Episode 17 Landward

This weekend marks the end of British summertime.

The clocks go back, plunging us into six months of darkness.

But fear not, Landward is here to brighten your winter evenings.

Hello and a very warm welcome to the programme.

In a moment, Euan will be on the trail

of wildlife moving into our cities

and finding out how people and animals can live together

in perfect harmony.

But first, here's what else is coming up on Landward.

'I continue my Small Isles journey

'with a trip to the renewable isle...'

We've backed up the power generated with batteries.

That way, we guarantee power all the time.

'..the spectacular Iron Age brochs of Caithness...'

Wow, look at this!

What you see here is the scant remains

of what could have been up to 40 feet high.

'..and Sarah takes a dip on the wild side.'

It's better than expected.

It's no Baltic, it's no bad.

But first, there's more to forestry than meets the eye.

Euan's been down to the Deeside Woods today to discover

how forestry can bring benefits to local communities.

There's a saying that sometimes you can't see the wood for the trees.

It basically means you've lost sight of the big picture.

And that, ironically, is definitely the case when it comes to forestry.

It's often seen as an industry

where very little happens over long periods of time.

A pension fund or investment trust will plough millions into

planting young saplings and then stand back for decades

until it's time to harvest using itinerant workers,

workers who don't live locally and who don't inject anything

into the local economy.

But that perception is viewed by many as being wrong.

Forestry in Scotland is now worth £1 billion to the Scottish economy.

And that figure is set to grow further if the industry can meet

the government's target of planting 200 million new trees by 2022.

Stuart Goodall is the Chief Executive

of the forestry industry body, ConFor,

and I'm meeting him to find out how the industry plans to expand

and how communities across Scotland could benefit.

How exciting a time is this for Scottish forestry?

Well, it's a very exciting time for Scottish forestry

because we planted a lot of trees 30, 40, 50 years ago

and now we're in a situation where we're seeing those forests mature

and on the back of that, it's creating huge opportunities,

huge opportunities for employment as we develop all the businesses

-that a mature forestry sector has.

-What is the reality now?

Because I've been guilty, as many others have,

of seeing forestry as a blanket plantation,

very little employment locally and very little that gets

contributed to the economy locally as a result of that.

Well, there's two parts to it.

So there's the trees that we planted in the past then.

As we come now, when we harvest them, we're harvesting them

and then we're putting in different age classes.

What I mean by that is it's not all just all grown at the one time

and harvested at the one time.

We start to put it in and replant it at different ages.

And then when we're creating new forests,

we're doing it in a different way. Now we leave the buildings,

for example and we're starting to see people coming in

and occupying those farmhouses,

and actually we've done a bit of work recently in the Borders

which has shown that where modern planting is taking place,

there's more people living and working on the land

than there had been prior to that.

So is just the likes of me wrong?

It's just a wrong perception of what the reality is?

I think it was an understandable perception

from what was in the past. And what we're very keen to do now

is to show people what modern forestry is about.

And a good example of what modern forestry is all about

can be found here on the Glen Tanar Estate on Royal Deeside.

-It's a glorious time of year, isn't it?

-It's lovely, yes.

'The estate is owned and run by Michael Bruce and it shows

'how forestry, in all its forms,

'can benefit both the local economy and the community.'

Well, I've been running this business for 28 years and

every year, forestry has been a core contributor to the estate economy.

What about jobs?

How many folk are employed or touched by forestry on your estate?

I would say that of our 28 employees on the estate, about half of them,

about 14 directly or indirectly are dependent on the forest.

We've got a riding centre here on the estate.

They use all the forest tracks.

Deer stalkers, half of their year is spent helping to control

the deer in the forest.

Although the direct forestry squad is two,

we're hoping to maybe increase that to three.

We've then got contractors who are regulars.

They all live in the local area

and they come and help and support us every year

because some of the equipment that they've got is big,

and it's expensive, so I can't afford it.

I focus on growing the trees.

And some of the wood from those trees is turned into

a range of products for the house-building industry

here at the James Jones timber mill.

The mill is on the estate itself

and employs 50 people.

Ian Pirie is the managing director.

All the supplies to this mill are coming, the bulk,

within a 50-mile radius.

A little from Perthshire, but the majority coming from Aberdeenshire.

But what about jobs?

Because one of the accusations about the forest industry

is it's not local jobs.

It's itinerant workers or it's all going overseas.

Well, that's absolutely not the case here.

I would think everybody that's working in the mill here is coming

from probably within a 20-mile radius.

In fact, they're actually high-quality jobs

that are sustainable.

You know, we haven't paid people off here in 30 years, to my knowledge.

There will probably be 150 people directly benefiting from this mill.

When I started filming this piece,

I was guilty of seeing some aspects of commercial plantation as having

a negative impact on Scotland, but as we've heard, forestry can create

jobs and it can create a positive contribution to the rural economy.

So in many ways,

I can now see just a little bit more wood for the trees.

Now, from the woodlands of Deeside to the brochs, cairns and castles

that pepper the Caithness countryside.

There are scores of sites, but they are often overlooked

by tourists bound for more famous archaeological sites in Orkney.

That's a shame,

and when Landward heard about plans by ambitious locals to put

Caithness on the tourist map, we had to pay them a visit.

-How are you doing?

-Hello, Dougie. Welcome to Caithness.

'Spearheading the project, is Kenneth McElroy.'

Are you ready to go see a broch?

'Today, he's taking me on a whistle-stop tour of the best

'heritage sites Caithness has to offer.

'But they're not always easy to find.'

Well, you certainly wouldn't know it was here.

Oh, my goodness! A clamber up.

Watch out for the nettles.

Wow, look at... Look at this!

-So what is this?

-You're looking at a broch, Dougie.

This is a 2,000-year-old prehistoric structure

built during the Iron Age and unique to Scotland.

It's basically a dry-stone tower and what you see here is the scant

remains of what could have been up to 40 feet high, actually.

But when you look in a structure like this, you can really see,

you know, just how intelligent and clever and good with their hands

as well that they would have been.

The brochs of Orkney and Shetland may be better known,

but Caithness has its fair share.

Caithness has more brochs than anywhere else in Scotland.

We have around about 185

whereas Orkney has 120, so we're certainly beating them there.

-People don't know it's here.

-Absolutely.

Yeah, it's not far off the A9, actually.

But if you didn't know about it, you just wouldn't know it was here.

Keen to draw more attention to these historic sites,

Ken and others have set up the Caithness Broch Project.

Part of our project is to promote Caithness

as a heritage tourism destination.

Like I say, it has some fantastic castles, it has all these brochs,

it has cairns, it has some really interesting

tales and legends as well.

But hopefully you'll see that.

Next stop, the grey cairns of Camster.

-Now, these look amazing.

-Glad you like them.

Incredible.

These Neolithic burial chambers were built over 5,000 years ago.

They're some of the best examples of their kind in Britain.

One of the good things, when we arrived here, the signage is good.

There's a kind of path across the marshes there as well.

It's all kind of set up properly.

-Yet, there's no-one here.

-Yeah, and that's what we're trying to change.

We want more tourism and we want tourists to come here

and enjoy what we have to offer.

-Can we go inside?

-Yeah, absolutely.

Wow. Another incredible place.

That's amazing, isn't it?

So this isn't a broch, though. This is a cairn.

So how come this fits into your project?

Well, what we're hoping to achieve is just promoting Caithness as

a heritage tourism destination

as a whole.

So it's not just about the brochs.

It's about the overarching history and archaeology of the area.

Where are you taking me next?

We're probably going to take you to the most

spectacular sight in Caithness yet, so...

-Let's do it.

-Let's go.

From dark interiors...

..to dramatic exteriors.

Our next stop is Castle Sinclair Girnigoe,

another gem that's relatively unknown outside the area.

Goodness, look at this place.

This is truly extraordinary. So this is medieval, right, I'm guessing?

That's right, yes.

Sometime around the 14th, 15th century.

So it's not just about brochs and cairns.

-It's a bigger project than that.

-Absolutely.

Caithness is just... it's littered with history.

I mean, just in this bay alone, we have around about six castles and dozens of brochs.

And they're all worth seeing.

Eventually, Ken's group hope to build a replica broch.

A broch reconstructed as it would have been 2,000 years ago,

a living history experience, if you will.

Which would serve as an archaeological experiment,

a drystone dyking workshop and, ultimately,

a major visitor attraction and a vivid learning experience as well.

-A living history, if you will.

-My goodness.

-Big old project, then.

-Yeah, quite big.

-You've got a lot to do.

It's incredible and the things that you showed me today,

I never knew they were here. That's the thing.

I've been up in this area many, many times.

That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to stamp our feet and say,

"Listen, Caithness has got it all."

Working on Landward, we're often surprised by the strange and unusual

place names we stumble upon as we travel around the country.

And over the next couple of weeks,

we're going to be looking into the derivation of a few of them.

First up, it's the wee place with the big name, Maggieknockater.

But who was Maggie?

It's a tiny hamlet of only a few homes on the A95 in Moray.

And going at that speed, if you blink, you'll miss it.

But what about the name?

It turns out it has nothing to do with anyone called Maggie.

Maggieknockater is the anglicised version of the old Gaelic name Magh an Fhucadair,

which means field of the fuller

or plain of the hilly ridge.

Up until the early 1970s,

there was a large apiary here and that name lives on

in the Scottish country dance, The Bees of Maggieknockater.

And if you have any weird and wonderful place names you'd like to tell us about,

get in touch via our Facebook page or e-mail [email protected].

On Landward we love to see wildlife.

Preferably, in its natural habitat.

But when it makes its way into urban areas, it can cause problems.

Euan's been to Edinburgh to find out what happens when

wild animals stray into the city.

We think of deer on the hill and the glen,

in the field and the forest but, increasingly,

roe deer are being spotted right here in our towns and our city.

Now, we all love to see wildlife, but deer on the doorstop

can lead to conflict between them and us.

I've come to Winton on the outskirts of Edinburgh,

where the deer have taken to coming right up to the back door.

-Dick.

-Euan.

-Great to see.

-Nice to see you.

'I'm meeting Dick Playfair

'of the Lowland Deer Network, who knows the problems this can cause.'

Well, we've got an increasing roe deer population,

a territorial animal,

and they look for new territories and they're needing to expand.

So what we're seeing is them moving to areas which suit them,

where they can find food, where they can find new territory

and this is perfect for them, to be honest.

A lot of people do love seeing deer and would like to see them

out on their morning walk but if you're planting trees,

you've got expensive plants in your garden or you're a local authority

and you've got a budget to actually put in landscaping,

then the last thing you want is this creature coming along and chewing up your plants.

But what about...things like dogs?

-That must be a problem in this kind of environment?

-It is.

Deer and dog walkers don't go together very well.

We've had situations with people losing their dogs behind deer,

not knowing where they've gone.

And, of course, dogs and deer will run out in front of cars

and that sort of thing.

The encroachment into human population can also lead

the deer into harm's way.

Where you have deer in increasing numbers, that's where you

start to see wildlife crime,

with acts of cruelty involving deer.

You'll find deer being shot at with crossbow bolts, for example,

or people having their dogs chase after deer as they do with hares.

So particularly on urban fringes,

that's the sort of activity that you need to keep an eye out for.

But by far the biggest problem is the potential for havoc

caused by deer and traffic.

It's estimated that there are up to 74,000 accidents involving

deer in the UK each year.

And if the deer are invading cities and towns,

then they're crossing more roads.

So, Euan, I brought you up here because we're right next to the city

bypass and roadside edges actually provide perfect habitat for

them to hang around in and, to be quite frank,

the noise of the traffic doesn't disturb them that much.

You've got a project up and running where you're encouraging

people to be more aware of roe deer and to report sightings.

It's really good that people should be aware of what wildlife is around

them and so often people will just ignore the fact that there happens to be

a roe deer or a family of roe deer just down there in the hollow.

So it seems you can have too much of a good thing.

And without management,

the roe deer population will get out of control.

If you would like to find out more about what can be done to control

these animals, you can visit the Lowland Deer website.

You'll find a link to that on the Landward page.

SHIP'S HORN BLASTS

And now I'm off to sea again.

I'm continuing my voyage of discovery around the amazing place

that is the Small Isles.

The Small Isles sit off the southwestern tip of Skye.

They are Rum, Eigg, Muck, and Canna.

Last week, I braved Rum in the rain to discover what's left of

the settlement of Harris,

a testament to the impact of the Highland Clearances of the 1820s.

This week my journey has brought me to Eigg, a very modern island

owned by the community and brimming with technology.

Almost 20 years ago, Eigg was in private hands.

Living here wasn't easy.

There was no mains electricity and the only power came from

noisy diesel generators.

CHEERING

When the community successfully completed its buyout,

the residents set about modernising their island.

I'm here to find out how life has changed in the last two

decades since the buyout and I'm here to meet Maggie Fyffe, my guide,

who's lived here for 35 years.

-Maggie.

-Hello.

-How's it going? Nice to see you.

-I'm good, how are you?

Very well. There's a beach down yonder, can we go for a wander?

-We could do, aye.

-Let's do that.

Maggie, cast your mind back 20 years or so, round about the time of the community buyout.

What was the island like at that time?

Well, it was a pretty exciting time because, you know,

we were focusing on buying the island but, prior to that,

it was a pretty depressed place, I would say,

because people didn't have security. That was the key issue, I think.

So how did you manage your energy needs back then?

-Back then, most people had a generator at the house.

-Right.

So come sort of evening time,

you could hear engines running all over the place.

We could have a stereo and a laptop

but I couldn't have a washing machine, for instance!

With the cost of a subsea power cable to bring electricity from the mainland proving prohibitive,

the community decided to turn to the elements - sun, wind, and water.

Eigg is now known as the renewable isle

after becoming the first place in the world to have its

electricity needs met entirely by solar, hydro and wind power.

Tying these diverse sources together to provide

a stable electricity supply was John Booth,

a director of Eigg Electric.

John, you have this integrated system with hydro,

with wind and with solar.

How does that actually work?

Well, we feed the power generated by each of the renewables

at the location where we generate

into a high-voltage grid that runs the length of the island.

Because the power produced by renewable resources

is very variable, we couldn't possibly have a stable power supply.

So we back this up with a bank of batteries that is

connected directly to the grid.

That way we guarantee power all the time.

-So shall we go and have a look where the batteries are?

-Yes, indeed. Why not?

-Excellent.

The project cost £1.6 million,

a quarter of the price of an undersea cable from the mainland.

Right, I'm not technically minded at all, so explain to me

in layman's terms what actually happens in here.

Well, here we have inverters

which are connected to a bank of batteries on the other side of the wall.

So if there is a surplus of power being

produced by the renewables, it will flow into the batteries.

If there is a deficit, it will flow out of the batteries

and that is how we guarantee stable, 24-hour power

that makes up for the fluctuations in the output of the renewables.

So how much... Do they pay more or less than they would have done in the mainland?

-I would say they pay about a third more.

-OK.

So it's not a cheap option.

Maybe not.

But having a reliable and renewable electricity supply has brought

people back to the island and established new businesses.

The last thing I expected to find on Eigg was a record company.

Lost Map Records is run from the island by Johnny Lynch.

So, Johnny, tell me. How did you end up being here on Eigg?

I moved here about six years ago.

My girlfriend had just come back to the island. She was born here.

She had just come back to take over the tenancy of her uncle's farm.

And as soon as I arrived here,

I just fell in love with the place so I've never left.

So running your own business, were you not concerned by the potential challenges of that,

you know, in a remote location?

Running Lost Map Records is done predominately using the internet

connection that we have here so I Skype with bands, I chat with bands.

My life revolves around the internet.

I guess a solid electricity supply is hugely important as well for that?

It's essential, yeah.

Since that has come to the island, the whole island

has thrived, really, off the back of the electricity system that we've got here.

With entrepreneurs like Johnny going to work on Eigg,

the future for the island looks bright.

It really is amazing what the people of Eigg have achieved

in the past two decades.

Their ingenuity and entrepreneurship have created

an environment where life can thrive.

Next time I'll be on Muck,

the last remaining privately-owned island in the Small Isles.

And now we're heading to the Cairngorms to meet

a hardy breed that brave all the faces of our wonderful climate,

taking a dip in Scotland's lochs and rivers.

We sent Sarah for an unexpected surprise.

You know, when I was asked if I wanted to do

a piece on swimming, I thought, "Yeah, fine. I like a nice swim."

But this was not exactly the location I had in mind.

I can live without flumes or wave machines,

but I was kind of expecting walls and a roof and maybe some heating.

-Calum.

-Hi, Sarah, how you doing?

-Good, how are you doing?

-Good, thanks.

-I'm getting slightly worried.

-OK.

-Where exactly are we swimming today?

-We are swimming right here.

-This is the Lochan Uaine in the Cairngorms National Park.

-It looks cold.

It's going to be a wee bit chilly.

No bad. So no bad is when you get in and you don't immediately want to

get straight back out.

It's, basically, if the water doesn't cause your feet pain.

Oh, that's no bad, like.

Calum Maclean has become an internet sensation with millions of

views on BBC Scotland's The Social website.

His regular posts feature his passion for swimming in all

kinds of wild and wonderful places around the Scottish countryside.

And the worst of it is when it's Baltic.

Baltic is, basically, when you're breaking the ice on the edge

of the loch to get in. It's kind of an in, out, shake it all about.

Make sure nothing's fallen off and everything's still intact

on your body. It's brutal.

So how did you get into wild swimming?

I think it's something that I've always done from a young age.

you know, swimming at beaches, swimming at lochs.

And just over the last few years it's something that I've almost

become obsessive about and I was seeking out new wilder places,

-more remote lochs as well.

-How often do you swim?

I try and swim every single day.

So it's easier in summer when it's a wee bit warmer, the days are longer.

But, yeah, usually, at least a couple of times a week I'm out swimming somewhere.

-So you try and swim outdoors nearly every single day.

-Yeah.

-Regardless of the weather?

-Pretty much, yeah, yeah.

I think the more you do it,

the more your body becomes accustomed to it and used to it.

I'll take your word for it.

Your Facebook posts are very popular viewing.

They've caught the public's attention.

What sort of reaction do you get from people?

-Most people ask if I'm crazy, so most people...

-Are you?

I don't know. I don't think I am.

I think the people that don't go out swimming,

I think they might be the ones that are mad, I think.

You could be sitting on your sofa, you could be going for a swim in a loch.

I know which one I'd prefer to do, anyway.

Tell me a bit about where we are today.

Well, we're at the Lochan Uaine today, which means the Green Lochan.

You can see from the colour of the water how it gets its name.

And it's quite a nice one. It's got a beach you can access through

so instead of having to climb over rocks, you can walk straight in.

Right, I think we should do what we came to do.

-Is it time to get changed?

-It is, yes.

-OK.

-No putting it off now.

-Let's do it.

-Ready?

-Yes, are you ready?

-I don't know. Top tips for wild swimming?

Well, I'd say the top tip for getting in is just to take it nice and slow.

So you want to get your legs wet,

you want to splash some water up on your chest, up on your face,

make sure you don't get that cold water shock once you get straight in past your neck.

-Mind over matter.

-It is. That's what it is.

-Are we going to go for it?

-Are we going to go for it?

-Yes, let's go.

-Let's do it.

'Following Calum's advice, I ease myself gently into the chilly loch.

'But, ultimately, we're not here to splash about. We're here to swim.'

SHE WHOOPS

How does the water feel to you?

I don't know. What would you say?

-I would say it's no bad.

-It's no bad.

It's better than expected.

It's no Baltic, it's no bad.

This is great. It feels really good.

-And I'm not just saying that. It feels good.

-Does feel good, yeah.

'And it doesn't just feel good. The Green Lochan is truly gorgeous.'

Do you know...? It's not as cold as I thought it was going to be.

No, it's really not today. It's quite nice, actually.

-You feel so awake and alive when you're in there, don't you?

-Yeah, you do.

And it just... It's amazing. I see why you do it now. It was great fun.

-You get addicted.

-What happens now?

Right, well, as soon as you get out, you want to get your towel,

and you want to get dry as quickly as possible.

And, then, after that, you want to reward yourself with some cake.

Ah, I love cake. Let's go.

'And so, with tea and cake in hand, we took in the view.

'The Green Lochan, my first wild swim, and it was no bad.'

Coming up next week...

Scotland's best prepare for battle

in the European Ploughing Championships.

We have to keep trying. We have to try harder anyway.

We celebrate 70 years of banking on the move.

And I continue my Small Isles journey in the stunningly

beautiful Isle of Muck.

We're always trying to keep the community quite stable out here.

We work quite hard to keep a vibrant community going.

There is nowhere better in the world, I would say.

Please join me for that and much more at the same time next week.

Friday night, 7:30 on BBC ONE Scotland.

In the meantime, from all the Landward team here in Speyside,

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