Episode 16 Landward

If white, sandy beaches,

clear blue water, lochs and hills are your thing,

then you and I have come to the right place.

This is the stunning Outer Hebrides.

Hello, and a very warm welcome to Landward from the Outer Hebrides.

Over the next half an hour,

we'll be island-hopping between Barra, Eriskay, South and North Uist.

Here's a taste of what you'll see.

Sarah tries a cockle.

-Take a bite out of it.

-I've had worse. That's actually nice!

I take shelter from a storm in Lochmaddy's new marina.

Listen to that wind! Unbelievable.

We had a gust of 41 knots earlier on.

And we meet the punk rocker who's fallen in love with abandoned crofts.

This is a tale of two journeys.

I'll be travelling around North Uist

while Sarah begins her trip on the islands on Barra and Eriskay.

And she also strikes it lucky by getting to experience the best

possible way of arriving here.

Yeah, that's right, Dougie, I've got a bit of catching up to do.

I'm actually starting here at Glasgow Airport.

I feel very privileged working on Landward, not just because of

the people that I get to meet who share their stories,

but also because of some of the places I get to visit.

And today I'm pretty excited because I'm taking what's considered

to be one of THE most special flights in the world.

I'm on my way to the island of Barra.

The flight lasts around an hour,

passing over some of the west coast's most stunning scenery.

And, at the end of it all, we land on a beach...obviously!

This is amazing.

How smooth was that?

That flight, that experience, is so famous that, look,

people have just come down to watch the plane land.

And look at that view when you arrive. That is amazing.

Just 20 minutes after landing,

and the beach is returned to its normal tranquillity.

I'm still buzzing from that landing.

It was absolutely fabulous to come in on the beach.

I suppose, in terms of airport jobs, is yours

one of the best in the world?

Well, I would say it is. When you look at the place around you here...

when it's like this, it's a lovely office.

Neil Maclean is one of the handful of full-time staff

who run the airport.

What are the biggest challenges with this job?

The single biggest challenge in effect is keeping

people off the beach when the Aerodrome's open.

Because the beach itself isn't fenced off,

people can access it from any direction.

So, you've got to be quite wary of people coming on.

What are the challenges with flying a plane onto a beach?

Well, at the end of the day, what we've got to do is make

sure that the surface is appropriate for the aircraft.

Basically, we check the beach twice a day

so, when the tide's coming in, the tide will drop off flotsam,

jetsam, the occasional dead bird, barrels and what have you.

Basically, we ensure that none of that stuff's left lying about

because, of course, if that hits the aircraft,

it could cause quite a bit of mischief.

We came in one morning and, just up there,

somebody had built a beautiful sandcastle.

-Oh, don't say that you ruined the sandcastle!

-I'm afraid so.

So, sandcastle-free,

this beach provides a vital link to the mainland for goods and visitors.

But there's another way it contributes to the local economy.

-Donald? Hello, how are you doing? Sarah.

-Hello.

-You're hard at work.

-Yes, aye.

This is one of the best cockle beaches around.

Donald Maclean runs Barratlantic,

a company that exports the little delicacies.

-Yeah, there's quite a few people dotted about.

-Yes, aye.

How many people are working on the beach today?

There'll be about five or six on today for this tide.

And will you always come to the same beach or do you change about?

No, you change different areas of the beach, you know,

they're not in the same area every day

because, no, you've got to give it a rest.

-What is the technique of cockling?

-Just...

-Normal rake and...

-Yeah.

-And some hard work.

-And some hard work, yeah.

Right, will I have a go?

-Yeah, you can.

-Yeah, I should, really, shouldn't I?

-Yeah, yeah.

How much would you pick a day?

Well, it varies, you know - some days, you'll get a few,

other days, you might only get 20, 30 kilos

cos everything down here is done by rake, by hand.

-A lot of elbow grease...

-A lot of elbow grease.

-..and hard work.

Hard work and sore backs.

And what do you get, I mean, price-wise,

what do you get per kilo?

The price per kilo is round about the £2 a kilo mark.

-And, I mean, where do you sell them?

-All over the place.

Go to the continent - France, Italy, Spain, UK.

-All over.

-All over - down south.

-Oh!

-There you are.

-I've got one!

-You've got one.

-I've got one.

I was thinking, there, I was never going to find one,

but we've got one.

There we go - is that a goody?

Yeah, that's a nice-sized one.

Look, look behind Donald, one of the cocklers -

-is that right, "cocklers", are they called?

-Yeah.

-He just thought he'd bring his bike onto the beach.

-Yeah.

Is that an easy... I don't think it's got any back tyre.

-I don't think so!

-THEY CHUCKLE

-Do you think the salt might have eroded his tyre away?

-Must have.

Yeah, I think that's quite a novel way of getting around, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah, it's a handy way for him to get around,

and he's got his cockles on his back there.

-And he's quite happy.

-And he's quite happy.

It's easier to push the bicycle than to carry the bag!

Right, I've got another one. Oh, that's quite a biggy!

Yeah, that's a nice one now. Yeah.

So how do you actually prepare them?

Well, you just put them into a pot -

you don't have to put any water into it,

there's enough water in themselves,

and just bring 'em to the boil and, as soon as they open,

that's them ready for whatever you want to do with them.

That's very nice. How often do you eat them?

-Maybe once every two or three weeks.

-Once every two or three weeks?

-You sometimes have your fill of them.

-Yeah.

-Right I'll pop it in the bucket, will I?

-Yeah.

-PATTERING

-Oh, that's a good sound!

There you are, Sarah - do you want to taste one?

Oh, really? Donald's going to make me eat one.

-He's going to make me eat a raw cockle.

-See the size of that one?

Yeah.

Why is it they always look so...funny?

HE CHUCKLES

-All right, what do I do? Just...

-Oh, just put it into your mouth.

Grab that.

Take a bite out of it.

Nice salty taste.

-Oh, actually, that's quite nice.

-Oh, they're beautiful.

-I've had worse. That's actually nice!

-It is, it's nice.

What do I owe you for that cockle, then?

-HE LAUGHS:

-20 pence!

I've enjoyed my cockling experience,

but I think I'll leave the hard work to the professionals.

Unfortunately, though,

some of these island beaches are under threat from coastal erosion.

Later in the programme, I'll find out more...

..but first, the secrets of the abandoned houses

of the Outer Hebrides.

As you travel through this landscape,

it becomes apparent that many of the houses are uninhabited...

but they're not all empty, as you might expect.

When you take a closer look,

you realise they've been abandoned complete with furnishings.

These intriguing houses have become a source of fascination

for John Maher.

John's life has changed a lot since the 1970s,

when he was drummer for the punk rock band The Buzzcocks.

# Ever fallen in love?

# In love with someone? Ever fallen in love?

# In love with someone

# You shouldn't have fallen in love with? #

Oh, it's just ruined, you know,

compared to a couple of years ago.

The roof was still up then and...

John first visited the Western Isles on a holiday,

but he fell in love with the place

and in 2002 he moved here with his wife.

When I first moved up here, I always had this notion

that I'd be able to go out and take lots of photographs.

One of the nights that I was out photographing

somewhere like this, I actually went inside

cos I wanted to put some...you know, illuminate the building from inside,

and that's when I noticed that there were quite a lot

of personal belongings still in the house,

and so I came back the following day, during daylight hours,

and started taking pictures of those,

and that became an addiction -

I went out searching for houses like that.

As I started posting those photos on my site

and on the internet and so on, there seemed to be, er...

there was a genuine interest from people in them,

and I got contacted by another photographer based in Fife

who was doing a similar kind of thing,

and he suggested that maybe we ought to try

and get an exhibition of these abandoned homes together.

And so the Leaving Home exhibition was born.

These photos offer a high resolution glimpse

into lives left behind...

folk who seem to have just walked out

and never come back.

So many of the photographs that you see of the Hebrides

are of, you know, the amazing beaches

and, you know, maybe a sunset or whatever

but, to me, those pictures don't have a connection

between the people and the place.

When I started going into some of these houses

and seeing the personal effects and so on, it suddenly...

although there weren't people in the pictures directly,

but the evidence of those people was there.

And just something magical about the fact

that maybe some of these places had been, you know -

last time they were inhabited could be 30 years ago - maybe longer.

But there were still traces of them there, and that is...

I just find that way more interesting than, you know,

I could go to an old castle or ruin or something,

but it's just walls - there's no personal effects in there.

My favourite image from the Leaving Home series

is the shot that I actually got in this house.

There was so much detail -

the dead sheep, that had obviously been in there for probably years

cos it was just a skeleton,

and next to that was one brown leather shoe on the floor.

There were old 12-inch vinyl records in their sleeves

scattered on the floor as well.

Now it's gone - nobody can achieve that picture again now.

In a way, I suppose,

that proves the importance of documenting this stuff.

The photos offer a poignant glimpse

into the lives of some of those who've left the island

but, later on, I'll be meeting one of the many people

who still live here...

..but first, Sarah is taking the short ferry trip

from Barra to Eriskay.

WOMAN SINGS

The island was first captured on film in 1934

by German ethnographer Werner Kissling.

The film gives a vivid picture of what life was like for the crofters

and how reliant they were on the work of their sturdy native ponies.

Their numbers have fallen to dangerously low levels,

so I'm heading over the Sound of Barra to meet a man

who is battling to save them from extinction.

-Donald.

-Hi.

-Hi, how are you doing?

-I'm good, yourself?

-So, these are yours?

-They are, yeah, yeah.

-They're lovely.

-Lovely looking beasts.

-Come in and have a look at them?

Yeah, I'd love to come in.

-Can we just go over?

-Yeah, yeah.

-It's not on?

-No, it's not, no.

I don't think it is, anyway.

Donald John Macinnes has lived in Eriskay all his life

and he is a stalwart of the island's Eriskay Pony Society.

The family have been keeping ponies all our lives, really -

we were born and brought up with ponies around the house.

-So, it's in the blood, to keep ponies?

-Well, if you like, yeah.

Tell me a little bit about the history.

What did they used to be used for?

As you can see, the island is a very rocky and very hilly area

and, back in the olden days, if you like,

they were used to carry peat from the hills,

taking them down to the houses.

Again, they'll be taking the seaweed off the shore

to use on their crops

and maybe even taking hay home, that kind of thing.

-So, islanders would have depended on them.

-Oh, yes, definitely.

Yeah, yeah.

Donald John has had one new recent arrival

and another foal is expected any time soon.

So, just explain who we've got here.

-OK, this one here is Rosie...

-Rosie.

..and she is the mother of this new-born foal.

-Mm-hm. Good-looking beasts.

-They are, yeah, yeah.

-Are you happy with them?

-Yeah, yeah. Mm-hm.

So, what's the foal called?

-We haven't named the foal yet, he's only a couple of weeks old.

-Ah, OK.

-So yet to be named.

-Yet to name him, yeah.

And who's this one here?

This one here is Molly, and she's...

we're expecting her to have a foal

within the next few days, I would say,

and this is her last year's foal,

a young filly.

Very nice, though. Very nice pony.

-So you're happy with that one.

-Yeah, I am.

But these ones that you've got aren't purebreeds?

-They aren't purebreed, no.

-They aren't purebreeds.

-No, no.

I mean, how many purebreeds do you think would be left on the island?

-On this island?

-Yes.

-None.

-None?

-None.

The ponies on the island today are all crosses.

No-one really knows how many purebreds are left in the world.

I would say...

I wouldn't even think there would be 100 of them.

-That be so?

-I would say so.

Maybe even half that. I'm not sure, to be honest. I'm really not.

Do you think enough has been done to save them?

I don't really think so, to be honest, no.

The way we feel here, we are really being left to our own devices.

In a way, I feel that

they could very easily become extinct, if you like.

These ponies are so at home in this landscape.

I mean, bred precisely to cope with this island climate.

We can only hope that their numbers recover, can't we?

As we travel around Scotland,

we like to stop and ask the folk we meet on the street

what they love about their local area.

So, I want to find out what's the best thing about Lochmaddy.

But I can tell you this. It's named after...

The two rocks out there are known as the "Maddies",

and they guard the entrance to this bay.

But there's no-one about.

Surely, these hardy folks aren't scared of a 40-knot gale?

What would you say, all in all, is the best thing about Lochmaddy?

I think we've got two qualities of life here.

You've got the sort of busy summer months.

The beaches, machair life, are absolutely... They're amazing here.

They are beautiful. Worth seeing.

And then you've got your wintertime,

when it's very quiet and you can actually sit down and think.

And the best thing in all about Lochmaddy and North Uist,

would you say?

Sense of community, the people.

For sure. People make places.

On a previous adventure many years ago, wearing a wet suit,

I jumped off that pier.

Very refreshing it was, too.

But nowadays, there's another way

of exploring the denizens of the deep,

and you don't even have to get wet.

A community project in Lochmaddy

is putting a network of underwater cameras in the bay

to allow people to explore the seabed

from the comfort of the shore, or this boat.

It's not open to the public yet, but I'm getting a preview.

Let's see what's on the bottom, shall we?

Now, that is amazing.

It's just like watching the telly.

