0:00:19 > 0:00:23Today I'm on a wild Welsh journey across a strip of land
0:00:23 > 0:00:26that points out towards Ireland.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28That is the Lleyn Peninsula.
0:00:33 > 0:00:38My journey starts on the far east of the peninsula with a climb up
0:00:38 > 0:00:42to the mysterious remains of an ancient civilisation.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47'Then it's a stunning drive north to the granite quarries
0:00:47 > 0:00:53'and the village of Nant Gwrtheyrn, abandoned, but now reincarnated as a Welsh language school.'
0:00:53 > 0:00:55FALTERING WELSH
0:00:58 > 0:01:00SHE REPLIES
0:01:00 > 0:01:06'After that, I'll be travelling from Pwllheli to the very tip of the peninsula with Iolo Williams
0:01:06 > 0:01:09'in search of some very special birds.'
0:01:09 > 0:01:15They circle around, they bounce up and down. I'm convinced that they do it just for fun,
0:01:15 > 0:01:17just because they can.
0:01:18 > 0:01:23'I end my journey at Aberdaron, the last village west before Ireland,
0:01:23 > 0:01:25'a place of travellers and pilgrims.
0:01:25 > 0:01:30'And Dr Alice Roberts descends into a Bronze Age world.'
0:01:30 > 0:01:34I've just taken my helmet off so I can get through this hole.
0:01:35 > 0:01:37I'm not looking forward to it!
0:01:37 > 0:01:40It's really, really narrow.
0:01:41 > 0:01:48Along the way, I'll be looking back at the best BBC rural programmes from this part of the world.
0:01:48 > 0:01:50Welcome to Country Tracks.
0:01:50 > 0:01:56The Lleyn Peninsula is a remote region in north Wales of great wilderness and beauty.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00It extends 30 miles into the Irish Sea.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07And for most of its length, it's only eight miles wide.
0:02:11 > 0:02:15'This is Garn Bentyrch. It commands great views over the landscape
0:02:15 > 0:02:19'and it's a physical link with our ancient ancestry.
0:02:25 > 0:02:32'It's a bit of a climb, so thanks to a very kind farmer we've hitched a lift.'
0:02:32 > 0:02:36This wild corner of Wales may appear isolated,
0:02:36 > 0:02:40and I can't see a lot of houses, let alone villages and towns,
0:02:40 > 0:02:43but it hasn't always been the case.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51'Around 2,500 years ago, during the Iron Age,
0:02:51 > 0:02:53'the Peninsula was hot property.
0:02:53 > 0:02:59'Enormous hill forts were built on its peaks and anything from a few hundred to a few thousand people
0:02:59 > 0:03:03'made their homes in this harsh, windswept terrain.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09'You can still see the remains of these fascinating settlements.
0:03:09 > 0:03:15'It may not reveal much to you or I, but archaeologists like Kate Waddington and Prof Raimund Karl
0:03:15 > 0:03:18'can learn a lot from what's left.'
0:03:19 > 0:03:21And here it is.
0:03:29 > 0:03:34- What is this remains here? - OK, it's a settlement,
0:03:34 > 0:03:38a very large, monumental settlement from the first millennium BC.
0:03:38 > 0:03:43We do know they were really important places to communities
0:03:43 > 0:03:49and they were continually inhabited for over 1,000 years, which reveals how important this place was.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53That brings me on to this question. It's not huge, the Peninsula.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55Why was it so heavily settled?
0:03:55 > 0:04:00It does control a very important area,
0:04:00 > 0:04:02very good land for agriculture.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06And it sits in a very dominant position, so it controls the area,
0:04:06 > 0:04:11both strategically and also economically.
0:04:11 > 0:04:16It's an important area to control. There was a lot going on in the Iron Age.
0:04:16 > 0:04:22- The higher the better, was it? - Yeah. And the bigger the better. - It's also about being seen.
0:04:22 > 0:04:30You're also being seen from below so you're a constant visual and physical presence in the landscape
0:04:30 > 0:04:34so the people know, "We belong together, this is our big site."
0:04:51 > 0:04:56OK, let me show you this because this is very interesting here.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02- Oh, what's this?- As you've seen, much of this has tumbled,
0:05:02 > 0:05:07but this bit shows how the original fort might have looked like.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11You can see that this is a well-preserved dry-stone facing.
0:05:11 > 0:05:18Quite well built and nicely laid out. That is how one needs to imagine the whole inner stone ring
0:05:18 > 0:05:23looked like on the outside when it originally was built.
0:05:23 > 0:05:28Kate, it feels so cold up here. How would they have made it feel cosy and homely?
0:05:28 > 0:05:35We've got to imagine that in the Iron Age period this was not just an enclosure,
0:05:35 > 0:05:39but inside was a settlement inhabited by people.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43They would have built roundhouses made out of timber or stone.
0:05:43 > 0:05:48And within the centre of the roundhouse would be a hearth
0:05:48 > 0:05:51so people would be burning a fire.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55Why would a settlement like this have been abandoned?
0:05:55 > 0:06:01Many of these sites are mainly, chiefly abandoned towards the end of the Iron Age,
0:06:01 > 0:06:03roughly when the Romans come here.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07So there might be a shift of communities.
0:06:07 > 0:06:13Many of these sites, presumably, were associated with some kind of social elite.
0:06:13 > 0:06:19The elite basically became Roman, Romanised, and moved to, effectively, Roman villas
0:06:19 > 0:06:23or Roman towns or to the Roman forts.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27There are Roman forts in the area. Caernarfon isn't that far away.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31That might have been a reason for them to basically say,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35"Let's leave these old things now and move to these new Roman things."
0:06:35 > 0:06:41This is an amazing site. Not many people, I imagine, know about it or get to see it.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45- Is that a good thing? - Well, I'm a bit split about this.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49It is, in a sense, very good for its preservation.
0:06:49 > 0:06:53The fewer people that come up here, the less it's damaged.
0:06:53 > 0:06:58It is a lot of tumble, so stones can get further dislocated quite easily.
0:06:58 > 0:07:03On the other hand, it's a brilliant site and there are many here,
0:07:03 > 0:07:10so in a sense it's a shame that not more people come up here. In a sense, it's a hidden gem.
0:07:15 > 0:07:21'And it wasn't just the people of the Iron Age who saw great potential in the landscapes here.
0:07:21 > 0:07:27'1,000 years before this hill fort was built, a huge discovery was made further up the coast in Llandudno.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36Over there on that headland is the Graig Lwyd axe factory,
0:07:36 > 0:07:41a Stone Age axe factory whose axes are found all over the UK and northern Europe.
0:07:41 > 0:07:47And then one morning about 4,000 years ago, everybody wakes up and it's the Bronze Age,
0:07:47 > 0:07:54so they put down their stone tools and they start making sophisticated bronze tools instead.
0:07:54 > 0:07:56Or did they?
0:07:56 > 0:08:01When we talk about the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age,
0:08:01 > 0:08:05it's as though we're meant to think of these people as being different,
0:08:05 > 0:08:09that suddenly they forgot their skills, trade routes and beliefs.
0:08:09 > 0:08:14But one thing is clear - something extraordinary did happen 4,000 years ago.
0:08:14 > 0:08:19It's quite difficult to think about what a huge imaginative leap it was
0:08:19 > 0:08:24to think that you can take a rock, heat it up and get metal out of it.
0:08:24 > 0:08:29And it's not just that. If you take malachite and get copper out,
0:08:29 > 0:08:35in order to make bronze, you have to add tin. Copper and tin aren't found in any old rocks.
0:08:35 > 0:08:41These people are travellers and traders. They get their tin from, probably, Cornwall 200 miles away.
0:08:41 > 0:08:48For copper, they came here to the Great Orme, the biggest prehistoric copper mine in the world.
0:08:48 > 0:08:54'Just a few years ago, vast underground caverns were discovered below the Orme's surface.'
0:08:54 > 0:08:57Just come and have a look at this.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02Oh, that's amazing!
0:09:02 > 0:09:06- It's not a natural cave. - It's all been dug out by people.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09It is absolutely massive.
0:09:09 > 0:09:15'My guide is Nick Jowett, one of the handful of people who excavated the ancient mines.'
0:09:15 > 0:09:20- This is what it was all about.- Right. - The green we can see is malachite. Malachite is copper ore.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24We don't find much of it as they were so good at mining.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27These are the bits they discarded.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30What was in this chamber must have been phenomenal.
0:09:33 > 0:09:39'To give me a real sense of what Bronze or, should I say, Copper Age mining was about,
0:09:39 > 0:09:44'Nick's kindly offered to take me where the public can't go.
0:09:44 > 0:09:48'There's an estimated five miles of tunnels down here,
0:09:48 > 0:09:52'each hand dug in search of the miraculous green copper ore.
0:09:53 > 0:09:59'And Nick has recently discovered a new tunnel that no one has entered for 4,000 years.
0:09:59 > 0:10:04'Just as well he's an expert pot holer and member of a cave rescue team.'
0:10:04 > 0:10:09I've just taken my helmet off so I can get through this hole.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12I'm not looking forward to it.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15It's really, really narrow.
0:10:22 > 0:10:28It defies belief that people were doing that 4,500 years ago down these caves, these tunnels.
0:10:30 > 0:10:35That was a pretty narrow squeeze. They must have really wanted that ore.
0:10:38 > 0:10:44- Over all the years they were doing it, how much ore do you think they mined out?- The estimates so far
0:10:44 > 0:10:50suggest that perhaps around 1,700 tonnes of copper metal came out of this mine.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54That quantity would be enough to make around 10 million metal axes.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57- Oh, really?- An incredible quantity.
0:10:57 > 0:10:58Yeah.
0:11:01 > 0:11:07'But in the days before dynamite, what technology did Bronze Age miners have to extract the ore
0:11:07 > 0:11:13'to create tunnels as well as the vast open-cast mine? The answer lies firmly back in the Stone Age.'
0:11:14 > 0:11:20- This is a piece of a rib bone.- Yeah. - We can clearly see if we look at the end that it's worn and rounded.
0:11:20 > 0:11:25- That's the evidence we have that these were used as tools.- Goodness.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29- So that's been rounded by digging away...- That's it.
0:11:29 > 0:11:35- ..at the ground here. So all of that was dug out using implements like this?- That's it.
0:11:37 > 0:11:43'Mining using metal tools would have been like using the family silver to dig the garden,
0:11:43 > 0:11:47'so stone hammers and bone picks filled the toolbox,
0:11:47 > 0:11:52'but the sheer quantity of tools found is staggering.'
0:11:52 > 0:11:56This is one of our store rooms where we keep bones that we found.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02Well, we've found about 37,000!
0:12:02 > 0:12:06- If you want to have a look at them... - Lovely. Right.
0:12:07 > 0:12:13'37,000 fragments of bone tools! I'm curious to know what they can tell us about the miners.'
0:12:13 > 0:12:18It's rather small, but the idea is the scapula is used as shovels.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21It's a nice sort of shovel shape.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24'Is there any human material here?'
0:12:24 > 0:12:27It's not quite right, the curve of that.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30I can see a tooth in here.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33This is the tooth of a pig.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38Oh. I was excited for a minute.
0:12:38 > 0:12:43Most of these bone fragments are actually from cattle.
0:12:43 > 0:12:48So domesticated species. We've also got sheep and goats.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51So we know that they're farmers,
0:12:51 > 0:12:57we know that they're pretty organised in what they're doing and getting a huge amount of ore out.
0:12:57 > 0:13:03And we know what sort of tools they're using, what sort of animals they had living around them.
0:13:03 > 0:13:08Is there any evidence of the people themselves? I got quite excited
0:13:08 > 0:13:12because... there are some human bones.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14This is a jaw, a mandible.
0:13:14 > 0:13:20Some of the teeth have dropped out of their sockets. A few are still here - the canine and pre-molars.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24He's got a very jutting out chin. Probably male.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28This bone here is a collar bone or clavicle.
0:13:28 > 0:13:35That's two human bone fragments among 37,000 fragments of animal bone.
0:13:36 > 0:13:42'Looking back at what we've discovered, an extraordinary picture emerges.
0:13:42 > 0:13:47'It's really odd to be up here on a rocky outcrop on the northernmost tip of Wales.'
