Robson Green's Coastal Lives

Episode 1

West Scotland Coast/Isle of Skye

47 mins

The West Scotland Coast includes about 200 islands with only 50 inhabited and a population of 40,000. The Isle of Skye is the second largest island in Scotland with 1000 square miles of mountainous vistas and rugged coastal landscapes surrounded by waters that are beautiful and dramatic. Robson Green crosses the Skye Bridge, gateway from the Scottish mainland to the islands of the Inner Hebrides. A 40-mile drive west of the bridge brings us to the village of Fiscavaig to a family from Lincolnshire 400 miles away who moved here to build a timber home complete with a B&B overlooking the bonnie Loch Harport. They found a local company creating innovative timber homes that complement Skye's dramatic landscape. The homes are designed and built in the factory. The company trucks it in and sets it up watertight in 12 hours. Average rainfall in the west of Scotland is about 68 inches a year. Today is a wet one as the timber home made of locally grown larch begins the one-day construction. Two months later, he visits again as they are almost ready to move in. Robson takes their father and two young boys on a fishing boat excursion. They fish for mackerel and pollock with feathers as lures. They catch two mackerel and then a lovely 7-lb pollock. In ideal conditions, they can grow to be over 3.5 feet long and weigh 35 pounds. Robson finishes his visit with a sunset nude swim in Loch Harport. On the northeast coast of Skye with its geological wonders, at the end of this dramatic peninsula is Staffin, a town with a proud Gaelic heritage and population of just 600. He visits crofter Callum MacDonald and his father, Iain who raised local sheep on their 100-acre farm on Staffin Bay overlooking Staffin Island 150 meters off the coast. Once a year, their sheep are ferried across the water for their winter grazing. After their yearly shearing, the sheep, a cross between the Cheviot and Blackface breeds, are ferried over on an old World War II landing craft. Years ago, Iain used to swim cows across for grazing. Tourism here is worth more than £1.2 billion each year. In Sconser, a tiny township on Skye with its own port next to Loch Sligachen where a family have turned this coast location into a thriving business. Ben Oakes and father David moved here from Leeds 31 years ago. David was a professional diver who moved here in search of work. In 1987, he met his wife and a year later set up a custom-order scalloping business who sells mostly to local restaurants. He offers twice-dived scallops, which are scallops relocated from deep to shallower waters, developing superior taste and texture. Robson dons snorkel and wetsuit to dive for scallops. They later have a sunset scallop barbecue. Scallops are shelled and wrapped in Parma ham on a skewer. The Inner Hebrides are made of over 70 islands, only 36 of them inhabited, largest being the Isle of Skye where over half the islanders live. On the remote island of Soay located off the south coast of Skye, a two-mile-wide island, once with population of over 150, now just three permanent residents, retired couple Anne and Robert live in a crofters's cottage on the island. After hitching a ride on a local fishing boat, only possible in fair weather, Anne ferries Robson ashore in her dinghy. Finally, Robson visits with 18-year-old Tristan, a semi professional trials bike rider, who lives in Dunvegan, Isle of Skye who takes him for a bike tour.