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6 Episodes 2017 - 2017
Episode 1
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.
Episode 2
23 mins
With 125 miles of rugged and dramatic coastline, Anglesey is the biggest island in Wales. It is home to 70,000 people and a stronghold of the Welsh language. Two 19th century bridges connect Anglesey to the mainland: Britannia Bridge, a Robert Stephenson construction, and the Thomas Telford-built Menai Suspension Bridge, both straddling the treacherous waters of the Menai Staits. Robson Green visits Fish Trap Island in the Menai Straits, which was used to trap fish as early as the 16th century, with its own cottage and smokehouse. This is home to Wirral-born Peter. He renovated the dilapidated buildings 25 years ago. It has a working weir where they trap their lunch by netting whitebait. Anglesey's coastal path is a 125-mile trail that circumnavigates the island's margins and stops at 20 towns and villages on route, including the town of Menai Bridge, the fifth largest Anglesey town with population of just under 4,000. Then, 14 miles up the coastal path to Aberffraw. Walking across a beach, they reach 12th century St Cwyfan's Church, once connected to the mainland until sea erosion turned it into tidal island. In the fishing village of Moelfre with 502 households, he visits a cliffside home renovated by current residents Miriam and Colin into their retirement home. They feature large picture windows on the sea with a modern glass-lined deck. To finish, he travels to Newborough to meet Sian for stand-up paddle-boarding.
Episode 3
22 mins
Tour guide Robson Green travels to Cornwall with its ancient tin mines, 400 miles of coastline with five million visitors yearly. First stop is the ancient fishing port and tourist hotspot of St Ives where Royal National Lifeboat Institution volunteer Peter and wife Sally are building a coastal home. The RNLI was founded in 1824 and is a charity that saves lives at sea in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Robson joins the RNLI on a sea training mission. A Coast Guard rescue helicopter also drops a winchman onto the moving boat. Man overboard exercise has Robson volunteering for a quick swim. In Newquay, the 72-year-old wetsuit-clad championship surfer Gwyn Haslock goes out on a surfboard. In Redruth, he goes two-man hang-gliding off a seaside cliff.
Episode 4
23 mins
Robson Green is in Pembrokeshire where he visits the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, established in 1952 with more than 240 sq mi of ecologically rich terrain at the point Southwest Wales meets the sea. It encompasses wild inland hills and wooded estuaries to sandy beaches and rugged cliff edges. Seven million visitors come each year. Near Milford Haven in South Wales, he travels to West Angle Bay at the entrance of a natural harbour once used by the Vikings to shelter from stormy weather. He meets a family from Cirencester who bought their very own island - complete with Napoleonic fort on Thorne Island 1/4 off the coast. Built from 1852 to 1854, it was one of 12 forts built to defend the Pembrokeshire Coast from the French Navy. It is currently without running water or electricity. The family are working to renovate it for events. Two months later, he checks back in with the fort's previous owner, who now owns the nearby the Old Point House pub built over 500 years ago, and then visits with the current owner to see the progress in renovations. Forty miles west to Porthsele Beach near Saint Davids, the smallest city in the UK, he meets a local Welsh family who go back generations. The family runs a tourist camping and caravan site. Drawing inspiration from her own mother's love of sea bathing, she established the Bluetit Swimmers in 2014, a wetsuit-free swimming club for women in the Pembrokeshire Sea with about 70 members. Honorary male members are called the Bluebells. At St Justinian's Harbour on St Brides Bay Island overlooking Ramsay Island, Robson meets a fisherman who returned from London 22 years ago. He became a lobsterman, bringing in both lobsters and crabs. He brags this season of a 4.02 kg lobster, about 9 lbs. He has some competition for the shellfish from the local seal population.
Episode 5
23 mins
In Lincolnshire, one of the largest counties in England, 50 miles of coast, tidal mud flats, and sandy beaches. This county is home to Skegness, one of Britain's oldest holiday resorts, and features donkey rides on the beach. In the Humber Estuary on the tidal island of Spurn is Spurn Point Lighthouse, a 122-year-old coastal icon. Its volunteer caretaker is a 70-year-old woman who lives 125 miles away in Catterick and spends four days a month at the lighthouse. Robson Green and she climb 144 steps to the top. The lighthouse was saved from extinction four years ago by local volunteers. Almost a century old, the Humberston Fitties is a village separated from the sea by a sand dune. It is made up of 320 passionately restored huts. He meets a member of the neighborhood watch. No two cottages are decorated the same. Built on former salt marshes, the Fitties was originally a camp for World War I soldiers garrisoned to two offshore forts in the Humber Estuary, which are both still standing today. They are called Haile Sand and Bull Sand, are one-half mile offshore and remain a visual reminder of the village origins. He visits Haile Sand Fort. Constructed on a submerged sandbank, these armour-plated forts were used as a crucial line of defence from enemy invaders during both World Wars. They were decommissioned in 1956 and soon fell into disrepair. One is currently for sale for £250,000. Up to the 1950s, the port of Grimsby was home to the largest fishing fleet in the world. The local Grimsby Fish Market is a source for the local smokehouse for smoked haddock and other fish. In nearby Maplethorpe is the Maplethorpe Seal Sanctuary and Wildlife Centre. They perform the rehabilitation for injured wildlife. Robson helps release a rehabilitated seal on the beach. Since 1974, they have rescued and released over 1000 seals.
Episode 6
23 mins
On his final episode, Robson Green visits the North Yorkshire coast which is full of craggy cliffs and glorious stretches of white sands very popular with holiday makers with more visitors than any other part of the country outside London. A family from Huddersfield bought property on Robin Hood's Bay in 2016 to renovate a family home and build a vineyard on 42 acres. He then visits them 10 weeks later to check in on their renovation progress. They are pleased with the growth progress of their vines, and hope to have their first harvest in two years. Five miles north is the famous port of Whitby. Attracted by beautiful beaches and local fish and chips, it draws one million tourists a year. The town prides itself on its maritime heritage, which is celebrated for the last 25 years at the Whitby Sea Festival. We are treated to a rendition of a sea shanty. Ten miles up the coast in the chocolate box village of Staithes, we meet artist painter Rob Shaw. A former architect, he retired early to fulfill a lifetime desire to paint. The largest seaside resort on this coastline is Scarborough with a population of 50,000. Robson explores its history of pirates and smugglers. He visits the Three Mariners, described as an ancient and historic inn built in 1360, a famous haunt of smugglers with its secret hiding places. It is on the Scarborough Heritage Trail as one of the earliest public houses in town. Ken and Angie Wood are its owners.