0:00:06 > 0:00:12This is Great Britain. Over a third of our country is made up of mountains...
0:00:12 > 0:00:16and Scotland is home to the highest summit of all.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21It's a landscape of fantasy castles.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24Lovely, do the Munsters live here?
0:00:24 > 0:00:28I'll try a traditional method of survival - the snow hole.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31- Are we going to be cosy in here? - We'll be very cosy.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35A little toil and effort can have magnificent rewards.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38What a view! Look at that!
0:00:38 > 0:00:43This was where Britain's mighty mountains were first tamed for visitors to enjoy.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47But what challenges do they have to offer us today?
0:00:47 > 0:00:53These are the Central Scottish Highlands.
0:01:06 > 0:01:11The 10.50 train that puffs its way from the Scottish coastal town of Mallaig
0:01:11 > 0:01:17into the remarkable scenery of the Central Scottish Highlands seems gentle and rather quaint.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20It feels almost the natural way to travel there,
0:01:20 > 0:01:27but in fact, only a few years before the railway line was built, this was outlaw country.
0:01:27 > 0:01:32Quite frankly, mountains have always meant trouble,
0:01:32 > 0:01:39you think of mountain men, or hillbillies, the authorities have always struggled to control them.
0:01:39 > 0:01:45200 years ago, these were Britain's badlands
0:01:45 > 0:01:50inhabited, so the central authorities thought, by little more than savages.
0:01:52 > 0:01:57Today, this train is full of day trippers on a bit of a jolly,
0:01:57 > 0:02:01and they're threatened by no more than overpriced souvenirs.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06Let me have a look. So this is the West Highland Railway, Ben Nevis Scotch Whisky, fantastic.
0:02:06 > 0:02:13There's not much left to tell us that the place we are arriving at, after our three-hour journey,
0:02:13 > 0:02:16was once a military outpost, except the name.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21Because this is Fort William.
0:02:21 > 0:02:26It was built in the early 1800s as a garrison town to control the unruly peoples of the Highlands.
0:02:26 > 0:02:31Nowadays, it's a barracks for holidaymakers drawn here by Britain's biggest mountain...
0:02:31 > 0:02:34Ben Nevis.
0:02:34 > 0:02:39Their guide books may tell them that Ben Nevis means the mountain closest to heaven,
0:02:39 > 0:02:45but some experts believe that the Gaelic name is more likely to translate as Mountain of Dread.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49For generations the slopes of giant mountains like the Ben
0:02:49 > 0:02:55were as fearsome as the people who lived amongst them, but today this place is almost a playground.
0:02:55 > 0:03:01I told a friend that I was going up it, and she said, "Oh, yeah, I pushed a baby buggy up there once,"
0:03:01 > 0:03:05so it's not considered the most arduous of climbs.
0:03:07 > 0:03:14In fact, 100,000 visitors a year toddle up to its summit 4,406 feet in the air.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18All they have to do is follow the zigzag path winding all the way up its slope,
0:03:18 > 0:03:23and as long as you go at your own pace, pretty much anyone can do it.
0:03:23 > 0:03:31Someone even drove a motorcar to the summit in 1911, so the Mountain of Dread is easy peasy...
0:03:31 > 0:03:33unless of course you run up it.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40'Morag, Emmie and Nicki are in training.
0:03:40 > 0:03:45'They run the Ben most weekends, and today, I'm going with them.'
0:03:45 > 0:03:48Now, you need quite strong thighs to do this, do you?
0:03:48 > 0:03:52- Quads.- It builds up with time, you build up your training.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55Lung capacity. Oh...lung capacity!
0:03:55 > 0:03:59But this is more like sort of doing a gymnastic exercise than going for a run, isn't it?
0:03:59 > 0:04:02It is on the way down, yeah.
0:04:02 > 0:04:04It's tricky. It's very tricky.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08- What do I do about the pain? Do you take tablets before you go?- No. No.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11- It's a drug-free thing?- A wee whisky.- We have a pint at the end.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15The annual Ben Nevis race was established in 1938.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19I've been let off lightly with what they call a half Ben.
0:04:19 > 0:04:24So I'm going to be due a half pint, even if it half kills me.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28- So you don't do the tanning lotion either, I see.- No, I don't.
0:04:28 > 0:04:33- LAUGHTER - Well, that makes me feel better.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36If I fell over and banged my head now, I wouldn't have to go.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39Who's got the phone for ringing the ambulance?
0:04:39 > 0:04:42- I've got one.- Oh, you have? Good.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45- Aye.- Right, you ready?- Yes.- Shall we time this?- Yes, please.- Let's go.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49So, OK, I've got 50 minutes to get to the Halfway...
0:04:49 > 0:04:51God, is that the pace?
0:04:51 > 0:04:52Gracious me.
0:04:59 > 0:05:06So, all I have to do is trot halfway up the highest mountain in Britain to a large pond called
0:05:06 > 0:05:12the Halfway Lochan at 2,200ft and, if I can do it in under an hour,
0:05:12 > 0:05:14then I get a reward -
0:05:14 > 0:05:18I'll qualify to do the whole lot in a proper race.
0:05:20 > 0:05:26Don't you think that this is really relentlessly manly, too much of this outdoor sport?
0:05:26 > 0:05:31Well, I don't find it manly. I find it romantic, romance made me do it.
0:05:31 > 0:05:36- Did it, why?- I followed my husband into the Ben race, and he always... - He did it first?
0:05:36 > 0:05:42Oh, yeah, he's done a few...and he always tries to find me on the Ben so he can give me a snotty kiss.
0:05:42 > 0:05:47'Well, I'm sure it's worth a snotty kiss.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51'But hey, I'm fit, I run around Regent's Park with my dog,
0:05:51 > 0:05:58'but after 20 minutes of this punishing stuff, I'd happily take mouth to mouth from my Labrador.'
0:05:58 > 0:06:03I can't do it! I'm dying.
0:06:08 > 0:06:14Oh...God! 90% of it is just staggering up.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21'After another 20 minutes, I've lost my will to breathe.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25'I'm being overtaken by people walking to the top.
0:06:25 > 0:06:30'Yeah, I'm just one amongst many having fun on the mountain.
0:06:30 > 0:06:37'Fun runs, fun walks, fun even carrying a keg of ale to the summit.'
0:06:37 > 0:06:39Fancy a beer?
0:06:42 > 0:06:47'Just a few more agonising steps and I'm there, halfway.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51'Did I make it in under an hour, or did it really take the six weeks it felt like?'
0:06:59 > 0:07:04I once...went...pony trekking,
0:07:04 > 0:07:08and...as we got to the hill...
0:07:08 > 0:07:12the horse started going, "Ugh...
0:07:12 > 0:07:14"Ugh...
0:07:14 > 0:07:17"Ugh... Ugh... Oh... Ugh... Oh..."
0:07:17 > 0:07:23for the next six hours, and I felt, "I'm killing this horse." So now the horse has had its revenge.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25Now you know what it's like.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27You did your 43 minutes.
0:07:27 > 0:07:3143? So if I were to throw myself off the edge of this cliff
0:07:31 > 0:07:34and roll back down to the bottom, I'd have done the half Ben.
0:07:34 > 0:07:36That's my fastest time.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39- You animal!- Is it?- Yeah.
0:07:39 > 0:07:41- Here's the 200 quid.- Thanks.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47What a view! Look at that, look at that!
0:07:52 > 0:07:55Well, I needed a breather.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59This is my reward - I can see most of Scotland,
0:07:59 > 0:08:03and my thighs have grown to the size of pumpkins.
0:08:09 > 0:08:16The girls head off together, but I decide to plough on and see if can make it to the summit.
0:08:16 > 0:08:22Off with the running shoes, on with the sturdy boots and all the other sensible walking kit.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26- Hi.- Hi.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28What race are you in?
0:08:28 > 0:08:30- Three Peaks Short Race. - Three Peaks...- Short Race.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34- Short Race. Good luck.- Want to join us?- No, I've done my bit for today.
0:08:38 > 0:08:40And I'm glad I got my kit back on.
0:08:40 > 0:08:46Out of nowhere, a storm roars in, bringing 70mph winds
0:08:46 > 0:08:48that threaten to hurl me off the peak.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53With 14 foot of rainfall on this mountain every year,
0:08:53 > 0:09:00you can see why, until recently, people needed a definite purpose to come up here at all.
0:09:00 > 0:09:05200 years ago, the only people who really came up mountains
0:09:05 > 0:09:12were scientists, exploring them like they were new countries.
0:09:12 > 0:09:18The path that's behind me here was built not to enable tourists to get up and down,
0:09:18 > 0:09:22but to enable a man to ride a pony to the top to make observations
0:09:22 > 0:09:26about the weather, which, as you can see, is changeable.
0:09:29 > 0:09:33This intrepid man was called Clement Wragg,
0:09:33 > 0:09:39and I'm beginning to understand why he was quickly nicknamed Inclement Wragg.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42He and his pony made the trip every day for two years,
0:09:42 > 0:09:46whatever the conditions, in order to send weather reports to Glasgow.
0:09:46 > 0:09:52He petitioned to have a weather station built at the very top of the mountain,
0:09:52 > 0:09:57and it finally opened in 1883, thanks to sponsors who included Queen Victoria.
0:09:57 > 0:10:02Three men lived here permanently as if it were a station in Antarctica,
0:10:02 > 0:10:10and they took hourly readings 365 days of the year, battling gallons of rain and towers of ice.
0:10:11 > 0:10:16In 1904, though, the observatory was abandoned. And Clement?
0:10:16 > 0:10:20Well, he would have certainly ploughed on today, but not me.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24Local wisdom has it that there's just a one in three chance
0:10:24 > 0:10:28of the Ben being clear enough to actually get a view from the summit.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31But if you are lucky enough to get that break,
0:10:31 > 0:10:36there's still some evidence of the observatory to be found.
0:10:36 > 0:10:42You can take a breather amongst the crumbling ruins and look out on the extraordinary vistas.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46To the scientists who first set foot up here,
0:10:46 > 0:10:50this must have felt like a whole new world.
0:10:58 > 0:11:06From the tourist path of the Ben to the A82. I've come 16 miles south of Ben Nevis to Glencoe
0:11:06 > 0:11:12to look for the evidence of how the taming of the mountain regions began.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16Glencoe is known as the gateway to the Highlands.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20This five-mile stretch of highway cuts through a valley so exquisite
0:11:20 > 0:11:23it's difficult to keep your mind on the road.
0:11:23 > 0:11:30I absolutely love driving through the Highlands.
0:11:30 > 0:11:35You get these incredible roads, brilliant scenery,
0:11:35 > 0:11:37and hardly any speed cameras at all,
0:11:37 > 0:11:42but I don't suppose half the people who come up here at the weekend
0:11:42 > 0:11:45and bum around on motorcycles,
0:11:45 > 0:11:50have any idea how inaccessible these hills once were.
0:11:51 > 0:11:55300 years ago, to get past these towering mountains,
0:11:55 > 0:11:58Buachaille Etive Mor, Bidean nam Bian,
0:11:58 > 0:12:02you went through bog, crossed rivers and traversed moors,
0:12:02 > 0:12:05and to get where?
0:12:05 > 0:12:12To yet more mountains inhabited by marauding, unruly Scottish tribes.
0:12:14 > 0:12:19This was the home of fierce clans, who, 100 years after Scotland and England had been yoked together
0:12:19 > 0:12:24under one king, were still deeply opposed to government interference.
0:12:24 > 0:12:29What sort of fool would even think of building a road through THEIR backyard?
0:12:29 > 0:12:31Here we are, this is what we're looking for.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35Just by the modern road, the new modern road,
0:12:35 > 0:12:42are the remains of the original road to the Highlands,
0:12:42 > 0:12:46and it was built by soldiers for soldiers.
0:12:48 > 0:12:55It was a General George Wade, no fool at all, who started the road building campaign in 1724
0:12:55 > 0:13:01which brought a staggering 1,100 miles of new roads into this rebellious territory.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04His aim was to get troops into trouble spots quickly,
0:13:04 > 0:13:08but, quite frankly, the whole place was a trouble spot.
0:13:08 > 0:13:14Each solider was issued with nine rounds of ammunition. Half of them were down here digging away,
0:13:14 > 0:13:17and the other half were stationed up...
0:13:17 > 0:13:21on the rocks above keeping guard in case the wild Highlanders
0:13:21 > 0:13:25suddenly descended on them and killed the lot.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29The ones up there were rather envious of the ones down here,
0:13:29 > 0:13:33because the ones down here got paid extra for doing the work.
0:13:35 > 0:13:40At any one time, there would be upwards of 500 soldiers working on the project.
0:13:40 > 0:13:46It was a massive undertaking, but then the Highlands were a big thorn in the side of the government.
0:13:46 > 0:13:51So when the national anthem came to be written, General Wade featured in it.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55There is a sixth verse which you might not know of. It goes...
0:13:55 > 0:13:58# Lord grant that Marshal Wade
0:13:58 > 0:14:02# May by thy mighty aid victory bring
0:14:02 > 0:14:08# Let him sedition hush and like a torrent rush
0:14:08 > 0:14:11# Rebellious Scots to crush
0:14:11 > 0:14:15# God save the King. #
0:14:15 > 0:14:20Of course it's not actually sung very much these days,
0:14:20 > 0:14:23well, not in Scotland anyway.
0:14:23 > 0:14:30Rebellious Scots might be interested to know though that Wade's roads were in fact used very effectively
0:14:30 > 0:14:35for moving troops around by Bonnie Prince Charlie
0:14:35 > 0:14:39who led the last great rebellion in the Highlands in 1745.
0:14:39 > 0:14:44But long before that happened, the authorities had decided to use any means,
0:14:44 > 0:14:48no matter how brutal, to try and put the Highlanders down.
0:14:48 > 0:14:5330 years before General Wade got here, this valley was soaked in blood.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57This is the site of the Glencoe Massacre.
0:14:57 > 0:15:02At the end of the Glencoe valley is an island on the dark waters of Loch Leven.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06The graves of the slaughtered lie here.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09Stuart Nichol is a local guide and historian.
0:15:09 > 0:15:15He is taking me there dressed in the authentic garb of a Highland warrior.
0:15:15 > 0:15:20- I'm dressed up, as you can see, in waterproof things.- Absolutely.- Is what you're wearing very waterproof?
0:15:20 > 0:15:26It is waterproof, because the wool is actually waulked, which means it's soaked and kneaded
0:15:26 > 0:15:30so that it actually contracts and it makes it waterproof,
0:15:30 > 0:15:36so it's wind and watertight as well as being very nice and warm.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39'The whole landscape,
0:15:39 > 0:15:45'the low clouds and the black waters seem to reflect the drama of this place where chieftains were buried.
0:15:45 > 0:15:49'An island of the dead.'
0:15:50 > 0:15:54Well, the whole island is completely littered with graves.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57Anywhere that you can dig, almost, there is a grave,
0:15:57 > 0:16:01so we can get off here and have a look and a wander round.
0:16:01 > 0:16:06- It's not a particularly easy place to get a coffin...- No.- ..ashore.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12The massacre was a betrayal of trust and hospitality.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16In 1692, government soldiers marched in to Glencoe.
0:16:16 > 0:16:22The MacDonalds who lived here, as was Highland custom, took them in, fed them and gave them shelter.
0:16:22 > 0:16:27They had no idea that after 12 days, they would be murdered in cold blood.
0:16:27 > 0:16:32It was a punishment for not having pledged allegiance to the King quickly enough.
0:16:32 > 0:16:38Well, the orders that came in to Captain Robert Campbell only came in the night before,
0:16:38 > 0:16:46and he was basically told that he had to start the massacre at five o'clock in the morning,
0:16:46 > 0:16:50and nobody under the age of 70 was to be spared.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53- That includes children? - That included children, yes,
0:16:53 > 0:17:00and they reckoned that 38 died in total, though many more died in the high glens that they escaped to.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06But what's fascinating about it...
0:17:06 > 0:17:10- is that the act of murder that we witness here...- Yes.
0:17:10 > 0:17:17..the actual massacre was an attempt to suppress the Highland people. It was followed
0:17:17 > 0:17:22by the banning of tartan, the banning of weaponry, wasn't it?
0:17:22 > 0:17:28Yeah, the weapons, tartan, the plaid, playing of the bagpipes, the whole lot
0:17:28 > 0:17:31were banned about 50 years later, after the Battle of Culloden.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34All these things now have more life...
0:17:34 > 0:17:39on shortbread packets, they march up and down the Royal Mile,
0:17:39 > 0:17:42they're worn by financial advisers in Canada.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46They have more life than they could possibly have ever had
0:17:46 > 0:17:49- if they'd just been allowed to go their own way and fade out. - Absolutely.
0:17:49 > 0:17:53Speaking as a Welshman, if only they'd tried to massacre a few Welshmen,
0:17:53 > 0:17:56we'd all be wearing those funny hats.
0:17:56 > 0:18:02The struggle to bring the rebellious Highlanders under control lasted over half a century.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06The government finally imposed their will on these mountainous areas
0:18:06 > 0:18:13when nearly 2,000 clansmen were wiped out in the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17It was a bloody and extreme measure, but one the authorities believed was necessary.
0:18:17 > 0:18:23These were the last remaining feudal, almost tribal, lands in Britain.
0:18:23 > 0:18:28Highlanders were brought up to fight, to serve their laird and to kill their neighbours.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31Blood feuds could last for generations.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37Perhaps a little of that spirit lives on in some Highland games.
0:18:39 > 0:18:45- Have you got boys, men up there doing their stuff? - Yes, two.- Two boys?
0:18:45 > 0:18:50The sport of shinty carries on an ancient hand-to-hand tradition.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53They may sometimes live only a few miles apart,
0:18:53 > 0:18:56but rival teams still break heads in this brutal version of hockey.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59The game is as old as the hills.
0:18:59 > 0:19:04The Celtic heroes of Ireland and Scotland often had a shinty stick in their hand.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07There is one legend about a warrior called Cuchulainn.
0:19:07 > 0:19:13He could knock the ball with his stick so fiercely through the jaws of a ferocious dog,
0:19:13 > 0:19:18so hard that it took the entrails right out the other end.
0:19:18 > 0:19:24The women were so impressed by this that they came to him with their breasts exposed,
0:19:24 > 0:19:30and his ardour could only be cooled by dunking him in three enormous vats of water.
0:19:33 > 0:19:40I've come into the hills to meet John Sloggie. He's a bit of a mythical figure himself.
0:19:40 > 0:19:45A one-time player, revered referee, John is also the last true craftsman of those vicious, heavy sticks.
0:19:45 > 0:19:50- Quite an ancient game, isn't it, shinty?- Aye, it goes back a while.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54They used to play it clan against clan, glen against glen.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57This is where the sticks are made?
0:19:57 > 0:20:03- This is where it's all done.- And you've got all the kit for making it from the beginning here?
0:20:03 > 0:20:06- Near enough, what I need anyway. - Yeah.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10- So what's your raw materials? - This is your hickory.- Yeah.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13Oh...God, that's heavy stuff.
0:20:13 > 0:20:14There's your five laminations.
0:20:14 > 0:20:19You put them into your mould, clamp it off, and you bend it round.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22- That gives you the strength. - And here's one.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26- That's one there, yes. - You can see the...laminations.
0:20:26 > 0:20:32- And different-coloured woods.- That's the white woods, the sapwood, and the brown is the more mature stuff.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36- You swing at the ball.- Yeah. - And then you turn it...
0:20:36 > 0:20:40'Although people still lose teeth and the occasional eye to shinty,
0:20:40 > 0:20:44'in 1895, the game was given rules, a referee and an association.'
0:20:44 > 0:20:47It was made fit for the modern age.
0:20:47 > 0:20:53Shinty was tamed, just like the mountains themselves had been, 100 years before.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59By the early 1800s, the Highlands had been pacified.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03It was time to see how best to put these mountains to work.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06They were rich in minerals, in wool and in timber,
0:21:06 > 0:21:12which could most easily be transported on the biggest resource of all...water.
0:21:13 > 0:21:18Scotland is divided by the Great Glen, a huge rift which slices
0:21:18 > 0:21:21through the Highlands from the North Sea to the Irish Sea.
0:21:21 > 0:21:27It has three huge natural lochs, but you couldn't get from one side to the other by boat
0:21:27 > 0:21:33until the start of the 1800s when a great new engineering project finally linked them up.
0:21:33 > 0:21:40It was the Caledonian Canal, and ships could now cross mountains.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44I'm boarding a boat called the Great Glen,
0:21:44 > 0:21:50as Skipper Ian McKay takes her through Neptune's Staircase.
0:21:50 > 0:21:55The water here rises 64 feet across a distance of 500 yards,
0:21:55 > 0:22:00step by step through an ingenious succession of eight locks.
0:22:00 > 0:22:06It was dreamt up by the canal's mastermind, engineering genius Thomas Telford.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11OK, bow off.
0:22:12 > 0:22:13And stern off.
0:22:16 > 0:22:22Just in terms of the engineering, how complicated was this to undertake this job then?
0:22:22 > 0:22:29It's an amazing feat of engineering - they had to cut through solid rock in some places,
0:22:29 > 0:22:33dig out, and stop landslides, and then actually make it waterproof.
0:22:33 > 0:22:39- In some places, they would use Harris Tweed on the banks... - Harris Tweed?- Harris Tweed.
0:22:39 > 0:22:45And it did keep the canal from leaking with clay and with rock.
0:22:45 > 0:22:50Like most canals, it's a navigation, it's a waterway,
0:22:50 > 0:22:54and the intent was to bring wealth and commerce to the Highlands
0:22:54 > 0:22:58and make sure the Highlanders here weren't revolting again.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06Queen Victoria came up here when she was in Scotland,
0:23:06 > 0:23:10and the term, "We are not amused," this is where it was originated,
0:23:10 > 0:23:14because the lockkeepers would all go - now they're hydraulic -
0:23:14 > 0:23:18but the lockkeepers all put poles in, in the capstan and put it round,
0:23:18 > 0:23:23and she was getting bored with the whole thing.
0:23:23 > 0:23:30- So, she was actually waiting to go through the lock?- Yeah. And she said, "We are not amused."
0:23:32 > 0:23:36Built at a whopping cost of £912,000,
0:23:36 > 0:23:43by the time the canal was finished, sea-going boats had become too big to get through the narrow canals.
0:23:45 > 0:23:51But what it really represents is the optimism of an age that believed it could bring
0:23:51 > 0:23:57these remote mountain areas under control and into the service of the Commonwealth.
0:23:57 > 0:24:02After all, over the next 100 years, British engineering was to bring civilisation everywhere,
0:24:02 > 0:24:07from the African jungle to the Indian plains - why not to Scotland as well?
0:24:09 > 0:24:13But Timbuktu has nothing on Rannoch Moor.
0:24:13 > 0:24:18It's a vast barren mountainous basin 1,000ft above sea level.
0:24:18 > 0:24:24All that rain washing off the Highland peaks sinks into this mire.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28And anyone venturing up here risks doing exactly the same.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33Rannoch's soggy marshes can be up to 20 feet deep.
0:24:33 > 0:24:38So what did the intrepid Victorians do? They built a railway straight across it.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43Sweet little station, isn't it?
0:24:43 > 0:24:46It's Rannoch Station and it's probably
0:24:46 > 0:24:49the most remote railway station
0:24:49 > 0:24:56in the entirety of the British Isles, right down in the middle of 56 square miles of unutterable bog.
0:25:00 > 0:25:065,000 navvies spent five years overlaying Rannoch's sodden peat with bark, tree roots and ash
0:25:06 > 0:25:12to build a foundation for the track, which sort of floats above the bog.
0:25:12 > 0:25:19The West Highland Line was made to take fish from the Atlantic port of Mallaig to the markets of London,
0:25:19 > 0:25:23but it also worked the other way around and brought something
0:25:23 > 0:25:28that was to have a big effect on the economy of the Highlands even today...
0:25:28 > 0:25:30tourists.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33- Good morning. You're a very welcome sight.- Good morning.
0:25:33 > 0:25:37- Is this a sleeper, then? - This is a sleeper, yes, from London.
0:25:37 > 0:25:41And there are passengers currently asleep?
0:25:41 > 0:25:46Most of them have got up by now, there's odd ones are still asleep having a long lie, yes.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51They've been able to do that for over 100 years.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54- 1894 it started.- Did it?- Yeah.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57- Fantastic, well, I'll have a cup of tea, please.- No problem.
0:25:59 > 0:26:04This may be one of the last remaining truly wild places in Scotland.
0:26:04 > 0:26:10As Robert Louis Stevenson commented in his novel Kidnapped, "A wearier looking desert a man never saw."
0:26:10 > 0:26:14But nonetheless, people still want to see it.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20When the first tourists came to Scotland in the early 1700s,
0:26:20 > 0:26:25they could write bestselling books about the horrors of the experience.
0:26:25 > 0:26:31Mrs Murray from Kensington recommended that you take a spare pair of carriage springs,
0:26:31 > 0:26:34your own cutlery and dinner service.
0:26:34 > 0:26:41But, in fact, as the century wore on, a sort of rage for visiting this wild place started to take over,
0:26:41 > 0:26:46and this was largely down... to literature.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49And particularly to one book...
0:26:49 > 0:26:51Waverley by Walter Scott.
0:26:51 > 0:26:57Waverley, published in 1814, is a swash-buckling, tartan-tinted story
0:26:57 > 0:27:01set against the background of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion.
0:27:01 > 0:27:06What had, only 50 years before, been a bloody, violent
0:27:06 > 0:27:09and terrifying reality became an entertainment.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13The country went tartan crazy.
0:27:13 > 0:27:19And like people travelling to New Zealand to see where Lord Of The Rings was made,
0:27:19 > 0:27:22so everybody wanted to set foot in Waverley land.
0:27:22 > 0:27:28Over the next 100 years, these sodden, midge-ridden, cold wastes of northern mountain and bog
0:27:28 > 0:27:33became the most fashionable place in the world for a wealthy man to have a holiday home.
0:27:33 > 0:27:38Historian Daru Rooke has come to pick me up and take me to one.
0:27:40 > 0:27:41Great car!
0:27:43 > 0:27:45Sit and get yourself in there.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59We're off to Ardverikie, a romantic Highland estate
0:27:59 > 0:28:03with a thousand-year history, on the banks of Loch Laggan.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09But the breathtaking romantic vision that we see here
0:28:09 > 0:28:12was actually created by an industrialist.
0:28:12 > 0:28:16He bought a crumbling ruin from an impoverished old laird
0:28:16 > 0:28:20and set about creating his own private Highland kingdom,
0:28:20 > 0:28:24strictly, you understand, for the holidays.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29Every August, the trains would be loaded with people coming up here
0:28:29 > 0:28:35with luggage, with servants, with grooms. They'd come to have a great time here for about ten weeks.
0:28:35 > 0:28:42Above all, you've got Queen Victoria coming here, and she sets the royal seal of approval here in the 1840s.
0:28:44 > 0:28:50The very landscape itself had to be re-modelled to suit the new visitors' fantasies.
0:28:50 > 0:28:57The Victorian industrialists, and wealthy characters who came here, re-planted millions of trees
0:28:57 > 0:29:00to get it looking like a romantic, old world Scotland...
0:29:00 > 0:29:06They thought, "We'll arrive in Scotland and we'll make it more picturesque than it actually is!"
0:29:10 > 0:29:13- So what do you think?- Lovely.
0:29:13 > 0:29:15Do the Munsters live here?
0:29:15 > 0:29:17Well, WE'RE visiting it, aren't we?
0:29:17 > 0:29:20What is this style of architecture called, then?
0:29:20 > 0:29:24Well, appropriately enough, it's Scottish baronial.
0:29:24 > 0:29:30- It's a kind of hotch-potch of almost every historical detail you could choose from.- Pick and mix effect.
0:29:33 > 0:29:39'Ardverikie is actually still a private home, still used as a Highland retreat by its owners.
0:29:39 > 0:29:45'We're going to have a snoop around, a sort of Through The Scottish Baronial Keyhole.'
0:29:47 > 0:29:50- So this was the shooting lodge of Sir John Ramsden.- Right.
0:29:50 > 0:29:58It's quite a grand building, and all built on the back of industrial money raised in Huddersfield.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01Absolutely extraordinary.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05How many acres of hunting grounds did this estate have?
0:30:05 > 0:30:11I think there was over 100,000 acres attached to the property. I mean it's a vast, vast estate.
0:30:15 > 0:30:20Plenty of room for that newly fashionable hobby, deer stalking.
0:30:20 > 0:30:27Sir John's main pastime in Scotland, apart from spending his vast wealth on his house, was shooting.
0:30:33 > 0:30:39And obviously, when there was time, you went hunting stags.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45"JWR 1893."
0:30:48 > 0:30:53Then there's...there's JWR, the inscription. Is that the actual man himself, JWR?
0:30:53 > 0:30:57John William Ramsden, and we've got his photograph over here.
0:30:57 > 0:31:02He must have been extremely wealthy. This must have cost a fortune, this place?
0:31:02 > 0:31:07He certainly looks that and he seems to have earned about 168,000 a year,
0:31:07 > 0:31:11- which is about ten million by today's standards.- A year?!
0:31:11 > 0:31:14A year, and he put a lot of that into this property.
0:31:14 > 0:31:19So what facilities...what, what did he spend his money on here?
0:31:19 > 0:31:25- Well, it had its own gas plant, so you could have gas lighting in every room, which was highly modern.- Yeah.
0:31:25 > 0:31:27He had his own telephone system,
0:31:27 > 0:31:30and he got rid of the peat fires and put in central heating.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33You've even got one of the most elaborate radiators I've ever seen.
0:31:33 > 0:31:37- Let's have a look at this. - Over there, covered up in bronze and marble.
0:31:37 > 0:31:41So this is the radiator, this is the house radiator...
0:31:41 > 0:31:45- looking like a sarcophagus?- Yes, you could bury a Pharaoh in it.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55Oh! I'm sorry. No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59(That's her ladyship.)
0:32:00 > 0:32:02Look at this!
0:32:02 > 0:32:05Look at that, fantastic.
0:32:08 > 0:32:10One for children? No.
0:32:19 > 0:32:24Newly rich Victorians were new to the wild.
0:32:24 > 0:32:29They wanted the mountains to conform to their standards of comfort.
0:32:29 > 0:32:34To them, the wilderness seemed an endless resource, and they plundered its riches.
0:32:34 > 0:32:36They fished, they hunted.
0:32:36 > 0:32:38Everything became a trophy.
0:32:38 > 0:32:44Unlike the Victorians, we now recognise that the wild wants to exist on its own terms.
0:32:44 > 0:32:51Even so, we still don't want to exclude ourselves from it.
0:32:51 > 0:32:57In fact, we're going to greater and greater efforts to experience wilderness in the raw.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00Time to get back to Ben Nevis.
0:33:00 > 0:33:06I was surprised to find that the Ben itself has a hidden side which I'd never seen,
0:33:06 > 0:33:10a dark and unwelcoming one - the rugged, inhospitable North Face.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16'I'm going up there with climber Heather Morna.
0:33:16 > 0:33:21'Nobody really attempted to climb these huge unforgiving walls of granite until the 1890s,
0:33:21 > 0:33:26'well after climbing as a sport had been established in the Alps.'
0:33:26 > 0:33:29Dodgy subject there, because the first route to be done on Ben Nevis
0:33:29 > 0:33:32was actually done by Sassenachs, two English people.
0:33:32 > 0:33:38As you can imagine, the Scots weren't too impressed that their highest mountain
0:33:38 > 0:33:44had been conquered for the first time on an ice route by two English climbers.
0:33:44 > 0:33:51'We're following the route taken by those climbers, led by an engineer from Manchester, John Hopkinson.
0:33:51 > 0:33:57'Coming up the back way unannounced, they rather startled the meteorologists in their observatory.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01'And I have to say, it looks pretty daunting to me.'
0:34:01 > 0:34:06As we're talking about it, a chill wind begins to blow...
0:34:06 > 0:34:12Griff, there's nothing like being thrown in at the deep end.
0:34:12 > 0:34:15'The Hopkinsons were a new type of mountain climber
0:34:15 > 0:34:21'for whom the summit was not as important as the experience of the climb itself.
0:34:21 > 0:34:28'They and those who followed them named the new routes they forged up this face -
0:34:28 > 0:34:34'East Chimney, North Tower. They seem chosen to remind me how steep this side of the mountain really is.
0:34:34 > 0:34:39'Heather and I are heading for a route named Number Four Gully.
0:34:39 > 0:34:44'Heather is intending to lead me straight up a frozen waterfall and go climbing on the ice.
0:34:44 > 0:34:49'It's a beautiful warm spring day, and that's the problem.'
0:34:49 > 0:34:53It's really calm today, which is not normal, you know, it's often pretty windy up here, so that's good.
0:34:53 > 0:34:57But I'm concerned about the temperature.
0:34:57 > 0:35:02If there's a slim possibility of avalanche. Looking over here, you can see
0:35:02 > 0:35:08where a lot of this snow is sort of sloughed out of this gully, which is called Number Five.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12'Close to, the avalanche is far from soft and fluffy.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16'These are icy blocks dirty with broken stone and mud.'
0:35:16 > 0:35:22I mean, what you get here, which is just extraordinary, is you get this feeling of the power
0:35:22 > 0:35:27of nature gradually wearing these mountains away.
0:35:27 > 0:35:31Only a matter of time. If we stood here for five or six million years,
0:35:31 > 0:35:37- we'd see the whole thing getting worn away.- An avalanche this size does a lot of damage.
0:35:40 > 0:35:47But when you use the word "drama" to describe this, that's what you mean, it's like a giant set,
0:35:47 > 0:35:54and you can see why they use words like buttress and pinnacle, because it is like a castle, isn't it?
0:35:54 > 0:35:56It is pretty dramatic.
0:35:56 > 0:36:01Yeah, and what's extraordinary is, the other side of Ben Nevis,
0:36:01 > 0:36:05the side that people have driven motorcars up and rode ponies up
0:36:05 > 0:36:08and have a race up, and 150,000 tourists a year,
0:36:08 > 0:36:12and then you come round here, and this is like the secret hidden side.
0:36:12 > 0:36:17- It is, really. - It's like she takes her clothes off!
0:36:19 > 0:36:23'Heather and I need to get a foot on the cliff face.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26'It's another 2,000 feet to the summit,
0:36:26 > 0:36:32'but as we get closer, things begin to look a little more risky.'
0:36:32 > 0:36:36I'm getting a bit twitchy about the temperature, Griff.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39The freezing level is going to be above the summit.
0:36:39 > 0:36:44It's not ideal conditions for climbing on snow and ice.
0:36:44 > 0:36:49It looks like there's a lot of stuff come down, you know, very recently.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52- And it's falling there. - Yeah, it's coming off there.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56Yeah, and there's some big lumps as well.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00I don't think it would be very sensible to go up there today.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05- Oh... Bottom lip's... - After everything I've said?
0:37:05 > 0:37:07Bottom lip coming out.
0:37:07 > 0:37:12After I'd prepared the entire nation who are watching at home, to see me go...
0:37:12 > 0:37:15I haven't even got me harness on or me hat!
0:37:15 > 0:37:21I'm disappointed for you, Griff, actually - it would have been really nice to do the route.
0:37:21 > 0:37:27- Oh...it would be.- It would be the icing on the cake.- Yes, it would have been, yes.
0:37:27 > 0:37:31Ah, well, at least it wasn't a failure of nerve.
0:37:31 > 0:37:36Perhaps I'll never get to be an ice climber, but I have experienced the granite bowl of Nevis
0:37:36 > 0:37:40and one of the most dramatic locations in Britain,
0:37:40 > 0:37:43well worth the walk in itself.
0:37:48 > 0:37:50I'm heading 50 miles east.
0:37:50 > 0:37:56Not just to one mountain this time, but to an entire range - the Cairngorms.
0:37:58 > 0:38:04The Cairngorm mountains form an enormous plateau of arctic wilderness.
0:38:04 > 0:38:06Snow-capped for much of the year,
0:38:06 > 0:38:10these peaks spread out across an area the size of Greater London.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25Right in the middle of the Cairngorms is the town of Aviemore
0:38:25 > 0:38:32where, in the late 1960s, people began to dream of white gold in the mountains.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36Well, as you can see the instructions are quite clear...
0:38:36 > 0:38:42You are not here to loiter, you are here in Aviemore to enjoy yourself in an active way.
0:38:42 > 0:38:46It must have seemed obvious - mass tourism and winter sports
0:38:46 > 0:38:50could bring new prosperity to the Highlands.
0:38:50 > 0:38:54What was needed was a brand-new purpose-built ski resort.
0:38:54 > 0:38:58The Highlands, properly packaged, would at last earn its keep.
0:38:58 > 0:38:59# Boogie nights
0:39:02 > 0:39:03# Boogie nights... #
0:39:05 > 0:39:11In the 1970s, this village became the height of sophistication.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15The name of Aviemore became synonymous with the sport of skiing in Britain,
0:39:15 > 0:39:20but, this being the 1970s, the glamour was placed
0:39:20 > 0:39:26somewhere between the pina colada, and the pineapple and cheese on a stick.
0:39:30 > 0:39:34The House of Fraser, that ancient Highland department store,
0:39:34 > 0:39:38employed an architect named John Poulson
0:39:38 > 0:39:45to build a spanking new resort, and rustled up the head of marketing from Butlins to inject some glamour.
0:39:45 > 0:39:53Big stars like Shirley Bassey, Bob Monkhouse and Omar Sharif all flocked to the kilted St Moritz.
0:39:53 > 0:39:59It wasn't just the introduction of cheap package holidays in European ski resorts that troubled Aviemore.
0:39:59 > 0:40:04It suffered badly from the absence of reliable snowfall in the Cairngorms.
0:40:04 > 0:40:07In the early '90s, much of the old resort was pulled down,
0:40:07 > 0:40:12including the old ice rink and Santa Claus Land.
0:40:12 > 0:40:18The holiday camp on ice may have been doomed, but people still come seeking thrills here.
0:40:18 > 0:40:24It's just that those who want to entertain them have to learn to be a little more inventive.
0:40:24 > 0:40:31- DOGS BARK - We're, from the sound of it, just coming up to a dog-sledding centre
0:40:31 > 0:40:37where they train various types of dogs to pull sledges over the snow,
0:40:37 > 0:40:41and it sounds a bit of an Alaskan thing, but in fact, in fact...
0:40:41 > 0:40:48it was developed... dog-sledge racing was developed in Alaska by a Scotsman.
0:40:49 > 0:40:54His name was Scotty Allan, and he began racing his dogs in 1908
0:40:54 > 0:40:59to stop his children arguing over which of them owned the fastest huskies.
0:40:59 > 0:41:01Today, Alan Stewart takes his sled dogs all over the world.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05Here in the Cairngorms, he can be seen daily
0:41:05 > 0:41:10speeding across the countryside with his pack of hounds, and me too soon.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13Although they're not domesticated, they're very, very much...
0:41:13 > 0:41:19- human-friendly, they really are. - Look at those eyes, though!- That's what makes a wonderful sled dog.
0:41:21 > 0:41:26- These guys are...they're not the same as the huskies at all.- No.
0:41:26 > 0:41:29They're a different form of dog altogether.
0:41:29 > 0:41:34They're a cross between an Alaskan husky and a New Mexican hunting dog.
0:41:45 > 0:41:47All right!
0:41:47 > 0:41:51'I guess this was going to be a bumpy ride in what appeared to be
0:41:51 > 0:41:55'some kind of souped-up kids' go-kart on a dirt-track road.'
0:41:55 > 0:41:57- Are you ready?- Yeah.
0:41:57 > 0:42:02The whole system works by just releasing the...argh...!
0:42:15 > 0:42:22From where I'm sitting, they seem to be loving it, wagging their tails like crazy.
0:42:22 > 0:42:24This is not a vehicle for loose change.
0:42:24 > 0:42:28Thank heavens we don't pass any lamp-posts.
0:42:28 > 0:42:33Alan stops them taking off across the heather, but otherwise, if there's a bump in the road...
0:42:33 > 0:42:35we have to take it.
0:42:38 > 0:42:41Go in home, boys. Go in home, boys.
0:42:41 > 0:42:42Go in home.
0:42:46 > 0:42:48Oh...
0:42:48 > 0:42:51Oh...
0:42:55 > 0:42:59Well...excellent.
0:43:01 > 0:43:03We had three speeds.
0:43:03 > 0:43:07We had stop, very fast, and look out, it's a cat.
0:43:07 > 0:43:12But apart from that, really, just an extraordinary way to travel.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15Imagine going for...for 1,200 miles.
0:43:20 > 0:43:26Husky races in Alaska do run for thousands of miles through trackless wastes of ice and forest.
0:43:26 > 0:43:31Alan and his dogs have been there, but how can this compare?
0:43:31 > 0:43:36Is there really anything here more than a carefully orchestrated fairground ride?
0:43:38 > 0:43:42To find out, I'm going up onto the Cairngorm plateau itself
0:43:42 > 0:43:49to see how far it lives up to its reputation, as a vast and desolate wilderness.
0:43:49 > 0:43:54Modern travellers try to get further and further away from civilisation.
0:43:54 > 0:43:59The Victorians may have wanted to capture the wild - we increasingly want to be in it.
0:44:02 > 0:44:04I'm with mountain guide Andy Bateman.
0:44:04 > 0:44:10We're making our way across this giant expanse of snow by skiing cross-country style
0:44:10 > 0:44:15and, almost from the beginning, we seem to enter a true wilderness.
0:44:21 > 0:44:22Which valley is this, then, Andy?
0:44:22 > 0:44:26This is the upper reaches of Strathnethy.
0:44:26 > 0:44:28It's terrific, isn't it?
0:44:28 > 0:44:31You can see why, in the Middle Ages,
0:44:31 > 0:44:35they thought of all this - the mountains - as being God's mistake.
0:44:35 > 0:44:39Given that we've only come just round the corner from Aviemore...
0:44:39 > 0:44:44already you're in a place which feels completely empty, like a great...
0:44:44 > 0:44:47gash in the Earth.
0:45:09 > 0:45:12Wow. Look at this.
0:45:12 > 0:45:14'This is the El Alamein hut,
0:45:14 > 0:45:18'named because it was built by the 51st Highland Division soldiers
0:45:18 > 0:45:21'as a training exercise before going off to war.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26'At one time, there were huts like this all over the Cairngorms
0:45:26 > 0:45:31'to provide shelter for anyone stranded on these mountains in really bad weather.'
0:45:31 > 0:45:37The trouble was that they found that they gave people a false sense of security,
0:45:37 > 0:45:42and there were a number of instances where people would have come to the hut,
0:45:42 > 0:45:48thinking they'd be all right for the night, and then the temperature would drop so much
0:45:48 > 0:45:54that there would be unfortunate consequences, so...they've knocked most of them down.
0:45:58 > 0:46:03The demolition was prompted by a tragic incident in November 1971
0:46:03 > 0:46:07when five teenage girls and their teacher died on this mountain,
0:46:07 > 0:46:10trying to reach a similar hut in a blizzard.
0:46:35 > 0:46:41Although the huts went from being a refuge to a hazard, people do still stay out here.
0:46:43 > 0:46:49In fact, Andy and I are about to try a traditional method of survival when conditions get extreme -
0:46:49 > 0:46:51the snow hole.
0:46:54 > 0:46:56Ah, curses!
0:46:57 > 0:47:02Is this a good spot to do the snow hole, then?
0:47:02 > 0:47:05Are we...stopping here?
0:47:05 > 0:47:09- We are, this is the site.- OK. good.
0:47:09 > 0:47:10This is it, this is it.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13There's a huge amount of snow in here, as you can see,
0:47:13 > 0:47:15and it collects to quite a depth.
0:47:15 > 0:47:18Are we going to be cosy in there?
0:47:18 > 0:47:20We'll be very cosy, very cosy.
0:47:20 > 0:47:27We're digging our way into the mountain, because the snow acts as a natural insulation against the cold.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31Sitting in it is warmer than being outside it.
0:47:31 > 0:47:36And in next to no time, he disappeared into the mountain.
0:47:38 > 0:47:40Ugh...ugh...
0:47:43 > 0:47:46- Andy?- Yeah?
0:47:46 > 0:47:49- Are we supposed to meet in the middle?- Yes.
0:47:49 > 0:47:51It's done.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54Welcome to the show apartment.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57Come in, come in, I'll show you around.
0:47:57 > 0:48:02Mind your head on the... it's a bit low on the ceiling there, but that's how we like it.
0:48:04 > 0:48:05Here we are.
0:48:11 > 0:48:13Well, I'm afraid I'm...
0:48:13 > 0:48:15I'm immensely proud.
0:48:15 > 0:48:21As you can see...the kitchen area, got a few shelves over there.
0:48:21 > 0:48:24Anything we want, we just add, we can add anything, you know.
0:48:24 > 0:48:26We went for...
0:48:26 > 0:48:28white, actually.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31We thought white would be nice,
0:48:31 > 0:48:34and a sort of curved effect over the top.
0:48:38 > 0:48:43Outside, we have the whole of the Cairngorms as our backyard.
0:48:43 > 0:48:49Apart from our own humble dwelling, there isn't a single human footprint to be seen anywhere,
0:48:49 > 0:48:54and this must surely be incredibly rare in our crowded island.
0:49:03 > 0:49:09But I'm moving on. I have some unfinished business to attend to before I leave -
0:49:09 > 0:49:14to climb up that secret side of the highest mountain of them all.
0:49:14 > 0:49:18Back at the grim North Face of Ben Nevis,
0:49:18 > 0:49:24it's grey, cloudy and very, very wet. The ice has gone.
0:49:24 > 0:49:31This climb is going to be a clamber up the dripping cliff in boots and bare hands.
0:49:31 > 0:49:32Hi, Griff.
0:49:32 > 0:49:37'To lead me is mountain expert Mark Diggins.'
0:49:37 > 0:49:41- Are you all right?- How are you? - I'm very good, thank you very much.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44Oh...it's disappeared...in the mist, the whole thing!
0:49:44 > 0:49:47Just a few minutes ago, we could see the lot.
0:49:47 > 0:49:52The route that we're going to do is pretty complicated and does require a bit of visibility.
0:49:52 > 0:49:55So we'll have to follow our noses, so we want to sniff our way up,
0:49:55 > 0:49:58- if you like, up the North Face, and get up to the top.- OK.
0:50:01 > 0:50:06The torrential rain has made the mountain path loose and slippery.
0:50:06 > 0:50:10Each step has to be taken with care.
0:50:10 > 0:50:15There's a 500-foot drop, and we've only just started climbing.
0:50:15 > 0:50:20The summit is higher above us than that but hidden in thick cloud.
0:50:20 > 0:50:27- Where are we going now?- We're heading up in that... There's a sort of little goat track up there.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36I think we'll put a bit of rope on from here.
0:50:36 > 0:50:41Well, as you can see, the ground opens up below us here.
0:50:41 > 0:50:46- Yeah.- And our trail is a really thin trail, just on the steep slope.- Yes.
0:50:46 > 0:50:50- And then way across...- Oh... - ..up to that ridge...
0:50:50 > 0:50:52right at the top.
0:50:55 > 0:50:58- Very slow with our feet.- Yup.
0:50:59 > 0:51:03'I'm roped up for safety because we're reaching the most difficult part
0:51:03 > 0:51:08'of our route to the top - what mountaineers refer to as a "scramble".
0:51:10 > 0:51:15'Down the side of this cliff is a drop of 1,300 feet,
0:51:15 > 0:51:18'almost the same height as the Empire State Building.
0:51:18 > 0:51:24'Any mistakes here will have a certain air of finality attached to them.'
0:51:24 > 0:51:27Wet as hell, it's slippery.
0:51:27 > 0:51:28Yeah.
0:51:30 > 0:51:36- Right...we're getting to... a tricky bit.- Right.
0:51:36 > 0:51:40- You're going to go over there.- Yeah.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43Just going to stick the rope round here, move your hand.
0:51:43 > 0:51:46All right. I will move my hand...
0:51:46 > 0:51:51Oh, I see. Oh, I see, we're... it's down there, is it?
0:51:51 > 0:51:53Shuffle your way across.
0:51:53 > 0:51:58- You're going to let me have a bit of spare rope as I go, are you?- Yeah.
0:51:58 > 0:52:02And I've got to sort of be right on top and get the old...
0:52:02 > 0:52:05Drop down a little. That's good, that's good.
0:52:05 > 0:52:07- ..ridge here, yeah.- OK.
0:52:09 > 0:52:12With the, er...beetling drop.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15- Now you want to lower yourself a little bit.- Yes.
0:52:15 > 0:52:20Just pulling my knee down, pulling my foot down.
0:52:20 > 0:52:21All right, got that.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25- Good. OK.- Yeah, got that. - All right there?
0:52:25 > 0:52:27Yeah, I am, yeah, coming down.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31OK, just have to guide me down here, Griff.
0:52:31 > 0:52:33Is that OK?
0:52:33 > 0:52:35You're all right there.
0:52:35 > 0:52:40- One foot, that's a foot, yeah. - Is that it?- That's it, yeah.
0:52:40 > 0:52:42- Excellent, good one.- And this is...
0:52:42 > 0:52:46part of what makes this...
0:52:46 > 0:52:51place the most extreme climbing in Britain, is it?
0:52:51 > 0:52:55Oh, yeah. I mean, look at it, look at that view down there.
0:52:55 > 0:52:59I don't know if I dare! I'm just going to have a look,
0:52:59 > 0:53:02- since you suggested it. - Over there, look.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06- Have we come up all the way?- Yeah. This is a really impressive country.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09- I'm feeling quite pleased with myself.- You're doing brilliantly.
0:53:09 > 0:53:14- At, er, 3,000 feet up...is it 3,000 we are now?- 3,000?
0:53:14 > 0:53:15- Yeah.- Nearly, nearly four.
0:53:17 > 0:53:23We've cracked it pretty much now, so it's fairly moderate terrain, although it's pretty exposed.
0:53:32 > 0:53:34We haven't got a view.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37No. Nothing.
0:53:38 > 0:53:40Oh, God...
0:53:41 > 0:53:42GRIFF LAUGHS
0:53:42 > 0:53:45Oh... Mark, thank you.
0:53:45 > 0:53:49- That was...that was, well, that was extraordinary.- Well done.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52- If you can just bear with me. - A good job on a day like today.
0:53:52 > 0:53:57I'm going to put a rock... to commemorate our visit.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00- Yeah, there's a gap, a space there. - Thank you, there we go.
0:54:00 > 0:54:02- Excellent.- Good.
0:54:02 > 0:54:04Was it worth it?
0:54:04 > 0:54:06- Yes.- Well, it was, actually.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09We had fun. We had fun.
0:54:09 > 0:54:16'I'd made it. I'd clambered up the dark side of Ben Nevis, though I still hadn't seen that view.
0:54:19 > 0:54:27'Today, we're on our own up here. We weren't passed by any fun runners or overtaken by a barrel of beer,
0:54:27 > 0:54:30'but neither were we confronted by wild Highlanders.
0:54:30 > 0:54:34'There still seems to be a lot of room up here,
0:54:34 > 0:54:38'room enough for everybody if they are prepared to find it.
0:54:38 > 0:54:45'In fact, we seemed to encounter a bare, empty, undisturbed and involving place,
0:54:45 > 0:54:46'a unique and humbling place.
0:54:46 > 0:54:51'A marvellous place and perfectly untameable.'
0:54:54 > 0:54:59Next time on Mountain, I'll be crossing the backbone of Britain - the Pennines.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02I'll uncover the hidden treasures of this huge range...
0:55:05 > 0:55:08..and see how it powered some of our biggest industries.