Episode 6 Landward

It's wild, it's remote, it's beautiful

and home to some of the finest mutton in the world.

This is North Ronaldsay.

Hello, and a very warm welcome to the programme from the Orkney

island of North Ronaldsay.

In a moment, I'll be on the hunt for the sheep that share

their name with this island, but first here's what else is coming up.

'Fishermen in conflict on the east coast.'

They feel aggrieved that we're actually there.

I mean, it's fishermen destroying other fishermen.

I can't understand why.

'Euan's up in the air.'

-So now we're gliding.

-So now we're on our own.

I'm heading for a dark cloud hoping to find an updraught in it.

That's the plan, but in gliding nothing is certain.

'And Nick's in Stirling with the street-food van,

'trying to cook some mutton.'

THEY COUGH

'Scotch beef, Arbroath smokies, Stornoway black pudding - these are

'just some of the Scottish products that have been awarded what is

'called a Protected Geographic Indicator, or PGI.

'And the list is growing.

'And that's why I've flown into North Ronaldsay.

'The people of the island want one, too.

'It's the most northerly island in the Orkney archipelago and home

'to a native breed of sheep that's been here for thousands of years.

'They apparently produce some of the best-tasting

'mutton in the world, and I want to find out more.'

The sheep live on the foreshore and graze almost entirely on seaweed,

and it's this unusual diet that gives the mutton its unique

flavour that's much sought after in restaurants across the country.

'In 1832, the laird wanted to clear the land of sheep

'to make way for cattle

'and struck a deal with the crofters.

'They were to build a dyke right around the island to keep the sheep

'on the foreshore, where they could graze on seaweed instead of grass.'

The only time the sheep get inside the sea wall is during lambing

and when they're going to market,

and the tups are going to market, so I'm going to give them a hand

punding, which means driving the sheep into these punds behind me.

I'm told the sheep are very wily and elusive

and it's not going to be easy.

Phew! Not easy to walk, anyway!

'While we put a guide fence into position,

'the sheep are driven along the shore.'

Here they come.

So, after half an hour of chasing along the beach in this

direction, we've now put out this wire fence and here they come back.

THE MEN CLAP AND SHOUT

One way the islanders hope to secure the future of these unique

sheep is by applying for a Protected Geographic Indicator,

or PGI, for North Ronaldsay yarn and mutton.

This would mean that only wool and meat produced right

here on the island would be able to carry that North Ronaldsay name.

Does the seaweed in their diet really make

-a difference to the taste of the meat, do you think?

-Absolutely, yes.

-Aye?

-Much darker meat.

-Uh-huh.

-Yes, definitely.

'Crofter Billy Muir has been one of the key players trying to

'maximise the benefits from the island's woolly resource.'

So, what about the PGI status?

What will that mean to the crofters here on the island?

Well, we've been talking about that for five to ten years,

and finally we're getting something done about it, so hopefully it

enhances the marketing and enhances the status of the animal, as well.

There is a worldwide interest in the meat, which is excellent,

and the wool.

Yeah, because it's not just about the eating,

-it's about the fleeces, as well.

-Fleeces, as well.

And what's been done on the island

to kind of keep that kind of tradition going, as well?

Well, at the lighthouse, when it went automatic in 1998,

we looked at alternatives for it rather than have something

dead in the water, and the first we did was to convert the engine room

into a wool mill to spin the wool from the sheep.

'That's all well and good, but there's another vital

'component to keep the mutton and wool business healthy -

'people.'

I think we're going to run into problems with just sheer

lack of numbers as people like myself

disappear from the world, you know, and therefore...

..erm, we will struggle

until a new generation of people comes, willing to take it on again.

'But right now, octogenarian Sinclair Scott is more

'concerned about one of the sheep being past its best.'

He's getting on a bit, that's the trouble. You see,

-if you look in here, he's round about five now.

-Right.

-And that's really the limit. Once they're six year old, it's...

-Right.

-Not the best eating.

-It needs to be cooked today for tomorrow.

-If you cook them properly, it's very, very tender indeed.

-Yeah.

-You know, it doesn't matter how old it is.

-Right.

But once they get to six year old,

-it's about time to maybe pension them off then.

-Right.

They reach the same age as I have and has to be cooked very

slowly indeed if you want to save your teeth for the future!

DOUGIE LAUGHS

'It will be at least two years before the people

'of North Ronaldsay find out if their PGI application is successful.

'Later in the programme,

'I'll be joining Nick in the food van to cook some island mutton.

'For the meanwhile,

'I'm staying put to explore some more of North Ronaldsay

'while Euan is a couple of hundred miles south,

'about to take to the skies above the Cairngorms.

MUSIC: Dedicated Follower Of Fashion by the Kinks

# Cos he's a dedicated follower of fashion... #

'1966, a great year for music, great telly,

'and I was still in short trousers.'

# Round the boutiques of London Town... #

And here, in Feshie Bridge near Aviemore,

something else was taking off - gliding.

And folk took to the skies in craft like this, made of wood

and canvas and no engine.

And here we are, 50 years later, and the Cairngorm Gliding Club is

still going strong and flying higher than ever.

This is base.

'79-year-old Bill Longstaff was one of the founding members.'

So, how did you get started in flying?

During the war, when I was a youngster of three or four

or something like that, everybody was interested in aeroplanes.

We had them going overhead and bombs dropping and things like that.

So I bought my first book of aeroplanes

when I was about four or five years of age.

'But it wasn't until Bill moved to the Cairngorms that he finally

'got the chance to fly as one of this club's first members.'

You could train people by ground sliding,

by towing them along the ground, either with a winch or a car,

not fast enough to fly but to get the feel.

And that went on fine until one day I was driving the winch and

a chap called Angus Macleod was at the controls of our little glider,

and he came off the ground

and we finished up with a pile of matchwood.

-So you were down to one glider at that point.

-Down to one glider.

-Nick, how do you do?

-Ah, hello, Euan. Nice to meet you.

-How are you doing?

-So, this is your machine.

-This is my Ash 25 glider.

-Wow.

'And soon it's time for me to take to the skies.

'My instructor is former North Sea helicopter pilot Nick Norman.

'It's his job to keep me safe.'

-So, have we got a good day for it?

-..and that hooks over.

Yeah, it's a lovely day, nice and sunny, no showers yet.

That looks perfect to me.

So, if you needed to use the parachute, there's the D ring

here, so you would just, with both hands, pull down really hard.

-And it's never going to happen, so you'll be fine.

-OK!

'A tow plane takes us to a height where it's

'safe to start gliding, usually around 2,000 feet.

'Once he's happy, Nick will detach the tow rope.'

Right, I've come off tow.

There's going to be a big pull when I put the undercarriage up...

which is like that.

So now we're gliding with the undercarriage up

and it's a little bit quieter.

-So, now we're on our own.

-So, now we're on our own,

and we're heading for a dark cloud,

hoping to find an updraught in it, which is going to take us

up to the bottom of the cloud.

That's the plan, but in gliding nothing is certain.

'Nick gets the glider to climb by using thermals,

'rising columns of hot air.'

I'm going to circle in this lift now.

You can see we're climbing up to 600 feet a minute here.

So I'm going to start to circle in order to stay in this rising

column of air.

It's amazing how Nick manages to read the landscape

'and the skies, but it's taken years of practice.'

To my eye, the lift is as clear as anything,

and I can see a cloud that's going to work, another cloud that's dead,

or a group of clouds that are going to work.

So it's not just random, we don't just randomly fly along,

you know, until we hit the ground, it's not like that.

But the skill is assessing the weather, working out the lift,

and our height is our energy.

Your height is like the fuel in your car.

So, you know, when you get low on fuel, you find a thermal,

you circle in it, you top up...

-and then you carry on.

-This is great, flying...

I was going to say for free, but using free resources.

Yeah, absolutely, and you can stay up for hours.

'Nick recently used his skills to break a club record,

'gilding to more than 28,000 feet.'

We were climbing about 700, 800 feet a minute, we got

clearance from air-traffic control

to go above 20,000 feet, which you have to have,

and we eventually topped out at 28,534 feet above sea level.

-Did you need oxygen for that?

-Oh, yes, absolutely.

We have an oxygen system, which is this device here.

And so we were on oxygen above 10,000 feet.

It was very cold.

It was off the end of the scale on my temperature gauge.

I think it was about minus 35.

'We've not reached those dizzying heights today, but I've still

'had lots of fun and, even better,

'we end up safely back on the ground.'

Well, that was truly amazing.

You know, sometimes you really get spoiled in this job. Last week,

I was shovelling coal on the footplate of the Flying Scotsman,

this week in a big, massive glider soaring high above

the Cairngorms, up with the eagles.

Absolutely fantastic.

As I travel thousands of miles crisscrossing Scotland,

I'm going to be showing you some of my favourite

places, and today, because I'm on North Ronaldsay,

it has to be the Bird Observatory.

'Hundreds of thousands of birds make landfall

'here during the spring migrations.

'Euan Ferguson, one of the observatory's ornithologists,

'has something to show me.'

-A goldcrest.

-Oh, wow!

They are extremely small birds, the smallest bird in Europe.

'This goldcrest is on the way from southern Europe to its summer

'home in Scandinavia.'

I'm checking to see how much fat it's got, and it's actually got

quite a lot of fat, which suggests this bird is

getting ready to move on and continue its migration.

I should just see how much this guy weighs.

So, this only weighs four grams.

-So, what's that the equivalent of?

-I'm not sure.

Maybe a ten-pence piece?

4.2, so this actually weighs less than a ten-pence piece.

That's incredible. That's incredible!

This tiny bird here, who's done such a massive journey.

-It's amazing to think.

-Wow!

-So now we just let the bird go.

-Just let it go.

It's quite breezy out here.

'Not only small, it's fast, too.'

There he goes!

Well, North Ronaldsay is a bird-watcher's paradise,

and if you come to the observatory,

not only can you have a marvellous time but it's also

home to the only restaurant, shop and bar on the island.

-Bar. That sounds a very good idea. Ewan, shall we?

-Aye.

'Now, from a migratory visitor on North Ronaldsay to the

'shores of Loch Ness,

'where Euan is investigating reports that long-extinct wolves have

'been heard in the hills of the Dundreggan estate.'

At one time, the hills and glens of Scotland would have been dominated

by pines and oaks and predators like wolves, bear and lynx.

But the extinction of those animals meant that deer would

thrive in large numbers,

and the deer impact on the young, emerging shoots of our trees.

But that could be about to change, because once again...

there are wolves in these hills.

HOWLING

WHISTLES BLOW

'The wolves are a group of volunteers at the estate where the

'charity Trees for Life is working to restore the Caledonian forest.

'The idea is that they mimic the activity of the wolf

'and scare off deer, who feed on the newly planted seedlings.'

Project Wolf is about helping the forest to restore itself.

'Doug Gilbert is in charge of the project,

'and he's showing me the damage that the deer can cause.'

We've actually got a prime example down here.

-Is this a rowan here?

-So, this is a rowan tree.

It's really palatable. So, deer love rowan trees.

They want to eat as many of them as they can.

If the wolves aren't there - human or otherwise -

they'll just devastate this bit, will they?

Well, they would certainly take all the rowans, yeah, and so,

as you can see, in this forest there's a lack of rowan seed trees.

That's because of a long history.

'Humans pretending to be wolves might seem ludicrous, but

'Alan Watson Featherstone, founder of Trees for Life,

'is deadly serious.'

Well, it's really about replicating some of the missing

functions of species that belong in this ecosystem here

that are absent at the moment.

And because of that, it's like a tattered remnant

and it's not able to function properly.

'Alan maintains that if the deer can be kept away,

'the forest will flourish.'

We would get more pines, we'd get more oak,

and we'd get a varied forest rather than this sort of standardised

birch wood that we've got at the moment.

And when we get more tree species, it's

a wonderful home for invertebrates,

it supports hundreds of species of invertebrates, and they provide

food for birds, and the whole web of life becomes re-established.

'This process of rewilding has a bigger aim.

'Once the woodland has been regenerated,

'it's hoped the human variety of predator could make

'way for the return of some long-disappeared four-legged ones.'

You've got your own team of wolves at the moment out there.

It's a controversial debate, as you well know.

I would imagine wolves a long, long way away.

Lynx seem to be bubbling to the surface.

-There's a lot more conversation about lynx.

-Yes.

I mean, I think lynx is a much easier

and less controversial animal to consider.

It's solitary, it's smaller, it is no threat to people

and it's much less of a threat to livestock, too.

'But until then,

'Dundreggan will have to make do with its human deer-scarers.'

-Hi, guys.

-Hello, Euan.

-Alan. Laura.

-Hi.

'I caught up with them after a night on the prowl.'

You guys have been out on patrol the past few nights.

-What kind of things have you been seeing?

-We've seen sika and red.

We've just seen a couple of sika up on the hill ridge

and a couple of red.

We saw a couple of flashes of the white tail of the sika,

but they did prance off quite quickly.

So, why do you want to do this in a midgie-infested Highland glen,

being out there at night chasing deer?

Well, basically, I love my country.

I love conservation, and this project is basically to protect

the trees and the wildlife

and rewild this area of the Caledonian Forest.

Is howling compulsory, or is it just fun?

It's probably more fun,

because wolves don't actually howl when they hunt.

-So it's more creating a noise to disturb them. Yeah.

-Quick howl?

THEY ALL HOWL

This project is very much in the early stages,

but the work that the human wolves have been doing has proved

that regeneration can be helped by moving the deer on,

and it opens up the whole debate about rewilding.

And who knows, possibly lynx...

and maybe even wolves might once again roam in these forests.

HOWLING

'Last year on Landward, we looked at the complex

'conflict between creel fishermen and trawlers on the west coast.

'But it's not an isolated problem.

'Tension is also growing on the other side of the country.

'Here in the inshore waters of the east coast, there have been

'lucrative creel-fishing grounds for generations.

'But now, creel fishermen fear for their livelihoods as trawlers

'are creeping ever closer to the relatively shallow coastal

'waters they fish.'

-How's it going? All right?

-Good, Dougie, good.

-Oh, smashing.

'I've come to Stonehaven to spend a day with fisherman Ian Mathieson.

'I want to hear first-hand about the problems he faces

'and his thoughts on potential solutions.

'Ian has been fishing these waters for nearly 15 years.

'His catch of crab and lobster is sold all over the world,

'supporting Ian's family as well as three others.'

What are you looking for?

Are quite a few going back because of size, and stuff?

We have a set size that we have to catch.

-You know, that's the rules and regulations regarding size.

-Aye.

There you go, there's what it's all about. Look at the eggs in that.

That's our future. Put him back and it looks after the ground.

Absolutely.

That's the good thing about creeling - there's no by-catch,

you just put them straight back.

-Uh-huh.

-And then we'll catch them again.

'So, no waste.

'In the last few years, though,

'Ian's business has started to suffer.

'Bigger trawlers looking for fish, squid

'and shellfish began to work in his traditional grounds.

'More than once, their nets and fishing gear have destroyed

'Ian's creels, catching and dragging them along the seabed.'

Well, initially, we had a lot of problems with the scallop boats,

but recently they've got a lot better, a lot better.

The lads are phoning us up, they're working with us on the radio.

But we've still got a few, and it doesn't take much.

But we've also got problems with the squid boats.

-That's a relatively new fishery for here.

-Uh-huh.

They've been here a while, but they've left us alone.

But last year, they hammered us. We lost 180 pots to them last year,

and they feel aggrieved that we're actually there.

I mean, it's fishermen destroying other fishermen.

I can't understand why.

If they work with us, we can work with them.

Unfortunately, they tow your gear away

and THEN they ask you to work with them.

-Right!

-There's not much co-operation there.

-No.

So, who is potentially policing all this? Or is nobody doing it?

Well, it's meant to be Marine Scotland.

They're in charge of the waters.

But their excuse is they have no judicial powers.

And, really, it's a cop-out.

-You know, they are the sea police, if you want to call them that.

-Yeah.

It's up to them to step up to the plate.

It's time to do something about it, and it's a shame,

because it's affecting the fishing industry.

We're getting a bad name from the environmentalists and all the rest,

and really, Marine Scotland could sort it out overnight.

'We asked Marine Scotland for their response to Ian's situation,

'and they said:'

"Marine Scotland officers around the coast play an active role in..."

'All Ian wants is a solution to conflict that's acceptable

'to all sides.'

Would there be an excuse that people don't know where your gear is,

so they're just going over the top of it?

Well, that's certainly been an issue in the past, but not now.

With modern technology and the set-up that we have at the moment,

the gear is well marked, we give out the positions of our gear,

there's a 24-hour website, their own fishing organisations

are e-mailed on a monthly basis an update on the positions.

We were asked to move gear this year -

well, not asked, we were told to move gear this

year by some of them, and it was just blatant.

It was just, "Move it or else."

So that isn't, you know, a mistake. That's just blatant.

The ground doesn't belong to anybody.

You know, it's to be shared by all of us.

And if we have to move a little bit

with guys that are co-operating with us, we'll move.

But we're not going to be dictated to and told,

"Get out of there or else." That's nonsense. Absolute nonsense.

Times are tough on the east coat,

with the creel fishermen feeling the impact of the trawlers,

and with the squid boats soon to arrive,

it could be a challenging summer for the creelers.

'If you've got any thoughts on the problems facing the fishing

'industry - or anything else, for that matter - you can

'get in touch via our Facebook page or e-mail.

'Earlier in the programme,

'I tracked down the legendary sheep of North Ronaldsay.

'Now I need to find out if their taste is as unique as it's claimed.

'And who better to help me than Nick Nairn?

'He's in our street-food van,

'and this time we're cooking for the citizens of Stirling.'

-Dougie! North Ronaldsay.

-Yeah.

-How was it?

-Amazing.

Absolutely fantastic. Beautiful island.

No trees, no mountains, no hills.

But it was absolutely stunning.

-We had pretty good weather, as well. This is your challenge.

-Not lamb.

-It's not lamb.

-No, this is three years old, very dark meat.

A lot of fat.

I'm going to trim the mutton off, take quite a lot of the fat off,

-season it up and then cook it on the griddle.

-Yeah.

-Meanwhile, you are going to make some garlic butter.

-OK.

So, Doug, you were up there with farmers in North Ronaldsay.

And they're going to apply for PGI status for the North Ronaldsay lamb.

-Yep.

-Why?

-They reckon that because the sheep are grazing

on the foreshore and eating mainly seaweed,

it gives it a particular flavour,

and they reckon that people should know

if it comes from North Ronaldsay, and they've got a point.

And did they tell you about mutton as opposed to lamb,

-the difference in age?

-No. Talk me through it.

-Well, mutton is three years old, so this is an old sheep.

-Right.

But what it does do is it gives it quite a strong flavour,

and it can be a wee bit teuch.

-Yes.

-So, normally I would cook chops rare, really rare and juicy,

-but I think we're going to cook these medium well.

-Right.

I think I'm not going to take any risks with this.

We'll give them a good cook.

Pan with butter. In goes the garlic.

I'm going to season the lamb with salt and a bit of pepper.

So, a fair glug of olive oil.

A fair glug of olive oil, you're absolutely right, Dougie.

Normally when you're cooking lamb chops,

the challenge is to try and get the fat on the outside crisped up

without overcooking the meat on the inside.

But with mutton, it's going to be cooked all the way through.

So it's much easier, it's much less critical.

So, really, we can just put them on, get a coffee, pull up a chair.

'While Nick takes it easy, I chop up the parsley and mint

'and add to the garlic butter.'

Is that better?

THEY COUGH

'Maybe Nick should have watched it a bit more closely...'

You're blowing it in at me!

'At least the van is open-air.'

Oh!

'A little bit of lemon, and the garlic butter is ready.'

Here we go.

North Ronaldsay mutton chops!

-Shall we have a tasty?

-I think we should have a tasty.

-I'll have this one.

-I'll have that one there.

Oh, that's really nice. I don't want to sound surprised!

That is a good flavour, yeah.

-Now...

-There's some chewing in there, but it's not...

-No, no, this is not spring lamb.

-No.

-This has got a bit of age to it.

But a huge depth of flavour. But that is very good!

-Very nice, yeah.

-Let's see what the guys in Stirling think.

-Let's do it.

OK!

Very nice.

-That is absolutely delicious.

-Yeah?

-It's got a hint of game.

-Any hint of seaweed?

-Actually, the aftertaste on your tongue, you can.

-Really?

But it's not strong.

I wouldn't normally eat lamb or mutton pink, but that's really nice.

It's no' bad, is it?

-Moist.

-Mm-hm.

-And tender.

Phenomenal.

It does taste like mutton. It's nice, though.

Sir, do you want a wee tasty of North Ronaldsay lamb?

That's tasty.

-Yeah?

-I'm a butcher. That's very, very tasty.

-People are liking my butter and garlic and...

-My recipe.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-You taste a wee bit of seaweed.

-Really?

-Aye.

-Mm-hm.

-The taste of the sea!

-And I love the salty taste. It's really nice.

-That's the best lamb I've tasted.

-Really?

THEY LAUGH

Everybody loved it!

It's amazing, because normally, some people

kind of don't like something, but actually, universally...

I don't think we've ever done this before

and everybody has said it's fantastic.

But it takes a bit of cooking.

It takes a bit of careful cooking by an experienced chef like myself!

Exactly! And on that note,

just time to tell you what's coming up next time around.

'Sarah's in hospital trying to improve the reputation of the food.'

Here we have the evening meal.

It's mince and onions for approximately 600.

-That is a shedload of mince.

-Yes.

'And I assist researchers trying to find out what happens to the

'salmon from our rivers.'

So, this will give us a picture of what the whole population is, so

we can look at survival of different age groups

and how that might change over time.

'That's next Friday on BBC One Scotland at 8:30.'

In the meantime, from all of the Landward team here in Stirling,

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

-Goodbye.