Episode 2 Countryfile Winter Diaries

The days may be some of the shortest in the year,

and the hours are the darkest,

but winter casts its own special spell.

A time to embrace the magic of our wonderful British landscape...

..be captivated by our wildlife...

..and enjoy the bracing great outdoors.

The season may be beautiful, but winter's not without its problems.

All week, we're travelling the length and breadth of the UK...

The sieves make perfect feeders.

Brilliant! And do you know what? My kids would love to do this.

..bringing the very best seasonal stories that matter to you.

We've had landslides, the railway moved 40 metres towards the sea.

It's a real challenge to look after.

A warm welcome to Countryfile Winter Diaries.

And here's what we've got for you on today's programme.

That's a great view!

You can see for miles!

Paul's on a mission to show us why our forests are in danger.

This is what this fungus does,

it attacks the needles and, once it's established here,

you won't get rid of it.

Margherita discovers how the winter cold can take a terrible toll

on some of our most vulnerable loved ones.

How does the cold and winter affect your health?

Last year, it was five times I was in hospital.

And I'll be showing you what it takes to survive winter

on a remote island.

All week, we're here on Anglesey.

This is Llanddwyn Island, and there's plenty to see and do here,

with its salt marshes and sand dunes.

And it's also known for these curious rock formations.

Known as pillow lava rocks,

they were formed by ancient undersea volcanoes.

But how do they get their name?

Well, some say they look like pillows.

There's cold comfort here as the icy wind blasts through but, of course,

I'm lucky enough to have a nice, warm home to go back to.

But for many of us, winter comes with a real threat.

Four million families across the UK are trapped in fuel poverty,

facing heating bills they simply can't afford.

Last winter claimed thousands of lives,

with the elderly the most vulnerable.

But Margherita's on the case to find out what we can all do

to help keep our loved ones safe and warm.

What could be lovelier?

A picture postcard English village with a dusting of snow.

Aston Abbotts in Buckinghamshire.

But behind many front doors across the UK,

there's a battle going on right now, a battle to stay warm -

and in some cases, stay alive.

It's a plight that 71-year-old Elaine Harris knows only too well.

Elaine, hi! Can I come in?

-Yes, certainly.

-Thanks!

Elaine has lived here for 41 years.

She brought up her family here and can't imagine living anywhere else.

But winters are getting tougher and tougher to get through.

Especially with severe asthma.

Well, you hope it's going to be a mild winter.

But then it turns out like this,

and then you worry even more because you think,

"Oh, well, how am I going to cope?"

And I notice that even inside your house, you've got so many layers on.

-Yeah, I've got three.

-In the middle of the afternoon now, and...

Jumper, dressing gown...

Yeah, three layers. I've got to keep warm. Yes.

And how does the cold and winter affect your health?

Well, if you're not careful,

I'll end up going into hospital

with chest infections because, last year,

it was five times I was in hospital.

Why don't you put the heating on at home?

Because we can't afford it.

We only have this fire on, and it's just all electric.

My son's got one in his bedroom,

and there's one in the bedroom I use.

And the cost is astronomical.

What percentage of your income is going on keeping warm?

Well, I get £80 a week,

and, last week, we spent nearly £60

in five days.

And then you've got food, and then you've got your water

and what have you.

So, what sacrifices are you making just to keep warm?

It's a struggle at times.

But you learn...

You learn to economise. Like, you don't...

You don't cook meals.

You have sandwiches.

And things like that, to save money.

So, you're missing out hot meals,

so you can keep the house warm.

Because we just couldn't afford to have the cooker on.

And what happens at Christmas?

Well, we'll probably have some cold meat,

and a few vegetables.

And that...that'll be it.

Can you see a way out of this?

No.

That's why I keep well wrapped up.

Elaine is one of a million pensioners

believed to be in fuel poverty.

But there are another three million people

across the UK struggling to meet their heating bills.

And the problem's even more acute here in the countryside, where

older, less energy-efficient homes

mean more people are living in fuel poverty

than they are in the average town.

And high energy costs and static wages

mean more and more villages

are finding staying warm in the winter a real struggle.

But for the very worst-off,

this fight to stay warm can have serious health consequences.

Gabby Mallett is director of operations

at the National Energy Foundation.

