The seas around Scotland are a paradise of islands -
700 at least.
Some rise up in majestic splendour.
Others barely break the surface.
The Scottish lsles are home
to some of the most close-knit communities in Britain,
people ringed by the sea.
lts their provider, their adversary and their inspiration.
Ourjourney will explore the lifestyles
forged by this extraordinary land and seascape.
On Shetland, Miranda goes potty over ponies.
- That's a really short one! - These are miniatures.
Tessa Dunlop delves into the secrets of life in the deep.
What is that? lt's got purple legs.
At Fingal's Cave, Hermione seeks out
the inspiration behind a world-famous melody.
Neil discovers how a disaster at sea broke the heart of an entire island.
The clock stopped.
The world changed.
And l'm unravelling Harris Tweed,
hand-made by foot.
This is Coast.
We're sampling the delights of the Scottish lsles.
My journey will take me across the islands of the Outer Hebrides.
l'll be heading for Port of Ness
but l begin in the south, on Eriskay.
Arriving somewhere new,
my first instinct is to make for the centre of town.
Never mind the centre - where's the town?
There are just 1 00 or so islanders
but they're spread over six square miles.
With so much space to do their own thing,
l'm keen to know what binds Eriskay people together.
What is it that creates an island's special community?
The focus of village life is the local shop.
This is a real Aladdin's cave.
The islanders run this shop themselves, to suit their needs.
Wooden clothes pegs. l didn't know those were still available.
- Special socks for Wellington boots. - Yes.
- Does it rain here? - (Laughs) Oh, not really.
This isn't just the only shop on Eriskay - it's the post office too.
- Hello. - Hello.
- Are you Patrick? - Yes.
- l'm Nick. Can l come round the back? - You can indeed.
- Hello there. - Hello.
Are these all your customers on the island,
the people you deliver letters to?
All the customers, yes.
They're labelled by their Christian names.
Labelled... Labelled by name, yes.
Most of the other post offices go by their numbers.
No, but l just go by name, and that's it, so...
You must know the island better than anybody. Would you take me for a spin?
How many jokes d'you have to put up with about Postman Pat,
- given your name is Patrick? - Er, quite a few, actually.
What did you do before you were Eriskay's postie?
l was 1 5 and a half when l left home and went to sea,
into the Merchant Navy.
l did that for 20 years.
But every time l was coming home, it was getting harder to go away,
so l became the postman and 20 years later l'm still here.
There's something about the islands out here that really draw you back.
Strong ties bind people to this place
and the islanders aren't the only ones drawn back here.
There's another group of regular returners...offshore.
- Permission to board? l'm Nick. - l'm Ben.
My guide's Ben Wilson.
For over ten years, Ben's been following a family of bottlenose dolphins
who've shown up every summer.
l'm hoping they haven't changed their plans this year.
Right here! Right in front of us here. Right under the boat.
BEN: There's a small community of animals. About 1 2 individuals.
Ben and his colleagues want to know what it is
that brings the dolphins back here.
ln the summer, we tend to find them within about 1 0km of this spot.
There's definitely a food supply that's keeping them here.
Where they go in the winter, don't know,
so l guess that's the jigsaw we've got to build up.
Shared experience and fun keep communities together
at sea and on land.
(Scottish reel, clapping)
l've been invited to the social event of the year-
the golden wedding anniversary of Roddy and Peggy Mclnnes,
islanders born and bred, who are having a ceilidh.
lt looks like everyone on Eriskay has turned out tonight.
There's a first for everything.
For me, that's Scottish dancing.
l've never needed a map so badly.
The Scottish islands nurture communities
and they can also inspire individuals.
Around 40 miles southeast of Eriskay
there's a tiny lump of rock with a grand musical reputation -
Staffa.
Hermione is on her way to the island to explore its inspirational sound.
HERMlONE: For centuries, Staffa has been a place of pilgrimage
for scientists, painters and musicians.
Undoubtedly, the most famous composer to come to Staffa
was this man, Felix Mendelssohn.
lnspired by his visit here in 1 829,
Mendelssohn wrote the Hebrides Overture,
also known as Fingal's Cave.
For nearly 200 years, this music has been associated with this island.
Or, more exactly, this cave.
l'm here with musician, Seonaid Aitken, who's packed her violin,
and David Sharp, an acoustics expert from the Open University,
who's brought his microphones.
We're going to investigate the musical qualities
of an awesome natural wonder.
l am absolutely blown away by this cave.
l wonder what Mendelssohn would have thought,
seeing this for the first time.
lt is truly inspiring.
lts Gaelic name, Uamh-Binn, means ''melodious cave'',
so called after the musical sounds the cave produces as the waves rush in.
Felix Mendelssohn left Germany in 1 829 to embark on the Grand Tour.
His trip included the Western lsles.
They made quite an impact on the young composer.
Got a copy of a letter here that Mendelssohn wrote to his sister.
ln it, he says, ''ln order to make you understand
how extraordinarily l've been affected by the Hebrides,
the following came into my mind.''
And then he wrote out these bars of music.
And this is the opening of his famous masterpiece.
- Can you pick out the notes here? - Definitely.
This here is the opening theme, which he would have on the cellos.
And later on, you see it transferring up to the First Violin section.
So, as you've got the violin, could you play us a bit of that?
Absolutely.
When Mendelssohn's overture was first performed,
it was called The lsles Of Fingal.
lt's better known today as Fingal's Cave.
So, what is it about the cave that is so inspiring?
David Sharp, our acoustics expert,
is preparing to test the cave's musical quality,
armed with his microphone.
And Seonaid Aitken is tuning up. She's our one-woman orchestra.
My bow was flattening itself, and fingers sliding all over the place.
Fingal's Cave is often described as a natural concert hall
but how do the acoustics compare with a modern auditorium?
The sound is so different as you just come through the mouth of the cave
to where we are here.
lt completely changes. lt's so reverberant in here. lt's so echoey.
Maybe that's the musical secret of this chamber- its reverberation.
So that's what David's going to measure.
How is the gun going to help us measure reverberation?
OK, well, the thing about a gun
is that the gunshot is a very high-energy burst of sound.
So we get the initial burst of sound
and then we get sort of reflected sound,
reverberating sound, dying away. We're going to measure that.
So my job is to fire the gun?
- Don't forget your ear-defenders. - No.
OK.
(Echoing)
- Has it shown up on the trace? - lt has shown up.
This big jump up is you firing the gun.
And then the sound level drops off quite gradually
as we get the reflected sound just dying away slowly.
So, actually, the reverberation time is about four seconds.
Most concert halls have a reverberation time somewhere around two seconds.
A cathedral - St Paul's Cathedral - over ten seconds. Maybe 1 1 or 1 2.
So St Paul's incredibly echoey - much more than in Fingal's Cave.
More so than here. But this is more echoey than a concert hall.
So it's part way between a concert hall and a cathedral
in terms of its acoustics.
Now that you know the cave has a reverberation time of four seconds,
d'you think that gives you an insight
into how this place inspired Mendelssohn?
l think it does, actually. lt was the waves that inspired him.
lt's this four-second reverberation time which was one of the main factors
in causing this change to the sound of the waves.
Fingal's Cave attracts tourists by the score.
Today they're in for a treat -
a performance of Mendelssohn's overture in the cave that helped inspire it.
NlCK: l'm continuing my journey north along the Outer Hebrides
to the island of Benbecula.
This causeway links the communities of South Uist and Benbecula.
But back in the 1 960s, it wasn't only locals who were making this crossing.
Trucks were rolling along these roads, laden with rockets.
That's because Benbecula was the headquarters of a missile-testing range.
lt was the height of the Cold War
and Britain was desperate to keep up with the nuclear arms race.
As the military mobilised in defence of the realm,
the islanders were preparing to face an invasion of their own.
With the rockets came soldiers -
young men from all over the UK.
Watching over his young chaps was the redoubtable Colonel Cooper.
They get on very well indeed.
They have settled down very nicely and the locals have accepted them.
And l think our relations are extremely cordial.
British military bases had their own shops and bars, run by the NAAFl.
Here, the army and civilians might rub shoulders.
Benbecula was no exception.
l've come to meet Margaret Macdonald.
Hello, Margaret.
A local girl. Hello.
She wasjust 1 9 when she went to work in the NAAFl shop.
This is where the NAAFl shop was.
You were there with friends who were also islanders.
Yes, they were all island girls.
lt was a meeting place, the NAAFl shop,
because they knew the girls in the shop and we knew them.
They used to come in and it was a sort of social event, really.
- They didn't come to shop. - Really?
So it was good fun for the island girls
but what about the squaddies?
Lance Corporal John Saxton was 22 when he was posted to Benbecula.
- Got room for a hitch-hiker? - OK.
Hello, John.
l'd been told before l got here that there's a girl behind every tree.
- You've seen what it's like. - No trees.
Exactly.
John's taking me to the site of his old barracks.
lt must have been a floodgate opening for the girls.
lf you've only got a very small community
and then you get 300 fellas coming in... it's heaven for somebody.
lt was really good. lt was a very good social life
and they had lots of dances on the actual camp itself, in the NAAFl.
And that's when l remember the green buses
going round the villages in North Uist
and picking up local girls and taking them to the army camp.
Jiving and twisting and things like that.
lf you went to the local dances, it was a hop.
lt was one of these things that had a single fella sat on a chair,
playing the accordion.
Out of all the men who poured into that NAAFl, did you meet anyone special?
l did. He was in the Royal Signals here. He had come in from Germany.
Oh, l met the wife up here.
l met him in the NAAFl, l think, and...
l was one of the dancers and l spied her over and, ''That'll do me fine.''
- l think it was the NAAFl. - You can't remember where you met him.
This is me on my wedding day in 1 969.
lt's my wedding photograph.
l can see why you went for John. Handsome man, eh?
John and Margaret married.
Then John was posted to Cyprus.
But for Margaret, the Mediterranean was no match for Benbecula.
The pull of the island community wasjust too strong to resist.
When John left the army, they came home.
lt's not just locals like Margaret who are connected to Benbecula.
We all have a link to this island.
Benbecula is still protecting us.
lt's the front line of national defence.
4023.
Behind this fence is a piece of kit
that's been guarding Britain since the Cold War.
Squadron Leader Mark Philipson
has agreed to throw open the doors of his base to Coast.
And there are lots of doors.
Wow! lt looks like something from a James Bond set.
This is the radar Type 92.
lt sees aircraft out to about 250 miles and up to about 90,000 feet.
This radar is here to guard and to look out into the West Atlantic
over the western part of Scotland.
Now the Cold War is history, why d'you still need this?
Well, as 9/1 1 proved,
you still have to be able to defend your airspace.
The enemy has changed, and without bits of equipment like this
we wouldn't have a chance of finding the potential rogue airliner.
And this is what the radar picks up.
Each flashing green dot is a plane in airspace covered by Benbecula.
And if, among these innocent green dots,
there was a rogue aircraft, how would you spot it?
By elimination. We have to maintain awareness on what all of them are
so if we find something that we can't correlate or resolve,
then, by default, that has to be a problem.
ln the Battle of Britain you phoned and said, ''Scramble.''
What would you do now?
We pass it up the chain and if they don't like it,
then we pick up a phone and say, ''Scramble.''
And the fighters get airborne. So, not a lot has changed.
While the RAF scans the skies for hostile intruders,
others seek out the Scottish lsles for native wildlife.
One of the most enchanting and elusive animals can be found on Shetland.
Miranda's there on her own spying mission.
l'm on the hunt for an animal that l've only seen a couple of times in the wild
and here in Shetland is one of the very best places to find them.
l'm looking for otters.
Around one in ten of the UK's otter population lives on Shetland
but that doesn't make them easy to find.
John Campbell is a full-time otter spotter.
He's taking me to a bay where he's seen a family of these shy creatures.
Fingers crossed, but the weather isn't helping.
We can hear one of them squeaking so we know they're there
but it's so misty we can't see them. But hopefully...
- You hear that squeaking? - (Distant calls)
That's them communicating - the cubs trying to find the mother.
lf you want to spot otters, it's a waiting game.
We've been sitting here for ages and we still haven't seen them.
l've seen a seal.
And the midges are biting.
But no otters.
To cap it all, it's raining.
You'd think these watery beasts would be happy in the rain, but they're not.
lf they've been fishing sea for half an hour or so they get chilled
and they like to come ashore, get themselves dry, get warmed up again.
Obviously, if it's pouring with rain, they struggle to get dry.
So they tend to go and fish and then go back to the holt,
which makes life difficult for the likes of us.
MlRANDA: We can't see them.
At last our patience is rewarded.
We've got a couple of cubs just playing in the water. lt's just beautiful.
They're completely oblivious to us and they're just doing what kids do,
just playing and rolling around each other
and just look really happy and relaxed. lt's really special.
There's one more member of the family who makes an appearance.
lt's a male otter. lt must be Dad.
You never know where they'll pop up, what they'll do next
and that, for me, is the excitement of seeing wild otters.
l've watched wild otters for the last 35, 40 years
and every time there's a buzz. l absolutely love it.
NlCK: We're on a tour of the Scottish islands -
some 700 individual worlds...
separated and united by the great seaway between them.
For hundreds of years, sailors and navigators
have charted courses over the water.
But until recently, what lay beneath, in the deep ocean,
was a complete mystery.
The quest to discover the secret life of the sea
began in the waters off Scotland.
Historian, Tessa Dunlop, is in Oban on the west coast.
She's on the trail of a great 1 9th century adventure.
This state-of-the-art research vessel
owes its existence to a voyage undertaken in the 1 9th century
by HMS Challenger.
Challenger was at sea for nearly four years.
lt was an epic voyage around the globe
to make the first-ever survey of the world's oceans.
The voyage of HMS Challenger revolutionised our view
of what lives in the deep sea.
lt was one of the greatest adventures in science
and it began off the coast of Scotland.
lt took 50 volumes to report the findings of Challenger's global odyssey.
Professor Laurence Mee knows the secrets of these books
and their rare creatures.
lt's one of the original specimens from the expedition.
Obviously, it's a starfish.
lt comes from the deep sea off Nova Scotia,
so these animals live at depths below 1 ,000 metres.
People had assumed there was nothing down there.
This was a colossal scientific endeavour.
The brains behind the expedition
was a brilliant Scottish scientist - Charles Wyville Thomson.
- Hi, Laila. - Hi. Good morning.
People used to think the deep ocean was a barren, dead zone.
Wyville Thomson thought otherwise.
He set out to find proof of life below.
ln 1 868, Thomson began his search in Scottish seas.
Wyville Thomson was actually based at the University of Edinburgh.
He persuaded the admiralty to lend him a small ship,
which studied the region between the Faroes and the Scottish coast.
They found sponges and cold-water corals on reefs just beyond us,
and organisms with multiple legs that people did not believe could live
in those dark, deep, high-pressure depths.
lf such wonders were to be found in home waters,
what would be discovered elsewhere?
Buoyed with success, Wyville Thomson persuaded the British government
to fund the Challenger expedition -
the most ambitious scientific endeavour of the age.
ln 1 872, they set sail on an epic voyage around the globe.
They journeyed for three and a half long years.
Challenger crossed all the great oceans.
They travelled as far as the Antarctic,
zig-zagging their way across the Atlantic
before finally returning home.
Everywhere they went, they took samples and looked for new creatures.
The Challenger was also the first official expedition
to have a photographer.
They captured images of new cultures, all on photographic plates.
The people, their costumes, traditions, were all recorded for the first time.
They took the first-ever photo of an Antarctic iceberg.
This is a rare image of a warrior from the Philippines.
The Challenger revealed a world never seen before -
above and below the waves.
This is a dredge. lt's very similar to the one used on the Challenger
and it's used for collecting animals that live on the sea bed.
We can use similar dredges even in the deep oceans, thousands of metres deep.
- That is chock-full, isn't it? - lt is.
lt's mainly mud, stones, old shells. But there will be some animals mixed in.
- What is that? lt's got purple legs. - That looks like a hermit crab.
Yes.
A little spider crab here.
You never know what you're going to find.
And if you're doing this in deep water,
you can find species no-one's ever seen before.
Which is what they did on the Challenger.
They were sampling down to over 5,000 metres depth.
They were catching things no-one had ever seen in human history.
And now, today, how many species do we know of?
There may be somewhere in the region of 1 .5 million species in the oceans,
most of which we haven't even discovered yet.
Once, scientists believed the deep sea was lifeless.
Now, thanks to Wyville Thomson,
we know the depths are teeming with weird and wonderful creatures.
1 40 years after the science of oceanography started in Scottish waters,
we've still only discovered a small fraction
of the secret life of the sea.
NlCK: My journey along the Outer Hebrides
continues towards the port of Leverburgh.
This is a tale of a business tycoon with a big appetite for fish.
lmagine, nearly 1 00 years ago,
trying to turn this tiny port
into the centre of Britain's biggest fishing business.
That was the vision of an extraordinary English entrepreneur.
Who was this man?
Well, the answer's in the name he gave this port - Leverburgh.
lt was christened by the irrepressible Lord Leverhulme.
At the turn of the 20th century
he was one of the richest and most powerful men in Britain.
ln 1 91 9 he used his vast wealth to buy the entire island of Harris.
Lever had made it big making soap - Sunlight Soap.
Now he planned to clean up in the fish trade.
His grand design centred on this little port.
Back then, it was a town called Obbe.
He spent a fortune - the equivalent today of £21 million.
And yet, some 90 years on, when you look around,
there's remarkably little to be seen of Lever's huge investment.
What happened to his big fish business?
l've come to meet Tony Scherr,
who knows all about Leverhulme's ambitions for Harris.
He started with some unconventional home improvements at Borve Lodge.
When he came, all he could see was this cliff going across,
and then he could see Taransay above the cliff.
So, being Leverhulme, he decided the best thing to do
was to get rid of the cliff. So he blew it up.
That was the man, really.
lf he didn't like it, he blew it up. Or he changed it.
Leverhulme was never one to sit back and admire the view.
He was a man with a mission - to transform the lives of the islanders
by building a monumental business.
His plans were to make Leverburgh into a large fishing port.
And he produced a map with this in mind...
and all these were the fishing grounds.
But everything centred around the port of Leverburgh.
He could put up his curing sheds, he could put up his kilns.
- And to get as many as 1 0,000 people... - 1 0,000?
1 0,000 people living in Leverburgh, yes.
- ln Hebridean terms, that's a city. - lt is indeed.
This was ambition on an epic scale.
At the time, Leverburgh's population was less than 200
but Leverhulme was a man of extraordinary vision.
He could see a more affluent Britain developing,
a busy population demanding better, fresher food.
Harris didn't have many people but it did have a lot of herring.
Donald MacLean knows these waters better than most.
- You got one. - Here it comes.
He's not very old.
Donald, back then, Lord Leverhulme was chasing the herring shoals
and the catches were absolutely enormous, weren't they?
Big, big catches of herring then. My grandfather worked for Lord Leverhulme.
He was a foreman round the pier when they were building it.
My auntie worked there, as well.
She worked at the herring, salting the herring
and curing the herring and into barrels.
Did that make him quite a popular figure with local people?
Oh, certainly. Yes. Yes.
Leverhulme invested a fortune in the port.
He built a new pier, a smokehouse and a refrigeration plant -
on the face of it, a crazy scheme.
But Leverhulme was the shrewdest of entrepreneurs.
His plan was to control the fish business from sea to shop.
To create an outlet for the catch landed at his Scottish port,
he bought up 400 fishmongers throughout Britain
and called them Mac Fisheries.
By 1 924 his plan no longer seemed so mad.
Steam-powered trawlers landed a huge haul of herring -
so many that women from the mainland were brought in to help.
Leverhulme and Leverburgh had success within their grasp.
Yet, within months, the entire business came crashing down.
ln 1 925 Lord Leverhulme caught pneumonia and died.
30,000 paid their respects at his funeral in Port Sunlight.
ln Leverburgh, sirens sounded on the pier and work stopped.
For good.
When Leverhulme died, his vision for Harris died with him.
Today, there are just a few bleak reminders of his grandiose scheme.
What d'you think he'd think or say if he saw Leverburgh today?
He would be an extremely sad man, l think,
to see his dream come to nought.
The locals have learned to make the most of their island companions,
whether they're fish, foul or any other creatures.
ln the far north, there's a small animal business on Shetland
that's enjoyed big success.
Miranda is sizing up the stock.
For over 4,000 years these little ponies have roamed around Shetland
and you'll find them throughout the islands, grazing by the roadside,
over on the hills and even down on the beach.
Come on, then.
You come across them everywhere and they cope with all weathers...
which isjust as well.
(Rumbling thunder)
That's a doorbell.
Hello.
- Lovely to meet you. l'm Miranda. - That's right.
Are you going to go out in the weather?
Aye, l'll get my hat. Hold on a minute.
Jim's family have been breeding Shetland ponies
longer than anyone else on the islands.
- How's that? - Great. All dressed for it.
Shetland ponies are renowned for their strength
and, of course, their size.
Yes, this is a standard pony,
which can be up to 42 inches at the shoulder.
And that's a really short one!
These are miniatures and they can be up to 34 inches at the shoulder.
So a show Shetland pony, what are you looking for?
You want a nice head, and l like them slightly dished, which is concave here.
They have to have big, brown eyes, intelligent and kind.
The forelock should be... have a lot of hair on it.
- A shaggy look. Typical Shetland look. - That's right.
And they're renowned for being a very tough breed. How tough are they?
Well, as far as strength goes,
they're the strongest horse for their size in the world.
And they don't need to be stabled in the wintertime.
They're always outside.
- Even up here, when it's really cold? - Well, this is where they live.
This is the place for them, out on the hills. They're tough characters.
Like the islanders, l would imagine.
No, no. We're not tough. We're very gentle.
Today, Shetland ponies are sold worldwide as pets and show-horses.
But look at this photograph.
Going back over 1 50 years, the ponies from that island
were destined for a life in heavy industry.
They were to swap the fresh air of Shetland
for the coal-dust and claustrophobia of a life underground as a pit pony.
l'm with John Scott and we're going to the lsle of Noss.
lt was the site of a breeding programme to produce a super-pony
fit for hauling loads of coal.
The finest mares and stallions were kept on the island in splendid isolation.
This building was used to breed the best of the bunch.
They finally bred this stallion, who they named Jack of Noss,
who was the kind of ultimate of what they had been breeding for.
He was, l think, the kind of Brad Pitt of the pony world.
Brad Pitt, pit pony.
And... And er, so he became the foundation of the whole stud-book.
And so every Shetland pony in the stud-book
has got blood from Jack of Noss.
- From here. - Right from here.
lt wasn't looks the breeders were after, but size and strength.
And they succeeded.
The Shetland pony could haul tubs of coal weighing up to a ton.
Those dark days are over.
Jack of Noss has long gone but his hardy characteristics live on
in the DNA of these Shetland ponies.
That's why they'll comfortably bear the weight of an adult.
So l couldn't resist a ride.
(Laughs)
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
NlCK: Many of the Scottish lsles
have managed to export their products far out across the seas.
The Outer Hebrides can boast their own global brand.
That's what's brought me to Tarbert, on Harris.
This is what l'm after.
Harris Tweed.
- Hello there. - Hi there.
- May l look at your jackets? - Yes, of course.
- Got some over here. - Look at those.
They're very evocative of the colours of Scotland,
with the grey rock, the heather.
And this one seems to have little traces of blue in it, and autumn colours.
Lots of colours. Would you like to try one?
Yeah, why not?
Try this one.
This would be a...sartorial leap for me,
to get rid of the old anorak and present Coast in a genuine Harr...
Oh, it's very comfortable. That's lovely.
That really is an improvement. Don't you think?
- Yeah. Seems a good fit. - Coast and beyond.
There's a reason why the colours of Harris Tweed mirror the landscape.
Originally, the dyes were produced by local plants and lichens.
Textile designer, Alice Starmore, is going to show me how it was done.
- Very good to meet you. - And you.
- You've got things started. - Yes, indeed.
l have lit the peat fire. l have the water, which you need for dyeing.
l have the fleece, and the only thing that l need now is the crottal lichen,
which is going to actually give me the colour.
What are we looking out for?
We're looking out for a very unassuming and drab, grey, crusty stuff,
which actually is black crottal.
And here is a very nice crop of it.
- ls this it here? - This is it here.
Looks like a spillage of old porridge.
lt does. But the dye comes out of it very easily.
lt's the beautiful, rich, bronze-brown shades that you get from it.
And you can see that it's actually ready to come right off the rock.
The Harris people would say that was ripe and ready.
Some lichens are protected but this one's safe to pick.
Even so, we're just taking enough to dye one small fleece.
- Now for the exciting part. - Time to get the pot.
First, take one scoured fleece
and moisten with peat-rich springwater.
We're not just bunging it in. We're going to layer it a bit.
lt's important that the dye should be as even as possible.
- lt's a bit like making a lasagne. - lt is a bit, yes!
And the whole thing is a little bit like cooking.
Pour in the water.
Yes.
And as it slowly comes to the boil, rather like a stew,
all the products and the... will come out and dye the fleece.
While we wait for the chemistry to cook,
Alice has some samples to show me -
all colours produced from local lichens and plants.
- Look at that. - lt's like silver wheat and ragweed.
Here are the crottal colours and here is the rich, dark colour
that you would get from cooking it overnight, as it were.
lt's been cooking for some time now. lt's a rich, deep colour.
- lt's beginning to get orange. - Look at that.
That's it just really in the early stages,
so you can see what a slow and painstaking process it was.
The rules governing the Harris Tweed trademark are strict.
The cloth must be woven by the people of the Outer Hebrides
in their own homes.
l can hear clattering machinery.
Donald John MacKay has been busy with the fabric for over 40 years.
My goodness! Donald, how is the loom powered?
By my feet.
- So ''hand-made'' really means... - Means ''foot-powered''.
- You're not allowed to use electricity? - No, no.
- What's this roll going to be used for? - This is going to Nike.
For shoes and bags.
- Really? To Nike? - Yes. Yes.
- The big sportswear manufacturer? - Yes, yes, yes.
That's incredible. What about the threads themselves?
Each thread is made up of many, many colours.
When you look closely, it's a whole rainbow of colours.
- Comes alive. - Exactly. lt really comes alive.
That's Harris Tweed for you.
The colours of the island inspire the blends and patterns of the cloth.
So l want to see what it looks like in the landscape.
Now, let's have a look, Donald.
Wow. l can see the yellow of the wild grasses out there
coming on the cloth, and the heather.
You can see the marram grass, which is the lighter one there.
The roots, the grass, the darker one down there.
There's blue, too. lt's the sea beyond. lt's all there in front of us.
lt's as if you unroll the surface of the Outer Hebrides
and carry it into your loom.
Harris is separated from Lewis in name only.
They're parts of the same island, separated not by water
but by a range of mountains.
Across those peaks, on the east coast,
lies the capital of Lewis - Stornoway.
A disaster at sea nearly a century ago
shocked this community so much the pain is still raw today.
lt's a tragic tale, not often told to outsiders, that Neil knows well.
NElL: ln the First World War,
half the male population of Lewis served in the armed forces.
Many never returned
but some perished cruelly close to home.
More than 200 servicemen died in a disaster off the Scottish coast
just days after the Great War ended.
lt's late on New Year's Eve, 1 91 8,
a cold, dark end to a terrible year.
But the men aboard the lolaire are in high spirits
because they're going home. The war is over.
These are just a few of the 280-odd souls
who were packed aboard -
mostly sailors of the Royal Naval Reserve,
men from the islands, the Outer Hebrides,
who'd survived the horrors of the First World War.
They were on a large civilian yacht
pressed into war service and renamed Her Majesty's Yacht lolaire.
By 1..50 in the morning, the boat was almost home.
The servicemen aboard could see the harbour lights of Stornoway.
They knew their loved ones would be lining the quayside
at Stornoway, just half a mile away.
But most of the men crammed aboard the lolaire that night
would never see their families again.
Minutes later, in stormy seas,
the lolaire struck a notorious reef, the Beasts of Holm.
They were only 30 yards from land...
but of the 285 men on board,
just 80 survived.
More than half of those that did survive
owed their lives to one man aboard the stricken ship -
John Finlay Macleod - a Lewis man, a boat-builder, in fact.
Somehow, amid the chaos, he managed to half scramble, half swim ashore
with a line tied around his wrist.
This monument stands on the spot where John Finlay swam ashore.
lnterviewed in 1 973, he recalled that night.
40 survivors owed their lives to the courage of John Finlay Macleod
but 205 men died on that last night of 1 91 8.
When dawn finally broke that New Year's Day,
the people of Lewis were greeted to a dreadful sight.
There's a photograph showing the wreck of lolaire...
the bulk of her still submerged
and just the mast sticking out.
As news of the lolaire disaster spread,
people walked the coastline, looking for relatives.
At Sandwick Bay they found only dozens of bodies.
Servicemen returning from the Great War,
these Scots didn't die in a foreign field
but in home waters, within sight of safety.
Relatives and friends looking for loved ones
picked their way through the wreckage of the lolaire.
And what they found were toys...
presents that fathers never got the chance to give to children.
ln a remote part of Lewis,
four-year-old Marion Smith was waiting for her father.
Hello. Come in.
Kenneth Smith survived the Great War
but only his suitcase made it back home.
ln his possessions that they found on the beach,
- they found this box that we have here. - Mm-hm.
lnside it are ration cards,
with which they were issued.
- So that's your dad. Kenneth Smith. - Yes.
And he should have been on leave from 30th December 1 91 8
- until 1 4th January... - Yes.
..1 91 9.
That made it home and he didn't.
What do you remember about your mum
on the night when the news arrived at the house?
She was sitting down and the neighbours were coming in,
and also people whom l didn't know were coming in.
And they all hugged her and they all cried.
And my grandfather just sat.
And l would go over and lean across his knees,
and l remember the tears dropping off his cheeks
onto the top of my head.
l couldn't understand what had happened.
The clock stopped...
and the world changed.
The people of Lewis were grieving their loss
but alongside grief came anger.
Why had the lolaire foundered on the Beasts of Holm?
Why had so many died within yards of the shore?
John Macleod has examined the events of that tragic night.
The boat was very under-crewed. The officer had never sailed at night.
lt was stormy. They weren't familiar with the waters and lost their way.
The lolaire didn't have enough lifeboats or enough lifejackets.
lt was a disaster waiting to happen.
You would think that they were so close
that it ought to have been possible to escape.
You have these huge breakers hammering in,
so the men who'd jumped into the water were mostly beaten to death.
They were smashed against the rocks.
lt was like being caught in a nightmarish washing machine.
The appalling deaths in the lolaire disaster
happened just after the Great War ended -
a war that had already killed 866 men of Lewis.
A terrible sacrifice.
Of those who'd volunteered, one in six were dead.
But the needless loss of all those men aboard the lolaire
was the cruellest blow.
And yet, for many years, the response from Lewis was silence.
Because what could anyone say that mattered?
And that's why, beyond the islands,
the name lolaire is essentially unknown.
Because this was a very private tragedy.
Amongst the list of names here, Seaman Kenneth Smith.
For his widow, Christina, his death and her grief
were not something to be shared.
Did she ever talk to you about your dad and about what happened?
No. She didn't.
She never talked about the tragedy at all.
l remember that she only wore black.
Black, black.
lf she was baking, she still wore black.
And, to this day, l remember.
l just didn't like the colour and l still don't.
To come so close to coming home.
You know, to drown, to die on the doorstep of home.
Yes. Well, as the song said,
''These brave men who'd gone so far
Through the dangers of the war
By the irony of fate Were drowned at home.''
NlCK: Many would envy the sense of community on the Scottish lsles.
Language and traditions bind people together.
But some of those traditional customs
may seem at odds with life elsewhere in our islands.
l've reached my final stop at the tip of the Hebrides -
Port of Ness.
lt looks like the end of the line
but this little harbour is the point of departure
for a group of men who set sail every August.
lt's a voyage the men of Ness have been undertaking for centuries.
Sons following fathers who followed their fathers.
They've all headed for the same spot -
a lonely, rocky island 40 miles from here, called Sula Sgeir.
Nobody lives there but it's home to thousands of gannets.
The men of Ness come to Sula Sgeir to hunt the birds.
lt was a tradition captured on film in the 1 950s.
Take a look at this.
They're after the young gannets,
known in these parts as guga.
The guga-hunting season is August,
when the chicks are almost fully grown.
There's no shortage of people to buy them.
Guga is an age-old delicacy in these parts.
50 years on, the small boy in the film is doing as his father did.
John MacFarlane is now the leader of the annual guga hunt -
a time-honoured custom first recorded in 1 549.
lt's a big thing in Ness, our community,
this part of the island up by the Lewis end.
lf you mention the community of Ness to someone
it's always associated with the guga hunt - guga Niseach -
which is the Ness gannet. lt's... lt's a Ness... lt's a Ness thing.
Once, the men of Ness could take as many guga as they could carry.
But now they operate under a licence
to take no more than 2,000 birds a year.
The Scottish government licenses the hunt
which, it's argued, is culturally important.
The ritual hasn't changed in living memory.
We lift them out of the nest with a ten-foot pole...
with a clamp at the end, around its neck.
l pass it on to the next person behind me, who gives it a whock on the head.
From the time l pick it out of the nest
to the time it's dead, it's about three seconds.
We start plucking them, taking their feathers off.
The next part is what we call the factory.
Two of the boys take the down off the birds by dipping them into the fire.
And they're passed on to the next two guys,
who actually split them open to leave four quarters of...
ripe, prime guga.
We then salt them
and make a pile of them.
There's a special way of doing it so that the meat doesn't go off.
We build a chute to the bottom of the island.
When we're going home, the gugas go down on the chute.
What do you say to people who find the idea of killing wild seabirds...
distasteful, abhorrent?
l don't see any difference between that and going into a supermarket
and buying a chicken or a turkey.
Those who oppose us going to the island, if you could...
lf they could put a guga and a chicken together,
how could you explain to the chicken
why it should be killed and the wild guga go free?
There's no difference. lt's for human consumption.
Guga and guga-hunting may not be to everyone's taste
but the annual journey to Sula Sgeir is a centuries-old tradition -
one fiercely defended by the men of Ness and their community.
The Outer Hebrides are famously wild, rugged and beautiful.
They share a quality that is far less conspicuous.
The people l've met have a real sense of community, of belonging,
a conviction that their island is truly their home.
And that, maybe, is what it means to be an islander.