0:00:04 > 0:00:09For years, I've been saying that Scotland has some of the best landscape anywhere, and to prove it
0:00:09 > 0:00:13I've spent the past two and a half years putting together a 470-mile route
0:00:13 > 0:00:16from the border with England to the far north.
0:00:18 > 0:00:23Welcome to the Scottish National Trail one of the great long-distance walks of the world.
0:00:54 > 0:00:56Hi, I'm glad you could join me on this second half
0:00:56 > 0:01:00of my end-to-end walk through Scotland.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02I started in Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish Borders
0:01:02 > 0:01:07and followed the ancient trails as far as Edinburgh, our capital city.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10I then made my way through the heart of Scotland
0:01:10 > 0:01:13and through our first National Park into Highland Perthshire.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18Now, I'm on the edge of our second National Park, the Cairngorms,
0:01:18 > 0:01:22with the rest of the glorious Highlands lying before me.
0:01:24 > 0:01:30After 200 miles I'm nearly halfway through the walk, but you could argue the best is yet to come.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34High mountains, deep lonely glens, beautiful woodlands and much more besides,
0:01:34 > 0:01:38as I make my way north and west.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41Ahead are the wild lands of Kintail,
0:01:41 > 0:01:44Torridon and the magic that is Sutherland.
0:01:44 > 0:01:46And what an experience it's going to be,
0:01:46 > 0:01:51walking through a constantly changing landscape that inspires everyone who sees it.
0:01:51 > 0:01:56You can't convey in words the scale of this and the extent to which it is so impressive,
0:01:56 > 0:02:01especially like today with the wind in the grass and the rain coming and going.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06- And the sun, sometimes! - And I'll say "Aye!" to that.
0:02:06 > 0:02:11Ahead of me is Glen Tilt, part of the 145,000 acre Atholl Estate.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14Their head ranger is Polly Freeman.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17Accompanied by her working collie, Midge, we set off up the Glen.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20This is Polly's office.
0:02:20 > 0:02:25I come up the Glen a lot and it always looks different and it gives you a kind of peace.
0:02:25 > 0:02:30Glen Tilt is quite unusual in the sense that it's a long straight line, linear glen.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34- What makes it like that?- It's got a fault that runs pretty much
0:02:34 > 0:02:37the whole way down the Glen, so as you get further up the Glen
0:02:37 > 0:02:39you can see the Glen is very narrow and it's very straight
0:02:39 > 0:02:41and it's exactly following that fault line,
0:02:41 > 0:02:45which also means the Glen doesn't actually rise very much.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48so it was a really popular drove road in times gone by
0:02:48 > 0:02:52because you could bring the cattle through and you weren't having to gain much altitude,
0:02:52 > 0:02:55so it's much easier for both the herders and the cattle.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09Polly, this is a fantastic spot in the river, there's pools and the fall here but
0:03:09 > 0:03:12it does have a special significance, doesn't it?
0:03:12 > 0:03:16It does if you're a geologist. If you're a geologist, this is a Mecca.
0:03:16 > 0:03:22James Hutton came here looking for certain geological clues to prove some theories that he had.
0:03:22 > 0:03:27Now, James Hutton is one of the founders of modern geology and he
0:03:27 > 0:03:32wanted to show that not all rocks were always laid down
0:03:32 > 0:03:37so that the oldest rock is on the bottom and the youngest rock is on the top.
0:03:37 > 0:03:43And he came to this area specifically looking to find granite in amongst the schist,
0:03:43 > 0:03:47and his theory being that the granite, which is an igneous rock,
0:03:47 > 0:03:50would be injected into the schist and therefore it's a younger rock
0:03:50 > 0:03:54travelling through various layers of older rock.
0:03:54 > 0:03:59And apparently he came up here and saw it and went "Oh, eureka, I've found it!"
0:03:59 > 0:04:03And he got very excited. And it is very obvious to see if you know anything about geology,
0:04:03 > 0:04:07the pink rock here is the pink granite of the Cairngorms,
0:04:07 > 0:04:12and the grey rock is the schist which is actually a metamorphic rock.
0:04:12 > 0:04:14That's not just been laid down layer on layer,
0:04:14 > 0:04:19there's something else going on there and that's exactly what he was looking for.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23This Glen may have been shaped by enormous geological forces,
0:04:23 > 0:04:27but it's the river that runs the whole length of it that defines its character.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31Most of the big rivers here have been harnessed for hydropower.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35Back in the 1950s, Highland Perthshire and I think the top of the Spey as well a lot of
0:04:35 > 0:04:39that was connected up to make this huge big hydro scheme
0:04:39 > 0:04:43and most of the rivers up here are in that scheme except for the River Tilt.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47The River Tilt is still, if you like, a wild river,
0:04:47 > 0:04:51it still reacts to the weather, which I really like.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02Polly, can you give me a breakdown of your career progress
0:05:02 > 0:05:05from leaving London to ending up here in Blair Atholl?
0:05:05 > 0:05:09Well, I've moved around the country a lot, but all northwards.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13My main aim was to get out of London, which I did and...
0:05:13 > 0:05:14Why was that?
0:05:14 > 0:05:19Because it's very big and it's a city and there's just no access to the countryside where we lived,
0:05:19 > 0:05:23- it was just really difficult.- Where do you think this passion came from?
0:05:23 > 0:05:25Were your folks interested in the outdoors?
0:05:25 > 0:05:28No, I don't know, I really don't know, I don't think my family knows.
0:05:28 > 0:05:33We used to go on holiday in North Wales to the coast and we'd drive through Snowdonia to get there
0:05:33 > 0:05:37and I just wanted to get out of the car and go up these hills that I could see from the car,
0:05:37 > 0:05:41and... But we couldn't because nobody else wanted to do that
0:05:41 > 0:05:44and my uncle would come and visit us sometimes when we were on holiday
0:05:44 > 0:05:47and I'd nag him to take me up a hill all the time. And he did, very occasionally.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01You very kindly rangered me right up the length of Glen Tilt today.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04What are your feelings when you stand at the top of the Glen like this
0:06:04 > 0:06:07- and just kind of look around you? - It's a strange mixture of
0:06:07 > 0:06:09excitement and calmness at the same time,
0:06:09 > 0:06:12it's somewhere that's so remote...
0:06:13 > 0:06:16it just makes you feel good somehow, but that's not a very good
0:06:16 > 0:06:19word to describe something that's a much more intense feeling than that.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23The Glen feels remote all the way up but you get up and you realise this
0:06:23 > 0:06:27really is what remote is and if we were to reverse our journey now and walk back down,
0:06:27 > 0:06:30then all those places that had seemed quite remote,
0:06:30 > 0:06:35you'd think, "Oh, my goodness, no, this is the centre of civilisation, there's a house here."
0:06:35 > 0:06:38This really is remote round us now.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40- You love it, don't you? - I do yeah, yeah.
0:06:55 > 0:07:00I'm following a series of Glens through the Cairngorms National Park, Glen Tilt,
0:07:00 > 0:07:05Geldie and Feshie, and that will eventually take us down towards Kingussie.
0:07:05 > 0:07:12I'll tell you something, when you come out of Glen Tilt and into Glen Geldie it feels strangely unsettling.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17I think Glen Tilt is so lush, it's so green,
0:07:17 > 0:07:22particularly in this low stretch where it's heavily wooded in deciduous trees.
0:07:22 > 0:07:24And even as you come higher up the Glen the sides,
0:07:24 > 0:07:27the little channels and glens are choked with birch and rowan.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30But when you go into Geldie, it's bare.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35It's starkly beautiful and it feels very, very remote.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41But, you know, I like it. I must be a bit weird, but I really like it.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44I love walking under the infinity of this dome sky,
0:07:44 > 0:07:49where you get the feeling that the only other things that are moving are the odd cloud shadow
0:07:49 > 0:07:52or spot of sunlight on the far hillside.
0:08:03 > 0:08:08In the 18th century, the indefectible road builder-cum-soldier, General George Wade,
0:08:08 > 0:08:11thought it would be a good idea to link Deeside with Speyside.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15He wanted to build a road through Glen Geldie and Feshie.
0:08:15 > 0:08:21It didn't really come to anything, he was too busy trying to subdue the restless Highlanders.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24But the thorny issue has been raised several times since,
0:08:24 > 0:08:28most notably back in the 1990s when some councils thought it would be quite a good way
0:08:28 > 0:08:32to spend some public money. Thank goodness it hasn't happened
0:08:32 > 0:08:35and I don't think it will happen now for two reasons -
0:08:35 > 0:08:40one, the huge amount of cash it would cost to build such a road, and, of course,
0:08:40 > 0:08:43this is slap bang in the middle of a National Park.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57I'm just over half way through this walk through Scotland now and already
0:08:57 > 0:09:05I've reached the conclusion that we tend to consider land and landscape purely in economical terms.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08I'm reminded of the words of the great American ecologist Aldo Leopold,
0:09:08 > 0:09:15who once said, "If we think of land as a commodity, then we will misuse it.
0:09:16 > 0:09:21"If we think of it as a community to which we also belong
0:09:21 > 0:09:24"then we will learn to treat it with love and respect."
0:09:38 > 0:09:41When I was planning the route of the Scottish National Trail
0:09:41 > 0:09:45I thought of linking the villages of Kingussie and Newtonmore
0:09:45 > 0:09:51by the three-mile long Sustrans bike track that parallels the road between the two villages.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55But it's tarmac, it's not great for walking, although it's terrific for cycling.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58Then I discovered some people had made a new path,
0:09:58 > 0:10:03a new path that follows the line of old townships high above the villages,
0:10:03 > 0:10:05all the way past Newtonmore right through to Laggan.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32This is Loch Gynack. And I think it's a lovely stretch of water,
0:10:32 > 0:10:37nestled the way it does between Creag Bheag and Creag Mhor.
0:10:37 > 0:10:43It's stocked with brown trout and an archaeological report from 1925
0:10:43 > 0:10:49says that there's the remains of a Crannog that's an artificial island dwelling - in the Loch here.
0:10:49 > 0:10:54I kind of suspect that the Loch has enlarged quite a bit since 1925 because I've certainly never seen
0:10:54 > 0:10:58anything resembling a Crannog here and I don't know anybody who has.
0:10:58 > 0:11:05But that doesn't matter, it's the notion that people once lived on the Loch that I find attractive.
0:11:19 > 0:11:25This is the site of the former township of Auchtouchal. What a great name, eh?
0:11:25 > 0:11:28And it's said that there were up to a dozen houses here,
0:11:28 > 0:11:32a dozen houses, associated barns,
0:11:32 > 0:11:38a lime kiln, some fields with rigs and lazy beds.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43And the only thing you can see today is a few piles of stones here and there and the heather outline
0:11:43 > 0:11:46of what may well have been a building.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52But all these little townships were elevated from
0:11:52 > 0:11:55the strath of the River Spey and I have a theory
0:11:55 > 0:11:59that people lived up here rather than down in the depths of the valley because,
0:11:59 > 0:12:03well, cold sinks and these houses wouldn't have been very well insulated.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07So it's probably actually warmer living up here and it's quite interesting that,
0:12:07 > 0:12:13Newtonmore, for example, the new town on the moor, didn't really come into existence
0:12:13 > 0:12:16until the end of the 19th century when the railway came through here.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38The Scottish National Trail follows byways
0:12:38 > 0:12:44as opposed to highways, the quieter, less frequented routes through the Highlands,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47and this is a good example this morning. I could have walked
0:12:47 > 0:12:51between Newtonmore and Laggan along the road but instead I've chosen this much older,
0:12:51 > 0:12:59much more traditional route through Glen Banachor through to Dalvalloch down to Cluny and then on to Laggan.
0:12:59 > 0:13:05And on a morning like this, it's truly sensational with the big hills of the Monadhliath on one side,
0:13:05 > 0:13:09the birch clad slopes of the Creag Dubh on the other side.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12Creag Dubh the battle cry of the Clan Macpherson.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15Creag Dubh! Just fantastic.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39I'm having to travel quite a long way west before I continue my journey
0:13:39 > 0:13:43north because of the Monadhliath Mountains,
0:13:43 > 0:13:48stretching from Spean Bridge right across the country to the other side of the A9 at the Slochd.
0:13:48 > 0:13:54They create a formidable barrier to any sort of northern progress.
0:13:54 > 0:13:59The only real point of weakness is the old General Wade Military Road across the Corrieyairack Pass.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17I've had the most beautiful walk this morning from the village of Laggan
0:14:17 > 0:14:21and I'm just about to meet up with one of my oldest pals
0:14:21 > 0:14:25who also happens to be Britain's most prolific lightweight backpacker.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29I'm proud of the new Scottish National Trail,
0:14:29 > 0:14:34but it's just a walk in the park compared to distances tackled by Chris Townsend.
0:14:34 > 0:14:38He leaves his home outside Grantham for months at a time.
0:14:38 > 0:14:45His longest walk along the watershed of America from Canada to Mexico was a staggering 3,000 miles,
0:14:45 > 0:14:49and it took him five and a half months to complete it.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52Why, you might think, would anyone want to do something like that?
0:14:52 > 0:14:54People often talk about it being escapism
0:14:54 > 0:14:58to go out into the hills, I think it's the opposite.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01We've created an artificial world to live in which can be
0:15:01 > 0:15:05very comfortable, but it cuts you off from reality.
0:15:06 > 0:15:08You set up your tent in the evening,
0:15:08 > 0:15:11you can lie in the tent looking at the views
0:15:11 > 0:15:14and you wake up in the morning and you're still there,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17in this wonderful place, just ready to walk through
0:15:17 > 0:15:18the hills on another day.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21I noticed, probably in an effort to save weight,
0:15:21 > 0:15:24you're using what looks to me like a tarp rather than a full tent.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27It's not actually a tarp, it's between a tarp and a tent,
0:15:27 > 0:15:31if you like, because as you can see, it's not a flat sheet,
0:15:31 > 0:15:37it's shaped, and this shape and the tension on these panels
0:15:37 > 0:15:40actually makes it very stable, very wind resistant
0:15:40 > 0:15:44and because it pitches with trekking poles, you can adjust the pitch.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48At the moment I've got a high pitch, lots of ventilation,
0:15:48 > 0:15:50you've got a good view out the big door.
0:15:50 > 0:15:52You've certainly got lots of ventilation!
0:15:52 > 0:15:56But if there's a big storm, you can lower the poles
0:15:56 > 0:15:58and peg it down to the ground.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01But the question, particularly with relevance to Scotland is,
0:16:01 > 0:16:02does it have a midgey net?
0:16:02 > 0:16:05There's an optional mesh inner which I do have
0:16:05 > 0:16:07and I use over the summer, yes.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17Cos most people would regard this walk that I'm doing 470 miles -
0:16:17 > 0:16:20as a long-distance walk, but I guess that's just a sprint to you.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24Yeah, I'd call it a moderately long walk.
