The Skye Trail The Adventure Show


The Skye Trail

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We all think we know Skye...

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or do we? In my view it's an island with not just one but the two of the finest mountain ranges in Britain.

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So join me as I walk from one end of this island to the other to meet the people who live and work here.

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You know, Alasdair, any argument that says

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this is not the most astonishing landscape in Britain is surely indefensible.

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What a day, eh? Just cracking. The feeling you get here is sort of boundless.

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Welcome to Rubha Hunish at the very tip of the Trotternish peninsula.

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The most northerly part of the Isle Of Skye and this is the spot that

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I've chosen to begin a weeklong walk through this magical island.

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Taking in what I believe are the two most fascinating landscapes that we have in Britain.

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Now most people will be familiar with the savage grandeur

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of the Skye Cuillin, but not so many people will be aware of the natural wonders of Trotternish.

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And I really believe that this long walk has the potential to be the finest walk in the whole country.

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Not many people get to this northern outpost, and that's a huge pity.

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It's worth spending some time here before you start putting one foot in front of another.

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At Rubha Hunish you're a million miles away from the pressures of modern life,

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so I've begun by camping out amongst the cliffs and the rocks

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that surround this superbly atmospheric headland.

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You know I've really been longing for a beautiful sunset tonight

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to help start off my walk through Skye, but it wasn't to be.

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But what I have seen is some fabulous wildlife. I'll tell you,

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this place is amazing. Gulls of all kinds, seals

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and minke whales.

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Oh, fantastic. Look at that!

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You know, we don't have to go abroad. We've got it all here.

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During the next week I will be travelling about 70 miles,

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starting from the most northerly point of the mainland and finishing in Broadford.

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The first leg of my journey takes me past the historic Duntulm Castle,

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down the Trotternish roads to Skye's capital, Portree.

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And I can't wait to get started.

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On a day of crashing surf and gale force winds,

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there are few places in Scotland as inspiring as Duntulm Castle.

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There's not an awful lot left,

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but there is enough to give you a sense of the grandeur of the position of this castle.

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You can almost sense, you can almost imagine

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the war galleys sailing in to the shelter of the bay down below me here,

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and over the centuries two highland clans fought for ownership of this particular castle -

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the MacLeods and the McDonalds.

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And there's a lovely story that tells of a race between the chief of the clan MacLeod

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and the chief of the clan McDonald and the first one to land at Duntulm could claim ownership of the castle.

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And the story goes as the two galleys approached, the chief of the clan McDonald

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cut off his right hand and cast it onto the shore to claim ownership.

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And during their reign this was a very grand and special place.

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It's said that they created gardens here out of the earth of seven different countries

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and during that time they were visited by King James V.

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But all that grandeur came to an end one night when the heir to the clan

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chieftainship was being nursed by this window, and for some reason the nurse

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dropped the baby out of the window and it crashed to its death on the rocks below. The nurse was taken,

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she was bound and she was cast off in an open boat, cast adrift on the sea.

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And it's said that even to this day, on wild and stormy nights you can hear her cries and screams.

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No-one really knows why the McDonalds eventually left Duntulm,

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but there is a school of thought that says that they came out in support of the Jacobite cause in 1715

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and after the battle of Culloden in 1746, the Highland clans were proscribed.

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They were banned. So it's quite likely that at that time the McDonalds left Duntulm,

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left it to the ravages of the sea and the wind.

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On the way at last.

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It's a fairly inauspicious start to what is really one of the great walks of Scotland.

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Who'd guess that this simple sign heralds the start of 20 miles or more

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of the finest ridge walking in Scotland?

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The Trotternish escarpment runs unerringly north to south from summit to summit.

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It's also one of the most distinctive landscapes you'll find anywhere.

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A place where the forces of nature have sculptured a succession

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of free standing pillars, sheer cliffs and isolated tables of rock.

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And you meet the first of these almost immediately you step foot on this volcanic ridge.

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Natural events over thousands of years have shaped a place that is geologically unique.

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This is the Quiraing,

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a name originally from the Norse which means pillared enclosure.

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You know, I first came here as a youngster. I was brought here.

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I was actually scared. The place terrified me.

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I could almost hear the wind just moving around these

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tall, distorted fingers of rock and the water was oozing from the rock, oozing and dripping.

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And looking down these dark corridors of scree everywhere, I half-expected to see orcs or hobbits and dwarfs.

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But I have been back here several times since and, you know, even on a day like this, a nice sunny day,

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the place just has this extraordinary atmosphere.

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There are three main features here in the Quiraing,

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the Prison, which is the fortress-like block of rock down at the start of the path,

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the Needle, which is the 200ft tall tower of rock

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that kind of guards the entrance to this inner sanctum,

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and then there's this amazing feature, this great big elevation of turf known as the Table.

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And local folklore suggests that every New Year's Day, two teams would come here and play a game of shinty.

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I've some doubts about that.

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Most of the shinty players I know would do well to be up and about

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and sober on New Year's Day, never mind play a game of shinty.

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It's a great view of the ridge from here

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as it rollercoasters its way all the way

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down to Portree, and it stays as spectacular as this all the way.

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I've just crossed the road that runs between Staffin and Uig...

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over the spine of the Trotternish peninsula.

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A lot of hill walkers stop here because there's a van in the lay-by,

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and they sell teas and coffees and things like ostrich burgers

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or kangaroo burgers and coming soon, a speciality, zebra burgers.

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All good Scottish traditional fair.

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But before I head up Bioda Buidhe and then on to Beinn Edra and the rest of the ridge,

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I'm going to take a wee diversion down to the coast where I've been promised something really special.

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Just something I've got to do. Won't be a second.

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Voila!

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I've taken a detour from my route to meet one of Skye's more recent residents.

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A patriotic Frenchman, he loves Scotland so much he wears the kilt

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and is a living example of the Auld Alliance.

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Flodigarry was once the home of Flora MacDonald.

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Now it's one of a number of places on the island serving excellent food.

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Almost there now.

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I've arranged to meet the chef here, Pascal Rivault.

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a man who, somewhat surprisingly, is now an enthusiastic ambassador

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not for French cuisine, but for Scottish cuisine.

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And he wanted to show me just how fabulous the local produce is.

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As always, I'm a willing student.

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So we've got langoustines, fresh langoustines and lobster.

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Are the oysters...are these local?

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Yes, they have just been delivered.

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-Straight from the sea?

-Right.

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'I thought I might get a quick taster, but didn't realise this was the start of a banquet.'

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Smoked salmon in Scotland is a must, but we smoke it ourselves.

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We've got a duo of langoustine and pan-fried scallops.

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-Oh, I love scallops.

-Cooked with sesame oil, spring onion, ginger.

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'Never a man to do things by halves, Pascal is just getting into his stride.'

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-And lamb.

-Scottish lamb just roasted, mint and honey juice.

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It's all looks absolutely fantastic, and it will be accompanied by a French wine.

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It's a pity we don't do wine in Scotland.

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No. But you do your whisky pretty well so we'll forgive you.

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Straight from the sea to my mouth.

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Gosh. Down the hatch.

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You get the taste of the sea from that oyster.

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It's like the sea exploding in your mouth.

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They haven't been travelling, they haven't been sitting in fridges for...

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Wonderful. And the important bit, Slainte.

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'French wine there may be, but Pascal recommends an 18-year-old single malt whisky with the oysters.

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'And who am I to argue?' Wonderful.

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It's very encouraging for me as a Scotsman to hear a Frenchman say that we have such good produce.

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The scallops, the langoustines when you get them are still crawling around.

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It's just unbelievable.

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It's so fresh, isn't it?

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-That's the beauty of it.

-It's the taste of the sea.

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I think Lamb is probably my favourite meat.

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-Join the club.

-Yeah? You're a pro-lamb fan?

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I love this lamb.

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Ok, lets try this.

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Could get used to it?

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I've got to go back to beans and sausages tomorrow night.

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In a little tent up there somewhere.

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You can always order takeaway.

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Will you come up the hill and serve it in your kilt?

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Why not? Why not?

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Today, we often think of our Western Islands as places of great beauty...

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of wide-open spaces, of peace, solitude and comparatively few people.

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But that's not always been true.

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Our ancestors settled here from earliest times

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and one of the things I want to do is get under the surface of this island.

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Literally beneath the ground.

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There's something here I'm really keen to show you.

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People have lived on Skye since the earliest times, and relics of our past lie everywhere.

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New discoveries are being made even today.

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In the north, the local community came together to excavate

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this underground chamber called a souterrain.

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I'm only just a few feet down, but I've already stepped back countless generations.

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Isn't this fantastic?

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It's an iron age cold store, if you like.

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If you can imagine a township above us 2,000 years ago, and this is where

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people would come and bring the butter and cheese and their milk.

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Really just to keep it cold and cool under the ground.

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It's beautifully constructed with lovely lintels, solid walls...

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absolutely fantastic.

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While I'm really fascinated by these early settlers in Scotland, the early

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hunter-gatherers, I don't know an awful lot about them.

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But shortly, I'm going to meet someone who does.

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The Isle of Skye is an archaeologist's treasure trove

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and new evidence is being discovered all the time.

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Karen Hardy is a specialist in prehistory.

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She took me to one of the newest discoveries, but I wasn't sure what I should be looking for.

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-You're standing on it.

-Sorry.

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In this remote cave is a midden...

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the remains left by people living here thousands of years ago.

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Karen's showing me a system of caves that she's only just starting to explore.

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Look at this.

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Now look at that. That is shell midden.

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Look at all of those shells.

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I think we have got the shell midden continuing here.

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We've got the dung, not a very thick layer of dung by the look of it, and we've got the shells.

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Right there.

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This is a shell midden, or rubbish heap, right in the southern tip of the island.

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It may not sound exciting, but it can provide Karen and her colleagues

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with a huge amount of detail about the people who once lived here and the lives they led.

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I would have thought people who lived 5000, 8000, 10,000 years ago

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would be one step removed from animals.

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Not at all. No, no, no.

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These were highly sophisticated people living in a highly sophisticated social structure.

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They would have had a very detailed and in depth knowledge of their surroundings.

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The people who lived here, whoever they were and however long ago it was, were here to exploit the sea.

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It's possible they were Mesolithic, but I can't be sure of that.

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I looked at shell middens in lots of different places and had

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shell middens carbon-dated

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and we've discovered that,

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in fact, people created these shell middens right throughout history.

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We have dates dating to the 1700s and we have dates going back to 8,000 years ago.

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And so all the way through human history, different sorts

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of people were using the caves, probably for different things...

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It could take years before this cave system is properly excavated and we know who lived here.

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But this site is yet another important discovery on the island.

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It gives us a really good insight into our past.

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I found this recently and no-one has explored this since the people left, however long ago that was.

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-After you.

-Thank you.

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I couldn't help thinking, walking up to the cave, that we were approaching

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a lost world and a society that's vanished forever.

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It's not just one cave, it's got several chambers to it

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and I haven't even been in past the first chamber yet. It's so big.

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How do we know that all these shells haven't just been brought here naturally?

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Do birds bring shells into a place like this or have they just been washed up here?

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No. These have been brought here by humans.

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The reason we know that is that we have lots of other evidence in amongst the shells.

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Artefacts that have been worked into tools.

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We've found animals, bones, bones that have got cut marks on them,

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we've got fish bones, we've got charcoal, we've got ochre in some places, we've got hematite...

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They must have been using this for colour of some sort.

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So these are real dumps, not just shell middens.

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They're living areas. I don't know that you can call them dumps.

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Maybe it's because I come from Glasgow originally, but my sense of the word midden is just that.

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-Well, who knows? Let's see.

-Well, you're from Edinburgh.

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You don't have middens in Edinburgh, do you?

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I have to say that this is a wonderful opportunity for me because the last couple of times I've been,

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I've forgotten my torch, which is why I've never been

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underneath here, and finally we've come with a torch so we can go.

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-I've never been under here.

-OK.

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Well, me being a thorough gentleman, ladies first.

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-OK. You'll be following up close behind will you?

-I will be.

-Good.

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What have we got here?

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Oh, wow. Look. You see that?

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You see the shells? Let's go further in.

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How far in can we get?

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Oh, gosh. This is so exciting.

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-This goes on and on.

-Does it really?

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Look. We can't actually get any further down, but this just extends and I can't see how far it goes.

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I think the exciting thing about this is where it is.

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It's just the location of it.

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It makes is quite exciting.

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And it's obviously very big.

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-So it continues.

-It does, doesn't it?

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But I don't think I'm brave enough to squeeze in there.

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-Will you be back?

-Oh, I will be back.

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That's for sure. I'm just going to peep under here while I have the torch.

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'It'll take Karen years to fully explore what's in this cave.'

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Back on the ridge, I'm walking off the calories and beginning to eat up the miles.

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Heading south, a succession of summits bring me to the other famous landmark of Trotternish.

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The Old Man of Storr can be seen for miles, and is a fragile pillar of rock

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that looks as if it might topple over at any moment.

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And it's in the amphitheatre below the Storr that I've arranged to meet botanist and ranger, John Phillips.

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John grew up in Barrhead just outside Glasgow, but now he's delighted to be an adopted son of Skye.

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But what brought him here?

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My wife and I had both had time spent on islands.

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My wife on Mull and myself on Arran for a period.

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That was part of it.

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We had come to a time when we knew we wanted to get away from the city.

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So I just started looking for jobs.

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The first thing that came up was a job here.

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I'm far happier out here.

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I've described the Trotternish Ridge and the Cuillins as possibly

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the two most remarkable landscapes not only in Scotland, but in Britain.

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The Trotternish Ridge is the longest landslip

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feature in Britain. It's something like 22 miles

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of tumbled rock.

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The top end of Skye, the Trotternish area, is a series of about

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25 blankets of molten rock solidified on top of each other.

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-This is volcanic rock?

-It's volcanic rock.

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The molten rock welled up out of the ground rather than

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big eruptions.

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The later layers are just molten rock oozing out.

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The Earth's crust was stretching,

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cracks appearing, molten rock coming up through the gaps and solidifying.

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We've got a massive, very unstable sandwich of basalt here.

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The Earth's crust has tilted.

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It's been under ice

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many times in the past.

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Every time the ice comes, it wears away a little bit more

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and the whole lot slips down again.

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And there's about 5 different layers, landslip events.

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The last one probably about 6,500 years ago.

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-That's not long.

-It's not.

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We've already heard that in Metholithic times, 8,000 years ago

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people were living here in quite idyllic conditions.

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So possibly, this would all look quite different.

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The pinnacle of the Storr probably wasn't there at that time.

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-It appeared subsequently.

-It really has resulted in quite friable rock.

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You get the feeling when you walk up here that the rock is quite...

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It's very loose.

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It breaks very readily.

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It forms a very rich soil. There are rare plants here that you won't find in many other places in Britain.

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I think the Iceland purslane must be one of the star attractions.

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It's fascinating that these amazing landscapes have provided

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a home for rare plants like the Iceland purslane.

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It's found high on the Trotternish Ridge and even

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in the rapidly worsening weather, I was determined to see it for myself.

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The first specimen was discovered here in the mid 1950s

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and created a stir amongst naturalists of the time.

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Botanists came flocking here

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and got local people to guide them up to where they would find this plant.

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Iceland purslane really is a tiny plant...

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it still takes some finding today.

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-Oh, well spotted, tiny little plant here.

-Look at that.

-There wouldn't

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be people who would say to you, John, you've got me up

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here on a wild, windy day like this to see that!

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It gives me quite a lot of satisfaction.

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To know a little about it and to be able to find it again, and

0:23:260:23:31

given that this is an annual plant, you never know where it'll be next year in this rough area.

0:23:310:23:37

But you do need to hunt about a bit.

0:23:370:23:38

This is a genuine rarity.

0:23:380:23:40

Exceedingly rare. There are only 2 places in Britain where you can go to see this plant.

0:23:400:23:48

One is Trotternish Ridge and the other one is Mull, that's it.

0:23:480:23:54

It just shows you that even precious rarities like this Iceland purslane

0:23:560:24:00

can look quite insignificant in this kind of landscape.

0:24:000:24:03

22 miles, over a dozen summits, and some fantastic views ranging from

0:24:030:24:08

the Outer Isles to the mountains of mainland Scotland,

0:24:080:24:11

and from here it's downhill to the end of the Trotternish Ridge and, for a short time, back to civilisation.

0:24:110:24:19

Formerly known as Kiltaraglen, the town was renamed Port Righ,

0:24:190:24:23

or King's Harbour, after a visit by King James the 5th in 1540.

0:24:230:24:29

Today it's the largest town on Skye, and a great place to take a wee break.

0:24:290:24:33

You can't do a long walk through the Isle of Skye without popping in to Portree, and down here by the pier

0:24:360:24:42

is an ideal place to while away an hour or two, have a fish supper and just prepare yourself for the next

0:24:420:24:48

stage of the journey, down through an area called the Braes, the scene of the last land battle in Britain.

0:24:480:24:56

Cheers!

0:24:560:24:58

It's a short distance from Portree to the little

0:25:010:25:04

string of small crofting hamlets that make up the area collectively known

0:25:040:25:08

as the Braes, and when I was here earlier in the year I was surprised to hear someone call my name...

0:25:080:25:13

someone I'd not seen for about 35 years.

0:25:130:25:17

I first met Lorne Nicolson when we were both young Glasgow coppers.

0:25:190:25:23

Like many people in these parts, Lorne's family had left Skye to find work in Clydeside.

0:25:230:25:28

But after retiring from the Glasgow police force, he's returned to the island

0:25:280:25:32

and the family croft right next to the site of the battle of the Braes.

0:25:320:25:37

In 1882, following a dispute with the landowner, a fight took place

0:25:380:25:42

between the local crofters and a contingent of policemen who had been drafted in from Glasgow.

0:25:420:25:48

I asked Lorne to tell me what conditions would have been like for local people at the time.

0:25:480:25:53

The people were in wretched poverty here.

0:25:530:25:55

The herring had gone,

0:25:550:25:57

the potato blight,

0:25:570:25:59

there was no money for the sheep,

0:25:590:26:02

the kelp had gone because the Germans started producing pot ash,

0:26:020:26:06

so they were reduced from earning £30 a season in herring fishing to £1.

0:26:060:26:12

If you put yourself in the position of those

0:26:120:26:15

policeman in the 19th century, the sergeant says to them,

0:26:150:26:18

"I need 50 volunteers to go up to the Isle of Skye for a week."

0:26:180:26:21

Would they have seen that as a bit of a jolly?

0:26:210:26:24

Yes. I can see the mindset of the police was, "Lets get away from Glasgow, lets get away up somewhere,

0:26:240:26:30

"and lets do our job, and you know, we'll march, we'll look good, we'll do everything."

0:26:300:26:35

They marched from Portree all the way to Braes and they

0:26:360:26:40

arrested them and they brought them back to just this spot we are here.

0:26:400:26:45

The Braes folk had prepared for them coming...

0:26:450:26:47

The stramash happened here and they rolled stones down the hill at the police.

0:26:470:26:51

A lot of the police were injured, and through time they said it was a massive battle, but this battle was

0:26:510:26:57

only the catalyst that caused problems all over the island.

0:26:570:27:00

Do you think the police, when they came here, were surprised with the reception?

0:27:000:27:04

I think more than surprised.

0:27:040:27:06

They got a real shock. I don't think they expected this.

0:27:060:27:10

They thought they'd march up the hill and down again, nothing would happen.

0:27:100:27:14

So someone who was a crofter and someone who was a policeman for about 30 years...

0:27:140:27:19

Where would your sympathies have lain?

0:27:190:27:21

Basically, my sympathies were with the people.

0:27:210:27:25

With all people who are downtrodden, but I still have a wee sneaky one for the cops who came up here.

0:27:250:27:30

I know how the cops would think.

0:27:300:27:33

They didn't deserve what they got because nobody told them.

0:27:330:27:35

But again, they obeyed the orders.

0:27:350:27:38

They came, they got a hiding, they went home and being a Glasgow boy with...

0:27:380:27:41

I have a balance.

0:27:410:27:44

So the events of the battle of Braes here really sparked off

0:27:440:27:47

unrest throughout the Highlands and Islands.

0:27:470:27:50

What was the outcome of all of that?

0:27:500:27:52

The outcome was the Napier's Commission.

0:27:520:27:54

When the landlords and the legal advisors

0:27:540:27:59

brought forward the Crofting Holdings Act of 1886.

0:27:590:28:04

They were able to pass their property onto their children.

0:28:040:28:07

Most of the rents were reduced by 50%.

0:28:070:28:10

It was the best bit of legislation that the crofters ever had. It was wonderful for them.

0:28:100:28:14

I actually grin and smirk when I see it.

0:28:140:28:18

It was really, really good for them and really is a thing that we must try and hold onto to.

0:28:180:28:22

Not change the system too much.

0:28:220:28:25

What a pity this momentous occasion doesn't warrant more than

0:28:250:28:28

a small monument, because it did have a profound effect on changing conditions for crofters everywhere.

0:28:280:28:34

From the Braes, you look east to skyline of Raasay...

0:28:340:28:37

a place I've seen for years from various mountain summits but never managed to visit.

0:28:370:28:43

But that's about to change.

0:28:430:28:45

I'm making the short ferry crossing in the company of Meg Bateman.

0:28:450:28:50

She was brought up in Edinburgh of English parents, and as a university

0:28:500:28:54

student discovered an affinity for Scotland's native tongue.

0:28:540:28:58

Since then, she's become a champion of the language, dedicating her

0:28:590:29:03

adult life to learning, teaching and writing in Gaelic.

0:29:030:29:08

I remember my father saying to me, "Do you think Gaelic has any philosophy?"

0:29:080:29:13

I think he felt it wouldn't be as deep or as culturally wide as doing a major European language.

0:29:130:29:21

But I have found that it has taken me on a very interesting journey.

0:29:210:29:25

If you think what an unnatural thing it is not to teach your own child

0:29:250:29:29

your native language, it sort of felt,

0:29:290:29:32

not of laziness but that a terrible violence had been done

0:29:320:29:36

to your culture through the education system.

0:29:360:29:39

I think we owe it to Scotland, and in a way we owe it to

0:29:390:29:44

humanity to preserve what is a distinct window in the world.

0:29:440:29:49

Meg's an accomplished poet, and she's taking me on a pilgrimage

0:29:490:29:53

to the spiritual home of one of our foremost poets, Sorley MacLean.

0:29:530:29:58

We've come to the eastern shore of Raasay and the site of one of his most famous works, Hallaig.

0:29:580:30:04

To many people, Hallaig seems like an evocation of the horrors

0:30:040:30:08

of the clearances with its famous first lines, "The window is nailed

0:30:080:30:11

"and boarded through which I saw the West."

0:30:110:30:14

But Meg told me that there's far more to this poem than that.

0:30:140:30:18

It's a work rooted deep in Celtic culture and its landscape.

0:30:180:30:21

I think he's working with very old Gaelic ideas

0:30:210:30:26

in that poem about the other world, and about circular time.

0:30:260:30:31

Although in Gaelic culture, the clearances

0:30:310:30:36

are a terrible tragedy in linear time I think in that poem, because of

0:30:360:30:41

the redemptiveness of art, I think he does reach some sort of

0:30:410:30:48

acceptance of what has happened, because

0:30:480:30:52

he has had this vision

0:30:520:30:55

of the continuing significance of people who are no longer there.

0:30:550:31:00

And anyone who reads the poem can share that vision.

0:31:000:31:04

In circular time, what was past can also be present and can also be future. Like the stars we see now.

0:31:050:31:12

We think they're there but they're in the past.

0:31:120:31:15

He wrote a lot about landscape. Why?

0:31:150:31:18

Well, I think poetry is a sensuous language.

0:31:180:31:22

It's not the same as academic writing. It's not working

0:31:220:31:27

by ideology, it's working by something that becomes an emotional trigger for someone else to feel.

0:31:270:31:34

I think the landscape

0:31:340:31:37

gives Sorley the plastic quality he needs to describe

0:31:370:31:42

his emotions.

0:31:420:31:44

So it makes agonising poetry, and I think he expresses that agony

0:31:440:31:50

through this landscape.

0:31:500:31:53

This landscape becomes the rollercoaster of his imagination.

0:31:530:31:58

I think Sorley has made what might have been a sort of

0:31:580:32:03

frightening, wild landscape into an epic landscape of human striving.

0:32:030:32:09

A sort of moral landscape.

0:32:090:32:12

Meg, could you describe to me what Raasay means to you?

0:32:120:32:16

In English, and then tell me again in Gaelic.

0:32:160:32:19

For me, Raasay is just shot through with Sorley's symbolism.

0:32:210:32:28

The power of beauty to let us see beyond tragedy.

0:32:280:32:33

And maybe Sorley, being the first one to open my eyes

0:32:350:32:38

to the possibility that we don't have to think of the last thing that happened as the final word on it.

0:32:380:32:44

Now I have to say that in Gaelic!

0:32:450:32:47

SHE SPEAKS GAELIC

0:32:470:32:50

Back on Skye, and I'm about to start on the second half of this magnificent walk...

0:33:040:33:08

first through the heart of the Cuillins to Loch Coruisk, then round the coast

0:33:080:33:12

and up to one of the finest summits in Scotland, Bla Bheinn.

0:33:120:33:16

From there we descend to the cleared villages of Suisnish and Boreraig

0:33:160:33:21

before a final walk to journey's end at Broadford.

0:33:210:33:25

But right now, I'm heading southwest along the shore of Loch Sligachan.

0:33:250:33:28

It's about three miles to the Sligachan Hotel and one of the best-known views in Scotland.

0:33:280:33:34

And that's no small feat from an island boasting magnificent scenery at every turn.

0:33:340:33:39

Yet since the 1950s, when electricity first came to this part of Skye,

0:33:390:33:44

that view's been blighted by unsightly poles.

0:33:440:33:48

But in a remarkable initiative between the electricity company

0:33:480:33:51

and the local community, that's all about to change.

0:33:510:33:55

It's pouring with rain, the mist is low, there's a howling wind,

0:33:550:33:59

but today's the day the poles are finally coming down.

0:33:590:34:03

I think it will improve one of the most iconic views in Scotland markedly.

0:34:030:34:09

Where did the idea come from to get rid of the poles?

0:34:090:34:12

Well, this is really a side effect of a large initiative on the

0:34:120:34:15

part of a community group based on the Isle of Skye

0:34:150:34:21

to commemorate two of the early pioneering climbers in the Cuillins,

0:34:210:34:27

Norman Collie and John MacKenzie.

0:34:270:34:30

What we intend to do, on a wee knoll over there, is to create a bronze sculpture

0:34:340:34:40

to the two men, MacKenzie and Collie,

0:34:400:34:44

and it did seem to us that the thing would be really improved if

0:34:440:34:49

the poles were removed as part of this.

0:34:490:34:52

Once the poles are down, this view of the majestic Cuillin will be restored to its former glory.

0:34:540:35:00

This is iconic. I mean, there are a lot of

0:35:000:35:02

other things going on here as well with the park and statue,

0:35:020:35:05

but the views of the Cuillins from here...

0:35:050:35:07

This is exactly the kind of projects we'd want to do.

0:35:070:35:11

It's a great one to be involved in.

0:35:110:35:13

-You're obviously delighted by all of this.

-Oh, yes.

0:35:240:35:26

It's a bit of a pet project for you.

0:35:260:35:29

It does make me feel a lot happier...

0:35:290:35:32

Seeing that we've benefited, not only myself

0:35:320:35:35

but future ramblers.

0:35:350:35:38

And of course, Norman Collie and John MacKenzie will now have an unobstructed view of the Cuillin.

0:35:380:35:43

That's right, yes. There's a lot of history here.

0:35:430:35:46

It's a fantastic thing to have done.

0:35:460:35:48

CHEERING

0:35:530:35:55

Sorry! I'm not overcome by emotion.

0:35:560:36:00

I'm overcome by the Skye weather, I'm afraid.

0:36:000:36:04

Not much of a day for walking, so instead, I'm heading inside

0:36:050:36:09

to dry out in a place that has often been called the cradle of Scottish mountaineering.

0:36:090:36:14

I'm looking through an old register in the Sligachan Hotel,

0:36:190:36:23

and it's amazing how many names of climbers you see recorded here.

0:36:230:36:29

But you know, it's maybe not that surprising because

0:36:290:36:31

the Sligachan Hotel has always been recognized as one of the spiritual homes of Scottish mountaineering -

0:36:310:36:38

situated, as it is, below what Sorley MacLean

0:36:380:36:41

once beautifully described as the antlered profile of the Cuillin.

0:36:410:36:45

And it was here that one of the great enduring partnerships of Scottish mountaineering

0:36:450:36:50

was formed, between two men of quite contrasting backgrounds.

0:36:500:36:55

Professor Norman Collie was an eminent Victorian scientist.

0:36:550:36:59

His great friend and mountain guide, John Morton MacKenzie, was born just along the road here

0:36:590:37:05

in Sconser, and between them they mapped the Cuillin, the climbed lots of new routes in the Cuillin,

0:37:050:37:11

they explored the Cuillin, and became very firm friends.

0:37:110:37:16

MacKenzie pre-deceased Collie, and after Collie's death he was buried

0:37:160:37:21

beside his old mountain guide, just along the road at Struan churchyard.

0:37:210:37:26

If you ever get a chance to come in to Sligachan Hotel, have a look at the museum. It's well worth a browse

0:37:260:37:31

and especially on a day like today, when it's pouring wet outside, you can spend a happy hour in here.

0:37:310:37:37

What a difference a day makes.

0:37:450:37:48

Yesterday, when the engineers were taking the poles down,

0:37:480:37:51

you couldn't even see the mountain, but look at it today...mountain perfection.

0:37:510:37:55

This is the sort of view people come to Skye to see.

0:37:550:37:57

It's fantastic.

0:37:570:37:59

I'm going to take this opportunity to take a picture without these dreadful poles.

0:37:590:38:03

Great stuff.

0:38:060:38:09

Having enjoyed the hospitality of the Sligachan Inn, it's back into the wilds again.

0:38:210:38:27

I'm going to head down Sligachan with the Red Cuillin on one side and the Black Cuillin

0:38:270:38:32

on the other, and I'm going to cut over to one of my favourite places in Scotland, Loch Coruisk.

0:38:320:38:38

But though the weather has been fantastic this morning, I've got a feeling that

0:38:380:38:41

the sky clouds are gathering, and it may not be so nice this afternoon.

0:38:410:38:46

Sometimes you kind of realise what a privilege it is just to be amongst the Scottish mountains.

0:38:590:39:05

On a day like this morning,

0:39:050:39:07

it's just great to be here with the looming presence of Sgurr nan Gillean

0:39:070:39:11

on one side of the glen, and this great mountain called Marsco.

0:39:110:39:15

It's marvellous just to be here.

0:39:150:39:18

I've been trying to remember the first time I came to the Cuillin.

0:39:180:39:23

I'm pretty sure it was around 1965, and I was just a lad at school

0:39:230:39:31

and I had gone on a course to Glenmore Lodge in the Cairngorms -

0:39:310:39:35

the national mountaineering centre -

0:39:350:39:37

and it was a course organised by Glasgow Corporation education department.

0:39:370:39:41

I went for a month, and it cost 19/6.

0:39:410:39:44

It was probably the best 19/6 I've ever had in my life.

0:39:460:39:50

We had a week at the lodge learning some rope work, learning some navigation and then they brought

0:39:500:39:56

us over here to Skye and the Cuillin and we travelled over in the back of

0:39:560:40:00

an open lorry with a big tarpaulin covering the back.

0:40:000:40:03

It was tremendous.

0:40:030:40:05

We walked round from Glenbrittle round

0:40:050:40:07

to Coruisk, round the coastline, we climbed up the ridge, we climbed Inaccessible Pinnacle,

0:40:070:40:12

we climbed Sgurr nan Gillean, Am Bastier, Bruach na Frithe...

0:40:120:40:16

a fantastic experience.

0:40:160:40:19

So it's kind of great to remember back at those times.

0:40:190:40:23

I think that experience was probably my first taste of the freedom of the Scottish hills.

0:40:230:40:28

It's been a long, long walk

0:40:440:40:47

down a very waterlogged Glen Sligachan.

0:40:470:40:50

But you know, as I splashed my way along the Glen, a curious thing has happened.

0:40:500:40:56

In these sombre surroundings, just started gazing down at my feet, I allowed my mind to open,

0:40:560:41:03

and I have sort of remembered, in extraordinary clarity, some of the old tales of our Celtic heritage.

0:41:030:41:09

And then coming down here and into this cradle in the mountains

0:41:090:41:13

that holds Loch Coruisk, with the river just running past to my

0:41:130:41:18

left and out to sea, it's as though I have come down into the stronghold of Finn MacCool.

0:41:180:41:24

It really is an marvellous place.

0:41:240:41:26

But when you think of the peaks up there, and you think of

0:41:280:41:30

hillwalking and first ascents and bagging peaks,

0:41:300:41:34

it all seems so unimportant in a place like this.

0:41:340:41:37

It's good just to sit here and soak in the heritage of this place...

0:41:370:41:43

probably the grandest place in the whole of Eilean a' Cheo.

0:41:430:41:47

It's marvellous. What I want to do is just to

0:41:470:41:50

sit here for a while and connect with this landscape a wee bit.

0:41:500:41:55

If you would like to go and have a look at some of the

0:41:550:41:57

great views round about here and leave me be for just a few minutes, and then I'll join you very shortly.

0:41:570:42:05

From Loch Coruisk, I'm heading southeast to Camasunary -

0:42:320:42:35

but before I get there, there's one small barrier to negotiate.

0:42:350:42:39

I'm just approaching the infamous bad step.

0:42:440:42:49

Now, one of the legends of Skye suggests that even seasoned mountaineers will jump into

0:42:490:42:54

Loch Scavaig here and swim around the obstacle rather than cross it, but it really is just a legend.

0:42:540:43:00

It's actually not that bad.

0:43:000:43:02

Although I would suggest if you don't have a head for heights, it could just be a tad formidable.

0:43:020:43:07

In the dry, the step is pretty straightforward,

0:43:170:43:20

but in conditions like these, it requires just a little more care.

0:43:200:43:24

Safe at Camasunary...

0:43:270:43:28

and it's time to head onto the tops.

0:43:280:43:31

At 3,044 feet, Bla Bheinn attains

0:43:310:43:34

Munro status, and is one of the finest mountains in Scotland.

0:43:340:43:38

I'm heading up the southern ridge with Alasdair MacPherson, who works for the conservation organisation

0:43:380:43:43

the John Muir Trust, managing the three estates on the island.

0:43:430:43:47

Alasdair is a native of Skye, but like so many other Highlanders, moved away to work.

0:43:470:43:52

Now he's back on the island where his forefathers have lived and worked for generations.

0:43:520:43:57

Well, I was born in Heast, which is about 20 miles away from here and my mother's people are from Elgol.

0:43:570:44:03

My grandfather was a shepherd here for many years on the estate,

0:44:040:44:09

and he was actually born over on Marsco, on the base of Marsco.

0:44:090:44:13

It's the only ruin there within about a radius of 5 to 6 miles.

0:44:130:44:17

-He was born in a black house there?

-Right, you can still see the ruins.

0:44:170:44:20

They're about a foot high, but not much more than that.

0:44:200:44:23

There's actually a funny story about the christening in Marsco.

0:44:230:44:26

It's a famous one. I don't know if you've heard of it?

0:44:260:44:29

Because the children had been born there, they hadn't seen

0:44:290:44:32

anyone in their lives walking past there - no walkers then -

0:44:320:44:35

the minister was called from Portree to come and baptise them, christen them,

0:44:350:44:41

and the father had to physically come and drag them out from under

0:44:410:44:45

the bed and cupboards because they had never seen anyone before.

0:44:450:44:48

The minister threw the water on them and they were back where they came from.

0:44:480:44:52

That's quite a famous story in Skye circles.

0:44:520:44:55

What does this landscape mean to you?

0:44:550:44:57

How do you feel when you come up and see this sort of landscape?

0:44:570:45:01

I suppose you feel a lot of freedom.

0:45:010:45:03

After being away for a long time down south, it's good to come home,

0:45:030:45:07

and the freedom you've got here is sort of boundless.

0:45:070:45:10

When you're working here, the beauty is

0:45:100:45:12

part of your job.

0:45:120:45:14

Two bonuses in one.

0:45:140:45:16

I think I enjoy being out and about.

0:45:160:45:18

I'm not an office fella and I don't think you can be in this kind of job.

0:45:180:45:22

I enjoy the stalking on the hill and I enjoy the forestry.

0:45:220:45:25

The forestry takes up probably 70% of my time.

0:45:250:45:28

Working in the wood, getting rid of the conifers and replanting with broad leaves,

0:45:280:45:33

going back to the natural woodlands in the area, biodiversity.

0:45:330:45:37

I enjoy that, and you can see the changes over the years you've been here already.

0:45:370:45:42

A fine viewpoint as this may be, I know it gets better the further up the hill you go,

0:45:420:45:46

-so I think we should head up there.

-HE SPEAKS GAELIC

0:45:460:45:49

-Pardon me?!

-Er...shall we go?

0:45:490:45:51

Oh, right! Good, good.

0:45:510:45:53

Look at that, look at that.

0:46:090:46:10

What is it, Alistair, about grown men when they see something like

0:46:170:46:21

a golden eagle like that

0:46:210:46:23

and say "Oh, wow!" It sends us off into euphoria.

0:46:230:46:27

I think it's a fact that they were so rare years ago

0:46:270:46:30

and now we've seen three in the space of two minutes.

0:46:300:46:33

It's just magnificent.

0:46:330:46:34

-It's still a thrill, isn't it?

-Absolute thrill.

0:46:340:46:37

You do see a lot more sea eagles coming in.

0:46:370:46:39

Although they are not nesting on our estates,

0:46:390:46:42

they come in quite often and hover above the office at Streferie.

0:46:420:46:45

And the goldens are doing quite well in our estates as well.

0:46:450:46:49

They're breeding quite successfully.

0:46:490:46:51

The John Muir Trust is named after the famous Dunbar-born conservationist.

0:46:540:46:59

It has achieved a huge amount of success

0:46:590:47:01

in buying tracts of wild land

0:47:010:47:03

and looking after them in a way John Muir would have approved.

0:47:030:47:06

One of the fundamental principles

0:47:080:47:10

is that the land should be allowed to revert to its natural state.

0:47:100:47:14

-Can we stop for a wee minute?

-Uh-huh.

0:47:150:47:18

How difficult is it for an organisation like the John Muir Trust

0:47:190:47:23

to come into an area like Skye and be accepted by the locals?

0:47:230:47:28

With conservation bodies, there's always suspicion

0:47:280:47:31

that people don't know what's going on and the suspicion is still there.

0:47:310:47:35

It's always going to be there,

0:47:360:47:38

but I'd like to think we do have a good balance

0:47:380:47:40

with the three crofting communities on our estates.

0:47:400:47:44

There are, not frictions, but there are differences.

0:47:440:47:47

They will always be there, but at the end of the day we can still talk to them.

0:47:470:47:51

It must help an awful lot having someone like yourself

0:47:510:47:54

who's local and Gaelic speaking.

0:47:540:47:55

Yes, I think it does because a lot of the people

0:47:550:47:58

you were in school with and you've grown up with them.

0:47:580:48:01

You've always liked them or you've always not liked them.

0:48:010:48:04

You can't talk about the John Muir Trust without mentioning John Muir.

0:48:130:48:16

How important a figure is John Muir to you and the work you do here?

0:48:160:48:21

The organisation possibly wouldn't be here without him.

0:48:210:48:24

It sounds kind of corny but you wonder who would have the estate

0:48:240:48:27

if it wasn't for him and the fellas that founded the organisation.

0:48:270:48:31

A very important guy all round. Not just for Scotland,

0:48:310:48:34

but possibly the whole world.

0:48:340:48:36

The first man of his kind that came in to the conservation idea.

0:48:360:48:40

Are those principles he had at the end of the 19th century

0:48:400:48:44

still relevant for us in 21st century Scotland?

0:48:440:48:47

I think they are virtually all relevant. Maybe more now than they were then.

0:48:470:48:51

Then, I think he was thought of as possibly a bit of a crank

0:48:510:48:55

and now to certain people, he's almost a demi-god.

0:48:550:48:59

So I think more important than ever.

0:48:590:49:01

You know, Alistair, any argument that says

0:49:050:49:07

this is not the most astonishing landscape is Britain

0:49:070:49:10

is surely indefensible.

0:49:100:49:12

Absolutely. What a day, huh? It's been just cracking.

0:49:120:49:16

Where else in Britain, indeed in Europe,

0:49:160:49:19

can you see anything like this?

0:49:190:49:21

As far as I'm concerned, nowhere.

0:49:210:49:23

The weather has just made it too, of course.

0:49:230:49:26

-Your Celtic gods are looking after us.

-I think so.

0:49:260:49:28

I'm wandering through the village of Torrin,

0:49:540:49:56

a place where the traditional ways of making a living

0:49:560:49:59

by crofting and fishing still exist.

0:49:590:50:01

But from here, I'm heading south to the cleared villages

0:50:030:50:06

of Suisnish and Boreraig.

0:50:060:50:08

Till the mid 19th century, these were both thriving communities.

0:50:080:50:12

Then the landlords decided they could make more money

0:50:120:50:15

by removing the people and bringing in sheep instead.

0:50:150:50:18

I've been looking forward to meeting up with an old friend

0:50:190:50:22

and an expert in the Highland Clearances, David Craig.

0:50:220:50:26

David's spent many years seeking out the stories of the evicted people.

0:50:260:50:30

He achieved what many thought was impossible.

0:50:300:50:33

By delving into the memories of the descendents of the cleared people,

0:50:330:50:37

he established an oral history of that cruel period.

0:50:370:50:41

It's been a while since David was last here

0:50:410:50:44

and as we made our way east along the coast to Boreraig,

0:50:440:50:48

it was obvious he was still very emotional about what he'd heard.

0:50:480:50:52

In Mull, I met a woman called Mary Morrison.

0:50:520:50:55

This was 20 years ago. I hope she's still alive.

0:50:550:50:58

And she was told the story of the Boreraig clearance by her father.

0:50:580:51:03

When they came in and cleared the people and their gear out,

0:51:030:51:08

and of course the basins were standing ready to make the butter,

0:51:080:51:12

well, they extinguished the fires,

0:51:120:51:14

which might have been on the floor or the hearth,

0:51:140:51:16

by pouring the family stock of milk onto the fires.

0:51:160:51:20

Putting out fires with milk.

0:51:220:51:24

It makes me squirm to think of it.

0:51:240:51:27

-Even the smell must have been horrendous.

-That's right.

0:51:270:51:30

You know the smell of burnt milk when the pan boils over...

0:51:300:51:33

It certainly went on up in Suisnish, that we've come through,

0:51:330:51:38

because a postman, Alasdair Mackinnon,

0:51:380:51:40

told me about his Grandmother Robertson and they were evicted

0:51:400:51:44

from Suisnish and walked out through Boreraig

0:51:440:51:47

and walked on by the loch side.

0:51:470:51:49

And he says "The estate officers put us out with the usual cruelty,

0:51:500:51:55

"burning the roofs to make the houses uninhabitable

0:51:550:51:59

"so we could not come back and pouring the basins of milk outside."

0:51:590:52:02

And she had told her little grandson that

0:52:040:52:07

"My mother shed more tears that night than we got milk from the cows."

0:52:070:52:12

Is this the first of the houses I see ahead of us, David?

0:52:210:52:24

That's it. This is the frontier. It feels like a frontier.

0:52:240:52:27

That horrible black rock has finished and it's healthy brown rock again.

0:52:270:52:31

I call this the start of Boreraig.

0:52:310:52:33

There will be more houses to see once we get up there.

0:52:330:52:36

It's a while since I've been here.

0:52:380:52:39

Everything's always bigger than you remember.

0:52:390:52:42

This is five times as big as I remember.

0:52:420:52:45

It's what I call a cradle of civilisation.

0:52:460:52:49

You just enter into it and you suddenly feel easy...

0:52:510:52:54

You've arrived. There's a bit of shelter and a bit of grass...

0:52:540:52:59

the sense of calm,

0:52:590:53:01

of well being that comes into you in such a moment as that.

0:53:010:53:06

Today these villages are deserted,

0:53:090:53:11

but, once, they were teeming with life.

0:53:110:53:13

Children played here, people were born here, people died here,

0:53:130:53:17

there was laughter and, no doubt, tears,

0:53:170:53:19

just like any other village in Scotland.

0:53:190:53:21

Everything was going on here and, for all they knew in the 1840s,

0:53:210:53:26

it was going to go on going on here.

0:53:260:53:28

I mean, they were building a super track up the hill there

0:53:280:53:32

and they used to get their mail left

0:53:320:53:35

under a stone up on the hill for them.

0:53:350:53:38

So they were building a future.

0:53:380:53:41

The place was as likely to have a future as not.

0:53:410:53:44

As like any village we live in today and then bang.

0:53:440:53:48

Who can tell how well it would have gone on living in Boreraig

0:53:510:53:55

had they not been cleared,

0:53:550:53:57

but by the look of it, there's a lot of room

0:53:570:54:00

and a lot of arable ground, a lot of room for beasts

0:54:000:54:03

and we know there is good fishing

0:54:030:54:04

because that rock out there, the big bulge,

0:54:040:54:07

is used as a landmark by lobster fishermen.

0:54:070:54:09

So it's a place that has a lot of resources for life.

0:54:090:54:14

Who knows what it would have been like?

0:54:170:54:19

The manner of the Clearing was so harsh that it's hard to think of.

0:54:190:54:25

You've visited many cleared villages throughout the Highlands.

0:54:270:54:30

How significant is Boreraig and Suisnish compared to these others?

0:54:300:54:34

I think there's so much visible, so much in the way of good building

0:54:340:54:38

and there's spaciousness in both the places.

0:54:380:54:41

The best historian about clearances is called Eric Richards, an Australian professor.

0:54:410:54:45

He says it was a bleak place but it's a matter of taste.

0:54:450:54:50

It's not Bournemouth. It's not Sauchiehall Street.

0:54:510:54:55

Is it bleak? It would look less bleak

0:54:560:54:58

if there was potatoes and oats growing and kale and carrots.

0:54:580:55:02

And if there were children running about.

0:55:020:55:04

When you wrote your book on the crofter's trail,

0:55:070:55:09

you spoke to descendants of the people who were cleared.

0:55:090:55:12

How emotional an experience was that?

0:55:120:55:15

It harrowed me. It made my blood boil.

0:55:150:55:18

At least if the story is passed on,

0:55:180:55:21

we've got pieces of the lives that were lived.

0:55:210:55:25

Throughout this walk I've been aware of the echoes of the past

0:55:330:55:37

round every corner, and even now the route is still steeped in history.

0:55:370:55:41

I'm on the final three or four miles now

0:55:440:55:46

of my journey through the Isle of Skye.

0:55:460:55:49

I'm in Strath Suardal and this today is a very peaceful kind of a glen.

0:55:490:55:54

Sheep grazing in the fields,

0:55:540:55:56

the slopes of Beinn na Caillich rise on one side

0:55:560:55:58

and the slopes of Ben Suardal on the other side.

0:55:590:56:02

But you know, 100 years ago, this was a real hive of industry.

0:56:020:56:06

Marble was quarried from the high slopes of Ben Suardal here,

0:56:060:56:09

brought down into the glen, where it was cut and dressed and prepared

0:56:090:56:13

and taken by narrow gauge railway up the length of the Strath

0:56:130:56:17

to Broadford and Broadford Bay,

0:56:170:56:19

where ships would take it all over the world.

0:56:190:56:21

And it's said that this marble from Strath and Skye was even finer

0:56:210:56:25

than that quarried in Carrara in Northern Tuscany in Italy,

0:56:250:56:28

where Michelangelo and some of the great sculptors got their marble from.

0:56:280:56:32

And the marble here from Strath

0:56:320:56:34

was used in the building of the abbey on Iona.

0:56:340:56:38

The middle of last century,

0:56:380:56:40

the mine workings here fell into disrepair

0:56:400:56:43

but I'm delighted to say the Highland Council

0:56:430:56:45

have taken the route of that narrow gauge railway

0:56:450:56:47

all the way up the Strath to Broadford,

0:56:470:56:49

and that's the route I'm finishing this walk on.

0:56:490:56:52

Three or four miles to Broadford and journey's end.

0:56:520:56:55

Seven days, 70-odd miles

0:57:160:57:18

and I'm almost there.

0:57:180:57:21

It's always a bit sad coming to the end of a long walk like this one,

0:57:230:57:27

but in this case the sadness has been tempered by some wonderful memories,

0:57:270:57:31

some great experiences and I think of our high camp above the waves

0:57:310:57:35

at the very tip of Trotternish by Rubha Hunish,

0:57:350:57:38

watching minke whales just offshore,

0:57:380:57:41

or wandering down the long ridge of Trotternish,

0:57:410:57:44

searching for Iceland purslane, that very rare plant.

0:57:440:57:48

I think too of wandering down Glen Sligachan

0:57:480:57:51

with Sgurr nan Gillean rising on one side and Marsco on the other side.

0:57:510:57:55

And that wonderful ascent of Blaven.

0:57:550:57:58

Surely the finest of mountains on this island of fine mountains.

0:57:580:58:04

And at this time, at the end of a journey, I think of

0:58:040:58:07

that great symbol of the Celtic world, the endless knot.

0:58:070:58:11

The knot without beginning nor end.

0:58:110:58:13

As I sit here at the end of this journey,

0:58:130:58:16

I like to think I'm going forward to a new beginning

0:58:160:58:18

and I'll tell you, it's not going to be very long

0:58:180:58:22

before I return again to Eilean a' Cheo, the Isle of Skye.

0:58:220:58:25

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0:58:390:58:41

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0:58:410:58:44

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