It has a sort of chicken and egg impact, really.

If you have a health condition already, it will make it worse.

If you don't have a health condition, then it can give you one.

And it's not just the cost of getting someone's house warm -

if it's not warm, that costs us as a society.

Yeah, there's an enormous cost to the NHS.

Estimates are that the NHS is going to spend about £22 billion over

the next 15 years, treating people who have these kinds of conditions.

Because they're in fuel poverty.

And it's not just a monetary cost to the NHS.

-This is costing lives.

-Oh, it is, absolutely.

If you look at last year's statistics,

about 34,000 extra people died

because they're living in cold homes.

But surely a winter fuel allowance of up to £300 makes a difference?

That just goes to the energy companies - people use it

to pay their fuel bills.

It's not making any difference to their fuel bills for the future.

So, if that money was spent on energy efficiency measures,

people would be saving money next year,

the year after and the year after that.

If they want to make a genuine difference to these people,

in terms of fuel poverty and in terms of their health,

then they need to invest a lot of money

and they need to invest it soon.

The first step to a warmer home is to make it as energy efficient

as possible.

So we asked assessor Andy Stevens to check out Elaine's house

to see what savings she could make.

An assessment free to anyone on a low income,

in poor health or at risk.

Simple measures like energy-saving light bulbs

could save you £6 per bulb a year.

Foil behind radiators, another ten.

Stand-by plugs cost £20.

But you could easily recoup that in a year.

And always be sure to shop around

for the cheapest energy tariff.

But in Elaine's case, there are bigger problems.

Obviously, it's hard not to bring up the heating situation first of all.

It's obviously not working.

I don't know how long that's not been working for.

-Yeah, three, four years.

-Three years...

So, you've been without heating and hot water for three years.

We have to boil a kettle if we want a wash or whatever.

OK, that's frightening. It's a big concern.

The temperatures upstairs in the bedrooms are 12 degrees,

which is not safe living.

I know you re used to the temperatures in the house.

Does it worry you that he's worried?

You don't...you don't realise yourself,

you just get on with your life.

But when somebody comes in and says, "It shouldn't be like this,

"you should have such and such," you think,

"Yes, I really ought to do something about it."

Especially when you're not well.

That's it.

Advisers like Andy from LEAP, the Local Energy Advisory Programme,

can get you the help you need over grants and allowances.

What we have found is that she's potentially

not claiming the Warm Home Discount,

which is also potential money back in her pocket of £140 a year,

off the energy company.

So, after Andy's visit, what do you think?

I think it's very good, and with the money that we save,

it will make a lot of difference.

I mean, even £20 a year is a lot...

Makes a lot of difference.

And if he's going to refer us to the people about our heating,

that will take a lot off of our shoulders

because we won't have to worry so much.

So, even the small changes today will make a big difference.

Yes, it will.

It's surprising what a difference just changing light bulbs will make.

You know, you don't realise what a difference it will make.

Once Elaine submits the paperwork,

she should be able to get a new boiler. Fingers crossed.

Whilst these energy-saving measures are far from the complete solution

to the dangers that fuel poverty can pose, they are a few small steps.

A few small steps that we can all take to save a bit of cash and,

hopefully, stay warm and well this winter.

Let's all try and do everything we can to help

our most vulnerable during the winter.

Now, at this time of year, you won't see many farm animals out in their

pastures. Most, like these beef cattle,

are tucked up nice and snug in their barns.

But it is a good time of year to get close

to many of our domestic breeds, at several of the winter fairs,

the length and breadth of the country,

where magnificent beasts like these are primped and preened

to within an inch of their lives.

But how many of us really realise that whilst the judges have their

say, it's actually you and I who really decide which of these

magnificent animals will go home with the top prizes?

I popped down to Builth Wells to find out more.

When it comes to fashion, forget Paris, London and Milan.

At this time of year, farmyard trend spotters head to

the catwalks of Builth Wells for the Royal Welsh Winter Show.

Backstage, an army of beauticians are hard at work,

glamming up the farmyard versions of Naomi, Kate and Cara.

Coats look glossy, fluffy and freshly powdered.

Well, I tell you what, I wouldn't have had my hair cut if I'd known

this was going on today.

This year, Welsh Black cattle are in vogue,

with more than 2,000 entries in the show.

Owners Ben and Ross, the Dolce & Gabbana of the cattle world,

have been preparing these two beauties for months,

with daily workouts and weekly shampoos.

-Then we put the black soap on first...

-Yeah.

We rub that in and then brush it up. Just to make them...

It gives them more volume in the coat. Then we apply the spray.

-Yeah.

-Just put it on then, to make them look more shiny.

Well, I think it's probably safer if I leave you

to the technical side, but I'm quite happy to give you a hand

-with the old hairdryer.

-Yes, definite, yeah.

-Right, fire it up, then!

-OK.

Wow!

-You're just back-brushing it, like that?

-Yeah.

Looks like I'm on Rear Of The Year!

I just had his hair, look!

Well, boys, as long as you don't show them that bit,

you might get away with it. I'll leave it to you!

In the judging ring, there's no room for size zero.

These supermodels are definitely plus-sized, and that's the point.

These beefcakes will be judged on the quality of their meat

and what we want on our plates.

I'm meeting Rob Rattray, an award-winning butcher

who's competed and judged here for the last 20 years.

He certainly knows what the judges are looking for.

The most important thing is, when he judges them individually,

he'll be putting his hands on them to see how much cover there is on

the loin, where the sirloin steak is, and how much fat cover is on the

base of the tail. So, really, you've got to handle these cattle.

You can make them look beautiful and smart and shiny,

but if you want to buy them,

you want to feel them and touch to see if they're fat enough.

Unlike the fashion world, where fat is mentioned in a whisper,

here, it's shouted from the rafters because fat means flavour.

I remember my mother taking me to the butcher's in the 1970s.

She didn't ask for anything with fat on, because everybody thought it was

a bad idea, it would make you fat.

But, of course, we now know that sugar is the real culprit.

Do you think that's helping us to get back into meat with fat?

Yes. There was a push for lean meat.

I think that was spoiling the meat trade, to be honest with you.

-Thanks to all these TV celebrity chefs...

-Right.

..they've taught us again that we need fat on our meat,

and good marbling inside the meat, to make it tasty.

And have the best tender steaks.

Beef is our Sunday roast favourite,

but pork's not so on trend.

Pig prices have toppled by a third,

and the Welsh pig population is down by 8%.

But David Lang, competitor and head of the Welsh Pig Association,

is determined his Large Blacks, the UK's only black pig,

will return to hog the limelight.

Now, you will tell me, I'm sure, that large Blacks are the best bacon

and pork pigs going.

Everybody that keeps a pig will tell you the same thing.

-Yeah.

-You know, I personally find the Large Black are the best.

They're the rarest of the rare breeds,

so I feel that I'm doing my little bit to keep them going.

-Yeah. We've always been a nation of bacon sandwich lovers.

-Yeah.

But we seem to be going for those bigger cuts now.

Especially the rare breed pigs.

-Yeah.

-The rare breed pigs are definitely making a comeback.

Because the taste, the crackling, everything about them,

people are realising that they're so good.

If pork has been falling off the catwalk,

Welsh lamb is getting all the front pages.

In the last seven years,

the numbers of sheep grazing in the Welsh valleys have shot up by more

than two million.

In fashion-forward shopping,

the latest trend is for consumers to buy locally sourced produce.

So, with that in mind, butcher Rob can tell us

what we need to look for.

Do you think, as consumers, we've become more discerning about meat?

Yes, I think so. It's becoming more and more popular

that we buy food from local farms,

slaughtered locally, and buy it locally as well.

-This is what it's all about, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-High-quality meat.

So, what should we be looking for when we're selecting our meat in

-the butcher's or the supermarket?

-Well, this leg of lamb here now,

and a half shoulder of bone-rolled lamb,

you need a nice cover of white fat over it.

A piece of sirloin there with a good cover of fat

and the natural marbling inside it.

That will give it lovely flavour as it cooks.

Now, marbling is all the rage at the moment.

For anybody not in the know,

just to talk us through what marbling really is.

It's this little bit of fat that's in the meat itself.

-Yeah. Those sort of veins of fat.

-Yeah, yeah.

On the sirloin, you don't see it so much.

