Joy of the Coast 1 Coast

BIRDSONG

This is Coast.

Bunching together on beaches.

Hitting the waves.

Climbing crags.

Flying or fishing.

Pier or promenade.

We really do love to be beside the seaside.

For me, it doesn't get any better than this.

Hauling canvas, salt spray in your face.

But we all have our own passions for the pure joy of the coast.

We're setting sail in pursuit of those pursuits

that give us pleasure at our seaside leisure.

My passion for climbing has brought me to western Scotland.

Calm seas belie a towering test of nerve

awaiting me on the Isle of Skye.

This is a moment I've long savoured in my imagination.

Now the reality of the task ahead is sinking in.

I've got a date with destiny.

Just across the water over there, there's a climb I've long coveted.

A gigantic anvil of ancient stone hidden away

in the depths of Scotland's most fearsome mountain range.

I'm heading for a jagged outpost on Skye.

The Cuillin Ridge.

These torn teeth of ancient rock run from coast to coast

and they conceal my challenge.

The Cioch.

A protruding spear of stone.

It was only climbed for the first time in 1906.

Now it's my turn.

These pinnacles witnessed some epic dramas of early mountaineering.

I'm going back to those days

to discover how the Cioch took centre stage.

It wasn't until the Victorian era

that gentlemen and lady explorers began climbing for pleasure.

By the early 20th century,

the Isle of Skye was becoming a Mecca for the new mountaineers.

That was largely thanks to two men who are still inseparable.

They forged a friendship on the rock etched for eternity in stone.

Here lies one John Mackenzie

head to toe with one Norman Collie.

These were the two pioneering mountaineers

who first completed the climb I'm about to attempt.

They rest in the shadow of the coastal peaks

they explored together for half a century.

This brooding landscape is shrouded in mystery.

John Mackenzie and Norman Collie

took many of its secrets to their graves.

To discover the endless joys they found in these mountains,

I need to see them through their eyes.

For over 100 years, climbers have begun their adventures on Skye

at the Sligachan Hotel.

This is Normal Collie sitting in this inn.

Collie was a gentleman.

A professor of chemistry at University College London.

He lived and he worked in the capital,

but his heart was here on the island of Skye.

He was to become one of the greatest climbers of the age.

And here is John Mackenzie on the summit of Sgurr nan Gillean.

And here he is again on the ridge of the Black Cuillins.

Mackenzie was a highlander, a man of Skye.

He worked as a gillie employed by gentlemen

who wanted to go hunting and fishing.

And that's how the Scot John Mackenzie

met the Englishman Norman Collie.

Aged 27, Collie came to Skye on holiday in 1886.

Dressed much like this.

Well, the boots weigh a tonne

and the soles are covered in steel teeth

to help them grip on wet grass and rock.

I'm not quite sure how this stuff will perform in the wind and rain,

but if this lot was good enough for the original mountain men...

it's good enough for me.

Young Norman Collie had all the gear,

but as yet, not a clue about climbing.

And to make exploring harder,

there were no detailed maps of the Cuillin mountains.

To show him the way, Norman engaged John Mackenzie.

Coincidently, my guide is also called John. John Lyall.

Oh! Perfect.

This track we've been following is pretty well-worn, isn't it?

But going back 150 years, why were the Cuillins so little known?

Well, no-one had any reason to go up there.

They're just rock. They're just massive rocky, spiky peaks.

And no-one, none of the local people had a reason to go up there.

Their animals grazed low down.

I first saw the Black Cuillins here as a teenager

coming up here mountaineering in winter.

And, er...I found them pretty intimidating,

I don't mind admitting it.

They're spikier, they're sexier mountains than any in Britain.

They just rise straight out of the sea and so much rock.

People say they're the nearest thing we have to alpine peaks.

But I think they're better than that.

And we've got this view out over the minster,

the Inner Isles and outer Hebrides.

There's nowhere quite like it.

With me as English gentleman Professor Collie

and John as his guide John Mackenzie,

we're going to attempt the route they created.

They were the first to find and climb the Cioch.

So this big cliff in front of us here is Sron na Ciche.

It's a thousand feet high.

And up in the middle of that is the Cioch.

I don't know if you can see, there's a big like X feature.

A big wide crack comes up

and then the Cioch is right in the middle of that X.

So X marks the spot.

You'd never think there's even a feature up there.

It just looks like a very rugged wall of rock.

It's not obvious how to get to it.

And that was what was part of the problem for Collie

was to try and find a way to it.

They set off with just a hemp rope,

hobnail boots and each other to put their trust in.

So, this is where we have to put the rope on to go further up?

Yeah. It just gets a bit more serious, the drops around us, so...

-I'll just get you to stop on this ledge and I'll run the rope.

-OK.

-OK, Nick.

-Coming.

We know their route, but those bold pioneers made it up as they went.

Wearing vintage gear including their footwear,

snaking upwards feels painfully authentic.

The boots are probably the most excruciating weapons of torture

I've ever fitted to my own feet.

Braving uncharted territory,

finally, in 1906, Norman Collie and John Mackenzie made a breakthrough.

-So there's the Cioch.

-Wow! Look at that!

Fantastic!

You can suddenly see it.

This great anvil of rock has haunted my imagination for ages.

And today's the day I get to climb it.

But even now, to stand atop the Cioch seems a faraway dream.

How did Mackenzie and Collie get to the edge?

Like the pioneers, our only protection on this precipitous route

is a single hemp rope.

John's rope should stop me from falling, but what if he falls?

The leader never falls. That was the saying of the day.

Nowadays, people fall off climbing a lot,

but in these days, you just didn't fall off.

So you've got two cracks now for your feet.

One for your left and one for your right.

These old boots are like gigantic chocks, aren't they?

Yeah, yeah. You just wedge them in.

And they're so stiff, it means they're really secure.

So, John, is this the kind of protection

Mackenzie and Collie would have used when they climbed up here?

Yeah. Just using the rope.

In this situation, just jamming it into the crack

and then the friction of the rope running around that

and me pulling down in this direction.

If you fall off there,

the rope just jams further into the crack and you're secure.

And I'll go out across here.

Hold on.

-Wow!

-It's below us now.

-It's spectacular!

What do you think was going through Collie and Mackenzie's heads

when they came around the corner we've just come around

and they suddenly saw it in front of them?

"We've cracked it!"

They would have known this was it. They'd got it.

The best picnic site in Britain.

NICK LAUGHS

-It's almost in touching distance.

-It is.

It's like unlocking a maze.

We've been up and down, side to side

up cracks, along ledges down chimneys...and there it is.

It's got a bit of a sting in the tail.

How are we going to get along there?

You're going to walk along it initially.

Further down, it gets a bit more rounded

and if you want to get down on your backside, that's fine.

This is where the rope technique gets interesting.

A bit more alpine.

If you fall off one side, I go off the other side,

then we counterbalance with the rope. That's the idea.

I think we'd better make sure that doesn't happen.

-Just stay on the crest.

-Yeah.

Jeepers!

This is something else.

I used to slide down banisters as a small boy,

but this beats all the banister-sliding I've ever done.

Right.

That may not have been very elegant,

but it's still a technical issue now, which is getting up that.

Shall I wait here, John?

I really cannot believe this is happening.

Standing on top of the Cioch.

Unbelievable.

Oh!

Do you fancy a swordfight(?)

NICK LAUGHS

Look at that! There's the coast.

All the way. Fantastic Outer Hebrides.

Unbelievable!

Do you know, I reckon this is the most astounding spot

-I've ever trodden on in the British Isles.

-Mm.

I think it really is.

-It feels almost...

-Sacred.

I was just going to use that word. It's a sacred place.

Yeah. I think amongst climbers, places like this are special.

I can imagine Collie taking his friends up here,

sitting here with bottles of wine and having a picnic and talking,

looking out to this view.

It's, er...it's kind of special.

I think Victorians are meant to shake hands at a moment like this.

Well done, old boy.

Thank you, trusted guide.

-Well done.

-Thank you, John, very much.

Such moments of great joy are short-lived.

But the friendship of the men who were the first to stand here in 1906

endured for years.

Englishman Norman Collie went on to explore mountains around the world,

but climbed on with John Mackenzie,

always returning to renew the bond with his Scottish guide.

I can empathise, having made my own bond with my guide, John Lyall.

Together, Mackenzie and Collie

explored these mountains year after year.

That is until 1933, when John Mackenzie died.

His friend Norman Collie was a private man,

not used to public displays of affection.

But Norman penned an obituary for John. He wrote...

"There is no-one who can take his place.

"Those who knew him will remember him as a perfect gentleman.

"One who never offended by word or deed.

"He has left a gap that cannot be filled.

"There was only one John."

When he retired, Norman Collie left England for his beloved Skye.

He lived at the Sligachan Hotel

where he'd stayed on his first visit some 40 years before.

Norman commissioned a portrait

of his climbing companion John Mackenzie.

The picture kept him company in the hotel during his final years.

Norman Collie would sit alone in the window,

looking up at the mountains he'd shared with his friend.

A partnership reunited when Collie died in 1942.

In the tiny cemetery at Bracadale at his request,

Norman lies next to John Mackenzie.

The joy they found in the mountains of Skye is with them for ever.

We're exploring pursuits that bring us joy on our coast.

My journey has brought me to Scotland's Western Isles,

where I've conquered the Cioch to find my new favourite view.

Do you know, I reckon this is the most astounding spot

that I've ever trodden on in the British Isles.

And it was worth every blister.

This has been a real pleasure cruise, and it's not over yet.

I'm on the way to one of my favourite natural wonders.

This is one last sight I've just got to share with you.

Many say it's better to journey than to arrive.

But some destinations bring a special joy all of their own.

The unbridled beauty of Loch Coruisk is picture-perfect.

Nestled in the heart of Skye,

this cauldron of water stirs the soul.

How can your spirits not soar where sea and mountains meet?

We're blessed to have so many sites

of such stunning beauty around our shores.

Discovering the ones that have a meaning for you

is the real joy of our coast.