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In 1840, one man transformed
travel in Britain.

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His name was George Bradshaw,
and his railway guides

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inspired the Victorians
to take to the tracks.

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Stop by stop, he told them
where to travel, what to see,

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and where to stay.

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Now, 170 years later, I'm making
a series of journeys across the
length and breadth of the country

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to see what
of Bradshaw's Britain remains.

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Over the next few days, I'll be
travelling along a railway route

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that's been described
as the most scenic in Britain.

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Through the West Highlands,
to the Isle of Skye.

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This part of my journey begins in

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one of the most heavily
populated parts of Scotland.

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But it's also the route
that points towards

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the highlands and islands,
and Bradshaw's guide anticipates

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a succession of beautiful
and varied scenery,

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and remarks that "any traveller
for pleasure has only to choose

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"the first conveyance westward,
to find what he seeks
and be gratified."

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It's a line that brought thousands
of tourists to these mountains

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for the first time,

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and my Bradshaw's guide
helped them to find their feet
in this unknown territory.

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On today's leg of the journey,

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I'll be discovering how
Queen Victoria attracted

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train loads of tourists
to Loch Lomond.

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This is very valuable,
I can see it's signed by Victoria.

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That's a real treasure
that you've got that.

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Finding out how Scottish timber
fuelled the rail boom.

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We have fast-growing trees
for things like railway sleepers,

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that was one of the big demands
in the 19th century.

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And learning how a great
sailing ship took her name
from a witch in a poem.

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It comes from a Burn's poem,
Tam o' Shanter.

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He can't help himself
and he jumps up and he shouts,
"Weel done, Cutty Sark!"

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I started this journey in Ayr,

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and I'm now moving north
towards the Highlands.

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I'll be taking the picturesque
West Highland Line,

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travelling through rugged
moor and mountain,

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all the way to the Inner Hebrides
and the Isle of Skye.

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On this stretch, I'll visit
the former shipyards in Dumbarton,

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and reach the shores
of Loch Lomond at Tarbet,

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as I head for the villages
of Crianlarich and Tyndrum.

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I'm beginning in the Clyde estuary,

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once the centre of Scotland's
shipbuilding industry.

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The industrial revolution made many
fortunes along the River Clyde,

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but of course it also produced
the enormous transformation
of the landscape,

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maybe emphasising the differences

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between lowland Scotland
and the Highlands,

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where I'll be headed shortly.

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But now as you
move along the Clyde,

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what's most in evidence are the
effects of de-industrialisation,

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as some of the trades and crafts
of the 19th century are wound up.

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One town changed beyond recognition
since Bradshaw's day

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is my next stop, Dumbarton.

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Back then, busy workshops
lined the quays

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and mighty vessels took shape
in the shipyards.

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Bradshaw's guide says
"Dumbarton is built in a level

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"tract of country
near the confluence of
the River Leaven and the Clyde,"

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and I can see behind me the very
point where the two rivers meet,

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and it says, "It also has
the advantage of possessing

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"a spacious and convenient harbour."
And that strikes me as pretty sad

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because I'm on the site of what
was once Denny's shipyard.

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And there's nothing left.
I can hardly believe it.

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In Bradshaw's time, Denny's was just
one of several shipyards that

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occupied the banks of the river.

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In the 19th century, the railways
helped the yards to expand,

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bringing coal
and metals to the slipways.

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By the early 20th century,

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one in five of the world's
ships was built on the Clyde.

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Bruce, good morning.

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'I'm meeting Bruce Biddulph,
whose family worked in
the shipbuilding trade.'

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Is this really the site that
was once Denny's shipyard?
Yes, this is it.

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It stretched from the rock
over there right along the river,

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just to before that tower and
you had three or four slipways here.

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And the reason they could build
the ships so big here was

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because they launched them
down this river into the Clyde.

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I came here today by train
but there's no sign of
railway lines around here,

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were there railway lines?

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Oh, yes, there were two lines
came off the main line

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into the MacMillan Yard
and into Denny to supply materials,
so, you know, they were big concerns.

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Essential part of the process,
to get the steel in, and so on.
Very much so, yes.

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'Although the Clyde was well known
for producing steam ships,

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'Dumbarton's shipyards also built
one of world's most famous

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'sailing ships, the Cutty Sark.'

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'She was launched right here,
in 1869.'

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This is a bit puzzling to me, what
were they doing building a sailing
ship at the end of the 19th century?

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In part, it was prejudice
on the ship owner's part

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because they didn't
trust steam entirely.

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But apart from that,
prior to the Suez Canal opening,

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the sailing ship was actually
more reliable going round

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the cape in Africa on
the Indian and Chinese trades.

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It's a bit like now with
electric cars. We can build them,

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but we don't have the facilities
to look after them,

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in those days it was the same idea.

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A lack of engineers and a lack of
facilities if the ship broke down.

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So sailing ships were still
pretty viable in those days.

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The Cutty Sark was a new type
of composite sailing ship.

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She had an iron frame
and a wooden hull,

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and on the trade routes to Australia

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she was even faster
than the best steam ships.

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She was originally commissioned
by a Scottish entrepreneur,

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who gave her her unusual name.

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I've never understood
what Cutty Sark means,
where did the name come from?

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It comes from a Burn's poem,
Tam o' Shanter.

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Tam gets drunk one night
and he sees the witches

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and the Devil having
a bit of a cavort.

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And he spots one young witch,
who's rather pretty,

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and she's dressed immaculate in
white, and he's captivated by her,

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and he can't help himself
and he jumps up and he shouts,

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"Weel done, cutty sark,"
and "cutty sark" refers to
the white shift that she's wearing

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so imagine a large sailing ship
covered in sail,

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then she just looks like
a white shirt on the sea.

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Denny's shipyard continued
to produce innovative ships
right up until the 1960s.

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But increasing competition from
abroad finally forced it to close.

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One part of Dumbarton, at least,
hasn't changed since Bradshaw's day.

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My guidebook says,
"The ancient castle of Dumbarton

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"stands on the summit of a high
and precipitous two-headed rock,

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"and is a place of great antiquity"

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If Bradshaw returned, perhaps only
the sight of the great fortress

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securing the harbour would convince
him that he was in Dumbarton.

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While in Dumbarton,
which has lost its industries,

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I felt that sense of pride at once
what was achieved here.

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And now I'm on my way to Loch
Lomond, a place which, fortunately,

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has never been over-developed,
and which remains one of
the gems of Scotland.

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Well, now I'm properly embarked
on the West Highland Line.

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And all the way along the route,
we get these fantastic views of sea

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and loch and mountain, it really is
one of the most striking railway
journeys in the world,

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and a fantastic piece
of Victorian engineering.

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My Bradshaw's warns me to look out
for my next destination.

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"Five miles to the north-west
of Dumbarton, the traveller

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"from the south obtains the first
view of the celebrated Loch Lomond,

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"the most beautiful and picturesque
of all the Scottish lakes".

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I'm getting off at the loch side
station of Tarbet

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to explore one of the sights
best loved by Victorian tourists.

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All along the West Highland Line,
the stations are beautifully kept
and wonderfully set,

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and Tarbet had the advantage of
having not only a railway station,

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but also a steamship pier.

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And it soon became a favourite
with Queen Victoria herself.

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Before the railways, only affluent
tourists could afford to visit

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the remote Scottish Highlands.

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Thereafter, the middle classes
could follow in the footsteps

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of Queen Victoria, by taking
the train to Loch Lomond

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for holidays or day trips.

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Bradshaw's guide is incredibly
enthusiastic about Loch Lomond,

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and on a day like today
you can see exactly why.

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"Loch Lomond is justly considered
one of the finest lakes in Scotland.

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"A lake of incomparable beauty,
as in its dimensions,

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"exceeding all others in variety,
as it does in extent and splendour".

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And then, of course,
Bradshaw gives you practical tips.

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"Steamers up and down Loch Lomond
daily in the summer

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"call at Tarbet and Inversnaid,

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"the landing places for Inverary,
Loch Katrine and the Trossachs".

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And it's for Inversnaid
that I'm now bound.

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Queen Victoria is known to have
explored the loch on steam cruises,

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and a boat still provides
the best means to appreciate
this extraordinary lake.

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I first got to know
Loch Lomond very recently.

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Just a few weeks ago,
I came here on holiday,

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and I was astonished by it.
Of course, I'd heard
the name very often

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but I didn't realise
it was 23 miles long,

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I wasn't prepared for the size.

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And it's so beautiful, it's so green
and so wonderfully unspoiled.

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I'm landing at the Inversnaid Hotel,
where in the 19th century

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coaches took tourists on to the
wilder reaches of the loch shores.

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I'm here to learn why this
part of her kingdom captured

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Queen Victoria's heart.

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Hello, ladies. Hello. I'm Michael.

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'Mary Haggarty and Heather McTavish
are life-long local residents.'

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Queen Victoria herself came here?

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Queen Victoria
visited here, yes.

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She probably visited
on more than one occasion.

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And I was told that after
Prince Albert died,

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she and Albert had bought Balmoral,

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that she didn't like to go to
Balmoral for a while because
it had such painful memories,

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therefore, she used to come here.

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She went into deep mourning
after Prince Albert died.

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But also her daughter married
the Duke of Argyll,

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which would have brought her
to this area.

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And this would always have been,
sort of, near to her heart.

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Victoria's husband, Albert,
died suddenly in 1861,

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and the Queen
never ceased to grieve.

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Astonishingly, Heather has what
appears to be an original document,

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underlining the depth
of Victoria's sorrow.

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Well, my father was a Victorian
and lived all his life

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here in these parts, and I found
this letter just amongst papers.

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Goodness. This is very valuable,
I can see it's signed by Victoria.

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And it's dated June 22nd 1884.

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"I'm anxious to express to all
the women of Great Britain

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"and Ireland how deeply touched
and grateful I am by their very kind

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"and generous present of
the statue of my beloved husband."

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That's a real treasure that
you've got that! It tells you,

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you know, that's years
after the death of Albert,

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and still very touched by anything
that has to do with his memory.
I had a very Victorian father.

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So you had this tremendous
connection with the Victorian world?

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Yes, he was 63 when I was
born and I'm 79 now,

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so this is going a long way back.

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Heather's father was born
around the time

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that my Bradshaw's
guide was written,

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but he didn't share Bradshaw's
enthusiasm for the railways.

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Your father made a speech, he talked
about the coming of the railway,

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and he was rather negative about it.

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He said, well, first of all,

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he talked about a thousand men
being employed to build it,

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and that four policemen had their
hands full on a Saturday night.

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Obviously, the navvies were getting
drunk on a Saturday night.

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But he said when the railway was
finished so was old Arrochar,
"we were no longer".

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That's right.

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Although Heather's father
believed the railways changed
his community for the worse,

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others saw the benefits
the trains could bring.

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They got their provisions,
their papers.

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Their post was dropped off
by the trains.

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Children went to school.

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The train would stop
and they'd just climb up the ladder

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and get dropped off at night, so
the railway made its own community.

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It certainly changed,

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but I maybe would say
it did open up the villages.

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'I've loved this afternoon
spent on the shores of Loch Lomond.

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'But now it's time to cross
the water back to Tarbet
to find my bed for the night.'

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Hello, Jenny. Hello.

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This time, I'm catching a lift with
ranger team leader, Jenny Rogers.

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Put one of these on. Thank you very
much indeed. Right, thank you,
we're all set.

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Ready to go.

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'Her patrol boat's full of kit for
monitoring this remarkable lake.'

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So Michael, this is about roughly
the deepest part of the loch,
we're in about 610 feet.

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That's your depth metre there.
Yep, depth metre here.

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It's about as deep as it gets,
and its deepest point is
about 190 metres deep,

223
00:14:54,160 --> 00:14:57,400
which is about as deep as
the North Sea in the deepest parts.

224
00:14:57,400 --> 00:15:02,080
Really? Yeah, or you can get three
Nelson's Columns or the Eiffel
Tower, with the top peeking out.

225
00:15:02,080 --> 00:15:07,120
And despite this enormous depth,
no monster lurking beneath?
No monster that we've seen, no,

226
00:15:07,120 --> 00:15:09,120
but we'll leave that up to
Loch Ness.

227
00:15:11,200 --> 00:15:15,680
'Jenny's dropping me off
right outside my hotel.'

228
00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:17,160
Bye bye. Thanks then.

229
00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:30,440
The Tarbet Hotel started
life as a coaching inn,

230
00:15:30,440 --> 00:15:37,400
but in the 19th century it underwent
a huge expansion, to accommodate
the new influx of travellers.

231
00:15:37,400 --> 00:15:41,280
Hello! Good afternoon.
Michael Portillo checking in please.

232
00:15:41,280 --> 00:15:44,680
Good afternoon, sir.
Very nice to see you.

233
00:15:44,680 --> 00:15:46,480
Bye.

234
00:15:46,480 --> 00:15:52,400
'My Bradshaw's Guide
recommends it as "the finest
and most commodious on the lake."'

235
00:15:56,800 --> 00:16:00,640
Good morning, come on in,
come on in.

236
00:16:00,640 --> 00:16:06,280
Now as you can see
I have a pretty good vista here
over trees and mountains but

237
00:16:06,280 --> 00:16:09,680
if you want a panorama of the loch,
you have to come in to the bathroom.

238
00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:13,800
Now just look at that!

239
00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:15,760
Isn't that fantastic?

240
00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:18,200
A loo with a view.

241
00:16:22,680 --> 00:16:26,440
For the rest of this Scottish
journey I shan't be able to use

242
00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:29,000
the 1860s Bradshaw's
that I usually rely on,

243
00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:33,280
because the line I'm following
was built only in the 1890s.

244
00:16:33,280 --> 00:16:40,160
So I've picked up a later edition
to guide me as I continue north
from Tarbet to Crianlarich.

245
00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:46,320
As the train approached I could
hear it powering up the steep
gradient into the station

246
00:16:46,320 --> 00:16:51,160
and I can't disguise my excitement
about the West Highland Line.

247
00:16:51,160 --> 00:16:58,280
Before this was built,
many of these places were accessible
only by horse, by mail coach,

248
00:16:58,280 --> 00:17:02,720
possibly by steamer,
and the West Highland Line brought

249
00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:09,560
all these communities and made these
splendours of Scotland accessible
to all the country and imagine

250
00:17:09,560 --> 00:17:16,080
the task of building this line,
up steep gradients, through the
mountains and across Rannoch Moor.

251
00:17:16,080 --> 00:17:17,600
What an achievement.

252
00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:27,320
Work began on
the West Highland Line in 1889.

253
00:17:27,320 --> 00:17:33,200
It was one of the most challenging
railways to build, through some of
the most rugged terrain in Britain.

254
00:17:33,200 --> 00:17:39,440
This stretch skirts the western
shore of the loch, and travels
through ancient Scottish woodland.

255
00:17:42,960 --> 00:17:46,600
The trees I'm passing now are like
a traditional Scottish forest,

256
00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:50,640
I'm seeing a lot of oak trees,
I'm seeing the occasional
Caledonian pine.

257
00:17:50,640 --> 00:17:53,520
Of course now they block the view.

258
00:17:53,520 --> 00:17:58,360
In Victorian times they wouldn't
have been many trees here and very
often the steam trains caused fires

259
00:17:58,360 --> 00:18:01,440
and there were forest fires
and the view would have been better.

260
00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:04,720
But on the other hand,
along the railway line now,

261
00:18:04,720 --> 00:18:08,320
there's the opportunity
for the forest to take root again,

262
00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:11,560
for the traditional forest
to re-establish itself.

263
00:18:14,640 --> 00:18:21,120
My next stop is Crianlarich,
once a great transport hub
for the timber trade.

264
00:18:21,120 --> 00:18:26,040
Until recently,
passenger services shared
this line with logging trains,

265
00:18:26,040 --> 00:18:29,840
moving south from local stations
to the saw mills.

266
00:18:29,840 --> 00:18:33,720
Bye bye now. Take care, enjoy
the rest of your journey. Thank you.

267
00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:39,720
Wow the scenery just gets better
and better the further north you go.

268
00:18:43,560 --> 00:18:49,200
The view is superb,
but s very different from what
Victorian visitors would have seen.

269
00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:52,560
By Bradshaw's day,
these hills had been stripped

270
00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:56,800
of their native forests by centuries
of tree felling and grazing.

271
00:18:58,280 --> 00:19:03,960
Now, they're dotted with large
conifer plantations, which have
changed the landscape once again.

272
00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:09,400
Hello, how are you? Are you walking
the West Highland Way? Yes, we are.

273
00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:13,200
Now, what do you think of
the landscape you've seen so far?

274
00:19:13,200 --> 00:19:15,520
It's beautiful.
From Loch Lomond to...

275
00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:18,600
the first couple of days
aren't anything to write home about

276
00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:23,640
but from Loch Lomond to here is
brilliant, it's worth it.

277
00:19:23,640 --> 00:19:26,600
There's a lot of plantation here
isn't there and these are not

278
00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:29,240
indigenous trees,
do you think that's a problem?

279
00:19:29,240 --> 00:19:34,040
It is across Scotland because
they don't look as nice and they're
not nice to walk through

280
00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:36,480
because they're dead places,
they're too dense.

281
00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:40,920
But some of the woodland that's more
native, that's been really nice.

282
00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:42,960
Thank you, bye bye, good luck.

283
00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:49,120
'I'm not a big fan of Scotland's
conifer plantations either,

284
00:19:49,120 --> 00:19:54,240
'so I'm keen to find out how they've
spread through the Highlands'
since Bradshaw's era.

285
00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:56,600
Mairi, good morning! Good morning.

286
00:19:56,600 --> 00:19:59,840
'Mairi Stewart
is a woodland historian.'

287
00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:04,960
Lovely spot... Looking across the
loch, the trees that I'm looking
at almost by the water's edge,

288
00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:09,400
that would be the traditional,
the indigenous tree for Scotland,
would that be right?

289
00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:12,280
The native woods, yes, of Scotland.
What trees are they?

290
00:20:12,280 --> 00:20:17,320
Mainly birch but there's oak,
there's hazel, there's
some rowan and willow.

291
00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:22,400
Now higher up the slope I'm seeing
what I imagine is a commercial
plantation of timber, is that right?

292
00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:24,360
That is commercial,
spruce plantation,

293
00:20:24,360 --> 00:20:27,880
planted probably sometime in the
second half of the 20th century.

294
00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:31,120
I don't like those very much,
I think they spoil the landscape

295
00:20:31,120 --> 00:20:36,000
but I suppose at many periods in
our history, we've needed timber
very, very badly in Britain.

296
00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:39,440
Absolutely, up until the 19th
century it was terribly important.

297
00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:43,640
Everything, housing,
utensils for farming,

298
00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:46,960
saddles were made of timber,
everything you could think about

299
00:20:46,960 --> 00:20:52,680
which we wouldn't regard as being
made of timber today was required
for life in Scotland in the past.

300
00:20:52,680 --> 00:20:59,960
By the end of the 19th century, all
this activity had reduced Scotland's
forests to an all-time low.

301
00:20:59,960 --> 00:21:03,320
But landowners found
a possible solution.

302
00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:07,640
New conifers that were being brought
in the 18th and 19th century

303
00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:11,520
became the tree of
commercial timber exploitation.

304
00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:15,600
So, we have fast-growing trees
for things like railway sleepers.

305
00:21:15,600 --> 00:21:20,280
That was one of the big demands
in the 19th century.

306
00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:28,400
As industrialisation accelerated,
even these new plantations couldn't
keep pace with the demand for wood.

307
00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:33,920
Then, in 1914, war brought
even greater needs.

308
00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:39,800
Everything required timber.
The crates that took the biscuits
to the troops in the trenches,

309
00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:45,880
the trenches themselves, even
aeroplanes were made of timber and
it was a real crisis for Britain.

310
00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:55,440
The country needed a reliable source
of home-grown wood, so in 1919,
the Forestry Commission was set up,

311
00:21:55,440 --> 00:21:59,560
and rows of conifers were
planted across Scotland.

312
00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:02,280
It was the start
of a new timber industry

313
00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:06,960
that until recently exported logs
along the line from Crianlarich.

314
00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:14,320
Sadly, the timber trains are
no more, but luckily for me,
passengers still travel from here.

315
00:22:14,320 --> 00:22:18,400
Before my next train, I'm checking
out he station tea room.

316
00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:25,280
I've heard they run a special
service for hungry travellers that's
been on offer for over 100 years.

317
00:22:25,280 --> 00:22:26,480
Hello. Good morning.

318
00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:29,960
I wondered if you could show me
your ancient food orders?

319
00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:31,520
Of course.

320
00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:37,400
These are obviously telegrams
that have been sent up

321
00:22:37,400 --> 00:22:43,200
from Glasgow, they're dated 1901
so they're way over 100 years old.

322
00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:47,640
This is the well to do from Glasgow
coming up, ordering their breakfasts

323
00:22:47,640 --> 00:22:52,480
and packed lunches, whatever.
What does that say?

324
00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:56,160
Tea, ham and eggs, et cetera...

325
00:22:56,160 --> 00:23:01,040
These have probably come up by
morse code and had to be translated.

326
00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:02,880
Breakfast for two,
is that what it says?

327
00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:05,920
And then it specifies
exactly what they want?

328
00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:10,160
So there's nothing new
under the sun is there?
No, people still do the same thing.

329
00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:14,640
This morning we had a telephone call
about 10 mins before the train comes

330
00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:20,400
in from the previous station saying
please can we have two bacon rolls
when we arrive and a coffee so

331
00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:26,520
it's ready for them cause the train
just stops long enough to get the
token to go on to the next station.

332
00:23:26,520 --> 00:23:32,080
I should've called ahead, because
now there's no time for bacon
sandwich as I've a train to catch.

333
00:23:37,120 --> 00:23:40,600
I'm going only five miles
up the track, to Tyndrum.

334
00:23:49,680 --> 00:23:55,560
As I approach the village,
I'm at the gateway to Scotland's
famous Grampian Mountains.

335
00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:06,000
Ladies and gentlemen,
we're approaching Tyndrum Lower.
Tyndrum Lower the next station stop.

336
00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:19,120
So this is Tyndrum Lower Station
and my Bradshaw's Guide is
ecstatic about the mountains.

337
00:24:19,120 --> 00:24:20,880
"Where the Grampians first rise,

338
00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:25,360
"for almost the whole breadth
of the country, the high grounds
are penetrated by straths

339
00:24:25,360 --> 00:24:32,760
"and glens of considerable extent,
each traversed by its own streams
and diversified by numerous lakes.

340
00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:37,760
"Several of the mountains in
this district are upwards
of 3,000 feet high."

341
00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:41,320
Which, of course,
is the definition of a Munro.

342
00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:53,760
Scotland's Munros take their name
from a man cut from the same cloth
as George Bradshaw.

343
00:24:53,760 --> 00:25:01,080
In 1891 Sir Hugo Munro carefully
listed 283 peaks over 3,000 feet,

344
00:25:01,080 --> 00:25:06,600
and to this day keen climbers
proudly bag them one by one.

345
00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:09,800
A bit strenuous for me.

346
00:25:09,800 --> 00:25:13,080
I've come to Tyndrum intrigued
by plans to revive an activity

347
00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:17,480
that hit the headlines
in Bradshaw's time, gold mining.