0:13:47 > 0:13:51Pretty much deserted today. Occasionally tourists,
0:13:51 > 0:13:56but 4,000 years ago, this was at the centre of a revolution,
0:13:56 > 0:14:03an industrial revolution. And this was a new society, the beginning of a new age.
0:14:07 > 0:14:09Dr Alice Roberts on Great Orme.
0:14:09 > 0:14:16I'm travelling along the Lleyn Peninsula in north Wales, through a vast expanse of open country.
0:14:16 > 0:14:23The Peninsula just gets wilder as I drive along its northern coast to the village of Nant Gwrtheyrn.
0:14:23 > 0:14:30I'm told that it's a tiny place hidden from view at the bottom of these really towering mountains.
0:14:30 > 0:14:36So it's perhaps no surprise that Nant Gwrtheyrn was almost forgotten forever.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46'It was built to house quarry workers in the late 1800s
0:14:46 > 0:14:52'when Welsh granite was in high demand. Thousands of tonnes were quarried from these hillsides
0:14:52 > 0:14:57'and shipped off to pave the streets of Manchester and Liverpool.
0:14:57 > 0:15:02'But when the granite quarries closed, so did life in Nant Gwrtheyrn.
0:15:02 > 0:15:08'The quarry men and their families moved away, their cottages were left at the mercy of the elements
0:15:08 > 0:15:12'and the future of this place looked bleak.
0:15:12 > 0:15:18'That was until 1971 and the arrival of a determined doctor
0:15:18 > 0:15:22'who set about the reincarnation of Nant Gwrtheyrn.
0:15:22 > 0:15:26'It's now a Welsh language school as well as a cultural centre.'
0:15:28 > 0:15:33Carl, it's 40 years since you started this project. What made you take it on?
0:15:33 > 0:15:38Well, I suppose my wife and I arrived in a nearby practice
0:15:38 > 0:15:43in 1970 and we had one young child at the time.
0:15:43 > 0:15:49We wanted to make our home in this very Welsh-speaking community, wanted my children to be Welsh-speaking.
0:15:49 > 0:15:56Within the practice itself, day in, day out, one saw the consequences of severe depopulation.
0:15:56 > 0:16:03This area supported all these granite quarries along the coast, which employed 2,000 men at its peak.
0:16:03 > 0:16:08And as the quarries closed, the population moved away.
0:16:08 > 0:16:14All the villages were in decline and that decline led to a lack of confidence in the community
0:16:14 > 0:16:19and that manifested itself then in problems with health -
0:16:19 > 0:16:23high blood pressure, depression and so on -
0:16:23 > 0:16:28so it was an attempt in many ways to recreate the economy of the area.
0:16:28 > 0:16:35It requires incredible vision to bring that together and, I imagine, an awful lot of work.
0:16:35 > 0:16:40A huge amount of work. People questioned my sanity, as you can imagine.
0:16:40 > 0:16:46"Why don't you do it somewhere else, far easier?" This village was in total ruin.
0:16:46 > 0:16:52There were no roofs on many of the houses, no windows, no water, no electricity,
0:16:52 > 0:16:57no road into the valley. It was in an extremely bad state.
0:16:57 > 0:17:02And over a period of time, the word went out that we were serious,
0:17:02 > 0:17:08people held their coffee mornings and their sponsored walks, corporates got interested.
0:17:08 > 0:17:14It's a tribute in many ways to a lot of hard work by many thousands of people
0:17:14 > 0:17:19throughout Wales and beyond who gave us the support we needed.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23And had you not come along, can you imagine what it might be like?
0:17:23 > 0:17:29I guess without the determination that we were able to show as a Trust at the time,
0:17:29 > 0:17:33it could well have just disappeared into oblivion.
0:17:54 > 0:18:00If I were to wander round these cottages back in 1890 and bump into one of the quarry workers,
0:18:00 > 0:18:04the chances are we wouldn't have been able to have a conversation.
0:18:04 > 0:18:10They were native Welsh speakers and many spoke no English at all.
0:18:10 > 0:18:15'The Lleyn Peninsula remains a stronghold of the native language.
0:18:15 > 0:18:21'More than 70% of people speak Welsh here, compared to 11% down in Cardiff.'
0:18:23 > 0:18:30Nant Gwrtheyrn is now a Welsh language school for adults. 25,000 people have been students here
0:18:30 > 0:18:36and since I've still got quite a way to go on my journey, I ought to at least learn some of the basics.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42'Anwen Jones is my teacher. Welsh is her first language
0:18:42 > 0:18:48'and she has family ties to the village.' Hello, Anwen. I don't even know how to greet you.
0:18:48 > 0:18:53- It's terrible. So your great-grandfather worked here?- Yes.
0:18:53 > 0:18:58My great-grandfather and grandmother lived down in the village
0:18:58 > 0:19:00and he worked in the quarry.
0:19:00 > 0:19:07My grandfather was born in the village, so I feel quite privileged to be working here with my heritage.
0:19:07 > 0:19:12- Yeah, it's a special relationship, knowing the family circle.- Yes.
0:19:12 > 0:19:17- And the Welsh language hasn't always been celebrated, has it?- No.
0:19:17 > 0:19:23My grandfather used to tell me stories of how if you spoke Welsh in the classroom at school
0:19:23 > 0:19:28they were made to stand in the back of the class, wearing a sign.
0:19:28 > 0:19:32It was completely prohibited in the classrooms at that time.
0:19:32 > 0:19:37- They really tried to beat it out of the children.- Yes, really.
0:19:37 > 0:19:43- Why is it so important to keep the language alive?- To be honest, it's part of our identity.
0:19:43 > 0:19:48It's something you might not even question. We just speak Welsh.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52It's something you may not realise the importance of until it's gone.
0:19:52 > 0:19:57And it's all the cultural background of it as well in our society.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00We're proud of our heritage and culture.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04I'm going to be on a journey along the Lleyn Peninsula.
0:20:04 > 0:20:09I feel like I ought to learn a few words. Can you help me with the basics?
0:20:09 > 0:20:12- I can, indeed!- OK, good.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16We could try...sut ydych chi? Which is, "How are you?"
0:20:16 > 0:20:21- So sut... I got that bit. - Ydych.- Ydych.- Chi.- Chi.
0:20:21 > 0:20:26- Sut ydych chi?- If you find that a struggle, just say, "Sut mae?"
0:20:26 > 0:20:30- Definitely! - That's more colloquial.- Sut mae?
0:20:30 > 0:20:33And that's, "How are you?" OK.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37How would I say a greeting like, "Hello," or, "Good afternoon"?
0:20:37 > 0:20:41- You could say...bore da for good morning.- Bore da.
0:20:41 > 0:20:48- I think I've heard that one before. Bore da.- And you could say, "Good afternoon." Prynhawn da.
0:20:48 > 0:20:53- Prynhawn da.- Good, Ellie. - Bore da. Prynhawn da.- Brilliant.
0:20:53 > 0:21:00- Now manners - please and thank you. - Please is os gwelwch yn dda. - That's long for please!
0:21:00 > 0:21:04- Maybe we should go to "thank you"! - No, I must know my pleases.
0:21:04 > 0:21:09- My parents will insist. So it was an os...- Os gwelwch...
0:21:09 > 0:21:12- Os gwelwch... - ..yn dda.- ..yn dda.
0:21:12 > 0:21:14Os gwelwch yn dda.
0:21:14 > 0:21:20- Brilliant. - It's not easy, though, is it? - No, but very good.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23- Now my "thank you". - Diolch.- Diolch.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27Or thank you very much - diolch yn fawr iawn.
0:21:28 > 0:21:33- Just say, "Thank you"! - I'll just wave. Diolch... Sorry.
0:21:33 > 0:21:38- Diolch...- Diolch...- ..yn fawr... - ..yn fawr...- ..iawn.- ..iawn.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41Diolch yn fawr iawn.
0:21:45 > 0:21:51My Welsh lesson with Anwen is going to come in handy now as I'll have a travelling companion.
0:21:51 > 0:21:57He's a very proud Welshman and a pretty well-known face around here.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02- PRACTISES WELSH - 'His name is Iolo Williams.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06'He's the David Attenborough of Wales and I'm off to meet him now.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12'I've lived in Wales all my life.
0:22:12 > 0:22:18'Through my work with wildlife, I've been lucky enough to have visited every part of the country
0:22:18 > 0:22:23'and seen pretty much everything there is to see.
0:22:33 > 0:22:40'But for me what makes Wales unique is that it's small enough to get to know it intimately
0:22:41 > 0:22:46'yet big enough to always have a few surprises in store.
0:22:52 > 0:22:58'Iolo loves this part of Wales and he's going to be my guide for the next part of my journey.'
0:22:58 > 0:23:03Here we go, then. Prynhawn da. Sut mae, Iolo?
0:23:03 > 0:23:06Hey, Ellie! Very, very good!
0:23:06 > 0:23:09Well done. I understood all of that. Fantastic.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12Because Welsh isn't easy to learn.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16You're not kidding! It's really difficult.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20If you're born into it, it's simple, but if you have to learn it,
0:23:20 > 0:23:24with all the "ll" and "wr" and everything, it's very difficult.
0:23:24 > 0:23:31- Well done, you.- Thank you. As an English girl, I'll take my two words as semi-fluent.
0:23:32 > 0:23:38Now if you take a left here, go down that lane over there, well, across over there,
0:23:38 > 0:23:42the first port of call is the town of Pwllheli.
0:23:42 > 0:23:47I want to show you something quite spectacular here.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53'Pwllheli is a seaside town on the south coast of the Peninsula.
0:23:53 > 0:23:58'At the height of the summer season, it's crawling with holidaymakers
0:23:58 > 0:24:02'and I have my doubts about seeing much wildlife here.'
0:24:02 > 0:24:04It doesn't scream beauty spot.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07No, it's not, admittedly,
0:24:07 > 0:24:13but this is the best place I know to come and see grey herons.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17- There's a pair up on a nest. - Oh, straight out of the car!
0:24:17 > 0:24:21Straight out the car and there they are. Big, big birds.
0:24:21 > 0:24:26What I really like about this place is you're in the middle of a town.
0:24:26 > 0:24:32- A really busy road.- Very busy road. The herons pay no notice whatsoever so they're used to people.
0:24:32 > 0:24:38And the other big advantage is that usually herons nest right up in the tops of the tallest trees.
0:24:38 > 0:24:44It's the only place I know where you can watch the whole heron breeding cycle as it goes on,
0:24:44 > 0:24:48like sitting at home in an armchair turning on the TV and watching them.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52- You didn't even have to leave the car!- No, you don't.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56- It is a veritable soap opera. - Absolutely fantastic.
0:24:56 > 0:25:03They are stunning birds and very prehistoric-looking birds, like from thousands of years ago.
0:25:03 > 0:25:08They look like they don't belong so high up because they're so big.
0:25:08 > 0:25:13It is odd. Huge nest, huge bird, surely they're ground-nesting? But they're not.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16They nest right up in the tops of the tallest trees.
0:25:16 > 0:25:22Their courtship displays are quite impressive, too. Dancing, a lot of noise...
0:25:22 > 0:25:26A lot of noises. They do this cronking noise, a real coarse noise.
0:25:26 > 0:25:34And then when one arrives back on the nest, they greet each other with a little bit of billing,
0:25:34 > 0:25:38- almost like a head dance. - And nest building at the moment.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42Yeah, he'll bring back sticks for her. Great big sticks in the beak.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45It looks like a metre rule.
0:25:45 > 0:25:51He'll come back with that, hand it to her and she adds it to the nest and gets it just so,
0:25:51 > 0:25:58- just as she wants it.- Indeed. - Very important, that, that he makes her a very happy lady.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01Other than herons in "Porth-heli"...
0:26:01 > 0:26:05It's Pwllheli. Pwll means pool, heli means salt.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08So salty pool, Pwllheli.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12OK. So other than herons here, what else can we see, wildlife-wise?
0:26:12 > 0:26:19Well, it's got a vast array, fantastic array of all kinds of wildlife, coastland, inland.
0:26:19 > 0:26:25- The further west you go, the better it gets. That's where we're going - going west.- Fantastic. OK.
