1 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:11,560 The beautiful waters of Loch Etive, hemmed in by high mountains, 2 00:00:11,560 --> 00:00:16,920 lie at the centre of a landscape that fuels the imagination. 3 00:00:16,920 --> 00:00:20,360 There's an almost primeval feeling about this place. 4 00:00:20,360 --> 00:00:23,400 These shores are wild and inhospitable, 5 00:00:23,400 --> 00:00:26,400 and steeped in Celtic myth and legend. 6 00:00:30,040 --> 00:00:32,840 Lochs are Scotland's gift to the world. 7 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:35,280 They're a product of an element 8 00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:38,880 that we have in spectacular abundance - water. 9 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:44,200 It's been estimated that there are more than 31,000 lochs in Scotland. 10 00:00:44,200 --> 00:00:46,560 They come in all shapes and sizes, 11 00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:49,200 from long fjord-like sea lochs, 12 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:52,240 great freshwater lochs of the Central Highlands, 13 00:00:52,240 --> 00:00:56,520 to the innumerable lochans that stud the open moors. 14 00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:00,840 In this series, I'm on a loch-hopping journey 15 00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:04,280 across Scotland, discovering how they've shaped the character 16 00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:07,880 of the people who live close to their shores. 17 00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:12,400 For this grand tour, I'm exploring the origins of a mythic world, 18 00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:15,360 as I follow a loch from sea to mountain. 19 00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:33,720 My destination for this grand tour is Argyll and Loch Etive, 20 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:38,280 which runs from the White Dogs of Connel through the lands of Lorne, 21 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:42,400 before turning north-east towards the high mountains of Glencoe. 22 00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:47,600 Loch Etive is a classic fjord, 23 00:01:47,600 --> 00:01:51,200 and was fashioned by ancient glaciers that scoured out 24 00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:56,040 the landscape, as they made their way slowly to the sea. 25 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:03,960 The untamed shores of upper Loch Etive are truly remote. 26 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:06,600 There is no public road into this wilderness, 27 00:02:06,600 --> 00:02:10,680 and no settlements along its farthest reaches. 28 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:15,160 The loch meets the sea and the Firth of Lorne at its narrowest point, 29 00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:19,200 where the early Gaels settled 1,600 years ago. 30 00:02:19,200 --> 00:02:21,840 They called their kingdom Dal Riata, 31 00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:26,080 and its history is populated with heroes and their mighty deeds. 32 00:02:29,560 --> 00:02:33,440 The narrowest part of the loch is the closest to the sea. 33 00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:37,080 Today, it's spanned by a bridge at Connel. 34 00:02:37,080 --> 00:02:40,120 Connel means "the White Dogs" in Gaelic. 35 00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:42,080 So-called because of the tidal race 36 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:47,000 that rips through the narrows at an incredible 12 knots. 37 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:50,880 The White Dogs are known in English as the Falls Of Lora, 38 00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:52,880 and when the tide is running, the Dogs 39 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:55,160 become a playground for the brave. 40 00:03:03,880 --> 00:03:07,200 The tide is in full flood and, to watch the sport, 41 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:09,280 I've joined kayaker Dave Bleazard 42 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:12,680 on a powerboat in the middle of the falls. 43 00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:15,880 Well, Loch Etive runs about 15 miles up behind you, 44 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:18,120 up to Taynuilt and then all the way up to the head of the loch. 45 00:03:18,120 --> 00:03:21,480 And the tide drops - today it's stopping by about three metres 46 00:03:21,480 --> 00:03:23,720 in height, so all that volume of water, 47 00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:26,640 three metres of all the surface area of Loch Etive, 48 00:03:26,640 --> 00:03:29,000 has got to all come piling through this gap. 49 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:32,760 But it's amazing, the force of water that we're looking at here. 50 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:35,480 There's great boils erupting on the surface, 51 00:03:35,480 --> 00:03:37,640 as if there's something alive down there. 52 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:41,280 Yeah, the bottom's not flat, so there's pinnacles and hollows, 53 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:43,840 and it forces the water up and it forces it down and, yeah, 54 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:46,400 it's just not a straight run through at all. 55 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:49,000 Now, if you were in a kayak over there, 56 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,840 what kind of challenges are you faced with? 57 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:54,000 Staying upright is the first of them! 58 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:56,920 There's plenty of boils and things that are going to push your boat 59 00:03:56,920 --> 00:03:59,760 around, push you sideways. But this is strictly for experts, 60 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:02,240 I'm guessing? Yeah, the boys that will be on here today 61 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:04,640 are some of Scotland's top paddlers, absolutely. 62 00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:12,000 Oh! He's gone, he's gone. 63 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:13,760 He's back up again. 64 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:16,600 Oh! Dearie me! THEY LAUGH 65 00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:19,440 That water's gone right up his nose. 66 00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:22,920 I thought he was a goner for a moment. 67 00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:25,080 It's amazing how quickly they can recover. 68 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:33,120 Some of the kayakers are making use of an unusual two-metre wave 69 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:35,560 that's formed under the bridge. 70 00:04:35,560 --> 00:04:36,960 That's a big wave. It is, yes. 71 00:04:36,960 --> 00:04:39,040 But it's not actually moving anywhere, is it? 72 00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:40,600 It's a standing wave. Yes. 73 00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:43,680 So that's, like, quite a strange phenomenon, is it not? 74 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:46,160 Well, in ocean terms, it is. 75 00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:47,720 In river terms, it's not. 76 00:04:47,720 --> 00:04:50,240 We get a lot of waves on the river that stand still. 77 00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:52,920 And so, it is, it's a river feature on the sea. 78 00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:56,200 So, you'll be able to have lots of opportunity as a kayaker 79 00:04:56,200 --> 00:04:58,360 to just constantly surf this wave. 80 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:01,760 Yeah. And it's not going to ever break and reach ashore? 81 00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:02,640 No, that's right. 82 00:05:06,200 --> 00:05:10,320 It's hardly surprising that the early traveller Dorothy Wordsworth 83 00:05:10,320 --> 00:05:13,080 never forgot the Falls Of Lora. 84 00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:17,080 In 1803, she and her brother, the poet William Wordsworth, 85 00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:20,560 crossed in an open boat with their horse and trap. 86 00:05:21,960 --> 00:05:24,040 "The horse fretted and stamped 87 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:26,320 "its feet against the bare boards. 88 00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:28,480 "The tide was rushing violently 89 00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:31,000 "and making a strong eddy so that 90 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:35,240 "the motion, the noise and foam terrified him still more, 91 00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:38,840 "and we thought that it would be impossible to keep him in the boat." 92 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:43,920 Fortunately, they just managed to stop the horse from jumping 93 00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:46,400 overboard and capsizing the boat. 94 00:05:46,400 --> 00:05:49,680 And guess what? They never took a Highland ferry again. 95 00:05:54,280 --> 00:05:56,040 Paddling at slack tide, 96 00:05:56,040 --> 00:05:58,600 with the fury of the falls but a memory, 97 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:02,160 I make my way to one of the most ancient castles in Scotland. 98 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:05,680 The imposing fortress of Dunstaffnage 99 00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:08,960 has guarded the entrance to Loch Etive for centuries. 100 00:06:11,200 --> 00:06:14,480 In the Middle Ages, Dunstaffnage became a centre 101 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:16,080 of Clan MacDougall power. 102 00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:19,000 Now, unfortunately, they backed the wrong side 103 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:21,280 in the Wars of Scottish Independence, 104 00:06:21,280 --> 00:06:23,480 and were defeated by Robert the Bruce, 105 00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:27,120 who confiscated their lands and gave them to their arch rivals, 106 00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:31,200 Clan Campbell, who have reigned supreme here ever since. 107 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:38,920 With so much Campbell history embued in its ancient walls, 108 00:06:38,920 --> 00:06:41,640 Dunstaffnage is a place of legends, 109 00:06:41,640 --> 00:06:45,760 where the past and the supernatural seem to be ingrained into 110 00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:47,280 the very fabric of the building. 111 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:54,200 Lorn Macintyre has known the castle since he was a boy. 112 00:06:54,200 --> 00:06:56,880 Having spent his formative years in its shadow, 113 00:06:56,880 --> 00:06:59,360 the place and its Campbell keepers 114 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:02,080 have left a great impression on him. 115 00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:04,760 Now, Lorn, you've known Dunstaffnage since you were a boy, 116 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:06,560 is that not right? Yes, 117 00:07:06,560 --> 00:07:10,920 we grew up beside Angus Campbell, the 20th hereditary captain 118 00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:14,960 of Dunstaffnage, as he never failed to remind people. Right! 119 00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:18,360 My grandmother was his housekeeper in the mansion house, 120 00:07:18,360 --> 00:07:21,880 which burnt down in 1940, and she was really, 121 00:07:21,880 --> 00:07:26,120 for the rest of his life, his confidant, and looked after him. 122 00:07:26,120 --> 00:07:27,880 He's a very colourful character. 123 00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:29,960 He was a very, very colourful character. 124 00:07:29,960 --> 00:07:31,520 He was, I would call, 125 00:07:31,520 --> 00:07:34,800 one of the last of the traditional lairds. 126 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:36,800 He was steeped in his own heritage, 127 00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:40,840 but also very much steeped in a kind of Celtic, mystical, 128 00:07:40,840 --> 00:07:42,960 supernatural heritage. 129 00:07:42,960 --> 00:07:45,600 He lived, I think, in a world of ghosts, 130 00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:48,080 and he lived in a world of rituals. 131 00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:51,040 When you walked up the avenue with him in the twilight, 132 00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:54,400 and the moon was rising, he insisted on stopping 133 00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:57,600 and opening his sporran and turning the coins over, 134 00:07:57,600 --> 00:07:59,880 because he had a superstition about that, 135 00:07:59,880 --> 00:08:02,760 and when you were in my grandmother's kitchen when he was 136 00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:06,160 taking his coffee, you daren't look at the new moon through glass. 137 00:08:06,160 --> 00:08:09,800 Right, why was that? Because he thought it would bring misfortune 138 00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:13,280 onto you. He was enormously superstitious. 139 00:08:13,280 --> 00:08:17,600 He believed, somehow, that these supernatural apparitions - 140 00:08:17,600 --> 00:08:19,400 and there were apparitions - 141 00:08:19,400 --> 00:08:23,400 were part of his heritage like the paintings on the walls, 142 00:08:23,400 --> 00:08:25,000 and therefore just to be accepted. 143 00:08:30,600 --> 00:08:32,560 The captaincy of Dunstaffnage is 144 00:08:32,560 --> 00:08:37,000 a hereditary title, granted by the Campbell Duke of Argyll. 145 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:39,080 In addition to a peppercorn rent, 146 00:08:39,080 --> 00:08:41,840 the captains are traditionally obliged 147 00:08:41,840 --> 00:08:45,760 to spend each Midsummer's night in the gatehouse, 148 00:08:45,760 --> 00:08:50,600 which has the reputation for being haunted by a poltergeist. 149 00:08:50,600 --> 00:08:53,040 So, he'd come here by himself on a camp bed, 150 00:08:53,040 --> 00:08:54,880 and spend Midsummer's night here? 151 00:08:54,880 --> 00:08:56,960 He came here and he had a torch. 152 00:08:56,960 --> 00:09:00,400 He had a West Highland terrier to... Uh-huh. 153 00:09:00,400 --> 00:09:04,960 ..to alert him if any ghosts should appear and disturb him. 154 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:07,280 And then, he put the light out, he stopped reading 155 00:09:07,280 --> 00:09:11,360 and he was fetched again in the dawn and taken back home, 156 00:09:11,360 --> 00:09:15,120 and my grandmother made sure that he had not been disturbed during 157 00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:18,880 the night by any spectral interventions. 158 00:09:18,880 --> 00:09:21,720 And were there any spectres that he might have seen, do you think? 159 00:09:21,720 --> 00:09:26,080 Well, the principal one is a lady called the Elle-maid. 160 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:28,240 I'm not quite sure how she gets her name, 161 00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:30,800 but she seems to have been a very real presence 162 00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:33,320 in this castle down the centuries. 163 00:09:33,320 --> 00:09:36,960 And one of the attributes, according to tradition, 164 00:09:36,960 --> 00:09:41,280 of the Elle-maid is that she has a man's tread, a heavy man's tread. 165 00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:43,440 What about you, Lorn? Would you spend the night here? 166 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:45,080 I don't think so. 167 00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:50,360 From what I know of the place and what I have actually heard and read, 168 00:09:50,360 --> 00:09:54,880 I think I would have to have people with me and perhaps 169 00:09:54,880 --> 00:09:57,400 a very, very good guard dog. 170 00:09:57,400 --> 00:09:59,640 It is spooky. It is very spooky. 171 00:10:02,760 --> 00:10:05,400 Out of a strange sense of bravado, 172 00:10:05,400 --> 00:10:08,880 I've decided to spend the night in the gatehouse. 173 00:10:08,880 --> 00:10:12,440 I'm doing this not to challenge the claim of the Campbell keepers of 174 00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:16,360 Dunstaffnage, but to see if it's possible to get a good night's sleep 175 00:10:16,360 --> 00:10:19,720 in such an ancient and haunted place. 176 00:10:22,640 --> 00:10:24,080 According to Lorn, 177 00:10:24,080 --> 00:10:28,280 the Elle-maid announces her presence with the sound of very heavy 178 00:10:28,280 --> 00:10:31,440 footsteps, which is bad news if you're unlucky enough to hear them, 179 00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:34,480 so I've got these earplugs 180 00:10:34,480 --> 00:10:37,920 just in case and, as an added precaution... 181 00:10:39,080 --> 00:10:40,320 ..in case I see anything 182 00:10:40,320 --> 00:10:42,920 that's particularly ghoulish and disturbing, 183 00:10:42,920 --> 00:10:44,760 I've got this eye mask. 184 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:46,560 So, time for bed. 185 00:10:47,680 --> 00:10:50,040 HE SIGHS 186 00:10:51,280 --> 00:10:52,960 I'm exhausted. 187 00:10:56,280 --> 00:10:58,160 SCREAMING VOICES 188 00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:02,720 FOOTSTEPS 189 00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:06,160 Dah! 190 00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:25,200 After a rather fitful sleep, 191 00:11:25,200 --> 00:11:28,680 I leave Dunstaffnage and its supernatural connections, 192 00:11:28,680 --> 00:11:32,160 and continue my journey eastwards up Loch Etive, 193 00:11:32,160 --> 00:11:35,440 heading to Bonawe and the village of Taynuilt, 194 00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:39,760 where I come across a little-known monument with legendary connections. 195 00:11:42,080 --> 00:11:45,720 This standing stone, curiously called the Nelson Stone, 196 00:11:45,720 --> 00:11:50,720 was the first-ever monument erected to the memory of Admiral Lord Nelson 197 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:53,720 after his death at the Battle of Trafalgar. 198 00:11:53,720 --> 00:11:57,120 So, what, you might well ask, has a Highland village 199 00:11:57,120 --> 00:12:00,280 got to do with a one-armed, one-eyed naval hero? 200 00:12:00,280 --> 00:12:03,600 And the answer, of course, is balls. 201 00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:05,240 Cannonballs, to be precise. 202 00:12:07,920 --> 00:12:12,760 Remarkably, some of the cannonballs fired by the Royal Navy at Trafalgar 203 00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:16,360 could well have been made from iron smelted here 204 00:12:16,360 --> 00:12:18,560 on the shores of Loch Etive. 205 00:12:18,560 --> 00:12:22,720 At Bonawe are the impressive remains of an iron foundry built 206 00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:24,120 in the 18th century. 207 00:12:25,280 --> 00:12:27,520 These days, it's also a museum. 208 00:12:28,800 --> 00:12:32,840 Now, this is a rare and rather unexpected example 209 00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:36,080 of early industry in the Highlands, 210 00:12:36,080 --> 00:12:39,360 and this is a lump of iron slag, 211 00:12:39,360 --> 00:12:41,960 the waste product from the smelting process. 212 00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:43,920 It's rough and quite heavy, 213 00:12:43,920 --> 00:12:46,800 and you find it on the ground everywhere around here. 214 00:12:46,800 --> 00:12:50,520 Now, the iron ore itself actually came all the way from Cumbria, 215 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:54,960 brought here by the ironmasters for the smelting process. 216 00:12:54,960 --> 00:12:57,480 And the reason they chose Loch Etive 217 00:12:57,480 --> 00:13:00,040 was because of this stuff - charcoal, 218 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:02,560 which came from trees round about. 219 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:08,200 To find out more about charcoal-making, 220 00:13:08,200 --> 00:13:11,920 which kept an army of men busy in the oak forests of Etive, 221 00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:15,640 I meet up with one of the few charcoal makers left in Scotland. 222 00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:21,400 Alasdair Eckersall is a ranger with the National Trust for Scotland. 223 00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:25,160 He combines charcoal making with woodland conservation. 224 00:13:25,160 --> 00:13:27,440 This is a kiln? It is. A charcoal kiln? That's right. 225 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:31,080 Well, I have to say, it doesn't look quite as high-tech as I imagined. 226 00:13:31,080 --> 00:13:33,360 It's basically just a big oil drum, is it not? 227 00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:35,640 It is, indeed. 228 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:39,280 But it's higher tech than you would have come across in days gone by. 229 00:13:39,280 --> 00:13:42,480 There are certainly more advanced ways of making charcoal 230 00:13:42,480 --> 00:13:44,000 these days, right enough. 231 00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:46,600 Now, what exactly is charcoal? 232 00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:51,840 So, charcoal is just the carbon element of wood. 233 00:13:51,840 --> 00:13:53,520 If you take a piece of wood, 234 00:13:53,520 --> 00:13:57,360 and you burn it without the presence of oxygen, 235 00:13:57,360 --> 00:13:59,800 everything else in the wood will disappear, 236 00:13:59,800 --> 00:14:04,360 and you're left the carbon skeleton of that piece of wood. 237 00:14:04,360 --> 00:14:06,560 So, how do you take the oxygen out of the equation, then? 238 00:14:06,560 --> 00:14:11,800 By getting a good hot fire going in a controlled fashion. 239 00:14:11,800 --> 00:14:15,680 Using a kiln like this, we can seal out most of the air, 240 00:14:15,680 --> 00:14:20,120 just let a small amount of air in. 241 00:14:20,120 --> 00:14:23,560 The next phase of operations is to stack the kiln, 242 00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:27,800 which means that we actually have to climb inside it to lay the wood, 243 00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:30,480 which Alasdair's volunteers have prepared, 244 00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:34,960 a task that would have been familiar to charcoal makers of old. 245 00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:38,960 The charcoal-making families would have just lived in the woods. 246 00:14:38,960 --> 00:14:41,000 Some of the archive photos, 247 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:45,880 you'll see the very basic stone and little thatched huts that they would 248 00:14:45,880 --> 00:14:47,520 build themselves in the words. 249 00:14:47,520 --> 00:14:49,120 And the whole family would live like that? 250 00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:50,800 The whole family would live there. 251 00:14:50,800 --> 00:14:56,360 The nature of charcoal-making then meant they had to be on site 252 00:14:56,360 --> 00:14:59,440 all the time, watching their burn. Uh-huh. 253 00:15:04,280 --> 00:15:10,000 The team keeps feeding us with wood, and gradually the level rises. 254 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:13,720 I'm then granted the honour of removing the centre pole 255 00:15:13,720 --> 00:15:18,800 and pouring burning embers into the space to set the fire. 256 00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:21,280 And how long will this burn for? 257 00:15:21,280 --> 00:15:25,640 This is going to burn for about 14, 15 hours. 258 00:15:25,640 --> 00:15:28,680 With the lid in place and sealed with mud, 259 00:15:28,680 --> 00:15:31,200 the burn will need to be tended carefully, 260 00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:34,680 and the airflow adjusted using four pipe chimneys 261 00:15:34,680 --> 00:15:37,400 to make sure the wood doesn't turn to ash. 262 00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:42,960 After the smoke finally clears the following morning, 263 00:15:42,960 --> 00:15:45,000 I join an anxious Alasdair 264 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:48,240 to lift the lid on his charcoal-making skills. 265 00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:50,360 And this is the moment of truth. 266 00:15:50,360 --> 00:15:52,480 It certainly is. What's inside? 267 00:15:54,560 --> 00:15:55,760 HE LAUGHS 268 00:15:55,760 --> 00:15:57,840 I thought there might just be a pile of ash! 269 00:15:57,840 --> 00:15:59,880 But that's really impressive, Alasdair, isn't it? 270 00:15:59,880 --> 00:16:02,200 That's come away OK. Yeah. That is really impressive. 271 00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:05,320 That's not a bad burn. So, you can see there how the wood's kept 272 00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:07,880 its integrity. We've still got the... Uh-huh. 273 00:16:07,880 --> 00:16:10,400 ..the shape of the original piece of wood, 274 00:16:10,400 --> 00:16:12,360 but everything else has gone out of it, 275 00:16:12,360 --> 00:16:14,680 and we're just left with the carbon. 276 00:16:14,680 --> 00:16:17,880 You can even see the grains in the wood and the rings. 277 00:16:17,880 --> 00:16:19,320 It's really quite beautiful. 278 00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:20,560 It's almost like a work of art. 279 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:27,040 It's amazing to think that Alasdair's charcoal-making process 280 00:16:27,040 --> 00:16:29,720 links Loch Etive to be cannonballs 281 00:16:29,720 --> 00:16:33,200 fired by Nelson's fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar. 282 00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:39,000 As mist descends over the forest, I move on, 283 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:42,960 heading to a place that continues to make use of the area's abundant 284 00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:45,880 resources - oakwood and salmon. 285 00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:51,560 At Inverawe Smokehouse, salmon and trout are prepared daily. 286 00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:55,920 Once filleted, the fish are placed on racks to be dried and cured, 287 00:16:55,920 --> 00:17:00,200 using the age-old process of cold smoking. 288 00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:01,720 Yes! You beauty! That's better. 289 00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:04,280 I help the owner, Robert Campbell-Preston, 290 00:17:04,280 --> 00:17:07,200 to load up with freshly split oak logs. 291 00:17:07,200 --> 00:17:11,200 He then introduces me to the arcane art of smoking. 292 00:17:12,120 --> 00:17:13,920 The smoke goes under the floor here, 293 00:17:15,600 --> 00:17:19,680 and then up through the kilns and out through the roof. 294 00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:22,680 It's very simple. Passing through the fish on its way. Oh, yeah, yeah. 295 00:17:22,680 --> 00:17:24,280 Absolutely. 296 00:17:24,280 --> 00:17:27,160 So, I'll just pull this out for you. 297 00:17:27,160 --> 00:17:28,400 Then... 298 00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:32,080 Now, how you make the smoke is 299 00:17:32,080 --> 00:17:35,080 really with this little contraption down here. 300 00:17:35,080 --> 00:17:37,960 Is that controlling the air supply? That controls the air. 301 00:17:37,960 --> 00:17:40,720 Uh-huh. And when you're cold smoking and you don't want flame, 302 00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:44,200 you just want smoke, every fire is different. Mm. 303 00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:47,120 You get to know the quirk of each fire. 304 00:17:47,120 --> 00:17:50,120 So, lift the lid off... So, this is a 24/7 operation? 305 00:17:50,120 --> 00:17:51,160 Yeah. 306 00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:55,040 And the secret to good smoking, I think, 307 00:17:55,040 --> 00:17:58,320 is to keep stoking the fire every four hours. 308 00:17:58,320 --> 00:18:00,120 That's perfect. Now, 309 00:18:00,120 --> 00:18:03,920 what you need to do to make a good heart in your fire, 310 00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:05,800 what they always do is bang it. 311 00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:08,760 Bang it. Go on, bang it. That gets a good heart going. 312 00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:11,640 It puts the wood down. 313 00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:13,080 And heart to a fire is really important. 314 00:18:13,080 --> 00:18:15,360 Now, see how it's getting... There's a lot of stuff out. 315 00:18:15,360 --> 00:18:18,360 Now, the smoke is increasing. Even though the lid's off, the smoke's 316 00:18:18,360 --> 00:18:21,000 increasing... Uh-huh. ..because we put fresh wood in 317 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:22,440 and, obviously, the more... 318 00:18:22,440 --> 00:18:24,480 The fresher it is, the more smoke you get. 319 00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:28,080 And that's why it's so important that you stoke the fire 320 00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:30,280 every three to four hours. 321 00:18:30,280 --> 00:18:31,760 You love your smoke! 322 00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:33,800 Yeah, you'll love it, too! Right, lid on. 323 00:18:33,800 --> 00:18:35,560 Now, this is important to, again, 324 00:18:35,560 --> 00:18:38,600 control it, because that controls how the fire works, 325 00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:42,840 but where you place this in here matters, because, 326 00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:44,400 remember, when we are smoking, 327 00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:47,400 we mustn't let the fish get warmer than 30 degrees. 328 00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:50,000 I'm smoking already, Robert. OK, push it in, push it in. 329 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:52,240 Push it in. That's it. 330 00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:56,240 So, you must have shift work here? 331 00:18:56,240 --> 00:18:58,200 Oh, yes. 7/7, yeah. 332 00:18:58,200 --> 00:19:00,800 We've always got somebody here. And the fires never go out? 333 00:19:00,800 --> 00:19:02,720 But at night, we just stoke it down, and... 334 00:19:02,720 --> 00:19:06,000 Do they ever go out? Oh, yeah, of course they do. 335 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:08,160 They do? Well, sometimes. Sometimes? 336 00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:10,280 That's when the boss starts shouting! 337 00:19:10,280 --> 00:19:13,000 And then starts to get angry. Why are the fires...? 338 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:16,240 Who let the fires go out?! You know, just like the wife at home. 339 00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:17,480 Who let the fire go out?! 340 00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:20,160 You know what I mean? You're very passionate about this. 341 00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:22,720 I've never heard of someone speak so passionately 342 00:19:22,720 --> 00:19:25,400 about smoke in my life before. 343 00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:27,440 HE CHUCKLES Yeah, that's crazy, isn't it? 344 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:32,720 Leaving Robert in a cloud of his beloved wood smoke, 345 00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:37,560 I bid farewell to Inverawe, taking a lovely side of smoked salmon - 346 00:19:37,560 --> 00:19:40,240 a present for my dear old ma. 347 00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:48,320 Back on the water, I head further up the loch, 348 00:19:48,320 --> 00:19:50,200 a research scientist working 349 00:19:50,200 --> 00:19:53,360 at the Scottish Association Of Marine Science. 350 00:19:53,360 --> 00:19:57,160 Natalie has been studying the extraordinary ecosystem hidden 351 00:19:57,160 --> 00:20:00,640 beneath the deep, dark waters of Loch Etive. 352 00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:03,680 So, Natalie, we certainly picked the weather to be at an Loch Etive, 353 00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:06,840 which, from a scientific point of view, is a really unique loch. 354 00:20:06,840 --> 00:20:08,360 Yes, it is, indeed. 355 00:20:08,360 --> 00:20:11,720 I mean, is one of 110 sea lochs that we have on the West Coast of 356 00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:14,800 Scotland and, for scientists, this is particularly interesting, 357 00:20:14,800 --> 00:20:17,640 because effectively we've got a marine-dominated system 358 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:20,640 in the lower basin here, and we've got a more freshwater-dominated 359 00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:22,000 system in the upper basin, 360 00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:24,520 very much like a fjord you would find in Norway. 361 00:20:24,520 --> 00:20:26,720 So, what does that mean in terms of the marine life 362 00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:28,920 that you might expect to find here? 363 00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:31,520 So, we've got a few unique species in the loch. 364 00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:33,480 Most of them you do find in the open oceans. 365 00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:37,560 For example, we've got a Zooplankton population and a Copepod population. 366 00:20:37,560 --> 00:20:39,560 What's that? 367 00:20:39,560 --> 00:20:42,800 They're small organisms that feed on Phytoplankton. 368 00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:44,920 They form the basis of the food chain. 369 00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:46,560 There's a huge population in the loch. 370 00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:49,120 Really? It's an ideal environment for them. Mm-hmm. 371 00:20:49,120 --> 00:20:51,120 So, they can tolerate the changes in salinity, 372 00:20:51,120 --> 00:20:53,760 and there's not many predators, but there's a lot of food. 373 00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:55,880 So, what kind of abundance are you talking about? 374 00:20:55,880 --> 00:20:57,440 You can just scoop it out of the water? 375 00:20:57,440 --> 00:20:59,960 You can scoop it out of the water, and it looks like a pink soup - 376 00:20:59,960 --> 00:21:01,400 because there's so many of them, 377 00:21:01,400 --> 00:21:03,320 it changes the colour of the water itself. 378 00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:05,080 I know you've got a net. We have got a net. 379 00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:06,560 Are we going to do some scooping? 380 00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:10,160 I think we should scoop some out and see if we can catch some. Excellent. 381 00:21:13,080 --> 00:21:17,840 The Zooplankton we're after form an important part of the food chain. 382 00:21:17,840 --> 00:21:21,200 Their bodies have a very high omega oil content, 383 00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:23,600 and it's what makes the fish that feed on them, 384 00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:27,480 like herring and mackerel, so healthy to eat. 385 00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:30,560 Natalie's method of catching them takes me back 386 00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:34,600 to a happy childhood spent rock-pooling with a shrimp net, 387 00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:36,800 although this one is considerably longer 388 00:21:36,800 --> 00:21:39,080 and has the collection bottle at its base. 389 00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:41,280 You don't want to lose that, now, do you? 390 00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:43,040 No. Definitely not. 391 00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:46,560 It's as simple as lowering the net into the depths 392 00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:48,960 and bringing it up to the surface. 393 00:21:48,960 --> 00:21:51,080 Here it comes! 394 00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:53,200 Have you got anything? Let's have a look. 395 00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:55,520 Let's tip it into a bucket and see what we've got. 396 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:01,160 Ooh, we've got a couple of jellyfish! Look, you can see there. 397 00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:03,760 Is that them? Yup, so, all those little pinky, browny colours. 398 00:22:03,760 --> 00:22:06,360 The pink stuff? Yup. You can see them zipping around. 399 00:22:06,360 --> 00:22:07,640 Some of them are in clumps, 400 00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:10,760 and that's why the water's this sort of pinkish, brownish colour. 401 00:22:10,760 --> 00:22:14,000 Looks like we got lucky and we've got two Moon jellyfish as well. 402 00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:16,040 Do they sting? These ones don't sting us. Yeah, 403 00:22:16,040 --> 00:22:18,760 you're safe to pick these up. That's not a problem. 404 00:22:18,760 --> 00:22:22,120 Here you go. Wow. Are you sure it doesn't sting? 405 00:22:22,120 --> 00:22:25,200 Yeah. It doesn't sting. It doesn't sting, folks. 406 00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:27,400 You can pick them up. Yeah. But only the Moon jellyfish? 407 00:22:27,400 --> 00:22:30,080 Yeah, only the Moon. Don't pick any of the red ones up that you see 408 00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:31,800 around the coast, they definitely sting. 409 00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:34,000 I'm surprised to see so many of these tiny little... 410 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:35,520 They look like little shrimps. 411 00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:38,520 They do, and they move very quickly, don't they? They do. 412 00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:40,400 Do they bite? They don't bite. 413 00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:42,920 I've never known of a Copepod to bite a human. Let me see. 414 00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:45,080 Go on. Ouch! 415 00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:46,880 THEY LAUGH It got me. 416 00:22:52,560 --> 00:22:55,440 Leaving Natalie and her Zooplankton, 417 00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:57,680 I head up lonely Glen Etive, 418 00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:00,880 a place which is steeped in the legends of the early Celts 419 00:23:00,880 --> 00:23:02,520 who settled here. 420 00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:07,840 I can see why the landscape fed into the collective mythology. 421 00:23:07,840 --> 00:23:10,840 This is a place that excites the imagination 422 00:23:10,840 --> 00:23:12,920 with every turn of the road, 423 00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:17,520 which eventually emerges onto the bleak expanse of Rannoch Moor. 424 00:23:23,880 --> 00:23:28,360 There can be few visitors who are unimpressed by the imposing 425 00:23:28,360 --> 00:23:32,080 mountains which dominate the moor, especially Buachaille Etive Mor 426 00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:35,000 behind me, which translates from the Gaelic 427 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:37,080 as the "big herdsman of Etive". 428 00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:48,680 To fully appreciate the epic scale of the Buachaille, 429 00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:51,320 which, I have to say, is my favourite mountain 430 00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:52,920 in the whole of Scotland, 431 00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:55,160 I'm meeting up with Murray Wilkie, 432 00:23:55,160 --> 00:24:00,040 who specialises in taking extraordinary mountain photographs. 433 00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:04,920 His secret is to capture them in the magical light of dawn, sunset, 434 00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:09,120 or both. But to do this, he goes to exceptional lengths. 435 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:14,560 I'm joining him on a trek to the summit of a hill 436 00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:16,080 overlooking the Buachaille. 437 00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:18,480 The plan is to camp at altitude. 438 00:24:19,680 --> 00:24:23,040 So, what's the idea behind this high-level camping, Murray? 439 00:24:23,040 --> 00:24:26,000 Well, it's the views you get, I think. 440 00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:27,680 The sunsets and the sunrises. 441 00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:29,880 When you get them, you just can't beat it. 442 00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:32,560 It's the best light. You get great views, but when you get the light, 443 00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:36,400 it's just amazing. It's a real privilege to be up here. 444 00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:39,080 I'm not quite so sure about the privilege of camping up here. 445 00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:40,560 LAUGHTER 446 00:24:40,560 --> 00:24:44,000 We'll have to see how that goes. Well, let's see. There it is. 447 00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:47,000 The sunshine. That's what we want. Yeah. 448 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:48,400 That's what we're chasing. 449 00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:51,360 I think we might get a view in a minute, the view we've not seen. 450 00:24:55,520 --> 00:24:57,960 It's getting spectacular with every step. 451 00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:00,280 Or more spectacular with every step. 452 00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:01,600 Look at that. Isn't it just...? 453 00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:03,680 Some people wonder why you come to the mountains, 454 00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:08,040 and you don't really know until you get into these positions, do you? 455 00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:10,320 Such an impressive view, Murray. 456 00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:12,400 It's not bad, is it? Ben Nevis in front of us, look. 457 00:25:12,400 --> 00:25:17,440 Yes. You can make out its north face and the moors in front of that. 458 00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:19,400 The Ossians over there. That's right. 459 00:25:19,400 --> 00:25:22,720 And then, if you go further round, you can see Ben Alder, 460 00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:25,160 and right round to Schiehallion again. 461 00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:27,720 And in front of us, we've got this great chasm. 462 00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:29,200 The beginning of Glencoe. 463 00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:37,120 Sunset, which is what we've come for, isn't too far away. 464 00:25:37,120 --> 00:25:40,560 But there's still time to put up the tent and have a blether before the 465 00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:43,240 magic hour arrives. 466 00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:45,680 It's the first serious mountain I ever claimed. 467 00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:49,080 Oh, really? When I was a wee boy. Yeah. I was about 13 or 14. 468 00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:51,440 And I was scared rigid. 469 00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:55,040 A curved ridge in early December. Right. 470 00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:58,440 Snow and ice, and I was dragged up there kicking and screaming. 471 00:25:58,440 --> 00:25:59,680 But I loved it! 472 00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:02,920 I absolutely loved it. And we got to this summit as the sun was going 473 00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:06,520 down, so the way, watching the sun go down behind the Buachaille is 474 00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:08,200 kind of reliving that. Yeah, yeah. 475 00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:11,240 Have you got any favourite mountains that you've climbed and managed to 476 00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:15,320 capture the essence of? Yes. In your photography and your videos? 477 00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:19,600 Yeah, I think the one that stands out, I think, 478 00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:24,080 I did a wild camp on top of Beinn Alligin, which is up in Torridon. 479 00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:26,480 It was getting dark. I looked outside back at the summit, 480 00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:29,120 and I saw a wee flash. Somebody's out taking pictures already. 481 00:26:29,120 --> 00:26:32,080 So I thought, "Right, I'll get out", and I started taking the 482 00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:33,960 pictures, and as I scan north, 483 00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:36,240 I took a picture, looking, you can just see... 484 00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:39,000 You couldn't see it with the naked eye, because it was still quite 485 00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:40,800 light, but there was a wee band of green, 486 00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:43,360 and as the night progressed, the lights became visible to the... 487 00:26:43,360 --> 00:26:46,040 The Northern lights? The Northern Lights. Aurora borealis, 488 00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:49,040 yeah, became... You know, you often see them on the cameras, 489 00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:51,120 but you can't see them with the naked eye. 490 00:26:51,120 --> 00:26:54,560 This is only one of three times I've seen them with the naked eye, 491 00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:56,920 and the only time I've seen them on top of the mountain. 492 00:26:56,920 --> 00:26:58,280 It was spectacular, though? 493 00:26:58,280 --> 00:27:00,920 Oh, it was amazing. It's strange, though, because, 494 00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:03,920 doing what we're doing, it's... Well, the way that you do it, 495 00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:06,280 is essentially a very solitary pastime. 496 00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:08,160 But you're not a solitary person. 497 00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:10,280 Well... Do you come up here to contemplate, 498 00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:13,080 do you feel because you're high somehow, 499 00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:15,440 you know, you're on the summit of the gods, 500 00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:17,480 looking down on the rest of humanity? 501 00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:21,280 No! Because we are! We see the cars driving past down there on the A82. 502 00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:22,600 Yeah. Tiny wee things. 503 00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:25,520 And we're up here. For me, personally, 504 00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:27,440 not that I'm not enjoying your company tonight, 505 00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:30,600 but I do like it when I'm by myself and I don't meet another soul. 506 00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:31,480 There's something... 507 00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:34,760 You appreciate things as well, 508 00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:37,000 I think, when you do go back, back home. 509 00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:40,560 It's a bit zen. Yeah, well, absolutely. A bit of zen. 510 00:27:40,560 --> 00:27:43,080 A bit of meditation, maybe, yeah. 511 00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:45,680 But look at it. I mean, you can't argue with that, can you? 512 00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:52,560 We are exceptionally lucky. 513 00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:54,680 The clouds have kept away, 514 00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:59,880 allowing the dying rays of the setting sun to catch the Buachaille. 515 00:27:59,880 --> 00:28:03,760 The great herdsman of Etive looks very imposing now, 516 00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:05,400 as I take a photograph 517 00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:08,240 to capture the essence of my favourite mountain. 518 00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:12,320 Now, this has definitely been worth waiting for. 519 00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:15,240 Because I've never seen the Buachaille in this light before. 520 00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:19,120 He looks truly epic, a real giant, 521 00:28:19,120 --> 00:28:24,080 making this the perfect place for me to end my grand tour among the 522 00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:25,760 legends of the west. 523 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:34,040 My next grand tour takes me to the far north-west, 524 00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:36,280 exploring both above and below the waves.