Yeah, some crabs down there.

Fish going through.

That's actually really amazing. It's really bizarre.

That's incredible.

You can see lots of things, you're not getting wet

and, if you come to Lochmaddy from next spring onwards,

you'll be able to experience the same thing yourself.

For me, that's certainly one of the best things about Lochmaddy.

But while I'm here on this wet and very windy summer's day,

I want to revisit a project we first looked at a couple of years ago.

The ferry from Uig in Skye

is the way most visitors arrive in this port.

But there are plenty of potential visitors

who pass by in their own boats.

In 2013, we heard about plans to build a marina

to entice these tourists onto the island.

We're creating a 26-berth pontoon system there.

We can do this at the moment

because of this new local management agreement with The Crown Estate,

which gives a smaller organisation like us

the chance to realise a project such as this.

-How are you, Gus?

-How are you, Dougie?

-Shall we have a wander down to the beach, get out of this wind?

-Aye.

'Gus Macaulay, chairman of Comann Na Mara, the Society Of The Sea,

'has continued to be the driving force behind this project.'

Gus, just how difficult was it to get the marina up and running?

Strangely enough, it wasn't all that difficult.

At the beginning, it was getting the initial agreement,

as you know, with The Crown Estate, which we eventually...

We went in partnership with them, and here we are.

-And are you pleased with the results?

-This is our second season.

In actual fact, that's one calendar year.

Last year, we had 350 berth bookings.

This year, we're 30% up on that.

And it's been a shorter season this year, just by nature of the weather.

And a lot of them have come from south of England,

south of France, Scandinavia.

So, it's a challenge for them to come here,

and we accommodate them when they come.

What about locals? How have they reacted to the fact

they've got the marina in the harbour here now?

It's working very well for them. People are very pleased indeed.

-The economic impact was immediate.

-Excellent.

Thanks very much. Glad it's all up and running.

-I'm going to try and speak to some sailors and see what they think.

-Aye.

-Hi, how are you doing?

-Hello, how are you?

-Very well.

-Can I come on board for a chat?

-Of course you can.

-Thank you very much.

Oh.

'Russell Tribe is from Southampton and has been touring the isles.'

It's a wild old day today, so where have you come from?

Well, we came down from Stornoway two days ago

and we're trying to get south as far as we can.

But this is a great facility.

It was just what we needed on the way down from Stornoway.

-On a day like today.

-Definitely.

What about the facilities compared to other places?

On a day like this, we'd much rather be in here than out at anchor.

WIND WHISTLES Listen to that wind.

-You can hear it.

-Unbelievable.

We had a gust of 41 knots earlier on.

-So it really is very strong.

-Good gracious.

Have you been round and used the hotel, used the restaurants?

We have. We've used the hotel.

We're going to another hotel tonight.

We had a ride on the postbus today around the island.

And, yeah, it's great.

Tonight is the night to batten down the hatches and get down in there!

But I'm going to head for a safe haven as well

while this wind batters around the place.

-OK.

-Thanks for speaking to me.

-Not at all.

-Cheers. Thank you.

While I deal with the wind on the east coast of North Uist,

Sarah is on the other side of the island,

investigating a much more devastating weather pattern.

In January 2005, a massive storm hit the coast of The Uists.

Hurricane-force winds and giant waves

battered the coast for 12 hours.

When it was all over, a family of five were dead,

drowned in the flooding

as they tried to escape their low-lying home.

Ten years on, and the west coast and Ireland

seem to have been under a constant barrage of Atlantic storms.

Although you wouldn't know it today.

This is the machair.

It's one of the rarest habitats in Europe,

and it refers to this low-lying, fertile, grassy ground.

But with each Atlantic storm that hits these islands,

a little bit of the coast is lost

and the machair is destroyed by the salty water.

This isn't just about the loss of a rich, wild habitat.

This erosion can have a serious impact on nearby land-users.

-Joanne, good morning.

-Hi, Sarah.

-Are you admiring the view?

-I am. What a gorgeous day.

-It's magic.

It's hard to imagine

that these islands get sort of battered by storms,

but how violent do they get?

Oh, extremely.

For instance, this last winter,

we've had lots and lots of severe storms, force 12 and above.

And it really hammers the coastline here.

So you can lose, sometimes, up to ten metres in one storm.

'Joanne Ferguson works for Scottish Natural Heritage,

'one of the many agencies

'trying to understand how the situation can be managed.'

These islands have probably been battered by storms for centuries,

you know, since the beginning of time.

So why is it so pronounced now?

You're quite right, it has been going on for a while.

For instance, where we are today is the island of Baleshare,

and that, actually, means "eastern village".

So, we're on the western point of that island

and, if you look out to sea,

somewhere out there was "western town".

-So there was a village here...

-There was a village back there.

And it was "eastern town".

And the "western village" is out there somewhere.

-And it's all gone.

-It's all gone, yes.

So, erosion has been happening for centuries, for a very long time.

But now we have a combination of the Western Isles sinking

and sea-level rise across the world increasing.

So that's why we're suffering a bit more in the way of erosion now.

And how does that affect the machair?

What sort of impact does it have on it?

There's quite a lot of different impacts.

First of all, there's the direct erosion,

so the crofters lose part of their ground for grazing.

But also, it impacts on the management of the machair.

Sometimes, they can't plough until later

because the land's still flooded.

Other times, they have to deal with their land being eroded away

and are having to move the crops backwards all the time.

They lose their fences,

so they have to keep on replacing and repairing their fences.

Sometimes, you'll see a fence post way out on the beach

and you wonder, what's this doing here?

That's where the end of the land used to be.

So what steps are being taken to stop the erosion?

So, what most people do is, they do soft coastal protection.

Things like sand fencing.

Some people dump their leftover silage bales...

Once they've taken the wrapper off,

they dump them in the sand dunes and then sand comes over the top

and the seaweed comes over the top of that and it helps to build it up.

The storms can be incredibly powerful,

moving hundreds and thousands of tonnes of rock.

So, here we are at the shingle bank,

and the crofters have had to move this regularly over the years.

Every time there's a bad storm or whatever,

it covers over their track

and they have to come along with their tractors and move it again.

That's an amazing volume of shingle that they have had to move.

It is, yes, absolutely. It's a big effort.

But if they want to carry on using their grazings over the winter,

that's what they have to do.

So what's your prognosis for the machair lands?

Well, I'm actually quite optimistic.

That might seem a bit strange,

but the system itself is designed to cope with bad weather.

I mean, obviously, we've lost a lot of habitat over the years.

But who knows what the future holds?

I still think we'll be around in a few years to come.

It's good to know there are such bold levels of optimism

that these havens of wildlife and biodiversity

will survive well into the future.

And the magic of modern island life

is very much the way new technology

blends with the traditional roles and lifestyles.

-How are you doing? Good to see you.

-Good to see you, too.

-I'm grand.

-Good, good.

-So, this is the croft, is it?

-Well, this is one of the crofts, anyway.

'John Allan Maclennan breeds prize-winning cattle.

'He does this across several crofts dotted around this area.'

I'm guessing it's pretty impossible

to make a living from a single croft, is it?

Yes, it seems to... it seems to get harder and harder.

I think the day of the crofter, as they're called,

a crofter with one single croft and a cow, one cow,

I think these days are gone, I'm afraid.

Throughout the generations,

crofters have supplemented their incomes with other jobs -

postie, fishermen, whatever needs done.

And John Allan's filling a gap for construction and plant hire.

-So, this was originally, Dougie, a thatched house.

-Oh, right.

Yeah, and it was renovated...

renovated in the '80s, I think, and now it's been renovated again.

So it's going to be used as a holiday home.

And if that wasn't enough, John Allan and his wife

run a camping and caravan site.

In the summer season, I mean, we open at the beginning of April

and we're open through to October.

So, peak time in May, June, July and August, and it's pretty full-on.

You know, we're here every day, you know, morning, early, until late.

Just going to pop a bit of...

-pop a bit of concentrates into this box here.

-OK.

'But the other businesses are means to an end.

'Crofting and the cows are most definitely John's first love.'

It's in your blood.

We were always brought up with the cattle from an early, early age.

I couldn't see myself being without the cattle.

It's just a cracking way of life.

Do you always see yourself as a crofter and always consider yourself a crofter?

Yes. Yeah, yeah. I wouldn't...

Like I said before, I wouldn't want to be called a farmer.

-Or a contractor.

-Or a contractor!

-Or someone who runs a campsite.

-Yeah.

Just a crofter, yeah, I think that'll do.

Well, I've absolutely loved my time in North Uist

and my island-hopping colleague, Sarah, has had a ball, too.

I hope you've enjoyed what you've seen,

and maybe one day you'll come and visit these stunning islands.

But that's it for now.

Thank you so much for your company. Bye for now.