When you go further along into the rib,

you'll see bigger lumps of marbling in the rib itself.

That helps it cook and give it the flavour.

Also, in beef, you want to see little dark

rim outside, on the outside of it, just under the fat,

and they call that, like, a ring of confidence.

It shows it's been dry hung.

So, that's another thing to give the consumer the confidence.

From a ring of confidence to the ring of champions.

Whoever clinches the title gets the front cover.

-Now, Ross and Ben are in here with their two.

-Yes.

It will be very interesting to see how they actually get on.

-Yeah, they're in a very, very tough class.

-Is it possible

to quantify what winning here means in financial terms?

It could be worth anything from, say,

£1,400 to £1,650, £1,700 tops, right.

But if that animal happened to become champion of the show,

it could easily be something like

-4, 5, 6, 10, 12,000, even.

-Wow! Ten times their value.

-Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

-For that ribbon.

But it's only the one animal who has that champion rosette, you see.

-Are we approaching that moment when we'll know?

-We could be.

APPLAUSE

ANNOUNCEMENT OVER TANNOY

-So, now we know, Rob.

-Yes. He'll be a very happy owner, won't he?

I would say so! Would you have picked that as the winner?

-I'd be quite happy to have picked that, yeah.

-Yeah.

It might be disappointment for Ben and Ross,

but David's bringing home the bacon.

We got first for the pair.

-Were you expecting that?

-Yes.

Well, that's the winter done.

Time for these supermodels to get some beauty sleep.

Well, there certainly were some very worthy winners there.

Now, there is nothing to beat a winter's walk

in one of our many forests. There are over 100 across the UK.

They are a winter wonderland that all the family can enjoy.

But there are some assassins on the loose now

threatening their very survival.

Paul is on the case.

Isn't that a magnificent sight? I love trees!

I'm so passionate about them.

And that's why I was terribly excited

when we planted these up, last winter.

And they're doing really, really well.

And hopefully they'll be here for many more generations to come.

But the same cannot be said about our forests.

Millions of trees each year are dying,

as disease reaches epidemic levels.

And I want to try and track down the culprits.

Britain's forests are glorious all year round.

But only 13% of the UK is covered by woodland,

nothing compared to countries like Greece and Italy,

which have almost double that.

There are plans for a Great Northern Forest

of 50 million trees,

but, in the meantime, what we have is under threat.

My worry is bugs.

Bugs like Dutch elm disease,

which caused carnage in the '70s.

Spread by bark beetle, millions of our elms

were killed across the UK.

Could something as devastating happen again?

Winter is the perfect time for a health check.

My first line of inquiry brings me to the New Forest,

to meet James Aldred, a wildlife cameraman

who's never happier than when he's climbing the treetops

of his youth, and giving the forest a bird's eye health check.

James, it's great to meet you. You're a fellow tree lover.

I love my trees as well. But this place is special for you.

The New Forest. I mean, you grew up around here.

Has it changed much since you were a kid?

Overall, I think that the forest these days

is under a lot more pressure

from people, from visitors.

You can sort of feel the whole forest groaning under the weight

of the amount of holiday-makers here.

And there's a lot of levels of protection.

Obviously, it was made a national park a few years back.

It's absolutely stunning. There's something about a deciduous tree,

once it's lost its leaves in the winter, when it's backlit like that,

-the trees look so sculptural, it creates a silhouette.

-Yeah.

-It's beautiful.

-Well, it's interesting you say that, because

you can look at clues in the shape that a tree has grown into...

-Sure.

-And you can tell what sort of life it's had,

because they're very responsive. They're sort of exposed to

environmental pressures, like any other living thing.

Yeah. We go on, we bang on about how we have to save the rainforest,

and quite rightly so, because what's happening out there is devastating,

but what's happening here in our forests?

Well, forests are very dynamic places.

You know, they come and go. And they do need stewardship.

There are pathogens and diseases

which do come in across from mainland Europe.

But up until very recently, of course, the saving grace

-is the fact that Britain is an island.

-Yes.

And it's hard for these things to get in.

But now, you know, with air travel and all that,

someone can have breakfast in America

and walk around on American soil, get on a plane and be back in London

and walking out in Richmond Park within 24 hours.

That could mean visitors unwittingly introducing or carrying

disease, but to really see the wood from the trees,

we need to climb one, and James has picked out a childhood favourite.

There's a lovely beech tree up here that I want to introduce you to.

-Come on, then.

-It's a tree I used to climb when I was a teenager.

Very special.

Beech trees are common in the UK,

growing to a height of 130 feet or more.

And they can live for hundreds of years.

So, there you go.

That's some tree. Look at that! Look at the girth!

That's a few hundred years old.

-Yeah. About 350, we reckon.

-Yeah.

Oak trees are recognised as the king of trees, but the beech,

in all its majesty, is often called the queen.

Do you know what? It's a lot easier than it looks.

Good. Exactly.

And with its heavy canopy now gone,

we can get a closer look to inspect the forest's health.

That's a great view!

Do you know, you can see for miles, can't you?

-It is fantastic, isn't it?

-Yeah!

-It just opens it all up.

What can you tell about the forest from up here,

and the state of it, that you couldn't tell from down there?

I mean, this is where all the life is, up in the canopy.

Much more three-dimensional environment

than standing down there.

It looks very, very healthy, to me.

There's lots of dead wood, which, paradoxically,

I take as a good sign.

It's good, strong habitat.

Great for birds and for mammals.

So, are you generally happy and optimistic

about the state of our forests?

I am optimistic, as long as we don't get complacent.

And, of course, the big threat these days is disease,

pathogens, fungal infection from

-different parts of the world, you know?

-Sure.

Problems that these trees

haven't evolved to be able to deal with.

These invading diseases are a menace.

Today, ash dieback is threatening Britain's 80 million ash trees.

But I want to know what other lethal bugs are targeting our woodlands.

Dr Joan Webber, a top pathologist at the Forestry Commission,

is tailing the assassins with me.

So, what kind of bugs and diseases

are attacking our trees right now?

Well, all different sorts. Some of them are pretty common things,

just the equivalent of coughs and cold ailments

that you or I might have.

And then you can get much more damaging sorts of disorders.

So, that might be, or is very often, the ones that are introduced.

They become more damaging

because they're new to the trees, and the trees

-haven't had an opportunity to evolve resistance.

-Ah.

And already on this short walk, Joan has spotted another blight.

Well, this is a really good example

of the impact that a disease can have on a tree.

Some Corsican pine. If you look through that stand of trees,

immediately you're struck by how much light you can see.

-You can actually see through them, can't you?

-You can. You can.

And then if you count up those whorls...

-BOTH:

-One, two, three, four, five, six...

-There's about six.

-When you get up to the sixth one,

it's only then you start to see needles on those branches.

And, as you can see, they're really just concentrated

-at the tips of the branches.

-They're just on the tips, aren't they?

-They are.

-There, it's all the way up the branch.

-Absolutely.

-And all the way down the bottom.

-Absolutely, yes.

And this is what this fungus does.

It attacks the needles, and so they're shed prematurely.

Red band needle hails from the southern hemisphere,

and has been rampant since arriving in British forests in the '50s.

The tree needs the energy from the needles to thrive.

Without it, it can die.

-Once it's established here, you won't get rid of it...

-Really?

..but it's whether you can tip the balance and put it more

in the tree's favour, and take the balance away from the pathogen.

Gosh, that's quite frightening.

Hopefully, the introduction of more-resistant species will see off

the fungus, but I want to take a closer look to home.

Are British trees in trouble?

Well, there's no doubt that we're seeing a number

of introduced organisms which really are having an impact.

-And that isn't something that's necessarily new.

-Mm.

If you look back to the 1960s, '70s,

we were seeing the arrival of maybe one new pest

or pathogen each decade.

-Yeah.

-Now we're seeing that almost every couple of years.

Some of these infections can spread like wildfire.

Back in 2000, there were just four reports of bleeding canker,

attacking our horse chestnuts.

But seven years later, around half the UK population was affected.

But there are things we can do to help.

If you find something like that, what should you do?

Well, most people have a phone with a camera in their pocket,

so I would say, take a picture of the symptom that you see.

Also, the entire tree, so we get a bit of an idea

of the context as well.

And then the Forestry Commission has something called Tree Alert,

which is an online reporting tool.

-And so you can go to that...

-Yeah.