0:26:30 > 0:26:35'Iolo and I are heading off in search of wilderness and rare birds,
0:26:35 > 0:26:40'but here in Pwllheli, every summer these roads are clogged with people.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44'Pwllheli is home to one of Britain's most famous resorts.
0:26:44 > 0:26:52'Thousands of campers have happy memories of Butlins. Comedian Les Dennis is one of them.'
0:26:53 > 0:26:58I was born on 12th October, 1953, in Garston in Liverpool.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03One of five kids. We were a typical working-class family.
0:27:03 > 0:27:05In 1961, miraculously,
0:27:05 > 0:27:09my dad won the pools. It was fantastic.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12It wasn't exactly a fortune - £620 -
0:27:12 > 0:27:16but it was enough for us to afford our first holiday,
0:27:16 > 0:27:22out here at Butlins in Pwllheli in the beautiful north Wales countryside.
0:27:29 > 0:27:35'Good morning, campers. Whatever the weather, every day is fine at Butlins.'
0:27:41 > 0:27:45This is fantastic. Very luxurious, but it's not what I remember.
0:27:45 > 0:27:51There were just lines of little chalets. Beautiful little chalets like prefabricated houses.
0:27:55 > 0:28:00We were very close. It's important to know that in Liverpool, everybody is "our".
0:28:00 > 0:28:05Our Marg, our Mandy, our Ken, and me mum and me dad.
0:28:08 > 0:28:14For kids from Liverpool, this was so exciting. All the funfair rides were free. You could stay on all day.
0:28:14 > 0:28:21The boating lake here, no one ever said, "Come in, Number Seven." You stayed out as long as you wanted.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25And every year, without fail, our Ken, in his best holiday shirt,
0:28:25 > 0:28:29on day one - splosh! Right into the pond.
0:28:32 > 0:28:37'It was on this beach that I first saw the evidence of my dad as a sportsman.'
0:28:37 > 0:28:43He was a really quiet guy. As a young man, he played for Blackburn Rovers, Tranmere
0:28:43 > 0:28:45and my beloved Liverpool FC in 1936.
0:28:45 > 0:28:52But although we knew that, we didn't really know how good he was until we played football here
0:28:52 > 0:28:57and he was great, he was so nifty. He was an inside left and you could really see it.
0:28:57 > 0:29:02He was a lovely, lovely man and he was great with us.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08Although I loved the outdoor activities,
0:29:08 > 0:29:13for me it was the theatre when the holiday really came to life.
0:29:14 > 0:29:20And every night in the theatres there would be two shows. I came to see them both.
0:29:20 > 0:29:27It was the first time that I saw real comedians live and I got that feel and love of stand-up.
0:29:28 > 0:29:33My mum had had this chance as a teenager to be in a talent competition,
0:29:33 > 0:29:38but she couldn't do it. She had to start in a factory the next day.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41So she saw in me a talent that she'd had
0:29:41 > 0:29:48and she encouraged me. She got me my first audition here at Butlins for the talent competition.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52I went into it, didn't get through the first heat.
0:29:52 > 0:29:58I was rubbish! But the next year I came back and got an act together and got third place.
0:29:58 > 0:30:04I kept coming back every year. That's why we came back, so I could go into the talent competitions.
0:30:05 > 0:30:11So for me the magic of being onstage began here, on this very stage.
0:30:11 > 0:30:16As soon as I left school, I started in show business. I worked hard
0:30:16 > 0:30:22and eventually I got what, to me, was a dream come true - a summer season with Jimmy Tarbuck.
0:30:22 > 0:30:28And I was absolutely thrilled. The one person I wanted to tell was my mum,
0:30:28 > 0:30:34but she'd died of cancer a few months before that and I couldn't tell her.
0:30:34 > 0:30:39I know that she's there watching me now and saying, "You did it, lad."
0:30:40 > 0:30:47And that's why it's lovely for me to come back here, to sit on this stage where it all began for me.
0:30:47 > 0:30:53I can almost see my family out there, my mum and dad, sitting and clapping the loudest.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59'Les Dennis remembering Butlins at Pwllheli.
0:30:59 > 0:31:04'Iolo and I are making the most of low tourist season
0:31:04 > 0:31:09'by taking a walk along a deserted Welsh beach.'
0:31:09 > 0:31:13What was it that got you interested in wildlife in the first place?
0:31:13 > 0:31:19As far back as I can remember, Ellie, I've been fascinated by all kinds of wildlife.
0:31:19 > 0:31:25I remember as a lad of four finding a woodpigeon's nest with two eggs in it
0:31:25 > 0:31:29and thinking, "Poor old bird needs more eggs." I got some hen's eggs,
0:31:29 > 0:31:36and put them all around these eggs. The poor pigeon must have come back and thought, "What's going on?!"
0:31:36 > 0:31:40From as far back as I can remember, I've just been fascinated by it
0:31:40 > 0:31:47- and I love the fact that I can live to be 1,000 years old and still wouldn't know the half of it.- Yeah.
0:31:47 > 0:31:53- Have you lived in Wales all your life?- More or less, yeah. I left briefly to go to college in London,
0:31:53 > 0:31:57but then came back. Wales means a lot to me.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01It's where I was born, brought up, where I've got deep roots.
0:32:01 > 0:32:07So I'll leave it in a box and even then be buried in the ground. I'm not going to leave Wales.
0:32:07 > 0:32:14- A Welshman through and through. If I cut you in half, it'll say Wales! - Like a piece of rock!- Exactly.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18'Iolo's homeland has no shortage of landscapes
0:32:18 > 0:32:22'and none are more imposing than Snowdonia.
0:32:22 > 0:32:27'Here, high in the mountains, he has tracked down all kinds of flora and fauna.'
0:32:30 > 0:32:34- It's very clear on a day like this. - Magnificent.
0:32:34 > 0:32:40You'll always see ravens high up on the mountains. It's their natural habitat.
0:32:40 > 0:32:45And these may well roost at night on Anglesey in Newborough Forest.
0:32:49 > 0:32:54'But we haven't climbed up all the way here to see a raven.
0:32:57 > 0:33:02'Hywel walks many miles on these dangerous slopes, looking for wildlife,
0:33:02 > 0:33:06'and he's found something very special on a rock facing the sun.'
0:33:06 > 0:33:10- This is it, the purple saxifrage? - Indeed, yes.
0:33:10 > 0:33:15Very bright colours, beautiful. The petals are a bright purple colour.
0:33:15 > 0:33:20What you've got here as well is the tight clusters of leaves.
0:33:20 > 0:33:26Do you know, of all of them, because you've got mossy saxifrage, starry saxifrage,
0:33:26 > 0:33:32this is my favourite because this is the kind of skinhead of the Arctic alpines.
0:33:32 > 0:33:37It comes out in February, March, when you've got ice and snow,
0:33:37 > 0:33:41- so this is the real hard one. - A tough guy, this one.
0:33:41 > 0:33:46Of course, the term saxifrage itself means they're tough creatures.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50They are literally breaking the rocks, rock breakers.
0:33:50 > 0:33:56Here, where they're growing there's dark rock, which is slightly less acidic than the general rock
0:33:56 > 0:34:03and there's just that little bit more nutrients there released into the rock, which they want.
0:34:03 > 0:34:09The other thing Arctic alpine plants want is altitude and the right aspect for the cold.
0:34:09 > 0:34:13They're relatively high up here, about 500 metres above sea level.
0:34:13 > 0:34:21Today we're fortunate to be facing the sun, getting the best of it, so it's had an early start here.
0:34:21 > 0:34:26Having said that, though, we are late in the year this year for it flowering,
0:34:26 > 0:34:31a month to six weeks later because of the exceptionally hard winter.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35And it's the only bit of colour here. If you look around you,
0:34:35 > 0:34:39the grass has all died back from the hard winter
0:34:39 > 0:34:43and the only bit of colour, of purple, is this one little flower.
0:34:43 > 0:34:50- A gem.- It is a gem.- It's something to raise the spirits at the end of winter. Spring is here for me.
0:34:54 > 0:35:01'This is Cwm Nantcol in the Rhinogydd Mountains and I'm tracking some even more elusive mammals.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08'They're wild goats.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14'You can spot them quite easily,
0:35:15 > 0:35:20'but if you try and get near them, they keep on moving.
0:35:23 > 0:35:30'It's thought that these uplands have the greatest wild goat population per hectare in the UK.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33'That may be so,
0:35:34 > 0:35:37'but it's hard work tracking them.'
0:35:43 > 0:35:46I've been following these goats all morning.
0:35:46 > 0:35:51They've given me the run-around, but I've finally caught up with them.
0:35:51 > 0:35:55They're in rut, they're fighting. There are three big billies there.
0:35:55 > 0:36:03They have the huge, flat horns. And they've got five or six nannies with smaller, spiral horns.
0:36:03 > 0:36:09Every now and again, they'll stop, fight and the dominant billy will mate with all of those nannies.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13But they're well-equipped for life out here. I'm here in my gear,
0:36:13 > 0:36:18but they're much faster. The go over these rocks using their hooves
0:36:18 > 0:36:24and they've got this thick coat to keep out the worst of winter, rain and cold. Amazing animals.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28Superbly well-adapted for this mountain environment.
0:36:28 > 0:36:30Wild goats are not true wild animals.
0:36:30 > 0:36:32They're feral.
0:36:33 > 0:36:39Some of the goats may be derived from domestic goats. The rest escaped during 19th-century land clearances.
0:36:41 > 0:36:47Others may even be derived from much earlier stock and possibly date back to the Ice Age.
0:36:49 > 0:36:54There may be as many as 500 goats on these mountains.
0:36:56 > 0:37:01During winter, some can become a nuisance.
0:37:01 > 0:37:07They move down the valley to browse and that's often in someone's back garden.
0:37:07 > 0:37:13But here in the uplands, they're a wonderful addition to this rugged landscape
0:37:13 > 0:37:17and during the autumn rut they put on an incredible show.
0:37:38 > 0:37:42'I'm on a journey along the Lleyn Peninsula in north Wales.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46'I started on Garn Bentyrch exploring an Iron Age hill fort.
0:37:46 > 0:37:50'I drove through the stunning scenery along the northern coast
0:37:50 > 0:37:56'and took a Welsh lesson at Nant Gwrtheyrn. I then headed south to Pwllheli to meet Iolo Williams
0:37:56 > 0:38:01'before driving along the southern edge to the very end of the road.
0:38:04 > 0:38:10'The tip of the Lleyn is a good place to find a beautiful coastal bird called a chough.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13'Iolo is convinced we'll see some.'
0:38:15 > 0:38:19- Does this look like a good spot? - This should be ideal.
0:38:19 > 0:38:25We're facing the sun here so it's all warmed up for them. They aim for the short turf,
0:38:25 > 0:38:31these grassy bits between the gorse and the rocks. And they could come anywhere,
0:38:31 > 0:38:35- all along this bank. - There's a wide area!- It is.
0:38:35 > 0:38:40- How are their numbers doing? - Well, two stories in Wales.
0:38:40 > 0:38:46Inland, not so well. We do have some inland pairs in mid-Wales. They're all gone now.
0:38:46 > 0:38:52The few inland pairs we have are now confined to the high mountains of north Wales,
0:38:52 > 0:38:56where they'll feed on areas like this - short turf, acid.
0:38:56 > 0:39:00They'll nest in old mines, mine shafts, mind buildings, too.
0:39:00 > 0:39:04But in coastal areas, they're doing very well. Particularly here.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08This is one of the best places in the whole of the UK.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12- I've seen flocks of 30, 40 birds here.- Wow.
0:39:12 > 0:39:18It is a really good spot. There are always, always choughs here.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22- Fantastic.- So we will see them, but keep your eyes and ears open.
0:39:22 > 0:39:27- They've got this unique call. Kyee-ah!- Kyee-ah!
0:39:27 > 0:39:33- There you go. Hear that and you know it's chough!- Will you hear them before you see them?- Yes, usually.
0:39:33 > 0:39:39Because although they're not shy birds, they nearly always tuck behind a little hill.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41BIRDS CRY
0:39:41 > 0:39:48'Well, I've heard a chough, but still haven't seen one. Iolo won't give up easily, so we move on.'
0:39:56 > 0:40:03- What a view! - This should be a good patch. You can see again this short turf.
0:40:03 > 0:40:09- It's used a lot by choughs. If we sit here and watch and wait... - We'll surely see one.
0:40:09 > 0:40:14I think we will. And probably around these rocks and maybe a little bit further down.
0:40:14 > 0:40:17We should see some choughs.
0:40:17 > 0:40:20'At last, there's a chough.'
0:40:20 > 0:40:23They are fantastic birds, cracking birds.
0:40:23 > 0:40:30When you see them in the air like this, they're just true masters of the aerial environment.
0:40:30 > 0:40:37I always look at them and think scientists say when a bird goes from A to B there's got to be a reason.
0:40:37 > 0:40:41If it's going to expend that energy, there has to be a reason, to feed.
0:40:41 > 0:40:46But when you watch choughs up in the air, they circle around, bounce,
0:40:46 > 0:40:52- I'm convinced that they do it just for fun, just because they can. - It's not a good use of energy!
0:40:52 > 0:40:59I'm sure there's no reason, other than the fact, "Hey, let's go and fly," because it's fun.
0:41:06 > 0:41:11'Just two miles across the Sound lies the holy island of Bardsey.
0:41:11 > 0:41:17'Known as the island of 20,000 saints, it's been a place of pilgrimage for centuries.
0:41:17 > 0:41:22'Welsh opera singer Bryn Terfel made his own musical pilgrimage,
0:41:22 > 0:41:29'a piano not far behind him, to fulfil a dream of singing in the island's chapel.'
0:41:35 > 0:41:37And a welcoming committee.
0:41:46 > 0:41:51'Right up until the middle of the 20th century, the island had a substantial population,
0:41:51 > 0:41:56'capable of supporting a school and a Methodist chapel,
0:41:56 > 0:42:02'but there are now only a handful of permanent residents. Among them is the poet Christine Evans.'
0:42:02 > 0:42:05Tell me about the name Ynys Enlli.
0:42:05 > 0:42:07Ynys Enlli, in Welsh, can mean
0:42:07 > 0:42:11"island in the current" or "island in the tide"
0:42:11 > 0:42:16and it is a very difficult place to get to. Even with modern boats,
0:42:16 > 0:42:21about a third of all crossings are cancelled for bad weather. You're lucky to be here!
0:42:21 > 0:42:27In English, of course, it's called Bardsey and has been since at least 1188
0:42:27 > 0:42:32when Giraldus Cambrensis wrote on his tour through Wales about it.
0:42:32 > 0:42:39And that's taken to mean "the island of Barder" who was a Viking chieftain.
0:42:40 > 0:42:46'Christine has brought me through the rain to the spiritual heart of the island -
0:42:46 > 0:42:52'the ruins of the medieval abbey that once welcomed thousands upon thousands of pilgrims.'
0:42:52 > 0:42:58- So are there really 20,000 saints buried on the island?- I don't think anyone's ever counted them, Bryn,
0:42:58 > 0:43:02but certainly over 1,000 years it doesn't seem too many.
0:43:02 > 0:43:10I think it was partly because of the tradition that if you died here or on the way to the island,
0:43:10 > 0:43:14and you lived a holy life, your soul wouldn't go to hell.
0:43:14 > 0:43:20That was a great thing in the Middle Ages when they were tormented by visions of that place.
0:43:20 > 0:43:26Even in the 21st century, there's a feeling of peace and tranquillity and spirituality.
0:43:26 > 0:43:33We're surrounded by people who came here to die and to be buried. That gives it something extra.
0:43:33 > 0:43:39'Ever since my first visit, I've always wanted to sing in the chapel on Bardsey.
0:43:39 > 0:43:45'Franz Schubert's Litany for the Feast of All Souls could have been written for this wonderful island
0:43:45 > 0:43:48'of saints and pilgrims.
0:43:48 > 0:43:52'But first there was the small matter of getting a piano to the island!'
0:43:56 > 0:44:02# Ruh'n in Frieden
0:44:02 > 0:44:09# Alle Seelen
0:44:11 > 0:44:16# Die vollbracht
0:44:16 > 0:44:24# Ein banges Qualen
0:44:24 > 0:44:29# Die vollendet
0:44:29 > 0:44:36# Sussen Traum
0:44:36 > 0:44:40# Lebenssatt
0:44:40 > 0:44:44# Geboren kaum
0:44:45 > 0:44:48# Aus der Welt
0:44:48 > 0:44:55# Hinuberschieden
0:44:58 > 0:45:05# Alle Seelen
0:45:05 > 0:45:08# Ruh'n
0:45:08 > 0:45:15# In Frieden...
0:45:41 > 0:45:43TRANSLATED FROM GERMAN:
0:47:41 > 0:47:48Bryn Terfel bringing music to Bardsey, an island which remains of great spiritual importance.
0:47:49 > 0:47:51And so does this place - Aberdaron.
0:47:51 > 0:47:56It's a small village perched on a gusty extremity of Britain.
0:47:56 > 0:48:02It's pretty wild and remote and played an important part in the religious life of Wales.
0:48:02 > 0:48:06In a moment, I'll find out about the hazards of medieval pilgrimage
0:48:06 > 0:48:13and why modern-day pilgrims come here in search of poetry, but first here's the weather forecast.
0:49:50 > 0:49:57.
0:50:07 > 0:50:09Today's journey has taken me down the length of
0:50:09 > 0:50:11the Lleyn Peninsula in North Wales.
0:50:11 > 0:50:15From the Iron Age hill fort at Garn Bentyrch
0:50:15 > 0:50:18to the Welsh-language school at Nant Gwrtheyrn,
0:50:18 > 0:50:22south to Pwllheli and on to the cliff tops near Uwchmynydd.
0:50:22 > 0:50:27I've now reached Aberdaron, one of Britain's remotest villages.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33It's home to about 1,000 people but, at the height of summer,
0:50:33 > 0:50:35there can be ten times that number.
0:50:35 > 0:50:39It's been on the tourist trail for centuries.
0:50:44 > 0:50:45During the middle ages,
0:50:45 > 0:50:48Aberdaron was regarded as a bit of a service station.
0:50:48 > 0:50:50For travellers heading over to Ireland.
0:50:50 > 0:50:52It was the last village west
0:50:52 > 0:50:55and for those making a spiritual pilgrimage across the water
0:50:55 > 0:50:57to the island of Bardsey,
0:50:57 > 0:51:00it was the last glimpse of secular civilisation.
0:51:02 > 0:51:05I've just come across this sign on a building
0:51:05 > 0:51:08which says "Y Gegin fawr", which apparently means "the big kitchen".
0:51:08 > 0:51:10It says...
0:51:15 > 0:51:17..which says to me that only the saints
0:51:17 > 0:51:20get a free meal with the voucher. Everyone else has to pay.
0:51:24 > 0:51:29The village church of St Hywyn's may not be as famous as the old abbey on Bardsey
0:51:29 > 0:51:32but it has developed a strong spiritual presence of its own.
0:51:32 > 0:51:38Pilgrims often got stuck here due to the fierce winds howling around the peninsula.
0:51:42 > 0:51:46There was no way a boat would make it safely to Bardsey,
0:51:46 > 0:51:51so they stayed in Aberdaron, praying and waiting for a break in the weather.
0:51:57 > 0:52:00They would have looked out to sea from this churchyard,
0:52:00 > 0:52:03in the direction of the Island of 20,000 Saints,
0:52:03 > 0:52:06eager to get to their final destination.
0:52:06 > 0:52:09I think it must have been a pretty powerful feeling.
0:52:14 > 0:52:18But modern-day pilgrims are in search of something quite different.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21They come to pay homage to a poet.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24There is an island
0:52:24 > 0:52:28There is no going to but in a small boat
0:52:28 > 0:52:30The way the saints went
0:52:30 > 0:52:36Travelling the gallery of the frightened faces of the long-drowned
0:52:36 > 0:52:39Munching the gravel at its beaches.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44Those were the words of the late poet RS Thomas,
0:52:44 > 0:52:47who was also vicar here at St Hywyn's.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50They were read by the current reverend Jim Cotter,
0:52:50 > 0:52:53who has inherited a parish from a poet.
0:52:53 > 0:52:57Jim, who was RS Thomas?
0:52:57 > 0:53:02RS Thomas was probably the greatest poet in Wales in the 20th century
0:53:02 > 0:53:04writing in the English language.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07I can't judge poetry in the Welsh language but certainly
0:53:07 > 0:53:10he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for literature.
0:53:10 > 0:53:12He didn't get it, but he was nominated
0:53:12 > 0:53:15so he was very highly thought of in the literature world.
0:53:15 > 0:53:20- I see.- And he kept on moving westwards throughout his adult life.
0:53:20 > 0:53:24- He was brought up on Anglesey - Holyhead...- Yeah.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27He started off near the English border at Chirk
0:53:27 > 0:53:33and then, parish by parish, moved further west until he ended,
0:53:33 > 0:53:37I think the last 12 years - 1967-1978 -
0:53:37 > 0:53:39he was vicar of Aberdaron, here.
0:53:39 > 0:53:46RS Thomas was obviously very well known and, to some, known as perhaps a bit of a grump or a recluse.
0:53:46 > 0:53:48What did people think of him?
0:53:48 > 0:53:52Er, yes, there's different feelings about him.
0:53:52 > 0:53:56If you talk to people on the farms here, particularly,
0:53:56 > 0:54:00I think you'll find people say he was a shy man
0:54:00 > 0:54:03but he would come and do good by stealth.
0:54:03 > 0:54:09He wore a huge...poacher's overcoat
0:54:09 > 0:54:12with very capacious pockets inside.
0:54:12 > 0:54:18He baked bread as a hobby and he would take loaves of bread and put them on the kitchen tables
0:54:18 > 0:54:20- and visit those who were ill.- Oh, wow.
0:54:20 > 0:54:24And he would sit with people quite companionably in the evening.
0:54:24 > 0:54:28And there are a lot of people who remember that.
0:54:28 > 0:54:33His more public persona was a bit grumpy and, rumour has it,
0:54:33 > 0:54:38he would pretend not to speak English in August, so as not to speak to the tourists.
0:54:38 > 0:54:40Are you a keen reader of his poetry?
0:54:40 > 0:54:45I've always been attracted to his poetry and I read it...off and on,
0:54:45 > 0:54:51- probably since...certainly since my 30s if not before.- Oh, right!
0:54:51 > 0:54:55- So how was it when you came to this church?- That was a great gift.
0:54:56 > 0:55:02It's interesting that, because now, 10, 11 years after his death,
0:55:02 > 0:55:06there's beginning to be an RS Thomas industry - research students.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09It's not a great flood of people but there's a continuous stream
0:55:09 > 0:55:13of people coming down because of the RS Thomas connection now.
0:55:13 > 0:55:18- Is that a good thing?- Yes. I think it's very good.
0:55:32 > 0:55:39In his poem Pilgrimage, RS Thomas describes the perilous crossing to Bardsey.
0:55:39 > 0:55:41It's a journey that fascinates me, too.
0:55:42 > 0:55:47There is no body in the stained window of the sky now
0:55:47 > 0:55:49Am I too late?
0:55:49 > 0:55:53Were they too late, also Those first pilgrims?
0:55:53 > 0:55:55He is such a fast God
0:55:55 > 0:56:00Always before us And leaving as we arrive.
0:56:02 > 0:56:07I can imagine the pilgrims reaching this point and seeing Bardsey just across the water
0:56:07 > 0:56:10and thinking, "Yes! We've nearly made it."
0:56:10 > 0:56:13They'd have launched their little boats from this inlet down here,
0:56:13 > 0:56:19which is essentially a windy, rocky, wave-battered cove of danger.
0:56:28 > 0:56:33To end my journey, I just had to catch a ride and get out on the water.
0:56:38 > 0:56:43I can't help feeling those determined pilgrims, on their way to Bardsey,
0:56:43 > 0:56:47rushed past the beauty and tranquillity of the Lleyn Peninsula.
0:56:47 > 0:56:51Had they climbed to the hill-fort homes of their ancestors,
0:56:51 > 0:56:54or lingered a while longer on the pretty coastal roads,
0:56:54 > 0:56:57or even spent an afternoon gazing at the choughs
0:56:57 > 0:56:59rising and falling on the breeze,
0:56:59 > 0:57:03I wonder if Bardsey would have had quite so many visitors.
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