0:16:24 > 0:16:26But it's not really a long walk, no.
0:16:26 > 0:16:28I tend to think of a really long-distance walk
0:16:28 > 0:16:32as starting at around 1,000 miles and then going upwards.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40The big difference is the time, it's not the distance,
0:16:40 > 0:16:42which is what people tend to think it is.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46The distance in a sense doesn't really matter, it's how long you're
0:16:46 > 0:16:50out there because the difference is it becomes a way of life.
0:16:50 > 0:16:55If you're out for a week or two it's a break from what you normally do.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59But when you're out for four, five, six months, that is what you do.
0:16:59 > 0:17:04And when you're spending that sort of time in wild places, does that
0:17:04 > 0:17:08change your relationship with the landscapes you're walking through?
0:17:08 > 0:17:12Yes, I think it deepens it, because you're there all the time,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15especially with the camping, when you're sleeping in it as well,
0:17:15 > 0:17:17so it's there when you go to sleep, it's there when you wake up.
0:17:17 > 0:17:21But also with a really long walk, you're moving through
0:17:21 > 0:17:26the landscape and experiencing how it changes and develops
0:17:26 > 0:17:29and how different landscapes run into each other,
0:17:29 > 0:17:36so you get this overall picture of a whole mountain range or a whole
0:17:36 > 0:17:41country and that's something that I get very much from a very long walk.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44What's the sort of time scale between you thinking,
0:17:44 > 0:17:46"I'm a visitor to this landscape"
0:17:46 > 0:17:49and, "I'm actually now part of this landscape"?
0:17:49 > 0:17:52It varies a bit but usually takes me
0:17:52 > 0:17:57ten days to two weeks before I feel this is what I do,
0:17:57 > 0:18:00I'm now inside the walk, so to speak,
0:18:00 > 0:18:03and the outside world has gone away.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06So obviously that's about the time that a lot of people spend
0:18:06 > 0:18:08on a walk and then they stop.
0:18:15 > 0:18:19For someone like yourself who is passionate about wildness,
0:18:19 > 0:18:22what are the special characteristics of Scotland?
0:18:22 > 0:18:27It's got a Northern feel, you get the same feel in Scandinavia,
0:18:27 > 0:18:33especially about the light, it's the long dawns and the long dusks.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37You go south, somewhere like deserts in South West USA
0:18:37 > 0:18:40and you don't get that at all. The light there is wonderful,
0:18:40 > 0:18:42but it's totally different.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45And it's the spaces, the wide openness you get,
0:18:45 > 0:18:48particularly in areas like the Cairngorms.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52But there's also the huge variety, the variety is incredible.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56We're nearing the top of the Corrieyairack Pass.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00A classic example of the kind of landscape that inspires Chris.
0:19:00 > 0:19:06Rising to 2,526 feet, it's the height of many of Scotland's mountains
0:19:06 > 0:19:09and less than 500 feet lower than a Munro.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12Dropping down the other side to the Great Glen
0:19:12 > 0:19:14reveals a very different landscape.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32I've left a very sleepy Fort Augustus behind me
0:19:32 > 0:19:37and I'm on the Caledonian Canal now, heading west towards Glengarry.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42Earlier on the walk, I followed the Union Canal
0:19:42 > 0:19:45and the Forth and Clyde Canal between Edinburgh and Glasgow
0:19:45 > 0:19:47and I remember thinking at the time
0:19:47 > 0:19:50that these canals were national treasures, they're beautiful.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53And this canal is very similar - it's peaceful, it's quiet,
0:19:53 > 0:19:57it's a lovely landscape, and on a morning like this when it's still
0:19:57 > 0:20:00and there's a nice, flat canal towpath to follow,
0:20:00 > 0:20:04I can't help but contrast it with the starkness and the wildness
0:20:04 > 0:20:05of the Corrieyairack Pass.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08Really, that's the story of the Scottish National Trail
0:20:08 > 0:20:11it's about diversity, it's about contrasts
0:20:11 > 0:20:15and that's what is going to make this trail stand out from any other.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28The Caledonian Canal was built 189 years ago
0:20:28 > 0:20:31by that master engineer, Thomas Telford.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34And it links Fort William and Inverness
0:20:34 > 0:20:40through a series of four natural lochs and 22 man-made locks.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43It was seen as the work creation scheme of the time,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46because many Highlanders were on the point of starvation
0:20:46 > 0:20:48because of successive potato blights
0:20:48 > 0:20:52and it was felt that this project could offer them some work.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57But that had a downside - every so often,
0:20:57 > 0:21:00the majority of the workforce would simply vanish,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03usually at harvest time, because they felt it was more important
0:21:03 > 0:21:05to bring in the kale and turnip for the year
0:21:05 > 0:21:08than building a canal right across Scotland.
0:21:23 > 0:21:28What could be nicer than meandering along the shores of a Highland loch?
0:21:28 > 0:21:31This is Loch Oich and I've been following the track bed
0:21:31 > 0:21:34of a former railway that used to go as far as Fort William,
0:21:34 > 0:21:36and I'm making the most of it this morning, I'm enjoying
0:21:36 > 0:21:40the relaxed feel to the walk, because once I get past Glengarry,
0:21:40 > 0:21:44the character of this route is going to change quite dramatically.
0:21:45 > 0:21:49The last 100 miles or so of the Scottish National Trail
0:21:49 > 0:21:52heads through the wild and beautiful landscapes of Glengarry
0:21:52 > 0:21:55and Glenaffric to Achnashellach.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59Then it's onwards past the iconic mountains of Beinn Eighe and
0:21:59 > 0:22:04An Teallach to one of my favourite parts of Scotland - Sutherland.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07The final stretch is along the coast north to Cape Wrath.
0:22:20 > 0:22:21I've been walking through
0:22:21 > 0:22:23the Glengarry Forest for a couple of hours
0:22:23 > 0:22:26and it's been really, really strange.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30This thick mist has enveloped the whole area
0:22:30 > 0:22:34and it's got really, really still and silent.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40Everywhere there are these sort of moisture webs on the ground
0:22:40 > 0:22:44and hanging from the trees like little fragments of lace.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48I half expect them to keep falling in my beard!
0:22:50 > 0:22:55It makes me feel as if I could be almost anywhere in the world,
0:22:55 > 0:22:56it's beautiful.
0:23:13 > 0:23:15Sometimes it pays to be an optimist
0:23:15 > 0:23:17when it comes to the Scottish mountain weather,
0:23:17 > 0:23:21and I've had this funny feeling that we are going to come above the mist
0:23:21 > 0:23:24and that's exactly what's happened. We've got this temperature inversion
0:23:24 > 0:23:28when the cold air sinks down into the glen.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31It's the sort of condition that every hillwalker dreams of, when
0:23:31 > 0:23:35the mountains appear like islands on this great ocean of white cloud.
0:23:39 > 0:23:44And this only happens maybe once a year or twice a year if you're lucky
0:23:44 > 0:23:48and because it doesn't happen very often, it becomes really memorable.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04I've been following a route that's traditionally been known
0:24:04 > 0:24:06as the Road to the Isles,
0:24:06 > 0:24:09and it eventually goes all the way to the Isle of Skye.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12But it's also an old drovers' road and it's just at this point here
0:24:12 > 0:24:17that the droving road leaves the modern hillwalkers' path.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20Originally the drovers would have taken their beasts
0:24:20 > 0:24:23across the brow of the hill there, down into the glen where
0:24:23 > 0:24:25they'd go across a couple of rivers
0:24:25 > 0:24:27and then make their way up to Cluanie.
0:24:28 > 0:24:33But in 1957, the rivers were flooded for hydroelectric purposes
0:24:33 > 0:24:37and the drovers' road - a couple of bridges and some small islands -
0:24:37 > 0:24:41were all submerged under the waters of the new reservoirs.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44Today the hillwalking route takes a slightly higher route,
0:24:44 > 0:24:49goes through the Mam na Seilg and then drops down into Glen Loyne,
0:24:49 > 0:24:52just a little bit west of the Loch Loyne Reservoir.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11This is the high pass of the Mam na Seilg, which is a natural
0:25:11 > 0:25:14divide between the fairly gentle slopes of the East Glenquoich
0:25:14 > 0:25:20Deer Forest and these rugged landscapes of Cluanie and Affric.
0:25:20 > 0:25:22The big hill ahead of me is Creag a'Mhaim,
0:25:22 > 0:25:24and that's the most southerly Munro
0:25:24 > 0:25:27on the Munro-rich South Glen Shiel Ridge.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29And beyond that lies A'Chralaig,
0:25:29 > 0:25:31whose slopes drop down into Glenaffric,
0:25:31 > 0:25:33and that's where I'm going.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44This is one of the most spectacular corners of Scotland,
0:25:44 > 0:25:47dominated by the mountains of Kintail.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50My route takes me down Glen Licht and I'm joined by someone who
0:25:50 > 0:25:54has spent a lifetime arguing for access to these unspoilt areas.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59Marion Shoard's campaigning works, The Theft Of The Countryside
0:25:59 > 0:26:02and This Land Is Our Land, reminded me
0:26:02 > 0:26:06that our access legislation was the result of a long, long fight.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11This particular area was leased by an Anglo-American
0:26:11 > 0:26:16who had got a lot of money, called WL Winans, Walter Louis Winans,
0:26:16 > 0:26:19and he had a fortune and he paid, I think,
0:26:19 > 0:26:24it was about £20,000 a year to rent vast acres and he employed
0:26:24 > 0:26:28an army of 35 ghillies to keep people out, so people who wanted to
0:26:28 > 0:26:33walk freely and enjoy this landscape as we can today, couldn't.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37Was he trying to create a sort of private fiefdom for himself?
0:26:37 > 0:26:41I think so, I think he was quite an odd sort of man.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44He was very obsessed with actually shooting the deer,
0:26:44 > 0:26:47and his particular way of shooting them was that he would get
0:26:47 > 0:26:52the ghillies to drive deer into the line of guns and then
0:26:52 > 0:26:55shoot them in the way that pheasants and grouse are still shot today.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58Sounds to me like wholesale slaughter.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01Yeah, it does a bit. It doesn't sound very appealing, does it?
0:27:01 > 0:27:05But he was very keen on keeping ordinary people out
0:27:05 > 0:27:08and he even went to the extent of seeking an interdict against
0:27:08 > 0:27:13a crofter's pet lamb which he said was trespassing on this land.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15What sort of time period was this?
0:27:15 > 0:27:18Well, this would have been the 1870s, early 1880s and of course
0:27:18 > 0:27:23it was at that time that you saw the first attempts to have
0:27:23 > 0:27:27legislation to give people a right to walk in these hills in Scotland.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33James Bryce MP had come from Scotland, was an MP actually
0:27:33 > 0:27:38for a part of London, had got very exercised by the problems down there
0:27:38 > 0:27:41and he came back here and he saw the same kind of thing was happening.
0:27:41 > 0:27:46He tabled an Access to Mountains Bill in 1884
0:27:46 > 0:27:49and he cited the Winans case, for instance,
0:27:49 > 0:27:52so this is a really important area in terms of the history of access.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57Do you see that sort of access as a human right?
0:27:58 > 0:28:03Yes, but I see it as a bit more than a right to be present
0:28:03 > 0:28:06in places like this, important as that is, because I do think
0:28:06 > 0:28:13as citizens we should have a right of free movement around our country.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16I live in England and feel that about the whole of
0:28:16 > 0:28:19the United Kingdom, and so the sort of right
0:28:19 > 0:28:23of access that you have in Scotland
0:28:23 > 0:28:26now seems to me the sort of thing that we should have elsewhere.
0:28:32 > 0:28:34- That's vivid, isn't it? - Yeah, fantastic.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39It's carving the mountain. It's quite a spectacular corner.
0:28:39 > 0:28:40It is amazing.
0:28:42 > 0:28:45There's something about a mountain, a lake,
0:28:45 > 0:28:50the environment generally, that somehow shouldn't be owned.
0:28:50 > 0:28:54It should be free - the land, the air, the water.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57- It's like saying, I own a chunk of the sky.- That's right. You can't.
0:28:57 > 0:28:58- Or I own that cloud.- Yeah.
0:28:58 > 0:29:01You can own a television set, you can own
0:29:01 > 0:29:04an item of furniture, but you can't really own this.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16You'll get more of a wilderness experience here than you would, say,
0:29:16 > 0:29:22if this were south of the border in England or Wales because you're
0:29:22 > 0:29:27in no sense here on sufferance, you're not shackled in any way
0:29:27 > 0:29:29by somebody who owns the land
0:29:29 > 0:29:32saying, "I've got a right to exclude you."
0:29:33 > 0:29:36Have you ever thought, Marion, just how you'd react
0:29:36 > 0:29:40if someone said to you, "You're not to come to a place like this"?
0:29:40 > 0:29:46I just couldn't live if I couldn't touch nature, there's no way.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50And if I were really ill, I would want to be out here.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53If I got dementia, for instance, I have said to my daughter,
0:29:53 > 0:29:57"Just buy me a ticket for the Settle-Carlisle Railway Line
0:29:57 > 0:29:59"and sit me on there and I'll go up and down
0:29:59 > 0:30:01"and I won't remember what it was like last time,
0:30:01 > 0:30:06"so I'll have all this wonderful scenery to see all the time."
0:30:06 > 0:30:11But, no, I can't imagine not being able to be close to nature.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36On the way from the Scottish Borders, I passed through
0:30:36 > 0:30:39a huge variety of landscapes and some of them
0:30:39 > 0:30:44have been truly wild and I felt truly wild and at times
0:30:44 > 0:30:48I felt quite isolated but in reality I've never been more than
0:30:48 > 0:30:52a few miles from a road or a few hours from a centre of population.
0:30:52 > 0:30:53But that's all about to change.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56I've come down from Kintail into lovely Glen Elchaig in
0:30:56 > 0:31:00the Inverinate Forest and I've come into a tract of land which is
0:31:00 > 0:31:03truly wild, truly remote and isolated.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09If you can imagine starting a walk from Dornie on
0:31:09 > 0:31:12the Kyle of Lochalsh road on the West Coast of Scotland,
0:31:12 > 0:31:17and traversing Scotland right across to Beauly on the East Coast,
0:31:17 > 0:31:19you wouldn't cross a single road on that journey.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23And that's the tract of land that I'm about to traverse
0:31:23 > 0:31:24for the next couple of days.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29It's a tract of land where you have to be truly self-sufficient,
0:31:29 > 0:31:34truly self-reliant, it is wild, it is remote and it's probably
0:31:34 > 0:31:38as close as we've got in Scotland to genuine wilderness backpacking.
0:31:38 > 0:31:40I'm kinda looking forward to it.
0:31:50 > 0:31:52I recently read the recollections of a man
0:31:52 > 0:31:56who put his family into this area in the 1950s to work as a shepherd.
0:31:56 > 0:32:00And he paints a very evocative picture of community life.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04When he and other shepherds in the area would spend time herding
0:32:04 > 0:32:08the sheep together or driving the cattle over high passes,
0:32:08 > 0:32:12cutting the peat or fishing in the loch,
0:32:12 > 0:32:15and he makes it sound very, very attractive.
0:32:15 > 0:32:17But he eventually had to move away
0:32:17 > 0:32:19when the house he was living in was submerged under
0:32:19 > 0:32:24the waters of Loch Monar, which was enlarged for hydroelectric purposes.
0:32:24 > 0:32:29It just shows that community life in an area like this can be very brief,
0:32:29 > 0:32:32things change very, very quickly in the great scale of things.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52Well, I've reached the high point of today, this high pass.
0:32:52 > 0:32:57One of the attractions of a long walk like this is going over
0:32:57 > 0:33:00these high passes, these bealachs, or divides if you like,
0:33:00 > 0:33:03the divides between one form of landscape and another.
0:33:03 > 0:33:05It's always a nice surprise, wondering what
0:33:05 > 0:33:08sort of landscape we are going to be dropping into.
0:33:20 > 0:33:24I have this feeling that I'm walking down into what is a great vacuum.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30It's like a great bowl that collects the waters
0:33:30 > 0:33:33of a thousand hill streams and gathers them
0:33:33 > 0:33:37all into what will eventually become the River Ling, which flows down
0:33:37 > 0:33:38to Loch Long and the sea.
0:33:38 > 0:33:42But I can't shake this feeling that I'm walking down into this vacuum
0:33:42 > 0:33:44and it's just going to gobble me up.
0:33:55 > 0:33:57From the remote hills,
0:33:57 > 0:33:59the trail enters another wild landscape,
0:33:59 > 0:34:01the Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve.
0:34:01 > 0:34:06Founded in 1951, it's the very first such area in Britain.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10'One name is intricately linked to this part of Scotland,
0:34:10 > 0:34:12'is that of Dick Balharry.
0:34:12 > 0:34:15'Dick spent his lifetime as a conservationist
0:34:15 > 0:34:18'and his work as warden of Beinn Eighe in the 1960s
0:34:18 > 0:34:20'was ground breaking.'
0:34:20 > 0:34:24The reserve at that time was seen as an outdoor laboratory for scientists
0:34:24 > 0:34:29to come and look at this whole 10,000 acres and at that time there
0:34:29 > 0:34:31were something like, oh, perhaps
0:34:31 > 0:34:3620 bylaws that were imposed on this land
0:34:36 > 0:34:40that were an impediment to people going out there and enjoying it.
0:34:40 > 0:34:47And I so much wanted to change that so took down all of those signs
0:34:47 > 0:34:51so that people can then begin to enjoy it because, for me, until
0:34:51 > 0:34:54such times as people really knew what this was all about,
0:34:54 > 0:34:57we would not get the political climate at street level
0:34:57 > 0:35:00to do the things we are doing today.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03I can remember the first time I visited Torridon myself,
0:35:03 > 0:35:07it just overwhelmed me, I almost lost the power of speech,
0:35:07 > 0:35:08I'd never seen anything like it.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11What was it like when you first visited Torridon?
0:35:11 > 0:35:17My first visit to Torridon was on a bicycle when I was 13 years old
0:35:17 > 0:35:19and I biked all the way from Dundee
0:35:19 > 0:35:22and I was just completely bowled over by it.
0:35:22 > 0:35:26Because I'd never seen mountains like that before.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30That was the time when I thought, "This is going to be my life,"
0:35:30 > 0:35:35as it were and that was embedded in me from that time on.
0:35:38 > 0:35:43Every time I come here, you know you're going to learn something new.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47Under every stone. What's the beetle that just crossed
0:35:47 > 0:35:50the road in front of you? What's that butterfly? What's that moth?
0:35:50 > 0:35:53It just goes on and on and that's the wonder of the natural world
0:35:53 > 0:35:57because regardless of how long you've been doing this or where
0:35:57 > 0:36:01you've been doing it, there is so, so much more that we can learn
0:36:01 > 0:36:03in the short time that we are on this earth.
0:36:11 > 0:36:16Cameron, we've got to look at this. Very, very beautiful lichens.
0:36:16 > 0:36:19Oh, look at that! All this colouration, that's lichen?
0:36:19 > 0:36:23Every one of them - the brown, that bluey, the grey,
0:36:23 > 0:36:26there's a different one there, and the yellow and to think that we
0:36:26 > 0:36:30can learn so much from aging those, going right back to the Ice Age.
0:36:30 > 0:36:34- Really?- And you know we had about a half a mile of ice above us here.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36Living like a gem, just is beautiful.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39That's one of the things about Torridon, they're the oldest rocks
0:36:39 > 0:36:42in the world. Can you guess an age of that bit of rock?
0:36:42 > 0:36:45Simply say millions because once you start stating the years...
0:36:45 > 0:36:46That's right.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49When we were attached to the American coastline
0:36:49 > 0:36:52and we split off then it would cool down
0:36:52 > 0:36:55and that's when all this would have originated.
0:36:59 > 0:37:01Isn't this absolutely superb?
0:37:05 > 0:37:07I remember, Cameron, coming in here in 1963
0:37:07 > 0:37:09and I came in this direction,
0:37:09 > 0:37:14I'd seen it on a map before and I was hunting all this area looking
0:37:14 > 0:37:18for, particularly golden eagles, but when I came over here and saw these
0:37:18 > 0:37:20mountains and the big tor up here.
0:37:21 > 0:37:24Always seen this one as the sleeping giant
0:37:24 > 0:37:26cos when you see it coming from Kyle of Lochalsh you see this
0:37:26 > 0:37:29sort of profile of the sleeping giant.
0:37:29 > 0:37:31It's just absolutely magnificent.
0:37:31 > 0:37:32And, of course, we did see eagles
0:37:32 > 0:37:35and they were doing quite well at that time here, too.
0:37:37 > 0:37:39'From the high pass of Corrie Lair it's downhill
0:37:39 > 0:37:43'now into the heart of the Beinn Eighe Nature Reserve.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46'We've made a short detour to look at some of the natural woodland
0:37:46 > 0:37:50'regeneration which is central to Dick's philosophy.'
0:37:50 > 0:37:54There are two ways we can get this sort of regeneration.
0:37:54 > 0:37:56One is by reduction of grazing pressure
0:37:56 > 0:37:57or we can string a fence round.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01And this tree has had a really tough life in the heather.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04But then the fence was put in and gradually the tree has grown
0:38:04 > 0:38:06and not been browsed.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09In scientific terms, how important is it for us to have more trees?
0:38:09 > 0:38:13This is a remnant that is a one-off there is a few others
0:38:13 > 0:38:16but they're small, they're not big enough in order to give
0:38:16 > 0:38:19the ecological value that we really know.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22The concept of this is in fact to link up
0:38:22 > 0:38:26the pinewoods across the Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve and round
0:38:26 > 0:38:31the corner in Loch Maree to give connectiveness so that the species
0:38:31 > 0:38:34that live and enhance this wood also grow all the way around there.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38Looking across Glen Torridon here at Beinn Eighe itself,
0:38:38 > 0:38:40what are your memories of that particular mountain, Dick?
0:38:40 > 0:38:42Oh, just... The second day I was in charge of
0:38:42 > 0:38:44Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve,
0:38:44 > 0:38:49I went up there and I never felt such humility, going along the
0:38:49 > 0:38:52ridge there, this beautiful ridge and looking down,
0:38:52 > 0:38:54looking at it all and think,
0:38:54 > 0:38:56"Hey, Dick, you've got something to do with this place now
0:38:56 > 0:38:58"and you're responsible."
0:39:08 > 0:39:11'I'm now in that remote country between Loch Maree
0:39:11 > 0:39:16'and Little Loch Broom the eastern edge of the Letterewe wilderness.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20'Dominating the horizon is my favourite mountain - An Teallach.'
0:39:23 > 0:39:26I'm hoping to catch up with a couple of friends close to here and
0:39:26 > 0:39:28they've given me directions to where they'll be. They said,
0:39:28 > 0:39:31"Follow the track and turn down the hill at the big marker stone."
0:39:31 > 0:39:35I think this is it. "Downhill and across the river," they said.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42'One half of this partnership is well known
0:39:42 > 0:39:45'but the other is equally vital for its success.'
0:39:46 > 0:39:50Well, it's Hugh Prior and Son! Colin, how are you?
0:39:50 > 0:39:53- Mr McNeish, lovely to see you.- Good to see you. How are you?- Very well.
0:39:53 > 0:39:55Good. Tell me,
0:39:55 > 0:39:59we are in this huge landscape one of the best landscapes of Scotland, wide
0:39:59 > 0:40:02open views and you're tucked away in a wee hollow here.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05- What are you doing?- Well, Cameron, I came across this tree.
0:40:05 > 0:40:07It's like a national treasure.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10Have a look at it, it's an old alder tree
0:40:10 > 0:40:14that's obviously been struck by lightning or a storm,
0:40:14 > 0:40:17and there's this rowan that's taken root in the crown of the tree.
0:40:17 > 0:40:22Colin Prior is one of the world's leading landscape photographers.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25His panoramic images feature fleeting moments of light
0:40:25 > 0:40:28that few have managed to capture.
0:40:28 > 0:40:32They're the result of meticulous planning and preparation
0:40:32 > 0:40:36and long days and nights in the hills in every conceivable sort of weather.
0:40:36 > 0:40:40Now his photography is taking a new direction.
0:40:40 > 0:40:44I've spent most of my life photographing these big panoramas,
0:40:44 > 0:40:47and often it's taken me one, two or three years
0:40:47 > 0:40:51to get the right conditions to get that specific shot.
0:40:51 > 0:40:56But once I've done that, that rat that lives inside your stomach
0:40:56 > 0:40:57and gnaws away at it from inside
0:40:57 > 0:41:02'and forces you up the mountain at these unsociable hours,
0:41:02 > 0:41:04'it quietens off a bit.'
0:41:04 > 0:41:07So what you're saying is you're just getting too old to climb to the top?
0:41:07 > 0:41:10Exactly, exactly. This is a softer option.
0:41:10 > 0:41:14But I am fascinated by the relationships
0:41:14 > 0:41:17between the elements of the natural world,
0:41:17 > 0:41:20and that's really what I'm trying to capture here.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28Well, you showed me your tree, which I think is very special.
0:41:28 > 0:41:31I want to show you something that's very special to me,
0:41:31 > 0:41:33so I think we'd better move on now.
0:41:38 > 0:41:39It strikes me what we have here
0:41:39 > 0:41:43is something that's quite a unique relationship in photography -
0:41:43 > 0:41:46a father-son team taking photographs.
0:41:46 > 0:41:48And Hugh, you... Seems to me, you do the hard work.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51You carry all the gear. What's some of the highlights
0:41:51 > 0:41:53that you remember taking photographs together?
0:41:53 > 0:41:55I do recall, on the Horns of Aragon,
0:41:55 > 0:42:00we sat for three hours at minus 16, waiting on the sun setting.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03And I was shouting, "Take it now, take it now!",
0:42:03 > 0:42:06and he was saying, "No, there's no light on the peak."
0:42:06 > 0:42:09"Take it now, take it now!" "There's no light in the foreground..."
0:42:09 > 0:42:10Until we got it right.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13And within half an hour of that, it was pitch black,
0:42:13 > 0:42:18we had head torches on, we had crampons on, and we had to descend.
0:42:19 > 0:42:25We had dropped a pack of film, which slid down the path.
0:42:25 > 0:42:29- We found it on the way down in the headlight torch, unharmed.- Lucky.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33But there was another instance when we went on to Beinn Anicka.
0:42:33 > 0:42:38We had two tripods, we had a camera called a Seitz Roundshot,
0:42:38 > 0:42:43plus my usual panoramic gear, plus the camping equipment,
0:42:43 > 0:42:45and we got to the top, set up our tent,
0:42:45 > 0:42:50set up the cameras and waited for the light to drop,
0:42:50 > 0:42:52and just at the end of the day,
0:42:52 > 0:42:54I pulled out a bottle of whisky from the rucksack,
0:42:54 > 0:42:58and my father said to me, "You didn't carry that up here?"
0:42:58 > 0:43:01And I said, "No, you did!"
0:43:01 > 0:43:02THEY LAUGH
0:43:13 > 0:43:15There you go, lads, that's what I wanted to show you.
0:43:15 > 0:43:16As far as I'm concerned,
0:43:16 > 0:43:19this is the finest view in the Scottish National Trail.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22I just think it's an unusual aspect
0:43:22 > 0:43:23of what is certainly my favourite mountain.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26- What do you think of it? - Oh, it's just breathtaking.
0:43:26 > 0:43:31It's these profiles which the west coast here are so renowned for.
0:43:31 > 0:43:33It adds drama.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36I'm going to shoot with this panoramic camera,
0:43:36 > 0:43:40which was one of the first panoramic cameras that I bought,
0:43:40 > 0:43:42and it's still using roll film.
0:43:42 > 0:43:43It gets four shots.
0:43:43 > 0:43:44Four shots to one film?
0:43:44 > 0:43:48Yeah, one film. It's a bit like driving a Bentley, I'm told.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51But the reason I continue to use this camera
0:43:51 > 0:43:55is because of the aesthetic that it creates,
0:43:55 > 0:43:58it can't quite be replicated in a digital environment.
0:43:58 > 0:44:02Yes, you can use stitching to create panoramas,
0:44:02 > 0:44:06but for me, photography is about capturing that single moment.
0:44:06 > 0:44:07Take me through the process
0:44:07 > 0:44:11of taking one of your prize-winning photographs.
0:44:11 > 0:44:14Well, the whole key is about composition,
0:44:14 > 0:44:19and it's about trying to get the graphics of the image to work.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22The big mistake that many photographers make
0:44:22 > 0:44:25is they try and get it all in.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29But the converse is true, you need to be thinking,
0:44:29 > 0:44:34"What can I take away from this viewpoint to make it stronger?"
0:44:34 > 0:44:37So what I'm going to try and do here
0:44:37 > 0:44:41is make sure that I've got no extraneous trees
0:44:41 > 0:44:44or bits of foliage coming into the shot,
0:44:44 > 0:44:48and there's just a lovely, simple shape up there,
0:44:48 > 0:44:50which is going to give me an image that's really powerful.
0:44:52 > 0:44:53SHUTTER CLICKS
0:44:56 > 0:44:57There we go, point scored.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00HE LAUGHS I wish I could just shoot so easily.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02LAUGHTER
0:45:04 > 0:45:06I'm happy to admit it, my snaps -
0:45:06 > 0:45:09point and squirt - just aren't in the same league as Colin's.
0:45:18 > 0:45:20'I'm wandering up Glen Oykel.
0:45:20 > 0:45:22'In Viking times, this was the boundary
0:45:22 > 0:45:25'between the Pictish lands of Cat -
0:45:25 > 0:45:27'what we now know as Sutherland and Caithness -
0:45:27 > 0:45:30'and the old province of Ross.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33'There's a real sense of northness here.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37'Indeed, there's less than 60 miles to my destination at Cape Wrath.'
0:45:37 > 0:45:40It's starting to feel like the final leg
0:45:40 > 0:45:41of my long walk through Scotland.
0:45:43 > 0:45:45I'd like to think there'll be a lot of people
0:45:45 > 0:45:50who will want to walk the 470 miles of the Scottish National Trail
0:45:50 > 0:45:54in one long, adventurous journey, but you don't have to.
0:45:54 > 0:45:58You can break it down into bite-size chunks, into bite-size sections,
0:45:58 > 0:46:01'and the logical sections are from the Borders to Edinburgh,
0:46:01 > 0:46:04'from Edinburgh to Glasgow, from Glasgow to Kingussie,
0:46:04 > 0:46:07'and from Kingussie, north to Cape Wrath.'
0:46:07 > 0:46:11And even within those sections, you can break it down into subsections,
0:46:11 > 0:46:15if you like, into the sort of bite size that you particularly want.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18And I quite like the notion
0:46:18 > 0:46:23of thinking of the Scottish National Trail as an artery or a river,
0:46:23 > 0:46:26an artery with blood veins going off to either side,
0:46:26 > 0:46:29where you can just leave the trail for a day or so,
0:46:29 > 0:46:31and climb a couple of Monros or calduits,
0:46:31 > 0:46:33or leave the tributaries of that river,
0:46:33 > 0:46:35and let them take you up into the little hollows
0:46:35 > 0:46:39that are unexplored around the linear route of the trail.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47No matter how you choose to walk the Scottish National Trail,
0:46:47 > 0:46:50I can always guarantee it will be a tremendous experience.
0:46:50 > 0:46:55But if you do decide to walk it in the one, all 470 miles,
0:46:55 > 0:46:57you'll find that the accumulation,
0:46:57 > 0:47:02the total sum of all the experiences that you've enjoyed on the way
0:47:02 > 0:47:05'will become something very, very special.'
0:47:22 > 0:47:24There's something lovely
0:47:24 > 0:47:26about following a river right to its source.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29And I'm following the River Oykel up to its headwaters,
0:47:29 > 0:47:31its lonely Sutherland Corrie,
0:47:31 > 0:47:34and it's great to be back in Sutherland again.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37It's a county I think has its own ambience, its own atmosphere,
0:47:37 > 0:47:40its own character. It's just good to be back here.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54The great natural showpiece of Sutherland
0:47:54 > 0:47:56is indisputably Sandwood Bay,
0:47:56 > 0:48:00and that's where I'm heading on this kind of grey and wet morning.
0:48:00 > 0:48:02I'm in the company of Cathel Morrison,
0:48:02 > 0:48:04who's the conservation officer for the John Muir Trust.
0:48:04 > 0:48:08But more importantly, Cathel was actually born and bred here.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12Now, Cathel, Sandwood Bay to me has always been a very special place,
0:48:12 > 0:48:15but I just can't put my finger on why.
0:48:15 > 0:48:16It's that sort of indefinable thing,
0:48:16 > 0:48:20what makes it so special. Is it a special place for you as well?
0:48:20 > 0:48:21Oh, indeed, yes.
0:48:21 > 0:48:23It's always had a touch of magic,
0:48:23 > 0:48:27and each time I go there it's never really the same.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31It's always changing and always different, but...
0:48:32 > 0:48:35Always that feeling of continuity, too,
0:48:35 > 0:48:38that people have lived there in the past,
0:48:38 > 0:48:40and you can't put your finger on it.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42I'm delighted to hear you say that as a local man,
0:48:42 > 0:48:45because I've sometimes felt, I've maybe been a wee bit fanciful,
0:48:45 > 0:48:49but there's that undefinable thing that I just can't put my finger on.
0:48:49 > 0:48:50Without a doubt.
0:48:50 > 0:48:52Even the old shepherds spoke of this,
0:48:52 > 0:48:55'this feeling they had as they walked through Sandwood Bay,
0:48:55 > 0:48:58'and it lifted when they came up onto the track.'
0:49:08 > 0:49:11Well, I think the weather gods have been kind to us.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13After what looked like a horrible morning.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16I've noticed, Cathel, there's something about this beach -
0:49:16 > 0:49:20when the moorlands are looking quite sombre and grey,
0:49:20 > 0:49:21there's a light here,
0:49:21 > 0:49:24it always looks as if there's a big sunbeam on it.
0:49:24 > 0:49:28Indeed. I think it's the really nice light-coloured sand
0:49:28 > 0:49:31that reflects any light that's available,
0:49:31 > 0:49:37but also maybe it's another little magic bit Sandwood possesses.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40You look at an area like this, and you think,
0:49:40 > 0:49:44"This is so unchanging, it's here, it's static,"
0:49:44 > 0:49:48'but I suppose an environment like this is constantly evolving.'
0:49:48 > 0:49:51That's right. It's quite deceiving.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55Thousands of tonnes of sand move almost on a daily basis
0:49:55 > 0:49:58when the weather is quite severe. It can...
0:49:58 > 0:50:01One time, the river came running halfway across the beach here
0:50:01 > 0:50:03into the sea, and come down a week later,
0:50:03 > 0:50:06and it might be going down at the far end.
0:50:06 > 0:50:08And the sand dunes, of course, are always changing.
0:50:08 > 0:50:12Of course, and that's what basically keeps it all together.
0:50:12 > 0:50:18If we didn't have the marram grass which stabilises the sand dunes,
0:50:18 > 0:50:20who knows what kind of beach it would be?
0:50:23 > 0:50:28What we have had is odd, extreme storms like thunderstorms,
0:50:28 > 0:50:31which we'll see at the far end of the beach.
0:50:31 > 0:50:35We've had some major washouts and also severe gales
0:50:35 > 0:50:40where you can get the leading edge of the marram grass
0:50:40 > 0:50:43being completely washed away.
0:50:46 > 0:50:50For somebody who has never been here before,
0:50:50 > 0:50:52how would you describe Sandwood Bay to them?
0:50:55 > 0:50:59I remember having three postcards in my kitchen, up on the wall,
0:50:59 > 0:51:02and one was of Table Mountain,
0:51:02 > 0:51:06the other was one of part of the Great Barrier Reef,
0:51:06 > 0:51:09and the third one was of Sandwood Bay,
0:51:09 > 0:51:14and Sandwood Bay really stood out, looked as good as any of them.
0:51:17 > 0:51:22It may be on a smaller scale, but it's still really, really special.
0:51:39 > 0:51:44Cathel and I have talked about the size and scale of Sandwood Bay.
0:51:44 > 0:51:46We've talked about the quality of the light
0:51:46 > 0:51:49and the contrast of the light.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52I could go on for hours about the sound of the pounding surf,
0:51:52 > 0:51:56or the raucous call of the seabirds.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59But none of that gets close to that special quality
0:51:59 > 0:52:00that is Sandwood Bay.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03For that, you've really got to come here yourself.
0:52:29 > 0:52:33You know, after walking so far on good tracks and trails,
0:52:33 > 0:52:36this final dozen miles between Sandwood Bay and Cape Wrath
0:52:36 > 0:52:37is a real sting in the tail,
0:52:37 > 0:52:40because anybody who knows what coastal walking is like,
0:52:40 > 0:52:44it's up and down and up and down, but it's actually not bad, is it?
0:52:44 > 0:52:45And if you look very carefully,
0:52:45 > 0:52:48you can see across there to the skyscrapers of New York.
0:52:48 > 0:52:50It's pretty good.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53And theoretically, I should be almost there.
0:53:05 > 0:53:07All the way from the Scottish Borders,
0:53:07 > 0:53:10I've had this beacon shining in my mind,
0:53:10 > 0:53:12guiding me north and north-west,
0:53:12 > 0:53:17and I've been dreaming at night of coming over a final rise
0:53:17 > 0:53:21and seeing that 120-foot obelisk of the Cape Wrath Lighthouse.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26But now that I'm within a mile of where it should be,
0:53:26 > 0:53:28I can't see it.
0:53:28 > 0:53:29It's strange, you know?
0:53:29 > 0:53:32In the whole distance from Kirk Yetholm, I haven't been lost once.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35It would be quite ironic if I finally get lost in the last mile.
0:53:46 > 0:53:50Hey! There it is. Journey's end. Fantastic.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52And since the last time I was here,
0:53:52 > 0:53:55I believe there's been an addition of a cafe.
0:53:56 > 0:53:57Let's hope it's open.
0:54:05 > 0:54:07Ohh! Wonderful. Good man.
0:54:07 > 0:54:09You know, John, I have this morbid fear
0:54:09 > 0:54:11that I'd get to the end of a long-distance walk
0:54:11 > 0:54:14where there's supposed to be a cafe, and it will be shut. THEY LAUGH
0:54:14 > 0:54:16We're open 24 hours a day. There you go.
0:54:16 > 0:54:18- Oh, is that for me?- Yes. - Oh, fantastic.
0:54:18 > 0:54:19The Cape Wrath Trail.
0:54:19 > 0:54:21Oh, brilliant. Well, listen, I tell you what...
0:54:21 > 0:54:24- I've been wearing this for six weeks, so...- Try that one on.
0:54:24 > 0:54:26Getting a wee bit niffy, so a nice fresh hat.
0:54:26 > 0:54:29I'll just put that one on right now, that's brilliant.
0:54:29 > 0:54:30So you're open 24 hours a day?
0:54:30 > 0:54:33Yeah, we're open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36My wife does all the baking in the cafe.
0:54:36 > 0:54:37Mmm.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41That's nice. At the end of a long walk, that's what you want.
0:54:41 > 0:54:44So, tell me, give me an idea of what it's like here in winter.
0:54:44 > 0:54:47We get some severe storms come through in February.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50120mph sort of stuff, so quite dramatic.
0:54:50 > 0:54:53- Do you never think, "Oh, this is...", you know?- A bit insane?
0:54:53 > 0:54:55A bit insane. You said it, I didn't want to say that,
0:54:55 > 0:54:58- but you've said it. - Yeah. You get used to it.
0:54:58 > 0:55:00We've been up here five years.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02It gets easier every year, sort of thing.
0:55:03 > 0:55:07Now, you and your wife became almost of celebrity status
0:55:07 > 0:55:09a couple of years ago during that hard spell of snow.
0:55:09 > 0:55:11She went off to London to get the Christmas shopping,
0:55:11 > 0:55:13and couldn't get back for five weeks.
0:55:13 > 0:55:15- Five weeks?!- Yeah. Snowed in.
0:55:15 > 0:55:17Once the snow gets down on this road,
0:55:17 > 0:55:20it's not a good venture to try and get down there.
0:55:20 > 0:55:23And tell me, did the turkey stay frozen?
0:55:23 > 0:55:25Yeah. We had it on the 22nd of January,
0:55:25 > 0:55:26it was anti-climatic, to say the least.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31There's only a few steps left, and then I'll have finished.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34I'll have walked from one end of Scotland to the other.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36My own personal trek will be over,
0:55:36 > 0:55:39but the Scottish National Trail is just beginning.
0:55:40 > 0:55:45On October 30th, 2012, my dream of a national walk was realised
0:55:45 > 0:55:49when it was officially opened by the First Minister, Alex Salmond.
0:55:49 > 0:55:50APPLAUSE
0:55:50 > 0:55:52I'm not the world's greatest rambler,
0:55:52 > 0:55:55but my late mother certainly was,
0:55:55 > 0:55:58or one of the greatest ramblers in Scotland.
0:55:58 > 0:56:02She was somebody who could perhaps even out-ramble Cameron McNeish,
0:56:02 > 0:56:05and she would be absolutely delighted
0:56:05 > 0:56:07looking down on today's events.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10Many congratulations for bringing this to reality,
0:56:10 > 0:56:15and many thanks for inviting me to perform the honours
0:56:15 > 0:56:21of declaring the Scottish National Trail from the Borders to Cape Wrath
0:56:21 > 0:56:23well and truly inaugurated!
0:56:23 > 0:56:25APPLAUSE
0:56:25 > 0:56:28That's an auspicious start for our new National Trail,
0:56:28 > 0:56:31a launch that's ensured many thousands of folk
0:56:31 > 0:56:35in Scotland and far beyond are aware of what we have to offer.
0:56:37 > 0:56:39The overwhelming sensation
0:56:39 > 0:56:40at the end of a long-distance walk like this
0:56:40 > 0:56:44is normally one of delight tinged with sadness.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48Sadness that you've finished what has been a great experience,
0:56:48 > 0:56:52and the sense of exhilaration and euphoria tends to come later on,
0:56:52 > 0:56:54when you get a chance to think of the whole thing,
0:56:54 > 0:56:58when all the jumble of thoughts in your mind are all gelled together.
0:56:58 > 0:57:02But even at this point, at the end of this walk,
0:57:02 > 0:57:05there are certain instances that stand out in my memory.
0:57:06 > 0:57:11Waking up in Kirk Yetholm to snow on the ground,
0:57:11 > 0:57:13and then walking over wide-open hill in wintry conditions
0:57:13 > 0:57:15was terrific.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19And for a mountain man like me, it perhaps sounds odd to say
0:57:19 > 0:57:24that I had a huge sense of pleasure in walking the canal tow paths
0:57:24 > 0:57:26between Glasgow and Edinburgh,
0:57:26 > 0:57:29a green channel going through central Scotland.
0:57:31 > 0:57:36Following the lines of drovers and marauding armies and vagabonds
0:57:36 > 0:57:39up through the central Highlands was incredible.
0:57:39 > 0:57:43The gloriously beautiful empty miles of the northern Highlands
0:57:43 > 0:57:47is something you just won't see anywhere else.
0:57:47 > 0:57:51And what about this as an end point to any long-distance walk?
0:57:51 > 0:57:54Someone once said to me that the great difficulty in a long walk
0:57:54 > 0:57:56is knowing where to stop.
0:57:56 > 0:57:59There's no doubt here - you just can't go any further.
0:58:01 > 0:58:04But I think above all that what stands out...
0:58:04 > 0:58:08The Scottish National Trail for me is the new sense of identity I have
0:58:08 > 0:58:09for being Scottish,
0:58:09 > 0:58:14and to walk through a country like Scotland from end to end
0:58:14 > 0:58:15is an immense privilege.
0:58:15 > 0:58:18And the only way to really experience that
0:58:18 > 0:58:19is for you to come and do it yourself.
0:58:19 > 0:58:21So let's finish this walk
0:58:21 > 0:58:24by saying what I say at the end of all these walks -
0:58:24 > 0:58:26the Scottish National Trail
0:58:26 > 0:58:30is a trail that I'd recommend to you with more than a passion!
0:58:32 > 0:58:36Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd