22 > 0:28:24My goodness!
0:28:24 > 0:28:26So, Donald, how is the loom powered?
0:28:26 > 0:28:31- By my feet.- Oh, I see, so handmade really means...
0:28:31 > 0:28:36- Means foot power, yes.- So you cannot have an electric...- No! No, no, no.
0:28:36 > 0:28:38What's this roll going to be used for?
0:28:38 > 0:28:41This is going to Nike for shoes and bags.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45- Really?- Yes.- To Nike?- Yes.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48- The big sports manufacturer? - Yes, the big... Yes, yes, yes.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51That's incredible. And what about the threads themselves?
0:28:51 > 0:28:54See, each thread is made up of many, many colours.
0:28:54 > 0:28:58- Isn't that extraordinary? When you look closely, it's a whole rainbow of colours.- Comes alive.
0:28:58 > 0:29:01Comes alive, exactly! It really comes alive.
0:29:01 > 0:29:03Well, that's Harris Tweed for you.
0:29:03 > 0:29:04'The colours of the island
0:29:04 > 0:29:08'inspire the blends and patterns of the cloth.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11'So I want to see what it looks like in the landscape.'
0:29:11 > 0:29:15- Now, let's have a look, Donald. - Now...- Wow!
0:29:15 > 0:29:20I can see the yellow of the wild grasses out there, coming on the cloth, and the heather.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23And you can see there the marram grass, the lighter one there.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26The roots, the grass, the darker one down there.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29There's blue in there too. See the sea beyond?
0:29:29 > 0:29:31It's all there in front of us.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36It's as if you've unrolled the surface of the Outer Hebrides and carried it into your loom.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50Harris is separated from Lewis in name only.
0:29:50 > 0:29:54They're parts of the same island,
0:29:54 > 0:29:56separated not by water,
0:29:56 > 0:29:58but by a range of mountains.
0:30:00 > 0:30:02Across those peaks, on the east coast,
0:30:02 > 0:30:05lies the capital of Lewis, Stornoway.
0:30:09 > 0:30:15A disaster at sea nearly a century ago shocked this community so much,
0:30:15 > 0:30:18the pain is still raw today.
0:30:18 > 0:30:24It's a tragic tale, not often told to outsiders,
0:30:24 > 0:30:26that Neil knows well.
0:30:30 > 0:30:31In the First World War,
0:30:31 > 0:30:35half the male population of Lewis served in the armed forces.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39Many never returned,
0:30:39 > 0:30:43but some perished cruelly close to home.
0:30:43 > 0:30:48More than 200 servicemen died in a disaster off the Scottish coast,
0:30:48 > 0:30:51just days after the Great War ended.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01It's late on New Year's Eve 1918,
0:31:01 > 0:31:05a cold, dark end to a terrible year.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08But the men onboard the Iolaire are in high spirits
0:31:08 > 0:31:09because they're going home.
0:31:09 > 0:31:11The war is over.
0:31:11 > 0:31:17These are just a few of the 280-odd souls who were packed aboard,
0:31:17 > 0:31:19mostly sailors of the Royal Naval Reserve,
0:31:19 > 0:31:22men from the islands, the Outer Hebrides,
0:31:22 > 0:31:25who'd survived the horrors of the First World War.
0:31:28 > 0:31:32They were on a large civilian yacht pressed into war service
0:31:32 > 0:31:36and renamed Her Majesty's Yacht Iolaire.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39By 1.50 in the morning, the boat was almost home.
0:31:39 > 0:31:44The servicemen aboard could see the harbour lights of Stornoway.
0:31:44 > 0:31:48They knew their loved ones would be lining the quayside at Stornoway,
0:31:48 > 0:31:49just half a mile away.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52But most of the men crammed aboard the Iolaire that night
0:31:52 > 0:31:56would never see their families again.
0:31:56 > 0:32:00Minutes later, in stormy seas,
0:32:00 > 0:32:04the Iolaire struck a notorious reef - the Beasts of Holm.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10They were only 30 yards from land,
0:32:10 > 0:32:15but of the 285 men on board, just 80 survived.
0:32:18 > 0:32:20More than half of those that did survive
0:32:20 > 0:32:23owed their lives to one man aboard the stricken ship,
0:32:23 > 0:32:26John Finlay MacLeod, a Lewis man,
0:32:26 > 0:32:27a boat builder, in fact.
0:32:27 > 0:32:29Somehow, amid the chaos,
0:32:29 > 0:32:32he managed to half-scramble, half-swim ashore
0:32:32 > 0:32:34with a line tied around his wrist.
0:32:37 > 0:32:41This monument stands on the spot where John Finlay swam ashore.
0:32:41 > 0:32:46Interviewed in 1973, he recalled that night.
0:33:13 > 0:33:1840 survivors owed their lives to the courage of John Finlay MacLeod,
0:33:18 > 0:33:23but 205 men died on that last night of 1918.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26When dawn finally broke that New Year's Day,
0:33:26 > 0:33:29the people of Lewis were greeted to a dreadful sight.
0:33:29 > 0:33:33There's a photograph showing the wreck of the Iolaire,
0:33:33 > 0:33:39the bulk of her still submerged, and just the mast sticking out.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45As news of the Iolaire disaster spread,
0:33:45 > 0:33:50people walked the coastline, looking for relatives.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53At Sandwick Bay, they found only dozens of bodies...
0:33:55 > 0:33:58..servicemen returning from the Great War.
0:33:58 > 0:34:03These Scots didn't die on a foreign field, but in home waters,
0:34:03 > 0:34:06within sight of safety.
0:34:06 > 0:34:10Relatives and friends, looking for loved ones,
0:34:10 > 0:34:13picked their way through the wreckage of the Iolaire
0:34:13 > 0:34:15and what they found were toys,
0:34:15 > 0:34:20presents that fathers never got the chance to give to children.
0:34:24 > 0:34:26In a remote part of Lewis,
0:34:26 > 0:34:29four-year-old Marion Smith was waiting for her father.
0:34:29 > 0:34:33- Oh, hello. Come in.- Hello, Marion.
0:34:33 > 0:34:38'Kenneth Smith survived the Great War, but only his suitcase made it back home.'
0:34:38 > 0:34:41In his possessions that they found on the beach,
0:34:41 > 0:34:43- they found this box that we have here.- Mm-hm.
0:34:43 > 0:34:49Inside it are ration cards,
0:34:49 > 0:34:52with which they were issued.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55- So that's your dad, Kenneth Smith. - Yes.
0:34:55 > 0:34:59And he should have been on leave from the 30th December 1918
0:34:59 > 0:35:03until the 14th January 1919.
0:35:03 > 0:35:05That made it home and he didn't.
0:35:07 > 0:35:10What do you remember about your mum
0:35:10 > 0:35:12on the night when the news arrived at the house?
0:35:12 > 0:35:17She was sitting down, and the neighbours were coming in,
0:35:17 > 0:35:21and also people whom I didn't know were coming in.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25And they all hugged her and they all cried,
0:35:25 > 0:35:28and my grandfather just sat,
0:35:28 > 0:35:33and I would go over and lean across his knees.
0:35:33 > 0:35:38And I remember the tears dropping off his cheeks
0:35:38 > 0:35:41onto the top of my head.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45I couldn't understand what had happened.
0:35:45 > 0:35:47The clock stopped
0:35:47 > 0:35:50and the world changed.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58The people of Lewis were grieving their loss,
0:35:58 > 0:36:01but alongside grief came anger.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05Why had the Iolaire foundered on the Beasts of Holm?
0:36:05 > 0:36:08Why had so many died within yards of the shore?
0:36:10 > 0:36:15'John Macleod has examined the events of that tragic night.'
0:36:15 > 0:36:17The boat was very under-crewed,
0:36:17 > 0:36:20the officer had never sailed at night.
0:36:20 > 0:36:21It was quite stormy.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24They weren't familiar with the waters and they lost their way.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28The Iolaire didn't have enough lifeboats for all the men. There weren't enough life jackets.
0:36:28 > 0:36:30It was a disaster waiting to happen.
0:36:30 > 0:36:32You would think that they were so close
0:36:32 > 0:36:35that it ought to have been possible to escape the tragedy.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38You've these huge breakers hammering in,
0:36:38 > 0:36:41so the men who'd jumped into the water were mostly beaten to death.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44They weren't drowned, they were smashed against the rocks time and time again,
0:36:44 > 0:36:47like being caught in the most nightmarish washing machine.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53The appalling deaths in the Iolaire disaster
0:36:53 > 0:36:55happened just after the Great War ended,
0:36:55 > 0:37:00a war that had already killed 866 men of Lewis.
0:37:00 > 0:37:02A terrible sacrifice.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06Of those who'd volunteered, one in six were dead.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10But the needless loss of all those men aboard the Iolaire
0:37:10 > 0:37:11was the cruellest blow,
0:37:11 > 0:37:15and yet for many years, the response from Lewis was silence.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19Because what could anyone say that mattered?
0:37:19 > 0:37:21And that's why, beyond the islands,
0:37:21 > 0:37:23the name Iolaire is essentially unknown,
0:37:23 > 0:37:27because this was a very private tragedy.
0:37:27 > 0:37:32Amongst the list of names here, Seaman Kenneth Smith.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34For his widow Christina,
0:37:34 > 0:37:37his death and her grief
0:37:37 > 0:37:39were not something to be shared.
0:37:39 > 0:37:45Did she ever talk to you about your dad and about what happened?
0:37:45 > 0:37:47No, she didn't.
0:37:47 > 0:37:53She never talked about the tragedy at all.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58I remember that she only wore black.
0:37:58 > 0:38:02Black, black.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05If she was baking, she still wore black.
0:38:05 > 0:38:10And to this day...I remember.
0:38:10 > 0:38:16I just didn't like the colour and I still don't.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19To have come so close to coming home,
0:38:19 > 0:38:22you know, to drown, to die on the doorstep of home.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25Yes, well, as the song said,
0:38:25 > 0:38:27these brave men
0:38:27 > 0:38:28who'd gone so far
0:38:28 > 0:38:30through the dangers of the war,
0:38:30 > 0:38:33by the irony of fate
0:38:33 > 0:38:36were drowned at home.
0:38:49 > 0:38:55Many would envy the sense of community on the Scottish Isles.
0:38:55 > 0:38:57Language and traditions
0:38:57 > 0:39:00bind people together,
0:39:00 > 0:39:02but some of those traditional customs
0:39:02 > 0:39:06may seem at odds with life elsewhere in our islands.
0:39:09 > 0:39:15I've reached my final stop at the tip of the Hebrides, Port of Ness.
0:39:19 > 0:39:21It looks like the end of the line,
0:39:21 > 0:39:24but this little harbour is actually the point of departure
0:39:24 > 0:39:27for a group of men who set sail every August.
0:39:27 > 0:39:31It's a voyage the men of Ness have been undertaking for centuries,
0:39:31 > 0:39:34sons following fathers who followed their fathers.
0:39:34 > 0:39:36They've all been heading for the same spot,
0:39:36 > 0:39:40a lonely rocky island, 40 miles from here, called Sula Sgeir.
0:39:43 > 0:39:45Nobody lives there,
0:39:45 > 0:39:48but it's home to thousands of gannets.
0:39:50 > 0:39:54The men of Ness come to Sula Sgeir to hunt for birds.
0:39:56 > 0:40:00It was a tradition captured on film in the 1950s. Take a look at this.
0:40:04 > 0:40:09They're after the young gannets, known in these parts as guga.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12The guga-hunting season is August,
0:40:12 > 0:40:15when the chicks are almost fully grown.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19There's no shortage of people to buy them.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22Guga is an age-old delicacy in these parts.
0:40:24 > 0:40:2950 years on, the small boy in the film is doing as his father did.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34John MacFarlane is now the leader of the annual guga hunt,
0:40:34 > 0:40:39a time-honoured custom first recorded in 1549.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43It's a big thing in Ness, our community,
0:40:43 > 0:40:45in this part of the island, up the Butt of Lewis end.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48If you mention the community of Ness to someone,
0:40:48 > 0:40:51it's always associated with the guga, with the guga hunt.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54The Ness gannet.
0:40:54 > 0:40:57It's... It's a Ness thing.
0:40:57 > 0:41:02Once, the men of Ness could take as many guga as they could carry.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05But now, they operate under a licence
0:41:05 > 0:41:09to take no more than 2,000 birds a year.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12The Scottish Government licenses the hunt,
0:41:12 > 0:41:15which it's argued is culturally important.
0:41:18 > 0:41:22The ritual hasn't changed in living memory.
0:41:22 > 0:41:25We lift them out of the nest with a 10ft pole,
0:41:25 > 0:41:28with a clamp at the end, around its neck.
0:41:28 > 0:41:31I pass it on to the next person behind me,
0:41:31 > 0:41:33who gives it a whack on the head.
0:41:33 > 0:41:37From the time I pick it out of the nest to the time it's dead
0:41:37 > 0:41:38is about three seconds.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41We start plucking them,
0:41:41 > 0:41:43taking the feathers off.
0:41:43 > 0:41:46The next part is what we call the factory.
0:41:46 > 0:41:50Two of the boys actually take the down off the birds
0:41:50 > 0:41:53by dipping them into the fire.
0:41:53 > 0:41:57And they're passed onto the next two guys, who actually split them open,
0:41:57 > 0:42:02to leave four quarters of ripe prime guga.
0:42:02 > 0:42:07We then salt them and make a brown pile of them.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10There's a special way of doing it so that the meat doesn't go off.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16We build a chute to the bottom of the island.
0:42:16 > 0:42:19When we're going home the gugas go down on the chute.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22What do you say to people
0:42:22 > 0:42:27who find the idea of killing wild seabirds...
0:42:27 > 0:42:29distasteful, abhorrent?
0:42:29 > 0:42:32I don't see any difference between that
0:42:32 > 0:42:36and going into a supermarket and buying a chicken or a turkey.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39Those who oppose us going to the island,
0:42:39 > 0:42:44if you could put a guga and a chicken together,
0:42:44 > 0:42:48how could you explain to the chicken why it should be killed
0:42:48 > 0:42:52and the wild guga go free?
0:42:52 > 0:42:54There's no difference.
0:42:54 > 0:42:57It's for human consumption.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02Guga and guga hunting may not be to everyone's taste,
0:43:02 > 0:43:05but the annual journey to Sula Sgeir
0:43:05 > 0:43:07is a centuries-old tradition,
0:43:07 > 0:43:12one fiercely defended by the men of Ness and their community.
0:43:15 > 0:43:20The Outer Hebrides are famously wild, rugged and beautiful.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23They share a quality that's far less conspicuous.
0:43:23 > 0:43:28The people I've met have a real sense of community, of belonging,
0:43:28 > 0:43:32a conviction that their island is truly their home.
0:43:32 > 0:43:37And that, maybe, is what it means to be an islander.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd