0:00:04 > 0:00:08This is Scotland at her most spectacular,
0:00:08 > 0:00:13a wild remote landscape as good as you'll find anywhere in the world.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19And I'm celebrating this on my latest walk,
0:00:19 > 0:00:22a journey into a rich and often turbulent past,
0:00:22 > 0:00:25and the heritage left by our Celtic ancestors.
0:00:28 > 0:00:33But I'm also meeting some people who have been profoundly affected by the land I'll be walking through.
0:00:36 > 0:00:42So why don't you join me on what I've simply called the Pilgrim's Trail?
0:00:54 > 0:00:58I'm on a journey that's taking me from Iona, on the west coast of Mull,
0:00:58 > 0:01:01right across the Scottish Highlands
0:01:01 > 0:01:04to the coast of Easter Ross beyond Ben Wyvis.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07It's a journey that's allowing me to follow in the footsteps
0:01:07 > 0:01:11of some of those who have used those byways long before me,
0:01:11 > 0:01:14the priests, the soldiers, the deerstalkers,
0:01:14 > 0:01:16the cattle drovers, the miners.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20And it's a journey that's taken me through some remarkable landscapes,
0:01:20 > 0:01:23right across the wonderful Isle of Mull,
0:01:23 > 0:01:25through Morvern and Moidart,
0:01:25 > 0:01:29into the very, very edge of the Knoydart Peninsula.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31And then, over the hills to Glen Shiel,
0:01:31 > 0:01:36and now into the upper stretches of the wild and rugged Glen Affric.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45Some people would define the word pilgrimage as a journey
0:01:45 > 0:01:50in search of a set of moral or spiritual values,
0:01:50 > 0:01:54and I suppose for many pilgrims that is exactly the case.
0:01:54 > 0:01:56But I have this deep-rooted suspicion
0:01:56 > 0:01:59that most people who go on pilgrimage today
0:01:59 > 0:02:04are just using it as an excuse for a good long walk in beautiful surroundings,
0:02:04 > 0:02:07and that is certainly the case as far as I'm concerned.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10I would like to challenge my own perceptions
0:02:10 > 0:02:14about what is wildness and wilderness
0:02:14 > 0:02:16in 21st-century Scotland.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24I have much to look forward to in the second part of my route.
0:02:24 > 0:02:25It takes me from Glen Affric,
0:02:25 > 0:02:27through the Mullardoch Hills
0:02:27 > 0:02:29to Glen Strathfarrar and Loch Monar,
0:02:29 > 0:02:31and that is followed by an ascent
0:02:31 > 0:02:33of the mighty Ben Wyvis.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35Finally, I head down
0:02:35 > 0:02:36to the Dornoch Firth
0:02:36 > 0:02:39and journey's end at a monastic site
0:02:39 > 0:02:41of immense historical significance
0:02:41 > 0:02:45and one which has set the archaeological world alight.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48Every day practically for three weeks,
0:02:48 > 0:02:52everyone on the dig found a piece of sculpture.
0:02:52 > 0:02:54So suddenly we have a major centre,
0:02:54 > 0:02:57in the far North-East of Scotland with contacts
0:02:57 > 0:03:01with the Continent, contacts with Ireland, contacts with England,
0:03:01 > 0:03:04I mean, these are state of the art in Europe.
0:03:05 > 0:03:07More about that later.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09Now I'm making my way down Glen Affric,
0:03:09 > 0:03:13one of the loveliest and longest glens you will find anywhere.
0:03:15 > 0:03:17Just outside the village of Cannich
0:03:17 > 0:03:20is a link to Scotland's Catholic heritage,
0:03:20 > 0:03:24Clachan Comar and the early missionary St Bain.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29Few people know more about the history of the area than Peter McDonald,
0:03:29 > 0:03:32who was born and brought up here.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35Yes, this is an ancient burial ground,
0:03:35 > 0:03:40probably going back to the sixth century and to the time of St Bain,
0:03:40 > 0:03:44who came here with St Columba
0:03:44 > 0:03:47and evangelised Strathglass.
0:03:49 > 0:03:54This was known as Kilbeathain before it was called Clachan Comar.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56It was the monks' cell.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00Bain's Well was across the road here.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02And down near Inverness is Torvean,
0:04:02 > 0:04:06the Hill of Bain, you know, so he has left...
0:04:06 > 0:04:08- He's left his mark. - Quite a record, quite a record.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12- There are graves in the chapel... - I see that.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15So you can't actually get a picture of how things would have been,
0:04:15 > 0:04:18but the altar would have been on the east side.
0:04:18 > 0:04:23The walls are still standing and the doorway, but apart from that,
0:04:23 > 0:04:25the roof and everything has gone.
0:04:25 > 0:04:26This is the original door.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29We have been trying very hard to maintain it.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31That mark was made by the sword of a Redcoat.
0:04:31 > 0:04:32- Oh, really?- Yes.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35They were pursuing the priest and congregation from the chapel
0:04:35 > 0:04:38and he took a swipe with his sword
0:04:38 > 0:04:40and cut that piece out of the sandstone.
0:04:40 > 0:04:42That must have been quite a swipe.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44It didn't do his sword any good.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49Tell me about that time, Peter, of probably post-Culloden
0:04:49 > 0:04:54when the Government forces were basically trying to get rid of people?
0:04:54 > 0:04:58In this area here, Father John Farquharson, who was a Jesuit,
0:04:58 > 0:05:00was holding mass in the chapel,
0:05:00 > 0:05:04and the Redcoats came in and wanted to take him prisoner,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07but he didn't want any bloodshed.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09So he drew a line in the earthen floor
0:05:09 > 0:05:13and he said, "Any man who crosses the line will be excommunicated,"
0:05:13 > 0:05:17and he allowed the Redcoats to take him away.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19But women being women,
0:05:19 > 0:05:23they felt that they weren't actually covered by this embargo,
0:05:23 > 0:05:28so they pursued the soldiers up the road here,
0:05:28 > 0:05:33and they caught them and they recovered the priest's vestments
0:05:33 > 0:05:34and tried to recover him.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36But the soldiers drew their swords
0:05:36 > 0:05:39and some of the women were wounded and they had to retreat.
0:05:39 > 0:05:40And what happened to him?
0:05:40 > 0:05:41He was sent away on a prison ship,
0:05:41 > 0:05:45but he built a very good relationship with the captain on the way over.
0:05:46 > 0:05:50And by some mysterious means he returned to Scotland on the next tide,
0:05:50 > 0:05:57and came back up to the Glens and carried on serving the people from caves and big boulders.
0:05:58 > 0:06:04How important for you is it to keep places like this intact?
0:06:04 > 0:06:06It's difficult but it is important,
0:06:06 > 0:06:10it's very important because you are keeping the spirit of the thing going too.
0:06:10 > 0:06:15The name Comar means a meeting place,
0:06:15 > 0:06:17and that's what we want it to be.
0:06:17 > 0:06:22We come here once a year for a little service that commemorates what happened here,
0:06:22 > 0:06:24and I think it's good to do that.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43I am a little bit sad at leaving Glen Affric behind this morning,
0:06:43 > 0:06:46not only because it's such a beautiful place,
0:06:46 > 0:06:52but because it marks the end of several days' easy meandering through glens.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54I've really got to start working now.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58For the next three days, I've got three high ridges to cross,
0:06:58 > 0:07:02each one taking me into increasingly remote and wild countryside.
0:07:02 > 0:07:04I'm actually looking forward to it.
0:07:04 > 0:07:06And I am going to start today by climbing a Munro,
0:07:06 > 0:07:09one of our 3,000-foot mountains, and it's called Toll Creagach.
0:07:21 > 0:07:26Toll Creagach lies at the end of a long and rather narrow ridge
0:07:26 > 0:07:30that forms the northern boundary of Glen Affric.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34It's quite interesting that the hills, even slightly to the west of here,
0:07:34 > 0:07:38tend to be much more angular and jagged, pointed,
0:07:38 > 0:07:41while Toll Creagach itself is much more rounded,
0:07:41 > 0:07:46much more Cairngorm in aspect, a big round bald dome.
0:07:48 > 0:07:50I've climbed it three or four times in the past,
0:07:50 > 0:07:53and I have always had a fantastic view from the summit,
0:07:53 > 0:07:54so fingers crossed for today.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06I find it extraordinary to think that, not that long ago,
0:08:06 > 0:08:11this was a well-used through route over the Bealach Toll Easa,
0:08:11 > 0:08:12that you see behind me here,
0:08:12 > 0:08:14from the communities that live by Loch Mullardoch
0:08:14 > 0:08:18coming across to visit their neighbours down in Glen Affric.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21And it's quite a thought that they'd climb up there,
0:08:21 > 0:08:22follow this path all the way down,
0:08:22 > 0:08:25go into their neighbours, have a wee strupach,
0:08:25 > 0:08:26a cup of tea and a wee scone.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30It puts a whole new slant on the idea of popping round to the neighbours for a cup of tea.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45Look at that mist boiling up out of the corrie.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49It reminds me of the poster of John Ruskin,
0:08:49 > 0:08:53these bars of black and white, goodness and evil, night and day.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05Just walking across this rather rounded ridge,
0:09:05 > 0:09:08I'm reminded of all those people who would describe this hill
0:09:08 > 0:09:10as dull and featureless...
0:09:12 > 0:09:14I don't think that's very fair.
0:09:14 > 0:09:15An old friend of mine once said,
0:09:15 > 0:09:18"There's no such thing as a dull hill, only dull people,"
0:09:18 > 0:09:21and I think there's a lot of truth in that.
0:09:21 > 0:09:22Up here on a day like this,
0:09:22 > 0:09:26I could be almost anywhere, it could be the Cairngorms,
0:09:26 > 0:09:27it could be the Lake District...
0:09:27 > 0:09:31For goodness' sake, it could be the Yorkshire Dales or Dartmoor,
0:09:31 > 0:09:34and I think that all adds to the attraction.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38The great Cairngorm writer Nan Shepherd once said,
0:09:38 > 0:09:42"It's like a sip of milk as opposed to a drink of whisky,"
0:09:42 > 0:09:46and, you know, there's nothing wrong with a sip of milk now and again.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59This is so different from the last time I was here.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03This isn't a difficult hill to climb, but a few years ago,
0:10:03 > 0:10:07I came up here with my brother-in-law just after Easter,
0:10:07 > 0:10:12and for some reason, the whole hill was bare apart from this final slope to the summit,
0:10:12 > 0:10:17and it was covered not in snow, but it was cased in ice...
0:10:18 > 0:10:22..and like a prat, of course, I hadn't brought any crampons with me.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25My brother-in-law had crampons and an ice axe and he scuttled up,
0:10:25 > 0:10:28and I sort of followed him up tentatively.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31But when I tried to come back down again, it was a different story
0:10:31 > 0:10:36and I actually had to spend about an hour and a half just chipping the ice,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39chipping little footholds so that I could walk down.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42I just had this feeling that at any moment I was going to take off
0:10:42 > 0:10:45and slide down these big convex slopes into goodness knows what.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49So it just shows you that even in the simple hills,
0:10:49 > 0:10:54the so-called dull hills, there can often be a real element of risk.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09This is the stuff of nightmares for Munro baggers,
0:11:09 > 0:11:15two summit cairns about 20 metres apart, but which is the highest?
0:11:15 > 0:11:17My Ordinance Survey map gives two heights -
0:11:17 > 0:11:201,053 metres and 1,054 metres,
0:11:20 > 0:11:22but it doesn't say which is which.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25And I know, I bet you anything when I go across there
0:11:25 > 0:11:27that'll feel higher.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29At the moment this feels like the higher one,
0:11:29 > 0:11:33but it's always a kind of optical illusion.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36You would think the cairn with the trig point would be the highest one,
0:11:36 > 0:11:38but that's not always the case.
0:11:39 > 0:11:41Now, let's see...
0:11:46 > 0:11:47No, this doesn't feel higher.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49I'm pretty sure it's that one.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52But you know this, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter
0:11:52 > 0:11:54because I've visited them both.
0:11:54 > 0:12:00Now, the interesting thing about this hill is the culmination point of five different ridges,
0:12:00 > 0:12:03and I'm looking for the north-east ridge,
0:12:03 > 0:12:09because that's the one that is going to take me right down to the dam at the head of Loch Mullardoch.
0:12:09 > 0:12:11I am pretty sure it's in that direction,
0:12:11 > 0:12:12so that's where I am going.
0:12:20 > 0:12:26Down from the summit and I'm into the wild lands surrounding this loch.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29I've been joined by someone I've wanted to meet for years.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32Duncan Chisholm is from this part of the Highlands
0:12:32 > 0:12:35and grew up exploring these hills.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38He is also one of Scotland's finest fiddlers.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01I always try and associate music with places,
0:13:01 > 0:13:05it's trying to focus on a landscape
0:13:05 > 0:13:09or a type of light or a type of weather or whatever it is.
0:13:09 > 0:13:11And find the tune,
0:13:11 > 0:13:13either write the tune or find the tune that suits that,
0:13:13 > 0:13:16so it's like making a film,
0:13:16 > 0:13:19an imaginary film and putting a soundtrack to it.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32It's the benefit of being an instrumentalist
0:13:32 > 0:13:33that you can play this music
0:13:33 > 0:13:37and let people's imagination run away with themselves,
0:13:37 > 0:13:40rather than having the confines of words maybe.
0:13:41 > 0:13:46It's very important for me to take people on their own particular journey,
0:13:46 > 0:13:50and for me the journeys are about these places.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53It's about being in the wild and, you know,
0:13:53 > 0:13:56feeling more of a peace, I suppose.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13Duncan, what age were you when you decided you wanted to be a fiddler?
0:14:13 > 0:14:16I was eight. I just loved the sound of it.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20I heard the fiddlers play in the local village hall,
0:14:20 > 0:14:23and I just fell in love with the instrument straight away.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27It was like a history lesson as well,
0:14:27 > 0:14:31you learned about where the tune was written and where it was written about.
0:14:31 > 0:14:37So the sort of culture of Scotland is all part of playing the fiddle, it's all in one?
0:14:37 > 0:14:44Yeah, I think so. I mean, the great thing I feel about playing the fiddle is that it's self-expression.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48But you are also expressing the history of your people and where you come from and who you are.
0:15:06 > 0:15:07Over the past six years,
0:15:07 > 0:15:12Duncan Chisholm has produced a trio of albums, the Strathglass Trilogy,
0:15:12 > 0:15:14that celebrate this landscape.
0:15:14 > 0:15:19One of the melodies is about this specific loch, Mullardoch.
0:15:19 > 0:15:25The loch is quite an inhospitable place, really.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28Since it was dammed in 1952,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31and the water level raised by about a hundred feet,
0:15:31 > 0:15:33it can be quite unpredictable.
0:15:35 > 0:15:37Within the album, the tune occurs
0:15:37 > 0:15:40in the album just after a very dark piece of music.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44And it's about...it evokes for me...
0:15:44 > 0:15:47It's about the wildness of the place.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09My great-grandmother and great-grandfather
0:16:09 > 0:16:10lived at Cosac Lodge,
0:16:10 > 0:16:14which is just along the loch here, on the north side of the loch.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17And my father was born there in 1933,
0:16:17 > 0:16:24and Cosac Lodge is now underwater when the dam was built.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27My dad worked on the dam actually.
0:16:27 > 0:16:28So he was partly responsible?
0:16:28 > 0:16:31So he was partly responsible, but as did everyone in the Glens then.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33It was post-war time
0:16:33 > 0:16:37and it was great work and it brought a lot of life to the Glens,
0:16:37 > 0:16:40but my great-granny, who had lived up in Cosac
0:16:40 > 0:16:43for 19 years with my great-grandfather,
0:16:43 > 0:16:49couldn't bear to come back to see it from 1951 until she died in 1967.
0:16:49 > 0:16:51- Not at all?- She never came back.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55No, she couldn't bear to see what had happened to the place that she loved so much.
0:17:06 > 0:17:11I'm really excited at the idea that, you know, landscapes like this that I love so much
0:17:11 > 0:17:14have inspired you to create some beautiful music.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17How important to you are places like this?
0:17:17 > 0:17:19Very important, very important.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22It's John Muir, I love the quote...
0:17:22 > 0:17:28John Muir said that everyone needs beauty as much as bread.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31You know places to play in and pray in,
0:17:31 > 0:17:34where nature can heal your body and soul,
0:17:34 > 0:17:38and no better words ever said than that.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43And we're so fortunate living in the Highlands to come to places like this.
0:17:43 > 0:17:50Within half an hour, you can drive to a place that probably no-one has stepped on in a thousand years,
0:17:50 > 0:17:53and enjoy the beauty and the tranquillity of it.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58I think life's very frenetic these days,
0:17:58 > 0:18:01and it's nice just to get to a slower pace of life.
0:18:30 > 0:18:37I've been traipsing over the hills from Mullardoch, my head full of a hundred Duncan Chisholm fiddle tunes.
0:18:37 > 0:18:39And you know, it's a great way to walk through the hills
0:18:39 > 0:18:42when you hear all this music in your brain.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58Oh, wow! Would you look at that!
0:18:58 > 0:19:02You know, one of the lovely things about doing this Pilgrim's Trail
0:19:02 > 0:19:04is it's taking me to parts of the Scottish Highlands
0:19:04 > 0:19:07that I have never been to before.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11And I've never been here, right at the very head of Glen Strathfarrar
0:19:11 > 0:19:13close to where it meets Loch Monar.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18And it's wonderful, steep-sided hills going up to high rocky ridges,
0:19:18 > 0:19:23birch and pine on the slopes, rocky cascading rivers.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27You would be forgiven for thinking that you were in one of the most remote parts of the Highlands...
0:19:29 > 0:19:31..and you are.
0:19:31 > 0:19:34But it's an area that has been heavily industrialised.
0:19:36 > 0:19:38Back in the 1950s,
0:19:38 > 0:19:42there was a proposal to put in a huge hydroelectric scheme in Glen Strathfarrar,
0:19:42 > 0:19:44and there was a big protest at the time
0:19:44 > 0:19:48to try and save what was considered one of Scotland's finest glens.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50It failed.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54And the hydro scheme went in, Loch Monar was doubled in size.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57There are tunnels burrowing through the hills here
0:19:57 > 0:20:00taking watercourses from the power stations
0:20:00 > 0:20:04to the loch and vice versa, water chutes, all sorts of things.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09But the incredible thing is you don't really notice it!
0:20:09 > 0:20:11I find myself quite astonished at saying this,
0:20:11 > 0:20:13as an ardent conservationist,
0:20:13 > 0:20:17but I actually think we can probably be quite proud of our hydroelectric industry.
0:20:26 > 0:20:28I've got a wee conundrum for you -
0:20:28 > 0:20:32when is a glen a strath...and a strath a glen?
0:20:32 > 0:20:34And the answer - when it's Glen Strathfarrar.
0:20:36 > 0:20:37I don't know anywhere else in Scotland
0:20:37 > 0:20:40where the word glen and strath is used in the same place name.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43To me, a glen and a strath are quite different things,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46and the origin of the name could have come from the fact
0:20:46 > 0:20:48that in the lower reaches,
0:20:48 > 0:20:51it is fairly pastoral green and quite wide,
0:20:51 > 0:20:53whereas, in the upper reaches,
0:20:53 > 0:20:56it is much more glen-like - it is narrow and it's rocky.
0:20:58 > 0:21:03Or it could be that some non-Gaelic speaking cartographer was making up the maps,
0:21:03 > 0:21:07and he didn't know the meaning of the word strath as in Strathfarrar,
0:21:07 > 0:21:09so he called it Glen Strathfarrar.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13But whatever it is, it makes quite a good wee question for your trivia quiz...
0:21:13 > 0:21:17where in Scotland is a glen and a strath the same thing?
0:21:25 > 0:21:26Oh, wow!
0:21:26 > 0:21:29Look at that!
0:21:29 > 0:21:32That's the sort of view that makes all the bad days worthwhile.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44When you look at this, you begin to get a feeling of what wildness is about.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48In its technical form and its proper sense,
0:21:48 > 0:21:51we probably don't have wilderness in Scotland,
0:21:51 > 0:21:56as in a bit of land that has been untouched by man,
0:21:56 > 0:21:58but we do have lots of wild land.
0:21:59 > 0:22:05And I like to think of wilderness as an adjective rather than a noun,
0:22:05 > 0:22:10an adjective that brings out particular emotions in us
0:22:10 > 0:22:13when we see views like this.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16I mean, looking at these things, it makes us feel quite insignificant,
0:22:16 > 0:22:19and sometimes that's not a bad thing.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29You know, this is far too nice a spot just to bash through.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33I'm tempted to linger here and maybe even spend the night here.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44On any multi-day, long-distance walking trip
0:22:44 > 0:22:47the most convenient form of accommodation
0:22:47 > 0:22:50is undoubtedly wild camping...
0:22:52 > 0:22:55..but, you know, wild camping is more than that.
0:22:55 > 0:23:00It's a return to basics, it's an opportunity to connect with the land.
0:23:00 > 0:23:02As we walk through the land, we connect with it,
0:23:02 > 0:23:05and we connect with the land when we sleep on it as well.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09And it's a return to those basics,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12earth, wind, and fire, a return to our aboriginal state.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17And it's romantic, unashamedly romantic.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31A day later, and I've come over the hills from Loch Monar
0:23:31 > 0:23:33into the wild and remote Strathconon.
0:23:33 > 0:23:38And where better to meet someone who has chosen to live mainly in silence?
0:23:39 > 0:23:41Sara Maitland is an award-winning author.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43She grew up in Galloway
0:23:43 > 0:23:46and, having spent much of her adult life south of the border,
0:23:46 > 0:23:48has now returned to her roots.
0:23:48 > 0:23:55She lives alone in an isolated cottage and spends three-quarters of her time in silence.
0:23:55 > 0:23:59I think sometimes I feel more real to myself
0:23:59 > 0:24:04and more really like I am outside, alone, silent.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06I must admit when we asked you to come and walk with me,
0:24:06 > 0:24:09I thought this could be a very difficult interview
0:24:09 > 0:24:11if you are going to walk along and say nothing.
0:24:11 > 0:24:13I think some people who live in silence
0:24:13 > 0:24:16are very introverted, but I'm not really,
0:24:16 > 0:24:18and since I've been living in silence,
0:24:18 > 0:24:20I'm much more talkative when I'm talking.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24It's very interesting. I like people better because I don't have to have them all the time,
0:24:24 > 0:24:28and I like to talk to them, I'm having a good time.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32But I also, which I suppose is the corner of my work,
0:24:32 > 0:24:34believe that being alone,
0:24:34 > 0:24:37particularly in this kind of space,
0:24:37 > 0:24:40develops imagination, develops creativity,
0:24:40 > 0:24:43develops spirituality if that's what interests you.
0:24:43 > 0:24:48There is something about it being bigger than you
0:24:48 > 0:24:50that nourishes something bigger in you.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57Sara, you are obviously a very independent woman. Have you always had that independence?
0:24:57 > 0:25:00Well, it's quite an interesting question because I am one of a very large family,
0:25:00 > 0:25:05I am one of six and we are very close together in age, and we were brought up very much in a gang.
0:25:05 > 0:25:07- A lot of noise?- A lot of noise.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10When did the seeking of solitude come into your life?
0:25:10 > 0:25:13Oh, it didn't come into my life until really late.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16I mean, I say when I was 50 and my youngest child left home.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19And just the sense I can do anything I like now, anything.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22I was no longer married by that point
0:25:22 > 0:25:24and I thought, "What do I want to do?"
0:25:24 > 0:25:27And I thought, "I want to see what it's like to be alone," and so I did.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29Did that come as a revelation?
0:25:29 > 0:25:32Yeah, it came as a total surprise to me at some level.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36I find it extraordinary because I haven't known you for very long,
0:25:36 > 0:25:41but to me, you are someone who likes to chat and blether and are quite garrulous.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44I mean, I find it difficult to conceive a view...
0:25:44 > 0:25:49Well, why don't we put it with alcohol? I really like to drink, but I don't have to drink all the time.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52And if I did have to drink all the time, people would think it was a problem,
0:25:52 > 0:25:55and I really do feel like, for me now, talking is like alcohol,
0:25:55 > 0:25:57it's a big pleasure.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01But it's an occasional pleasure, and it's more of a pleasure if you don't do it all of the time, for me.
0:26:04 > 0:26:06I find it really fascinating
0:26:06 > 0:26:09how it could be to be a person who was silent.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13I spent six weeks in complete silence on Skye, actually.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17How difficult was that? What are the sort of problems you face doing that?
0:26:17 > 0:26:21The biggest problem that I faced about two weeks in
0:26:21 > 0:26:26was hypersensitivity. That sounds very grand.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30But some of it was wonderful. Food tasted so good, you have no idea!
0:26:30 > 0:26:33But being alone and silent for a long time,
0:26:33 > 0:26:36you get this extreme physical responsiveness,
0:26:36 > 0:26:39and I have read enough to know that other people do too.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43You can become completely entranced by the taste of porridge.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46I mean, it was almost...there was something almost insane about it.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50But everything else became very intense too.
0:26:50 > 0:26:55If I was cold, I was really cold, if I was warm, I was extremely warm.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59So both good things and bad things became very intense.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02If you can't have your times of silence, do you get frustrated?
0:27:02 > 0:27:06Yeah, I get really not only frustrated but ratty and, increasingly, quite ill.
0:27:06 > 0:27:07I'm addicted to it now.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11- Yeah!- Thank you. - Good, well done, well done.
0:27:11 > 0:27:13Excellent, thank you.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17You were talking earlier on about using our imagination in these landscapes,
0:27:17 > 0:27:21and there's nothing that kind of encourages my imagination
0:27:21 > 0:27:24than coming across an old building like this, an old ruin.
0:27:24 > 0:27:29And I start to think who were the people who lived here before and what were they like?
0:27:29 > 0:27:32And does it do the same for you, is it a similar...?
0:27:32 > 0:27:35Yes, it is very sort of romantic, isn't it?
0:27:35 > 0:27:38And the more you know about it, the more you know it wasn't romantic at all.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40They were brutally hard lives.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43I suspect this building wasn't that terribly old.
0:27:43 > 0:27:45It doesn't look it, does it? Pretty solid.
0:27:45 > 0:27:47Yeah, maybe 150, 200 years maybe.
0:27:49 > 0:27:51Well, from here,
0:27:51 > 0:27:55I'm going to continue my walk towards the East Coast, Sara.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57I take it you're going to head back into silence.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01Yes, I will go back to Galloway, and, I hope, go back into silence.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04- Yeah, well, good luck.- Well, thanks very much, it was a great day.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12Although I am leaving Strathconon behind,
0:28:12 > 0:28:15I have still some fantastic places ahead of me.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17I am now entering Easter Ross,
0:28:17 > 0:28:20and before me lies the final big hill
0:28:20 > 0:28:22on this route - Ben Wyvis.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24My descent then takes me
0:28:24 > 0:28:26into a series of isolated glens,
0:28:26 > 0:28:29before I pick up a drovers' road down Strath Rory
0:28:29 > 0:28:32and my final walk along the coast.
0:28:37 > 0:28:43Any long-distance walker will tell you that the brain constantly plays tricks on you,
0:28:43 > 0:28:47and I find myself in this rather curious mindset this morning.
0:28:47 > 0:28:52A sort of relaxed feeling that the hardest of all the walking is now behind me,
0:28:52 > 0:28:57that, from here in the Eastern Highlands, it's all going to be downhill to the finish.
0:28:57 > 0:28:59And yet I know that's not true,
0:28:59 > 0:29:02I've still got a 3,000-foot mountain to cross over.
0:29:02 > 0:29:04But I am going to make the most of it today.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08I am going to be following some nice paths and tracks through the Garve Forest,
0:29:08 > 0:29:12and I am going to enjoy the constant chattering of the Black Water River.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26I guess I am probably better known as a hill walker.
0:29:26 > 0:29:28Mountains are my favoured environment,
0:29:28 > 0:29:32but I really do enjoy a wander through woods and forests,
0:29:32 > 0:29:35and this one is a real cracker.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38The main commercial plantation is higher up the hill,
0:29:38 > 0:29:40but down here close to the river,
0:29:40 > 0:29:45there's a delightful mix of birch tree, rowan, aspen, Scots pine,
0:29:45 > 0:29:51and this lovely undergrowth of mosses and lichens and brackens is delightful.
0:29:52 > 0:29:55And it strikes me that this is not all that far removed
0:29:55 > 0:29:57from the sort of environment
0:29:57 > 0:30:00that those early Christian monks would have wandered through,
0:30:00 > 0:30:03when Scotland was really covered in forest like this.
0:30:03 > 0:30:07Except that those pilgrims were more than likely to run into wild animals
0:30:07 > 0:30:10or even marauding bands of warriors.
0:30:26 > 0:30:30You know, it's really nice to spend some time beside a Highland river,
0:30:30 > 0:30:33and this one is particularly interesting.
0:30:33 > 0:30:35It's the Black Water.
0:30:35 > 0:30:38And there are very few Black Waters in Scotland.
0:30:38 > 0:30:43And the name refers to a river with a deep flowing central channel
0:30:43 > 0:30:46that flows through a vegetative or swampy area,
0:30:46 > 0:30:49where the rotting vegetation gives off tannins
0:30:49 > 0:30:54which leaks into the river and gives it this very dark coffee-like colour.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07The Black Water River rises about 65 kilometres away
0:31:07 > 0:31:09on the slopes of Ben Dearg.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13It comes through a series of tunnels then into Loch Vaich,
0:31:13 > 0:31:16and then it enters the vast Glasgarnoch hydro-electric scheme.
0:31:17 > 0:31:22It flows out of Loch Glasgarnoch through Loch Luichart and Loch Garve,
0:31:22 > 0:31:28and then over Rogie Falls before meeting the River Conon just downstream from here.
0:31:28 > 0:31:33And I quite like the multifunctional use of a river like this.
0:31:33 > 0:31:35It forms a very clear-cut channel
0:31:35 > 0:31:39through what is a very rocky wild landscape for wildfowl and birds.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43It also forms a very good channel for Atlantic salmon
0:31:43 > 0:31:47returning annually to their spawning grounds,
0:31:47 > 0:31:50and I think that's not bad for a wee Highland river.
0:31:58 > 0:32:04Now it's time to tackle my final big hill - the iconic Munro Ben Wyvis.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07I'm in the company of an old friend,
0:32:07 > 0:32:10but someone I haven't met for almost 30 years.
0:32:11 > 0:32:13Martin Hind's had a varied career.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16Originally he worked in the Clydeside shipyards,
0:32:16 > 0:32:20now he is the countryside ranger for Highland Council.
0:32:20 > 0:32:23He is a keen climber and, like many mountaineers,
0:32:23 > 0:32:26has developed an interest in the geology of our hills.
0:32:26 > 0:32:31He was determined to give me a fresh perspective on Ben Wyvis.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33It's a Moine-type rock,
0:32:33 > 0:32:35so it's in between the Cairngorms
0:32:35 > 0:32:37which is all the granite and such like.
0:32:37 > 0:32:39And over here what we have got...
0:32:39 > 0:32:41it's like a metamorphosed sandstone and things,
0:32:41 > 0:32:43and what's happened is, over time,
0:32:43 > 0:32:46it's obviously been rounded by sort of glaciers and such like.
0:32:50 > 0:32:53At one time, part of the glacier would have come through this valley,
0:32:53 > 0:32:55to form that U-shaped valley.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58Down on the river there, you can see it's actually a meandering river,
0:32:58 > 0:33:00because it's a nice flat one.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06On the hillside, they've got the landslip,
0:33:06 > 0:33:07and what would have happened there
0:33:07 > 0:33:09is there have been fractures in the rock
0:33:09 > 0:33:11from the pressure of the glacier,
0:33:11 > 0:33:14and when that retreats, there is nothing to support the hillside.
0:33:14 > 0:33:19So the actual...the hillside would actually slip down the slope
0:33:19 > 0:33:21and form these sort of outcrops.
0:33:22 > 0:33:25Can you give me an idea what it would have been like
0:33:25 > 0:33:28in this area round about that Ice Age?
0:33:28 > 0:33:32The landscape as it is now, we have got lots of vegetation and things,
0:33:32 > 0:33:36and at the time when the glaciers were about, this would have been all stripped bare.
0:33:36 > 0:33:40It would have been just bare rock, silt, sand, gravel and such like,
0:33:40 > 0:33:42there would have been no vegetation at all.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45It would have been a big sort of scouring brush
0:33:45 > 0:33:48coming through and just scouring the landscape.
0:33:51 > 0:33:55I've sheltered behind this rock a few times, Martin, over the years.
0:33:55 > 0:33:57Yeah, I think a lot of people have done that.
0:33:57 > 0:33:59It's what's called a glacial erratic,
0:33:59 > 0:34:02except this one is actually balanced up in the hillside.
0:34:02 > 0:34:05Most glacial erratics are down in the valleys, the valley floor.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09If you know the rock type of the stone,
0:34:09 > 0:34:12and actually the source where it's come from,
0:34:12 > 0:34:15you can actually work out the direction
0:34:15 > 0:34:17of the flow of the glacier.
0:34:17 > 0:34:19So it's actually like a way of actually
0:34:19 > 0:34:21joining the dots back the way,
0:34:21 > 0:34:24and that's called a glacial train or a glacial erratic train.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28So if this is, say, granite, this could be coming from Insch Bay,
0:34:28 > 0:34:32which is a magma pluton that's been exposed
0:34:32 > 0:34:35and the glaciers would have been going over the top of it,
0:34:35 > 0:34:38ripping off rock, carrying it on downstream.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43As it retreats back, you are left with all this debris
0:34:43 > 0:34:46which forms all your other glacial features you find in the valley floor.
0:34:46 > 0:34:50I find all this fascinating, the very fact that the mountain tells a story,
0:34:50 > 0:34:54and there are all these little sort of detection clues you can pick up and work it all out,
0:34:54 > 0:34:55it's tremendous.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58- It like being a bit of a geological detective.- Whoo!
0:34:58 > 0:35:01Most of what geology has been doing over the last few hundred years
0:35:01 > 0:35:04has actually been just done by surface geology,
0:35:04 > 0:35:07looking at the country rock, which is the bedrock.
0:35:07 > 0:35:09They are looking at the other rocks
0:35:09 > 0:35:11that are round about and where they have come from and things,
0:35:11 > 0:35:13and that way they can work out a story.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21All the way up the hillside in this flank,
0:35:21 > 0:35:23you get a series of these terraces,
0:35:23 > 0:35:26which is one of the periglacial features.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29And because it's adjacent to glaciers
0:35:29 > 0:35:32where you get a lot of frost action during the night,
0:35:32 > 0:35:37the ground freezes up and lifts up the sediments, the rocks and things.
0:35:37 > 0:35:39Then the daytime sun comes out,
0:35:39 > 0:35:42and the crystals melt and drop all the sediment
0:35:42 > 0:35:45and the rocks and things down slope.
0:35:45 > 0:35:50Because it's on a slope, what you find is that the heavier stuff rolls down the slope a wee bit further,
0:35:50 > 0:35:52and you're left with the finer stuff further back.
0:35:52 > 0:35:54And gradually, over thousands of years,
0:35:54 > 0:35:56you actually get this sort of sorting,
0:35:56 > 0:35:58so you get a series of terraces here.
0:36:01 > 0:36:02Heading into the mist!
0:36:04 > 0:36:06Aye, the first cairn!
0:36:06 > 0:36:07Yeah.
0:36:07 > 0:36:09So how far do you reckon it is to the summit from here?
0:36:09 > 0:36:13It's probably about a couple of kilometres, a kilometre and a half.
0:36:19 > 0:36:22I always think that this long whaleback
0:36:22 > 0:36:24between the two summits on Ben Wyvis
0:36:24 > 0:36:26is the major feature of the mountain.
0:36:26 > 0:36:29And it also is part of...one of the reasons why they have this,
0:36:29 > 0:36:32trying to protect the footpath and things,
0:36:32 > 0:36:34to stop them eroding wider,
0:36:34 > 0:36:37is the moss here, we have got the woolly moss.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40They're actually sort of very fragile.
0:36:40 > 0:36:44That is why they've got these little cairns in to try and reduce people's distribution and erosion.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46I am quite fascinated by some of these lichen.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49Look, this looks as though someone's painted the rock, look at it.
0:36:49 > 0:36:51Yeah, there's a white one there.
0:36:51 > 0:36:53And if you actually have a magnifying glass,
0:36:53 > 0:36:54you can look close up to it
0:36:54 > 0:36:57and you'll actually see the treating bodies, they're little cups.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00And different species have different colours of spores
0:37:00 > 0:37:02and, if you actually look close enough
0:37:02 > 0:37:04between the different lichens, you will see a black line.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07- I can see that.- And what that is is chemical warfare,
0:37:07 > 0:37:11because one lichen is trying to kill off the other lichen so it can expand.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14And they're all doing battle with each other,
0:37:14 > 0:37:17so the dividing line there is actually like a little kill zone,
0:37:17 > 0:37:22and some of these lichens, they reckon for maybe an inch or two inches, it takes a hundred years.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25- Really?- For them to grown and to expand out.
0:37:25 > 0:37:26You are talking about this...
0:37:26 > 0:37:31it's quite remarkable because most people come up here and say, "There's nothing, there's nothing here."
0:37:31 > 0:37:33And yet there is this whole life going on just below your feet.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37Yeah, I think you have just got to open your eyes to different things,
0:37:37 > 0:37:39and people are looking for different things of interest.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42And like one of mine is actually looking at the small world.
0:37:50 > 0:37:52That's us here.
0:37:52 > 0:37:53Ben Wyvis.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56It's the highest hill in Ross-shire,
0:37:56 > 0:38:00and probably it's nearly comparable to the Cairngorm Hills.
0:38:00 > 0:38:021,046 metres.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05Anyway, my route's going take me off this side of the mountain,
0:38:05 > 0:38:07and I am going to make my way down towards the coast.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09So thanks a million for today.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12I hope it's not another 28 years before we bump into each other again.
0:38:12 > 0:38:13So I am heading that...
0:38:13 > 0:38:18- Just before I go, do they still use your nickname?- Harpic.
0:38:18 > 0:38:20Harpic. Why's that?
0:38:20 > 0:38:22Well, it's because I was supposed to be clean round the bend,
0:38:22 > 0:38:26which wasn't quite true, but some of the stories justified that,
0:38:26 > 0:38:28and I lived up to it a wee bit, but...
0:38:28 > 0:38:30- You'll always be Harpic to me.- Yeah.
0:38:30 > 0:38:32- See you later.- Cheerio, bye.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49When I left the summit of Ben Wyvis
0:38:49 > 0:38:53and crept down below the mist down towards Loch Glass,
0:38:53 > 0:38:56I felt as though I was stepping off the edge of the known world,
0:38:56 > 0:39:00at least my own personal known world.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03If I had opened the map, I would have expected to read,
0:39:03 > 0:39:04"Here there be dragons,"
0:39:04 > 0:39:08because I really don't know this section of Scotland at all,
0:39:08 > 0:39:10this lovely area of Easter Ross.
0:39:10 > 0:39:13And it seems to me it's an area of tumbled hills
0:39:13 > 0:39:17and lots of little nooks and crannies that form the glens and the lochs,
0:39:17 > 0:39:21so I am looking forward to discovering a lot more about it.
0:39:21 > 0:39:27And, of course, that is one of the integral parts of a pilgrimage like this - that sense of discovery.
0:39:37 > 0:39:41You know, I have this sense that I have come far from the madding crowd.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45I'm well away from the popular busy footpaths
0:39:45 > 0:39:47of the Munros and the Corbetts.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51And I have this overwhelming sense of insignificance
0:39:51 > 0:39:56against the more lasting realities of these big wide upland moors,
0:39:56 > 0:39:59this big open sky.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03And I almost feel like a tiny dot moving across this vast landscape,
0:40:03 > 0:40:06a landscape that's as old as time itself.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27Although there is a real sense of remoteness and isolation here,
0:40:27 > 0:40:29that wasn't always the case.
0:40:29 > 0:40:32Just over 200 years ago,
0:40:32 > 0:40:36there was a regular market held down on the shores of Loch Moray,
0:40:36 > 0:40:38just below me here.
0:40:38 > 0:40:40The Fill Moray as it was known as
0:40:40 > 0:40:44was, according to some accounts, held twice a week,
0:40:44 > 0:40:48where people from all the surrounding glens would come and gather together.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51That came to an end with the Highland Clearances,
0:40:51 > 0:40:56when the people here were cleared from the land to make way for sheep.
0:40:58 > 0:41:02At first, it seems they went quite passively with little resistance,
0:41:02 > 0:41:09as was recorded by Mrs Grant of Laggan in 1791 in one of her letters.
0:41:09 > 0:41:10This is what she said,
0:41:10 > 0:41:14"Although the people possessed feelings and principles,
0:41:14 > 0:41:16"and were driven to desperation,
0:41:16 > 0:41:20"they even then acted under a sense of rectitude,
0:41:20 > 0:41:24"touched no property and injured no people."
0:41:25 > 0:41:28But Mrs Grant was rather precipitating events,
0:41:28 > 0:41:31because the very next year, the cattle farmers,
0:41:31 > 0:41:35who had been moved to higher pastures to make way for the sheep,
0:41:35 > 0:41:38faced economic ruin and they dug their heels in.
0:41:40 > 0:41:45What became known as the Ross-shire Rebellion lasted for three years.
0:41:47 > 0:41:49They were ultimately defeated,
0:41:49 > 0:41:52and the floodgates to large-scale sheep farming
0:41:52 > 0:41:56in the Northern Highlands were well and truly opened.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22Well, I've finally come down from the hills,
0:42:22 > 0:42:25and I find myself in Strath Rory,
0:42:25 > 0:42:28a glen that is going to take me down towards the sea.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31Strath Rory is covered on both sides
0:42:31 > 0:42:35by swathes of densely packed conifers,
0:42:35 > 0:42:37and the whole glen is a testament
0:42:37 > 0:42:42to that great industry of the 20th-century Highlands - forestry.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50But, you know, 100 years ago, it would've been very different.
0:42:50 > 0:42:55This would have been a very remote and isolated place in the Highlands.
0:42:57 > 0:43:01And yet, 2,000 years ago, there were a lot of people here.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04Today, we can find the remains of chambered cairns
0:43:04 > 0:43:05and old-field systems,
0:43:05 > 0:43:08which would suggest that this was a well-populated place.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12Indeed, even 4,000 years ago,
0:43:12 > 0:43:16there's some evidence this was a busy place in the Bronze Age.
0:43:22 > 0:43:24Here's a wee mystery for you.
0:43:24 > 0:43:29That big rounded hill across there is called Cnoc an Duin,
0:43:29 > 0:43:32and there's a fair bit of evidence
0:43:32 > 0:43:36that on top of the hill was once an Iron Age hill fort.
0:43:36 > 0:43:37But the mystery is this -
0:43:37 > 0:43:41archaeologists tell us that that hill fort was never actually completed.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45They also tell us that the tribes who built the fort
0:43:45 > 0:43:49were building it during a period of prolonged warfare with other tribes,
0:43:49 > 0:43:53so it could be that some other people came along and there was a battle
0:43:53 > 0:43:56and wiped them out or chased them off or whatever.
0:43:56 > 0:43:59But I guess we'll really never know the answer,
0:43:59 > 0:44:00and that quite appeals to me...
0:44:00 > 0:44:05it lets your mind go a wee bit and you can use your own imagination.
0:44:15 > 0:44:17Strath Rory is a very peaceful place today,
0:44:17 > 0:44:21in fact, I would say it was even quite tranquil.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24But 250 years ago, it was very, very different.
0:44:24 > 0:44:29Then the glen would have resounded to the sounds of cattle and sheep
0:44:29 > 0:44:32and barking dogs and shouting men,
0:44:32 > 0:44:35because this was on one of the major drove roads
0:44:35 > 0:44:38from the counties of Sutherland and Caithness.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41The drovers would have brought their beasts down,
0:44:41 > 0:44:42swam them across the Dornoch Firth,
0:44:42 > 0:44:44brought them across the Struie,
0:44:44 > 0:44:46and they were heading for the first
0:44:46 > 0:44:49of the major cattle markets at Muir of Ord.
0:44:52 > 0:44:57All that came to an end when there was a much bigger shipping trade,
0:44:57 > 0:45:01and of course, with the advent of the Highland Railways.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05But what became of the cattle drovers?
0:45:05 > 0:45:10Well, it seems that many of them emigrated to America and Australia,
0:45:10 > 0:45:14where, perhaps not too curiously, they became cowboys.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29Oh, it's great to get the scent of the sea salt
0:45:29 > 0:45:32into my nostrils again! Very bracing.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35I am at the start of the Tarbat Peninsula,
0:45:35 > 0:45:38which juts right out into the North Sea,
0:45:38 > 0:45:39with the Dornoch Firth on one side
0:45:39 > 0:45:42and the Cromarty Firth on the other side.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46It's a landscape and indeed a seascape
0:45:46 > 0:45:49that is quite unlike anything I've seen on this walk so far.
0:45:59 > 0:46:01I've just come through the village of Inver,
0:46:01 > 0:46:05and it's a real tranquil little place with a very peaceful atmosphere
0:46:05 > 0:46:09that very much belies its turbulent history
0:46:09 > 0:46:12and, at times, very grim history.
0:46:12 > 0:46:15Back in the 1700s and early 1800s,
0:46:15 > 0:46:18the people who lived here were mainly fisher folk.
0:46:20 > 0:46:22They couldn't afford their own boats
0:46:22 > 0:46:25so they had to use the boats that were owned by the local estate,
0:46:25 > 0:46:29and because of that, the lairds treated them as no more than serfs.
0:46:32 > 0:46:35And then, in the 1830s, disaster struck this little village.
0:46:35 > 0:46:40There was an outbreak of cholera and over half the population died
0:46:40 > 0:46:44and they were buried in a mass grave down by the shore.
0:46:49 > 0:46:51And as if all that wasn't enough,
0:46:51 > 0:46:55during the war, the MOD decided that this stretch of coastline
0:46:55 > 0:46:59would be ideal for troops to practise for the D-Day landings.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02And they decided to evacuate the whole community of Inver,
0:47:02 > 0:47:05and they had no idea, the people had no idea
0:47:05 > 0:47:07when they would get back to their own houses.
0:47:24 > 0:47:26Don't let anyone persuade you
0:47:26 > 0:47:29that all the best beaches in Scotland are on the West Coast!
0:47:29 > 0:47:31This one's not half bad!
0:47:47 > 0:47:52This part of the North-East coastline is surprisingly convoluted.
0:47:52 > 0:47:55From Dornoch, which is just across the Firth behind me here,
0:47:55 > 0:47:59to Inverness is only 25 miles as the crow flies,
0:47:59 > 0:48:03but if you were to follow the coast between the two places,
0:48:03 > 0:48:06it's much closer to 150 miles.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09I think that gives a pretty good indication
0:48:09 > 0:48:12that until comparatively recently, transport and communication
0:48:12 > 0:48:16was a lot easier by boat in these areas than it was by road,
0:48:16 > 0:48:21and I would suspect that's why these villages of the Tarbat Peninsula became so important.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36That's Portmahomack ahead of me,
0:48:36 > 0:48:38and from the moment I saw the houses of Portmahomack,
0:48:38 > 0:48:41I've felt this growing sense of anticipation,
0:48:41 > 0:48:43because although I have never been to the village,
0:48:43 > 0:48:45I have been told that there are things there
0:48:45 > 0:48:47that'll make my mind reel.
0:48:51 > 0:48:53I am visiting a monastic site
0:48:53 > 0:48:56that has lain buried and virtually forgotten for centuries.
0:48:57 > 0:49:02It's only been recently rediscovered and what a rediscovery it's been!
0:49:03 > 0:49:05Martin Carver, from York University,
0:49:05 > 0:49:08is one of Europe's most eminent archaeologists,
0:49:08 > 0:49:13and for 13 years led a team here excavating the grounds of the church.
0:49:15 > 0:49:18What they found was a prosperous and sophisticated centre
0:49:18 > 0:49:21that compares with any in Scotland.
0:49:21 > 0:49:25It was a discovery of international significance.
0:49:25 > 0:49:30This is the spot where the first good evidence was found
0:49:30 > 0:49:32that the Picts made books,
0:49:32 > 0:49:35not that they had books, but that they made them,
0:49:35 > 0:49:38and that's just underneath where we are standing.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44The lettering on the famous inscribed slab
0:49:44 > 0:49:47is exactly like Lindisfarne and Kells,
0:49:47 > 0:49:51it's an insular manuscript, it's a wonderful thing.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55So suddenly, we have a major centre in the far North-East of Scotland
0:49:55 > 0:49:58with contacts with the Continent,
0:49:58 > 0:50:01contacts with Ireland, contacts with the West Coast,
0:50:01 > 0:50:02contacts with England.
0:50:02 > 0:50:04I mean, these were state of the art.
0:50:06 > 0:50:10We dug up 240 pieces of sculpture here.
0:50:10 > 0:50:12These are brilliant pieces of carving,
0:50:12 > 0:50:16probably the most competent, the most accomplished sculpture
0:50:16 > 0:50:20being made at that time in Europe,
0:50:20 > 0:50:23unmatchable, absolutely beautiful.
0:50:23 > 0:50:24From an ornamental point of view,
0:50:24 > 0:50:28from the point of view of composition, biblical knowledge,
0:50:28 > 0:50:30you know, really tremendous.
0:50:30 > 0:50:32How big is the site here?
0:50:32 > 0:50:34It's about four hectares.
0:50:34 > 0:50:38The first building we discovered was across these fields.
0:50:38 > 0:50:44So underneath here, there is a paved road that leads to the building,
0:50:44 > 0:50:46a most extraordinary building.
0:50:46 > 0:50:50And beautifully defined, you know, quite unusual for this period.
0:50:50 > 0:50:53- And then, of course, we found out what was in it. - Yeah, what was in it?
0:50:53 > 0:50:56Well, the people in it were making metal, metalwork.
0:50:56 > 0:51:00There was a scatter of moulds, of clay shapes for moulding bronze,
0:51:00 > 0:51:03and crucibles for melting the bronze.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06It seemed to us pretty likely
0:51:06 > 0:51:11that these were the people making the kit that goes with a monastery.
0:51:11 > 0:51:14Now, of course, once you've made it, you don't need to make hundreds.
0:51:14 > 0:51:18- So the next question was why would you make so many? - Exactly. Were they selling them on?
0:51:18 > 0:51:20And the books the same, why would you make more than one book?
0:51:20 > 0:51:24No, they weren't selling them on. I'm pretty convinced of that.
0:51:24 > 0:51:26I think what they were doing was
0:51:26 > 0:51:29they were engaged in a big expansionary project.
0:51:29 > 0:51:33The eighth century was THE time for the monastic,
0:51:33 > 0:51:36the politics of monasticism,
0:51:36 > 0:51:39the spreading monasticism round the Celtic areas,
0:51:39 > 0:51:42unifying the Celtic areas under this one banner.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45So Portmahomack, we're a long way from the centre of Europe up here,
0:51:45 > 0:51:49geographically, but right in the centre intellectually.
0:51:49 > 0:51:55The excavations undertaken by Martin Carver's team finished in 2007,
0:51:55 > 0:51:59and the site was restored to preserve it for future generations.
0:51:59 > 0:52:03Some of the artefacts are now in the National Museum of Scotland,
0:52:03 > 0:52:06while others are on display in a discovery centre
0:52:06 > 0:52:08in the old church here.
0:52:09 > 0:52:12There's one question I was keen to have answered -
0:52:12 > 0:52:15why isn't a place of this importance,
0:52:15 > 0:52:19one that's fundamental to the Celtic monastic world, better known?
0:52:19 > 0:52:24It also contains a significant stone-lined grave known as a cist.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27The whole site really is a bit of a mystery
0:52:27 > 0:52:30when you consider that 1,200 years ago,
0:52:30 > 0:52:34this was probably one of the most important places in Northern Europe.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37I try to explain to visitors for the first time
0:52:37 > 0:52:40that what was happening out there,
0:52:40 > 0:52:43it's a wee bit like if Bill Gates, for instance,
0:52:43 > 0:52:48had decided to set up the whole of the Microsoft company in Portmahomack.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52It was absolutely groundbreaking, and then, all of a sudden,
0:52:52 > 0:52:56it just appeared to be airbrushed from history.
0:52:56 > 0:52:58When they were actually doing the excavations here,
0:52:58 > 0:53:01what was the most exciting moment for you personally?
0:53:01 > 0:53:06I think probably it was when they actually found the cist burial
0:53:06 > 0:53:11on the very edge of the workshop area.
0:53:12 > 0:53:16We couldn't understand why people would have buried somebody there.
0:53:16 > 0:53:19And because the skull was in remarkably good condition,
0:53:19 > 0:53:22we went for a skull reconstruction.
0:53:22 > 0:53:26We got some results back just a few months ago
0:53:26 > 0:53:30which showed that he was living in this area
0:53:30 > 0:53:32round about 400AD,
0:53:32 > 0:53:36which predates the monastery by about a couple of hundred years.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41We're going to continue investigating other sites
0:53:41 > 0:53:44in close proximity to Portmahomack,
0:53:44 > 0:53:50to establish that there was a vibrant, sophisticated community here
0:53:50 > 0:53:53for hundreds if not thousands of years,
0:53:53 > 0:53:58that this Pictish kingdom of Fortriu
0:53:58 > 0:54:02was actually probably a major player
0:54:02 > 0:54:07in the establishment of present-day Scotland.
0:54:09 > 0:54:11By the middle of the eighth century,
0:54:11 > 0:54:12the monastery was so powerful
0:54:12 > 0:54:16that it controlled the whole of the Tarbat Peninsula,
0:54:16 > 0:54:18and today you can see the marker stones
0:54:18 > 0:54:22that were erected to show the extent of their land.
0:54:22 > 0:54:26This is a replica, it's a very beautiful replica of the Hilton of Cadboll stone.
0:54:26 > 0:54:28It is the only Pictish stone
0:54:28 > 0:54:31or, in fact, amongst very, very few
0:54:31 > 0:54:34of any stones of the early Middle Ages
0:54:34 > 0:54:37which has a woman as its centrepiece.
0:54:37 > 0:54:39And this seems to be a woman because...
0:54:39 > 0:54:41Well, let's see, she's sitting,
0:54:41 > 0:54:44seems to be riding side-saddle, she's wearing a cloak.
0:54:44 > 0:54:48This is a penannular brooch to fasten the cloak
0:54:48 > 0:54:52and here is the mirror and the comb.
0:54:52 > 0:54:57So all that adds up to some very high-ranking woman riding along...
0:54:57 > 0:55:00Fabulous picture. So then you had, "What's all this about?"
0:55:00 > 0:55:02and you can imagine some people saying,
0:55:02 > 0:55:07"Well, it's just a typical everyday life on Tarbat Ness, out hunting."
0:55:07 > 0:55:12Another idea is that this is a sort of evocation
0:55:12 > 0:55:14of some scriptural scene.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17For me, I'm not so sure.
0:55:17 > 0:55:19These stones are all about the same date,
0:55:19 > 0:55:21so they're all late-eighth century.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24They must be something to do with the monastery
0:55:24 > 0:55:26because that's the big settlement at that time,
0:55:26 > 0:55:30and of course, we've got a big cross on the other side.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32It's got a name on it,
0:55:32 > 0:55:35and there's a woman seems to be the subject of the picture.
0:55:35 > 0:55:39So the name ought to be the name of the woman, and this ought to be a Christian scene.
0:55:39 > 0:55:44And the only way I can square that circle is to make this into a saint,
0:55:44 > 0:55:46running to...wild imagination...
0:55:46 > 0:55:48Here is a Pictish princess,
0:55:48 > 0:55:53she is riding out with the hounds and then she sees the light.
0:55:53 > 0:55:55Look at the way she is looking, you see,
0:55:55 > 0:55:58she has suddenly seen the light, so she has become a holy person.
0:55:58 > 0:56:03And this is like a hagiography, a story of that saint,
0:56:03 > 0:56:05when that saint stopped being a princess
0:56:05 > 0:56:08and became some holy person.
0:56:08 > 0:56:10These are people who have made
0:56:10 > 0:56:14some of the most important contributions to European art.
0:56:14 > 0:56:16It's a big moment in European history.
0:56:23 > 0:56:27I feel a bit overwhelmed,
0:56:27 > 0:56:32a little bit numb at the thought of all that history beneath my feet.
0:56:32 > 0:56:38The people who lived here and worked here and created a civilisation here...
0:56:38 > 0:56:44I kind of suspect the Portmahomack experience is going to linger with me for quite a long time to come.
0:56:46 > 0:56:49I am now on the final stretch of my own pilgrimage
0:56:49 > 0:56:53from the West Coast right across Scotland to the East Coast.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01I know I've said this before, so at great risk of repeating myself,
0:57:01 > 0:57:05if you can, why don't you grab your boots and a rucksack
0:57:05 > 0:57:08and try the Pilgrim's Trail for yourself?
0:57:08 > 0:57:10Even if you just do it one section at a time,
0:57:10 > 0:57:12I can guarantee you won't be disappointed.
0:57:22 > 0:57:28Journey's end at Tarbat Ness, above the crashing waters of the North Sea.
0:57:28 > 0:57:33And what a dramatic end to what has been a spectacular walk.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38I've followed in the footsteps of our ancestors
0:57:38 > 0:57:42from the atmospherically Celtic Isle of Iona,
0:57:42 > 0:57:47through some remote and magnificent glens of the West of Scotland...
0:57:48 > 0:57:53..across the spine of Scotland over the historic Druim Alban
0:57:53 > 0:57:57into the very distinctive landscapes of the Eastern Highlands.
0:57:57 > 0:57:59And, to cap it all,
0:57:59 > 0:58:03what I think must be Scotland's best-kept secret at Portmahomack.
0:58:06 > 0:58:09What a remarkable journey this has been
0:58:09 > 0:58:12and certainly, one not to be missed,
0:58:12 > 0:58:15so while you go off and hopefully start planning your own pilgrimage,
0:58:15 > 0:58:18I just want to sit here for a wee while
0:58:18 > 0:58:23reflecting on the amazing variety and diversity
0:58:23 > 0:58:27of this incredible country of ours
0:58:27 > 0:58:29and its inspiring history.