-..and essentially say,

"I've got something to report, something that might be

"out of the ordinary. Here are the pictures."

The New Forest has more than 13 million visitors every year.

And our presence helps bugs and nasties to flourish -

and to spread.

So, what can we all do to keep our forests in the best of health?

Lots.

The Forestry Commission recommend you take a few simple measures

whenever you go for a walk.

Clean your walking shoes, child buggy wheels, bicycles,

even your dog's paws.

Simple precautions which could really help to make a difference.

I couldn't imagine a world without trees.

They are the lungs of nature.

And they help us keep alive.

So we should do our bit to make sure they're fit and healthy

so the next generation can enjoy them for years to come.

Thanks, Paul. Some really useful advice there,

that we can all follow.

Now, Paul, of course, was in the New Forest, and that is certainly on

our list of top forests and woodlands to visit during the winter.

It's an ancient landscape dating back to William the Conqueror,

and home to the New Forest pony.

These little chaps easily cope with the winter cold, and are known as

the architects of the forest,

as their foraging has helped shape the landscape.

Up in Scotland, in the pine forests of the Cairngorms,

there's a stillness and silence in the winter that's hard to beat.

And if you're lucky, you might spot the crested tit -

a pinewood specialist which likes northern climes.

Snowdonia has some wonderful forest and woodland to explore on

the southern reaches of the national park.

But if remote wilds don't take your fancy,

step out in gardens like Studley Royal Park

in North Yorkshire...

..where trees form an amphitheatre for the water features,

statues and the ruins of medieval Fountains Abbey.

Here on Anglesey, I'm loving my walk through the Dingle Nature Reserve.

25 acres of steep wooded valley,

with this very pretty river at the bottom.

I have to confess, I think there is something rather magical about

exploring the woodland during the winter,

when all the leaves have gone.

It reveals the landscape in a way that isn't always obvious during

the height of summer. And, not surprisingly,

it's also a great place for bird-watching, too.

One of the joys of the winter months is the sight of migrating birds,

perhaps none more so than geese gracing our grey skies

in their familiar V-formation.

The pattern means they can fly in each other's slipstreams,

conserving energy, and it's thought that some geese can fly

up to 1,500 miles a day, at over 70mph.

Over in the Cotswolds,

Ellie is getting ready for a very special take-off.

I've come to a gliding club in the heart of the Cotswolds

to meet a family of Greylag geese

with an unconventional mother.

When these geese hatched, the first moving object they saw

was Rose Buck.

Good lads! Go on, Thomas!

So they instinctively thought she was their mother and followed her,

even as adults.

It's known as imprinting.

-Hi, Rose, good to see you.

-Oh, hi, Ellie! Good to see you, too.

-These are your lovely greylags.

-I know. Fantastic, aren't they?

-Yeah!

How much work is involved in imprinting them?

It's a huge amount of work. As soon as they hatched,

I spent 24 hours a day with them,

until they were four weeks old.

And we spent the whole time together, forming that bond.

And now they'll follow you in flight.

How do they behave as a group when they're doing that?

I'm always the lead goose.

They're always looking to see what I'm doing.

And they switch around.

Will they communicate with each other as they would do in the wild

-when they're flying with you?

-Oh, yes, they absolutely do.

I mean, I talk to them a lot when we're flying,

to encourage them, and "Come on, guys!"

And, "You're doing really well!"

Which is exactly what they do in the wild.

Now for the moment I've been waiting for -

A bird's eye view of one of nature's most recognisable sights.

They're on their way now.

And we're off! Here we go! Yeah!

-Woohoo!

-Look at that, right overheard!

Hello! That's beautiful.

So quickly they've taken flight, that's amazing!

Come on, boys!

Right next to us now! Look at that, what a view!

This is amazing. I am cheek-to-beak with these beautiful greylags.

SHE CHUCKLES

Love it.

-Come on, boys!

-What a sight!

This is the formation they'll be in for thousands of miles of migration.

From this distance, you can really see

how each bird benefits from the one in front.

You really get a sense of being part of this formation

when you fly like this.

Come on, then!

Good boys!

Rose is communicating to them.

There's a few vocalisations going on, which helps them.

That's another reason for flying in this formation.

Come on!

It really makes you appreciate what an almighty migration

birds like these undertake, year in, year out,

to reach their wintering grounds.

Here we go. End of the runway now.

Woohoo! Hey!

That was fabulous!

-Well done!

-Good boys!

What a spectacle.

You can't help but marvel at the magic of nature.

But I also marvel at some of our man-made structures

as well, like this, the Menai Suspension Bridge.

Built in the 1820s by engineer Thomas Telford,

it opened in 1826.

It sits 100 feet above the water so that tall ships could then pass

underneath it. And it's supported by a central chain that weighs

a staggering 23.5 tonnes.

How they got that up there in the 1820s,

I simply do not know.

Not surprisingly, of course,

it is a national treasure.

And very much the gateway to the rest of Anglesey.

I love this island and, whenever I visit,

I usually flirt with the idea of moving here.

But have you ever fantasised about life on a tiny island

without a bridge to the mainland?

What would life be like, especially during the winter?

Well, Keeley's off to Northern Ireland's only inhabited island

to find out what it takes to survive.

Preparing for winter is one thing, if you live on the mainland,

but what about if you live out there?

For islanders, battling a tough winter and facing the threat

of being cut off is just part of everyday life.

So, what does it take to be an islander,

and do you need a certain kind of mentality

to brace yourself for the worst that nature can throw at you?

It was touch-and-go whether I'd even get to Rathlin,

as storms stopped the ferry.

But, this morning, we're good to go, from Ballycastle on the mainland.

Rathlin is just 5.5 square miles,

a tiny dot on the Straits Of Moyle,

where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Irish Sea.

It's Northern Ireland's only inhabited island,

and home to around 150 islanders,

like ferry skipper John McQuilkin.

-Hello, there, John.

-Hello, Keeley.

His family has been on Rathlin for five generations.

So, how long have you worked on the ferry?

I've been working on the ferry now for the past eight...nine years.

Worked myself up to skipper, and I've been skipper now

for the last three or four years.

And how vital is it to the island?

It's very vital, it's a lifeline...

A lifeline to the island. This is our means of transport.

Everything has to come in on a boat.

Supplies, shopping, the fuel lorry.

All your farming equipment.

-Vans for workmen.

-Everything...

-Everything has to come in by boat.

And what happens if the ferry is cancelled, then?

There's been no boat now this week. Thursday, Friday, there's no boat.

So this is the first boat since Wednesday.

If you had planned to go somewhere, you were stuck.

Everybody knows now if there's going to be a bad forecast to get well

-stocked up.

-Have to be well prepared, then.

You have to be well prepared, yeah.

Do you think it takes a certain kind of person to be an islander?

It does, yes. You have to be

more or less brought up in it to get into island life.

And does everybody get on?

-They do.

-You must all know each other's business inside and out.

Maybe too much at times.

The main centre of Rathlin is the port, Church Bay.

There's a primary school for eight children,

a post office, a gift shop, even a cashpoint in the pub.

All powered by subsea cables.

But even with the arrival of power and new technology, and the fact

that Rathlin's only a few miles from the mainland,

it still needs to be ready to be wholly self-sufficient.

Because you never know what winter can throw at you.

Rathlin is one of more than 1,000 islands in the UK.

All of us are islanders, of course,

and self-sufficiency is built in to our DNA.

But it's writ large here on Rathlin, and I'm curious to know more.

And there's no better place to find out than the local pub.

Come on.

Do you think it takes a certain type of mentality to live somewhere

-like this?

-Oh, it does, yeah. It does, indeed.

It's not easy for somebody to come in and live on an island.

If you're born into it, I suppose it's different. It's what you're

used to. But I think you have to be content not to be wanting to run

to the cinema or run for social things.

We have enough here to keep us going,

but you have to, yeah, be more content with your own company.

And sitting at your fire shed at night-time.

A big fire roaring up the chimney.

-Do you love living here?

-Love it. Love it.

And I'd recommend it to anybody.

It's great for families, bringing up children.

It is. It's a good environment. It's terrific for us.

Have you got any tips for when you are cut off,

how you get through a spell of weather like that?

You must be organised. You have to be very organised

to live on Rathlin. You do your big shop once a fortnight.

You fill up your freezer, you fill up your store cupboards.

When you've got birthdays coming up or Christmas coming up,

you do your shopping six weeks, two months in advance!

-Very organised!

-Organised, and you're always prepared.

And I never was in the Girl Guides.

Do you ever run out of milk?

That would be the one thing you might run out of but, again,

you always have a couple of pints in the freezer.

And that's different. In years gone by, when things weren't so easy on

the island, we never run out of milk because we all had our own cows.

They're made of strong stuff, these islanders.

But, then, it's unsurprising. They come from hardy stock.

In the '50s, life for their forebears

meant milk and butter arriving on four legs.

Beef cattle were a lifeline, but getting them to the mainland

to sell meant wrestling them onto an open 30-foot boat.

The land and the sea were Rathlin's larder and, way back when,

islanders used to scale cliffs to rescue wrecked sailors

or forage on the ledges.

There was only one car on the island,

and that was for the district nurse.

Life's a bit easier now,

though it was only a decade ago that Rathlin was finally connected

to the mainland's electricity supply.

There's little that fazes the islanders.

Local historian Kevin McGowan has popped over from the mainland

to tell me more.

Do you think islanders need a certain kind of mentality to get

through those tough conditions?

They do, they're a breed of their own.

They're definitely a lot hardier and tougher than us, us mainland folk.

-It's a way of life.

-You know a lot about the history of Rathlin.

The history of Rathlin's fascinating.

I'm very passionate and it's somewhere I love.

And it's uncorrupted like a lot of the rest of it,

because you have such a small pool of people, I suppose, here.

Probably the best example I can give you of deprivation

would have been if we went back to March of 1938.

And the island had been cut off from the mainland for four weeks.

-Four weeks?

-It got so bad after the 26th day, the rector,

he actually had to send off an SOS, and James Craig,

who was the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland at that time,

he sent a response unit out, of three military aircraft

to lift provisions onto the island.

But if you look around, you'll notice now there's no airfields,

there were no places of landing on the island.

So, the islanders, they actually made a bit of a runway,

just by burning the local hedges

to direct the planes down onto the island. So, it was quite unique.

Industrious, then!

Do you think mainlanders could learn a thing or two from island folk?

Probably one of the best would be the patience.

You definitely need strength of mind, I would imagine,

to live on the island. But anybody that is lucky enough to live here,

I'm sure, loves it. They would tell you the same story.

Multitasking might be the buzzword of the 21st-century,

but Rathliners have been doing it for years.

Take John, who I met earlier.

When he's not on the ferry, he also looks after his farm,

works as a fireman and coastguard.

And I presume they're vital for the island to keep going?

Well, they are, yeah. Because there is no...

For the Fire Service to come from the mainland,

you're talking two hours.

You have to go out on the ferry to get a fire engine in.

So, it's vital to have facilities on the island.

-You must be exhausted.

-Not too bad.

Is island life hard?

Oh, it is hard, yeah. Yeah, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

Love farming. Love working in the seas.

That's me.

I've learnt a lot from Rathliners' can-do attitude.

And I love the island itself.

Dramatic, rugged coastline, windswept hills,

and, of course, all that glorious wildlife.

From puffins and grey seals to dolphins

in the wild surrounding waters.

A harsh winter can bring challenges for all of us,

but when you live on an island, like any remote community,

you have to think a bit differently and you have to be prepared.

Here on the Rathlin, the sense of community

and tranquillity really makes it worthwhile.

Do you know what? I can see the appeal.

But for now, I've got a ferry to catch.

What a beautiful island that is.

It's definitely going on my bucket list as a place to visit.

But, in the meantime, be sure to join us tomorrow,

when, in a Countryfile Diaries exclusive,

I meet 2012 Olympic legend Sir Ben Ainslie,

who's on a mission to save our oceans

from the devastation of plastic.

You know, it's really disheartening to be out there

in a beautiful ocean, middle of nowhere, and you're coming across

this wasteland of plastic.

And find out why this simple invention could lead the revolution.

That's incredible to think that's just a few hours!

Keeley finds out why surfing is good for body and soul.

So, are you going to look after me out there?

-We'll look after you.

-Yahoo!

And I'll be revealing why wearing wellies could be

affecting your feet.

So, until then, goodbye.