"This is Great Britain." "Over a third of our country is made up of mountains." "And here. in the far north of Scotland." "there is a vast and remote wilderness." "with mile upon mile of extraordinary., empty landscape." "It's rich in history and tradition." "and just being here makes you feel like an explorer." "Ooh!" "I'll be discovering the unique landscape and people of this remote part of Britain." "is it our last true mountain country?" "These are the mountains of Northwest Scotland." "Am I really in the United Kingdom?" "This looks more like Greenland or Siberia." "But then perhaps it should. because it has rather more in common with those places than it does with Essex. where l come from." "These are the Northwest Highlands." "A cold. cold country., by the look of it." "stretching from the far north of Scotland to the islands off the Scottish west coast." "To drive here from London would take 1 4 hours." "assuming the roads are open." "No trains reach here." "and it would be a very long way by boat." "So I've made other arrangements." "These hills are made even more blank by such a heavy fall of snow." "Man seems to have been wiped from the surface." "and I have to trust my pilot's navigation skills to know that we've arrived." "It feels like I'm being deposited at the ends of the earth." "But those are definitely mountains over there." "and this is all rather wonderful." "Well, here I am at the northernmost part of mainland Britain, virtually the northernmost part, this is the Kyle of Tongue in Scotland." "And the Arctic Circle is actually closer than the south of Britain." "I'm in a region called Sutherland." "Britain's icy desert." "In fact. it's only marginally more populated than the Sahara." "It only takes a moment's thought to realise that Sutherland means "Land of the South"." "Some of the original settlers here came from the north. the Vikings." "Even then. they were looking for an escape from their own overcrowded country." "They came here to explore. and so have I." "I'm going to start tomorrow morning, somewhere over there on Ben Hope, which is 3,000 feet high and then 41 feet on top of that for good measure." "Today., there's very little left of the Vikings." "except for the odd place name." "The village I am heading to." "Tongue." "comes from a Norse word. tunga." "referring to the tongue-shaped coastline." "Luckily., since the night seems to be coming on." "at about three o'clock in the afternoon." "it's not far to walk." "Can I help you..." "Oh. gosh." "you're rather covered in snow!" "If the Vikings came looking for somewhere with more daylight and less snow.." "I think they might have been disappointed." "When the gales hit on Ben Hope." "I've been told." "the temperature can drop to minus 30 Celsius." "This is not the mountain climbing I'm used to." "so I thought I'd better check I had the right kit." "Different weights of socks." "So, presumably..." "I don't know how you decide that before you set off." "You sort of go, "Well, is it going to be a heavy sock day or a light sock day?"" "Presumably, depending on whether you feel it's going to get enormously cold, but so far, we'll see." "How you judge that, I don't know." "Perhaps you ask for advice on that." "Go down to the hotel, you say to the lady at reception..." ""Och." "Heavy sock day today., Mr Jones. "" "A whistle." "When a mist comes down, if you've broken a leg, or you're in trouble, then you blow... um... you blow steadily, once every three minutes, or is it three times a minute?" "And they come and rescue you." "I'd better look that up before I go out!" "There's a sense, as you see all these objects, that it's all a little bit scary, in a funny sort of way." "It's all there to remind you that what you're dealing with is not a quick." "Sound Of Music." "Hills Are Alive. running about having a yodel." "In the morning. there are fresh falls of snow.." "and I'm advised it is indeed a heavy sock day." "It's a 1 2-mile drive from Tongue to Ben Hope." "and we pass absolutely nobody." "This is the sort of country where a four-wheel drive is a way of life." "not a fashion accessory." "The name Ben Hope derives from Old Norse." "and it means "Hill of the Bay"." "It's what the Vikings first saw when they arrived in their longboats and from the top. I'm hoping to be able to see the route they took." "My companion for the ascent is Cameron McNeish." "Cameron is a writer and a mountain guide." "and he's quite used to making his way across a howling waste just for a bit of fun." "Here she is." " So, Cameron, that's Ben Hope." " That's Ben Hope." "It's a nice mountain. lt looks tricky from here, but it's not too difficult." "It looks dramatic because of the way the cliffs fall away at the side, and you've got this big escarpment of rock here." "And I think what you have to remember, these mountains are Arctic." "They're not like the Alps, the Alps are soft, and nice weather, and lots of sunshine." " We're talking about Arctic mountains." " Good." "Cold weather, that's why we have to be dressed properly for the conditions here." "I've got my stuff here." "Do you want to have a look?" "I just want to check I've put on the right stuff, cos l am a bit nervous." " l've got this thing on..." " What have you got underneath?" " l've got about six layers..." " Can I just..." "Granny vests and whatever." " There. look." " OK..." " l've got a fleecy fleece on." " OK." "And then a base layer and then a sort of... you know." "Probably too much, I've got on." " My God, I think you're actually overdressed!" " Am I?" "I think it'll be cold!" "I'm worried!" "About the Arctic conditions!" "I'm leading the way here, and you're the guide." "You're making some nice footsteps for me to follow." "Already., the walk up is beginning to feel like an extended search for a lost ski-pole." "This is a test of my endurance." "But then. this is a mountain that attracts people who want to test themselves." "Ben Hope is a Munro." "a Scottish mountain over 3.000 feet." "The Munros are named after Sir Hugh Munro. who catalogued them in 1 89 1." "Sir Hugh never actually climbed every one." "but he spawned a new hobby." "Ever since. people have been collecting them. like trophies or stamps." "These mad fools have a name." "Munro Baggers." "How many have you bagged?" "I've bagged them all twice." " Twice." " Twice. I'm almost through my third round." " Does this count?" "Does it?" " Yeah." "Oh. yeah." " This will count to your third Munro bag." " My third time up." " How many did you say there were?" " 284." "I can't do the maths, but that's over 500 already." " You've done nearly a thousand!" " Och. yeah." "but I've done some of them numerous times." " Climbing mountains is a silly thing to do." " Come on!" "No, no." "Quick." "I won't be a Munro Bagger, will I?" " Well..." " l won't have bagged very many." "Even if you bagged one, that makes you a Munro Bagger." "Does it?" "So I can call myself a Munro Bagger when I go into the pub?" "The first person to bag the lot was the Reverend AE Robertson in 190 1." "It took him ten years." "Currently., there are over 3.500 people who've done the complete set." "Though. mostly., I understand it." "in the summer." "There's something beautiful about this virgin snow." " lt's almost quite sensual." " lt's absolutely gorgeous." "Now what we need to find, just near the top of this ridge, is a little Swiss café with some umbrellas out." " A glass of gluhwein?" " No, in fact, one of the great things" " is that we haven't got a hope of finding..." " No." "...a Swiss café." "Although I do have one in my backpack. actually." "You'll be pleased to know." "And including two young ladies to serve us hot spiced wine." "For the dedicated Munro Bagger.." "Ben Hope is the most prized of all the Munros because it's the furthest north and the most remote." "And looking out from it halfway up." "it definitely feels like the middle of nowhere." "This being Scotland." "the weather can change in seconds." "And as we near the summit. it does." "The wind suddenly gets up and the views vanish." "I'd looked up how to whistle a distress call... six blasts a minute." "But I couldn't help thinking that on a day like today., who on earth would hear me?" "This is definitely the summit we're coming to." "No, I don't believe you, you see, Cameron." "Well, honestly, we're about 50 metres away from it." "I think you're taking the mickey out of me." "I'm kind of guessing..." "We could be anywhere!" "I'm encouraged by the fact we're on fairly level ground, which suggests the summit plateau." " And the wind's blowing hard." " Right." " lt suggests we're on the top of something." " l see." "It is, that's true." "How will we know when we make it to the top?" " There'll be a great big cairn." " Yep." " And there'll be a thing called a trig puller." " Right." "Old trigonometrical point." "Apparently, the view from here is marvellous." "Hey, there it is!" "Hey!" "Good, good, good." "Well done!" "Well done!" "Congratulations!" "Excellent." "Good man." "Ah, terrific." "Look at that!" " Well done." " But look!" " What a beautiful object." "Look at that." " Yeah." "On a good day., you can look over in that direction and see the Orkney Islands." " floating in the Pentland Firth." " Good." "Over there. on a really good day., you might see Iceland." " Good!" "How terrific!" " But I don't think so." " No, we look over there, we can see Paris..." " The whole of the UK behind you." "Now, listen, the first Munroist ever, AE Robertson, when he reached his last Munro, kissed the cairn and then his wife." " Excuse me." " ln that order." " You should kiss the cairn." " No, no." "If you kiss in these conditions, you end up with your tongue stuck." " Well, you don't have to use your tongue." " Tongue or lips!" "I don't care!" "Just imagine that, the mountain rescue called in to say," " "Emergency!" "Emergency!" - "There's a man..."" ""Griff Rhys Jones is stuck to the trig point."" "Oh. enough. enough!" "Listen. we're only halfway through." " We've still got to get down." " ls that it?" " Yeah. that's it. I'm afraid." " Daddy!" "We've come all this way!" " Let's go!" "Come on!" " l want to build a snowman!" "Come on!" "I want to build a snowman." "I want to play a game of snowballs." "I wanna..." "Going home already!" "What a..." "is that it?" "Well. I had seen the summit. if not the view." "Now.. all that remained was the long journey down." "The winter night was closing in and Cameron knew we had to get off the mountain. quickly." "The Vikings may be long gone but there are people here somewhere." "1 3.500 are scattered over 2.000 square miles of seemingly inhospitable landscape." "And the numbers are going up." "There are still outsiders coming in and looking for something in these remote places." "1 2 miles northeast of Ben Hope is the tiny community of Skerra." "Population 83." "The Post Office is the heart of this village and the surrounding countryside." "It's the only shop for ten miles in any direction." "Neither of the postmistresses." "Marilyn nor Meg. is a native." "Oh. we moved up here 26 years ago from the central belt of Scotland and have no regrets." "None whatsoever." "People thought we were quite mad." "They both love this country., but not everybody comes here to struggle with it." "Never climbed a mountain in my life." "Meg tells me what I'm missing," " but I know what I'm missing." " What are you missing?" "Sweat, exhaustion, terror, exposure, chill... that's what I'm missing as far as I'm concerned." "Well, I think, do you know, on yesterday's experience, I..." "Sweat, exhaustion, terror, chill..." " We didn't get much terror." " No?" " But all the others, we had." " Well, there you are, it proves a point, doesn't it?" "Well. perhaps you can enjoy the wilderness without treating it as a personal challenge." "It is. after all. enough of a struggle just to get from A to B round here." "Luckily., I'm in exactly the right place to catch the only form of public transport available to me." "This is the modern equivalent of the horse-drawn mail coach." "The post bus." "Postman Paul turned out not to be a native Highlander either." "He swapped tame Wiltshire for wild Sutherland." "It's a different world." "You know, there's hills, there's mountains." " l love it." "Love it here." " Why?" "Why do you think this is a good place?" "Everybody knows everybody." "Everybody's helpful." "I could certainly see that the post van was helpful." "There don't seem to be any alternative ways of getting about." " This your first time on a post bus?" " l didn't even know they existed." " Are there a lot in outlying places in Britain?" " There's over a hundred in Scotland." " You're the only public transport?" " Yeah." "There is nothing else." "They must rely on you, I mean," " just the post must be important..." " That's right." "Most of the things they get in life come by post." "I deliver newspapers as well, so they get their daily newspaper from me as well." "It's easy to forget just how different ordinary life can be in this corner of Great Britain." "Of course. it's that difference that brings people like the Post Office ladies and Paul the postman here in the first place." "Popping out for a pint of milk may become a serious expedition." "but on the other hand. the sense of belonging in a community is strong." "The post bus drops me 1 2 miles west of Skerra by the shores of Loch Eriboll." "Ten miles long and the deepest sea-loch in Britain." "And it's overlooked by a new and intriguing intruder into the empty landscape." "I'm greeted by strange shapes and forms." "These are the works of an artist." "Lotte Glob." "The wilderness is her gallery." "Lotte is a bit of a Viking invader herself." "She was drawn to this place nearly 40 years ago from her native Denmark." "She loved this bare country so much." "she had a house specially designed for her to give her the best outlook over the empty hills that inspire her." "But her art is more than a picture of the view." "The landscape provides the raw material which she uses in a novel way." "Lotte takes stones from the hills." "and in a gas-fired kiln she plays with geological time." " The rock..." " Melts." "...melts." " Yeah. lt's white heat." "What temperatures does it have to get to to melt rock?" "Well, I fire up to about 1 320 centigrade." "So essentially, what you do is create a volcano." "Yes." "Each rock reacts differently to the heat." "so Lotte can create new shapes and sculptures. some in the form of books." " And these are the actual melted rocks here?" " Yes." "Erm, this was..." "These are pure rocks, different kind of rocks." " Which you have picked up in the hills?" " Yeah. ln the hills." " Yes." " To see it melted like this, to see the rock, in this sort of glass form, almost, in the bits that have come here, is to suddenly be aware of the extraordinary forces" " that created it in the first place." " Yes." "Yes." "That's what's so exciting." "And the whole of everything that we're standing on was created by that process." "Lotte's attraction to this landscape isn't just the rocks she can melt." "It's the solitude she can feel here." "I don't suppose the wilds of northern Scotland ever looked more of a wilderness than they do today, under three feet of snow." "It's just... you can just see nothing as far as the eye can see." "Just nothing, except, of course, a deserted cottage, which somehow makes it even more of a wilderness." "More empty." "But it wasn't... it wasn't always the case." "Nowadays. there are more people in one square mile of London than in the whole of Sutherland's 2.000 square miles." "But the Highlands were once home to more than half Scotland's population." "1 4 miles southwest of Lotte's house is Loch Naver and a sober reminder of what happened to them." "This is Grummore and, er, 22 families used to live here." "1 1 7 people, scattered in houses all over this hillside, until the Duchess of Sutherland decided to clear them away." "This was known as the Highland Clearances." "A notorious moment in Scottish history." "In the 1 8th century., landowners who presided over these wilderness regions began systematically evicting their tenants from the settlements they'd occupied for perhaps thousands of years." "They replaced the Highlanders with herds of far more profitable sheep." "The clearances started around the 1 760s and continued for a hundred years." "An estimated 1 50.000 people were turfed out of their homes." "often violently." "A few stone ruins are now all that remain of their villages." "There's just enough of it left, somehow, to get a sort of... feeling of the... settlement." "Not really a village in the way that we sort of expect a village to be, street through the middle of it, but you get some sense of all these little... houses low down." "Almost... almost like a sort of Stone Age village in a way." "Most of the people cleared from the Highlands had no option but to move south to towns and cities." "or to emigrate forever." "Those who stayed were forced onto poor land near the coast." "often remaining tenants of the very landlords who'd broken up their communities in the first place." "They had to scratch out a living from the land." "and so crofting." "low-level subsistence farming. began." "Today., there are over 1 7.500 crofts in the Highlands." "Most are still tenants of landlords who own vast estates." "But a few crofters are ringing the changes in these hills." "One is Allan MacRae." "He farms a croft in Assynt. 2 4 miles southwest of the ruins at Grummore." " Hello, there." " Can I get..." "is it..." " ls it all right to disturb you now?" "." " lt's all right." "I'm just gonna feed some of the young beasts up..." " Can I come with you?" " Aye, sure." "This croft's been in your family for a long time." "Yes, it has." "My father and his father before him." "Several generations ago, my forebears were cleared" " into Assynt, here." " Yes." "And, er, we've been here ever since." "To run a smallholding in this very tough sort of area, means you have to work quite hard." "Well, I..." "It's a way of life, you know." "I mean, we don't..." "I never consider myself, that I work." "You have to like doing it." " Yes." " Otherwise. you wouldn't do it." "Come on, calfies!" "Now they'll come." "Come on." "Come on, you silly beasts." "Basically, if you want to live here, you have to turn your hand to a lot of things." "And you have to do a lot to help yourself." "You know, that's the thing." "You cannot generate the kind of cash surplus that'd enable you to get people to do things for you." "You've got to do it yourself, most of the time." "Highland people have a deep commitment to this country and Allan did do it for himself." "1 5 years ago." "Allan led a drive to buy back land." "He wanted the crofters to own their own property., not be tenants of a big landlord." "With a hundred other like-minded men and women." "he formed the Assynt Crofters' Trust." "which. in 1992." "succeeded in buying back 2 1.000 acres of their communal upland grazing." "In winning the land, the Assynt crofters have struck a historic blow for people on the land right throughout the Highlands and Islands." "Since then. the trust has built a hydroelectric scheme." "and several houses for the local community." "And the primary school roll has doubled." "Before I left. I went for a warming cup of tea above Allan's barn." "which. incredibly., he built himself.." "brick by brick." "over the last 20 years." "I'm a great believer that you should stand on your own feet." "I believe life is what you make it, and you have to... get cracking." "He has hot and cold running water.. though no central heating that I was aware of." "Allan's croft is pretty basic." "but it's a life he believes in." "For Allan. the emptiness of this country is not a blessing. but a curse." "He wants to see more people here doing what he's doing." "It's perfectly possible to put people back out there on the land." "I'm quite sure of that. I'm quite sure there are people with the appetite to use it" " if they've got the opportunity." " People like me, who come along, and say, "l look at this place and think it has a certain beauty because it's so empty,"" "what do you say to me?" "Well, I don't see that the future of the Highland people should be sacrificed to suit people like you." "No, I don't." "They're our heritage." "And we... we need to hang on to it." "I firmly believe that the crofters are the people best suited to protect the land up here." "I came here with mixed feelings about what sounded a bit like a land grab to me." "But I left totally won over by Allan's commitment and passion." "People care deeply about this extraordinary., humpbacked country." "But. of course. the difficult land itself is a lot older than Highlanders and Vikings." "And as I journey on south." "it's time. perhaps. to go back further to investigate the forces that created it." "Not far from Allan's house." "I'm told. there is a sacred mountain." "Sacred not to the locals." "Picts or Vikings." "but to geologists." "This is Suilven, and it's a Norse word meaning "pillar mountain"." "Pillar mountain." "They could see it from the sea, the Vikings, when they arrived, and they used it as a seamark." "And all I know about it is that it is 2,398 feet high." "Yes." "I'm not climbing that, that's ridiculous." "I'm assured there's an easy route up it." "It looks completely unclimbable." "Unbelievable." "But there's no turning back now." "Suilven is like a monument to the foundations of the earth." "The rocks on which it sits are some of the oldest in the world." "Now, the other thing, of course, that's notable about Suilven is that it... it rises up out of a... an inaccessible wilderness of heather and bog." "And that's why I've had to trudge five miles to get here, and what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna rest overnight before starting the climb proper, in... in a bothy." "And I think that is probably the bothy over there." "Well, I..." "I hope so, anyway." "The term "bothy" comes from the Gaelic word "bothan". meaning "hut"." "Most are deserted shepherds' cottages." "which have been adopted and looked after by walkers and climbers as rough and ready shelters." "Not too rough. I hope." "Aha. lt's dark in here." "Well... I feel like the Count of Monte Cristo now." "The..." "This is a night in the bothy!" "The bothy in the night." "Good." "Let's have a look around and see what we've got." "I don't know if you can see that, that's..." "That's the loo." "Let's put it that way." "What else have we got here?" "Ooh. wait a minute." "We have here... a book." "Suilv..." "S..." "Suileag." "So, here are my instructions." "I have to leave the bothy clean and tidy for the next visitors." "Er, I have to reduce the fire risk by keeping the fire small." "OK!" "Cold. presumably." "Not burning highly combustible materials such as plastics, and making sure the fire is out before I leave, I can do that." "Take all my rubbish away with me." "Use the spade." "We found the spade." "To bury human waste." "The temperature could fall tonight to minus eight, apparently, outside." ""Whether you visit the mountains to climb." "to walk or simply to gaze at the scenery.," ""you will soon find that you use a considerable amount of energy."" ""lt's therefore important that you eat well."" "Says my essential guide." "And so... I've got some... boil in the bag." "OK. get in." "That's it." "Get in." "There we go." "Mm." "Actually, that's delicious." "It tastes a lot better than it looks in the bottom of the bag there." "It tastes delicious." "It's quite chillied, as well." "Quite hot." "Suilven's incredibly ancient mass towered over me in the moonlight." "I was miles from anywhere. and anyone." "And I have to admit... it felt rather magical." "The temperature in the night did fall to minus eight degrees." "But with the dawn. things got moving again." "The morning light provided a crisp. clear view of the crest of Suilven." "To help me understand how this startling mountain was formed l'm going up with geologist Peter Nienow.." "who had an even earlier start than I did." "He isn't just a geologist." "Luckily., he's a skilled mountaineer too." "How long do you think it'll take us to get up?" "Probably about two or three hours from here." " And you've done it before?" " A couple of times." "But I've never seen the view from the top, so..." " lt's rare." " Cross fingers. lt is." " ls it?" " Yeah." "The reason Suilven is so special to geologists is because you can see the layers of sandstone that make up the mountain mass." "Each was formed by deposits of mineral sediment resting on the sea bed." "As more and more layers built up." "the pressure solidified the sediment into rock." "with the oldest rock on the bottom." "So, these rocks, how old are these?" "Let's start with them." " So, these rocks, the rocks that we're on..." " Yeah?" "...are... well. the oldest are about 3.3 billion years old." "I'll just..." "I have..." "Sorry, I have to stop for just a minute." "For two reasons." "One. cos l'm... knackered." "And the other reason is because I can never get my head around billions." " So how many..." " So that's 3,300 million years old." "3,000 million." " Years old." " About that, yeah." "Up to 3,300 million." "So they're some of the oldest rocks in the world." "So what are the..." "what are the basic forces, then, that create mountains?" "The basic forces are... plate tectonics, that's basically, we've got continents that are floating on a... magma, which is a liquid, which is, erm, deeper down in the earth." "And that liquid has got convection currents, it's continually moving, and the plates are floating on that, just like a crust of porridge that's drying, but floating on a warmer porridge underneath." "Basically, the plates are moving round, and the best example is somewhere like the Himalayas in India." "The Indian subcontinent has come and crashed into the Asian continent and the pressures have led to mountain uplift." "400 million years ago. this mountain uplift created a range the size of the Himalayas where we're standing now." "60 million years ago. continental drift ripped this part of Scotland away from North America. where it was." "and 20.000 years ago. almost all of Suilven would have been submerged under billions of tons of ice." "And we could have skated to the top." "But today., we're just gonna have to take a slightly more difficult route." "How on earth are we gonna get up that?" "It's quite steep, but it'll be fine." " We're heading straight up that gully..." " Yeah?" "...to the col on the lowest point of the skyline." "So we're just gonna sort of contour, then traverse up to the foot of the gully, and then head straight up it." "And we'll see whether we need ice-axe and crampons, we'll decide that nearer the gully." "OK." "Let's have a go." "Eventually., Peter decided we wouldn't need crampons to give us extra grip." "lnstead. we kick into the steep snow-slope." "jumping ahead thousands of years in geological time with each footstep." "It got steeper and steeper and more and more slippery." "That is just amazing." "I thought we were coming out onto something flat!" "That is extraordinary." "So. we still had a bit to go." "Admiring the view became less important than watching where we were putting our feet." "One slip on this icy., metre-wide path and there would be a thousand-foot fall back the way we'd come." " This is like a roof!" " Amazing. isn't it?" " Absolutely." " OK." "And when we reached the summit." "the reward was simply astonishing." " Not bad, is it?" " No. I admit, I had the jitters, coming up the last bit, my knees went weak and trembly." "I'm not sure if they went weak and trembly because of the beauty of the view or because of the effort of clambering up here through the snow and ice." "But what an extraordinary vision." "And it's a vision created by immeasurable natural forces." "This landscape has been made, as it were, by what you specialise in, which is glaciers." "The sort of... the final sculpting, yeah, has been created by glaciers." "When Britain was covered by an ice sheet, the northern extent came flowing out here, eroding, removing the sandstone, and Suilven, supposedly, is aligned this way because of the way the ice has flowed round it." " lt's meant to be so the ice has been..." " Go on either side." " Yeah, streamlined it." " Flowing out." "Just being up on the shark's fin of Suilven was a unique and enthralling experience." "It slices out of the wilderness and tells its story through its own extraordinary shape." "What we need now is either a helicopter..." " Paraglider." " Paraglider." " Just jump off." " One between two?" "But I didn't want to leave." "This was a panorama of a pristine wonderland." "And I was lucky to see it." "But it was time to move on." "My exploration of some of our most remote mountains would not be ending in the far north." "Next. I had to cross the sea to an island off its coast." "60 miles southwest of Suilven lies the largest and most famous island of the inner Hebrides." "The Isle of Skye." "The gap between it and the mainland is less than a mile." "yet Skye has preserved the distinct identity of an inaccessible place." "with 350 miles of coastline." "and some of the most astonishing rock formations in the country." "The south of Skye is dominated by the Cuillin Mountains." "a crown of peaks and pinnacles that rises sheer out of the sea." "The Highland Clearances reached this island too." "Even today., Skye continues to struggle to hold on to its younger residents." "People love this place but sometimes they need to go where the work is." "The bridge that comes in is also the way out and the road to the south." "The snow was going." "this suddenly felt like civilisation." "Even the bus was a bit of a shock." "Roads. lorries. people." "I was disorientated." "I needed to get my bearings." "and Janice McPherson was on hand to give me some advice." "is it a long way from civilisation, where you live, then?" "No, I'm just about five minutes' walk from the village." "Oh. right." "And the place to head for.." "where's that?" "The Tongadale. lt's quite a homey pub." " ls it?" " Yeah." "So what would you recommend I do, then, tonight?" "Tonight, either Tongadale, or up to the ceilidh." " OK." "There's a ceilidh tonight?" " Yeah." " l thought ceilidhs were just for tourists." " Oh. no." "Everybody goes." " Seriously., they go dancing?" " Oh. yes." " Do Scottish dancing just for fun?" " Just for fun." "Yeah." " OK." " Just all get together." "Have you done any Scottish dancing ever?" "No." "Don't you want to do any dancing?" "No." "Well. I wasn't sure myself." "But I'd reached my stop." "I was staying at a hotel right underneath the Black Cuillin mountains." "And the only reason my guesthouse was here at all was to put up the climbers who've been coming here for a hundred years to have a crack at what I've been told was Britain's only Alpine range." " Hello." " Hi, there." "is this the Sli-gachan Hotel?" "Sligachan Hotel." "We pronounce it Sligachan." " The Slug-achan..." "Hotel?" " Mm..." "Sligachan." "Not bad." "is that... is that..." "Thank you!" "Tell me that's Gaelic..." " ls it "Gallic" or "Gay-lic"?" " l would say "Gah-lic"." " Garlic?" " Gal..." "Gah-lic"" " Like in the tuber." " Gah-lic." " Gaah..." "Gah-lic." " Gah-lic." " OK." "Fine." "Well. I have a room booked..." " You certainly have. yep." " Thank you very much." " Room 1 7, good view of the Cuillins up there." " Yes, thank you." " Your room's up the stairs..." " OK." "Good." "...and up to the left." "I had to get to Portree." "Before I took on the challenge of the Cuillins." "I had to take on the challenge of a ceilidh." " Right. I'm not too old to do this?" " Oh. no. no. no. no." "Oh. no." "Got plenty of dancing years yet." "Right." "OK." " Well, we shall see." " We shall see." "We'll find out." "After the wilderness of Ben Hope and Suilven." "where there are often 20 miles between settlements." "it was quite nice to be surrounded by a lot of people again." "Some of the Highlands might feel deserted." "but Skye's population is actually increasing." "with more and more people drawn to its landscape. its mountains... and its dancing." "In 20 years. the number of people living here has increased by nearly a third." " See, I know this one." " You know it!" " Oh. I know this one." " Yes. and you're very good!" "Too early the next morning. I had an urgent appointment just north of the hotel." "A Gaelic language lesson." "Gaelic was the language of most of Scotland for about 1 500 years." "until the 1 8th century." "Today., only some 60.000 people speak it." "Ceilidh was a Gaelic word that was easier to say than to spell." "I'd had trouble with Sligachan." "and if I didn't watch out." "I was still calling it "Gay-lic". which is apparently a word for the Irish language." "I needed some help." "So I went to a local primary school where Gaelic is taught." "Before I attempt to climb any of them." "I want to learn how to pronounce the names of Skye's mountains." "Blimey." "Teacher's being a bit strict." "I better concentrate." "Right, Griff." "No?" "How does it go?" "Gaelic is a language rich in meaning." "Sgurr Dearg means Red Peak." "Sgurr nan Gillean means the Peak of the Young Men." "And this..." "looks impossible." " No." " No." "The names I'm learning. or trying to learn." "have a real human history to them." "Many of the individual Cuillin mountains have been named after people." "the explorers and the pioneers who first went up there in the 1 880s." "The sport of mountaineering began in the Alps." "It was only later in the century that climbers began to look at a lower.." "but equally exciting range. closer to home." "The most famous of Skye's mountaineers were an unlikely pair brought together by their affection for the Cuillin mountains." "Norman Collie. a scientist from Manchester.." "came to Skye in 1 886." "He employed the son of a local crofter.." "John MacKenzie. as a guide." "Collie and MacKenzie formed a regular climbing partnership." "despite their class differences." "In 1 890. they surveyed the whole of the Cuillin range." "the first to do so." "Observers said that although they were great climbing companions." "they exchanged few words." "Their unspoken understanding of the mountains was enough to form a friendship that lasted 40 years." "Their names are memorialised in the hills today." "Sgurr Mhic Choinnich." "MacKenzie's Peak." "for MacKenzie." "and Sgurr Thormaid." "Norman's Peak. for Collie." "After MacKenzie died in 1933." "at the age of 7 7." "Collie continued to climb here in memory of his old friend." "Today., though. they're reunited in this unexpected. shady patch of green." "In the end." "Collie asked to be buried next to MacKenzie." "The mathematician and the shepherd." "I don't know whether MacKenzie ever really understood the extent of the affection that Collie had for him." "He was always known as a rather self-contained man." "And the graves are made of stones from the Cuillin which they first explored together." "The mountains may often have been named after the men who climbed them 1 25 years ago." "but they belonged to someone else." "In fact. they still do." "Though. perhaps not for much longer." "The Cuillin mountains are up for sale." "If you're bold enough, you can go into an estate agent in Edinburgh and get yourself one of these." "This is the brochure for the Cuillins." "The entire mountain range." "For sale. 1 4 miles of coastline." "And, crucially, 1 1 Munros, "separate Scottish mountains over 3,000 feet"." "And "nine additional tops over 3,000 feet"." "And then, in very small writing, your attention is drawn to the important notice." "It says viewing "strictly by appointment"." "So, under no circumstances are you allowed to pop and have your own look at the mountains." "Even though, apparently, you're quite free to climb them any time." "It's recommended by the estate agent that you take one of those short men in a pinstriped suit with alligator shoes, tottering up the path." "Here's a picture of a peak." "And presumably, they're thinking, well, this could be you." "Or whether it's to encourage you to think that you'd be able to stand on the peak here and shout at them, "Get off my land!"" ""This is now privately owned." "these mountains. "" "It's a very lavish offer." "But as yet. they have no buyers." "The Cuillins are the property of the Clan MacLeod." "who continue to own the mountains that were once part of a territory which covered more than half of Skye." "They also own this rather imposing piece of property.," "Dunvegan Castle." "built 850 years ago as a fortress when rival clans. huge extended families." "had bitter neighbourly disputes over this island." "Today., the castle is still home to the Chief of the Clan." "John Macleod." "Of course. it was designed to be impregnable." "So how on earth do I get in it?" "Ah." "Through the back door." "Of course." " Oh. hello." " Hello." "My name's Griff, I've come to see the Chief of the Clan MacLeod." " That's John Macleod..." " Hello!" " Oh. hello!" " Hi. welcome." " l'm Griff." " Nice to see you." "And you." "Now, I believe you're going to be able to show me around the castle." "If that's what you want to see." "That's what I'd love to see." "Thank you." "And explain a bit about the Cuillins, as we go." " OK!" " ls that all right?" " l'll try!" " Good!" "Thank you very much!" " Yes." " Do you want to lead on?" " Right." "OK." " Good." "The castle is one of the major tourist attractions on the Isle of Skye." "And the whole house is like a picture-book history of the island." "Originally., the MacLeods held the south." "and their bitter rivals the MacDonalds." "the north." "The MacLeods are certainly not incomers to Skye." "Or.. at least. not since the 1 260s." "Here, your ancestors surround you." "What number Clan Chief are you?" "Number 29." "Chief John is descended from Viking royalty." "A son of King Olaf I was Clan Chief number one." "It's quite a... that's quite a good sort of lineage" " to be able to look back on, isn't it?" " Bunch of savages!" "This is a terrific outfit." "That was when the tartan was proscribed." " People weren't allowed to wear kilts." " So that's vaguely Scottish... lt was against the law, so that was his invention." " He was a dreadful fellow." "Awful man." " Was he?" "Yes, he was a wicked man." "Very beautiful portrait." "But he was reputed to have murdered his first wife in the dungeon, who is this MacDonald lady." " Oh. dear." " Er.. but. he was a real bad hat." "He... he really was." "He was a wicked man." "But I do like that wall of paintings." "The Cuillins have been MacLeod land for 850 years." "They are the dominant feature of what is left of the clan's territory." "I wondered why John Macleod would ever consider selling them." "But then he took me on a guided tour of the east wing." "This is the part of the castle that tourists don't see." "This is where his visitors have to stay." "My guests were sleeping in this room, and then in the morning, they told me they had to put up an umbrella in the middle of the night, when they were in bed." " And this is this room." " Ah." "So the roof..." "It's dripping on me here." " So the roof has..." " lt's all right, come in!" "The roof has... the roof has gone." " The roof..." "This roof has completely gone." " Yeah." "And how much of the castle is in a dilapidated state?" "The degradation is something that's seeping through the walls..." " Right." "Yeah." "...and it's really castle-wide." "Oh." "God. look at this." "Oh. no. how awful." "This was once my favourite room." "What are the estimates now for the repair of this side of the castle?" "It's somewhere around 1 9.2 million." "even if you are clan royalty., so John Macleod wants to sell off some of his biggest assets." "You decided five years ago, or thought five years ago that you could raise some money to pay for this by selling off some of the Cuillin?" "That's the only bit of land that we have left, and so I thought that in today's world somebody might want to buy them." "Quite a lot of people on the island didn't want you to sell them." "No. I didn't want to sell them myself either, I certainly understand that." "And what about the people who said you didn't have the right to sell them?" "Well, I thought that was very insulting." "Were they MacDonalds. by any chance?" "On consideration. I don't think even a rival clan is going to take on this land now." "What sort of a braveheart would step forward to buy them?" "They're part of the identity of Skye." "there are many on the island who strongly object to the idea of putting them on the property market." "As for me. having learned about their history., how to pronounce their names." "and now the intentions of their owner.." "it was time to make an appointment to view." "There are 1 1 Munros making up the massive serrated horseshoe of the Black Cuillin." "The terrifying jagged ridge." "the longest in Britain at nearly seven miles." "provides some of the most difficult climbing in the country." "Climbers love the crazy Cuillins." "Apart from the deadly drops." "narrow gullies and exposed pinnacles." "the magnetism of the rock means navigating by compass is dangerously unreliable." "I'm going to try to tackle one of the central peaks." "Bruach na Frithe." "which means the Slope of the Deer Forest." "And like the pioneer Norman Collie." "I've taken the precaution of enlisting some local guides." "Eoghain McKinnon." "Paddy Stevenson and Sarah Kay walk and climb here almost every week." "Eoghain's the local electrician. and seems not to have noticed that it's freezing cold." "and there's a strong wind blowing." "I feel a complete southern softie in my waterproof shell." "The names of the new pinnacles." "the ones I haven't learned so far.." "seem to want to tell me something." " This is Am Basteir." " Ah." " Am Basteir, what does that mean?" " Er, the Executioner." "I don't know how it ever got the name." "And this is... this is a dangerous ridge?" "People fall off this?" " Well. it has... takes quite a few casualties." " Does it?" "Yes, mm." "The forbidding mountains get their name." "the Black Cuillin. from the dark gabbro rock." "It's loved by climbers because of the grip it allows." "but it doesn't make climbing on gabbro entirely a cakewalk." "You've got to watch out for the patches of basalt." "Within it there's loads of basalt dykes that have intruded up through the gabbro, and in the wet there they can be dicey," " so you're thinking..." " So the basalt is..." "Super-grippy gabbro right beside super-slippy basalt," "And again, that basalt is very shattered in places, so it..." " Right." "...so it's slippy., and you think you've got a nice hold, and it'll come off." "So, you do..." " Painting a lovely picture, aren't we?" " l know." " No, no." " lt's fantastic up there." "I'm feeling more confident all the time." "At least the wind's died down." "We seem to be walking up into God's building site." "The rock has been shattered and heaped into piles of gravel by the ice and the rain and most of ourjourney is sheer.. unending trudge." " l tell you what I'm finding, Paddy." " Yeah?" "The business of climbing a mountain is mostly looking at your feet." "That's what you do, you just spend a lot of time checking that you're not gonna stick your foot on the wrong bit and fall over." "Yeah, yes. lt's quite important to look where you're putting your feet, though." "Even though, I think you should stop and look back." "Look at that." "Yeah, yeah, that's what it's all about." "What's that one called there, that sort of sugarloaf mountain?" "That, er, that's Glamaig." "What we were climbing was even more impressive." "The massive rock formations dwarf everything around." "These may not be the highest mountains in the world but the way they rise straight up out of the sea gives us an overpowering perspective." "We dominate miles of Scottish wilderness." " The sun." " Look at that." " The sun and everything." " The sun lying all over the... all over the island and the water." " Loch Brackadale out there." " lt's empty here." "Yeah." "We've lain under a dark cloud all the way up, which sort of hides the very top of the Black Cuillin, aptly named, I think." "But look at this." "But the summit was still an hour away." "The higher we climbed. the closer we seemed to get to the heart of the Cuillin." "Here we are." "The race to the summit." "Terrific panoramic all-round views." "Think of all those other ones you've got left to do." "Yeah, yeah, yes." "And from here you get some sense of the extraordinary fantasy landscape stretching away." "The top is a true vantage point." "I can see the country as a whole." "this extraordinary corner of Britain." "Marching away to the far north via range after range of mountains is a wild and difficult place." "For thousands of years." "people have struggled to exist in this country and struggled to control it." "The last family to live in the Cuillins finally deserted their farmhouse in the early 1 900s, which, coincidentally, was about the same time as the first climbers arrived here." "And today people are still retreating from the wilderness, going where the jobs are and where life is softer." "But they're sort of being replaced by a strange combination of adventurers, and seekers... nutters." "And I suppose... I suppose, having climbed a bit, I'm beginning to see why." "Britain's mountains have a lot to give." "They're a timeless source of fascination." "challenge and wonder."