348
00:25:17,480 --> 00:25:18,800
Chris!

349
00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:21,200
Good to see you.

350
00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:24,240
'Mining Engineer Chris Sangster
believes there could be

351
00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:27,280
'as much as five tonnes of gold
hidden in Tyndrum's hills.'

352
00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:31,080
Five tonnes of gold is worth
a bob or two I imagine?

353
00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:37,040
Between $150-200 million at the
moment, depending on the gold price,
yes, it's a significant deposit.

354
00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:40,480
Worth getting up in the morning
for isn't it? Oh, indeed, indeed.

355
00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:45,760
'In 1869, Scotland had its very own
short-lived gold rush.

356
00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:50,200
'600 hopeful adventurers
descended on Helmsdale,

357
00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:53,080
'but it was all over within a year.

358
00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:57,160
'Attempts were made to revive
gold mining here in the 1980s,

359
00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:01,160
'but then the gold price
was too low to make it viable.'

360
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:12,360
'The gold is found in a seam of
quartz, but it's not easy to see.'

361
00:26:12,360 --> 00:26:18,280
The gold occurs as very, very fine
particles. 90% or it less
than 0.1 of a millimetre.

362
00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:21,640
So you don't see gold underground
here or very, very, rarely here.

363
00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:26,680
So it doesn't just come out
as lovely chunks of gold,
you have to do something to it?

364
00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:29,880
No I wish it did but that's
a little bit of an urban myth.

365
00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:34,000
'To extract gold from the rock,
miners first hew it out
in big chunks,

366
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:36,200
'and then grind
it into a fine powder.'

367
00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:40,200
When you start taking
the rock out, how much gold
will you find inside?

368
00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:42,840
In a tonne of the vein material

369
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:46,600
we've got about ten grammes
per tonne of gold.

370
00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:51,200
That equates to
about one wedding ring,
just more than one wedding ring,

371
00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:55,440
in a tonne of rock. To mine our five
tonnes of gold that we have here

372
00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:58,840
we're going to have to move
half a million tonnes of rock.

373
00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:06,680
It's a massive effort
to produce small quantities of gold

374
00:27:06,680 --> 00:27:08,440
but if Chris succeeds

375
00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:13,480
there's a chance the West Highland
Line could one day be hauling
treasure from these mountains.

376
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:23,280
I've been overwhelmed on my journey
today by the beauty of the Highlands

377
00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:28,920
and struck
by how important the railway is
to connecting remote communities.

378
00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:32,600
But as my trip to Dumbarton
reminded me, people need jobs

379
00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:38,440
and whilst tourism is
very, very big in the Highlands
other industries are needed, too.

380
00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:40,000
Timber's one of them.

381
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:43,120
And maybe gold mines
will be part of the future.

382
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:49,080
On my next journey...

383
00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:52,120
I'll be discovering how
Victorian railway engineers

384
00:27:52,120 --> 00:27:55,000
conquered Britain's most
desolate wilderness...

385
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:57,400
The bogs on the moor

386
00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:00,440
sucked everything up
that the engineers laid.

387
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:06,320
Part of the railway you see here,
north of the station has been
floated on brushwood and turf.

388
00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:10,360
Visiting a shooting estate
favoured by the political elite...

389
00:28:10,360 --> 00:28:11,960
These guys, they were tough.

390
00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:17,720
There was a whole sort of cult,
of course, amongst very many of
these people of being tough.

391
00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:20,160
And deer stalking was part that.

392
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:24,520
And learning how the railways helped
to make whisky world famous...

393
00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:28,440
This is from
pretty much the exact time of
the railways arriving in Oban.

394
00:28:28,440 --> 00:28:30,280
I can see the railway here, can't I?

395
00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:33,080
Here's the station,
here's a train puffing along.

396
00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:37,400
Yeah, that'd be probably one of
the first pictures of the railway.

397
00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:46,320
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

398
00:28:46,320 --> 00:28:49,960
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk