All language subtitles for Grand_Tours_Of_Scotlands_Lochs_S01E04

PAUL MURTON: Of all of
Scotland's lochs,

some of the most stunning are found
on the west coast,

and in particular,
in wild and rugged Lochaber.

This is a remote and beautiful
part of the country

which is seldom seen by outsiders

because it's a long way off
the beaten track.

Just getting here can be something of
an ordeal, with no roads in or out.

I'm on a loch-hopping journey
across Scotland,

where it's been estimated
there are more than 31,000 lochs.

They come in all shapes and sizes,

many scoured out by glaciers
during the last ice age.

The great freshwater lochs
of the central Highlands,

the long, fjord-like sea lochs
along our coast,

and the innumerable lochans
that stud the open moors,

or nestled beneath high summits
in dark mountain corries.

All are both beautiful
and mysterious, sustaining life

and firing our imagination.

Distinctively Scottish,

I want to explore just how these
lochs have shaped a people

and defined a nation.

For this Grand Tour,
I'm taking the toughest of trails,

from the sea to Lochaber,

in search of monsters, spies
and hidden treasure.

(ETHEREAL MUSIC)

Starting on the west coast, my
journey takes me to our deepest loch

and its underwater secrets.

I then make my way across Loch Nevis,
into the wilds of Knoydart

and onto the shores of Loch Arkaig,

where I search for Jacobite gold

and discover how these lands provided
the perfect training ground

for bloody warfare.

But I begin here.

These are the sheltered waters of
Loch Nan Uamh, the Loch of the Caves,

a secluded part
of the Scottish coastline

which has a special place in history.

It was chosen as
Bonnie Prince Charlie's landing point

on mainland Scotland in 1745

at the start of his doomed
Jacobite rebellion.

(CROWD YELLING AND CANNONS BLASTING)

The following year, on the run
and with his army defeated,

he returned here
to make his escape to France.

200 years later, this isolated loch
and its surroundings

provided the perfect cover for more
clandestine arrivals and departures.

It may seem hard to believe now,
but during World War II,

agents from Britain
and Nazi-occupied Europe

passed through this
unassuming station.

The agents were on their way
to secret locations nearby,

to be trained in the dark arts
of sabotage and spying.

When they disembarked,
many made the short journey here,

to the northern shores
of Loch Nan Uamh and Arisaig House.

Today it's a hotel,
but in the 1940s

it became the headquarters
for a shadowy organisation

known as the Special
Operations Executive, the SOE.

Hi, Henry.
Ah, hello, Paul.

I've arranged a rendezvous
with Henrik Chart,

who's investigated
this secret history.

This is your collection?
This is the collection.

And he's unearthed some
grisly artefacts from that time.

So, these are detonators?
They're detonators.

So you would attach it, like
a door frame, or a window frame,

this would then be attached by a bit
of string to the handle of the door
or the window,

and then once it's in place and
the explosive was put in charge,
the safety pin was pulled out,

and then if anyone opened
the door or opened the window,
that would go off.

Kaboom.
It blew up.

The SOE was formed on the orders of
Churchill with the instruction:

CHURCHILL: To set Europe ablaze.

And they were equipped to do
just that.

I find this absolutely amazing.
It's like an Argos catalogue.

It was simply a catalogue
of all the various things

that were available to the agents.

It's thought that up to 2,000 agents

came to this beautiful part
of Scotland

to be given an intensive course
in death and destruction,

and sent back to their
native countries to wreak havoc.

That's a Sten gun.
It is a Sten gun, yeah.

And they were incredibly successful.

Two Czech SOE agents trained
in Scotland

were sent to Prague on a mission

to assassinate one of Hitler's
highest-ranking SS officers,

Reinhard Heydrich.

In May 1942, Agent Jozef Gabcik
stepped in front of Heydrich's car

and took aim,
but his Sten gun jammed.

As Heydrich drew his pistol,

fellow agent Jan Kubis threw
a grenade towards the vehicle.

(EXPLOSION)

Heydrich was fatally injured
and died days later in hospital.

The two SOE agents
were hailed as heroes.

They were trained here
to become ruthless killers?

Indeed. Hitler was determined
to wipe these people out.

The assassins were hunted down
and found hiding in a church.

Gabcik committed suicide.

Kubis escaped under fire,
but died later from his wounds.

This catalogue has helped Henrik
identify many of the objects

he's found in the local area.

And with the lifting
of the Official Secrets Act,

he's been able to delve deeper
into this fascinating period.

They had French agents,
we had Dutch agents,

there were Danish agents,

agents from all the occupied
countries, from Greece, Italy.

Men and women?

Men and women.
There was absolutely no difference.

The women didn't get a soft ride
in any respect.

When it came to anything, like hard
physical training, they had to pass.

One of the women trained here
was French-born Violette Szabo.

Captured and executed at just 23,

she was posthumously awarded
the George Cross

for magnificent courage
and steadfastness behind enemy lines.

But these must have been
very, very brave men and women.

I don't think you can imagine
how brave they were.

At the time,
they knew it was dangerous,

but I think they were
just so determined.

And they were a very effective force
too.

They managed to shorten the war
by a year and a half.

And I think they were unsung heroes.

As I make my way
up the beautiful west coast,

I can see why many consider this

to be the world's most scenic
train journey.

I'm getting off at Morar,
home to Scotland's shortest river.

But that's not its only claim
to fame

because the source of the River Morar

just happens to be
Scotland's deepest loch.

Incredibly, Loch Morar
is 310 metres deep.

That's over a thousand feet.

Deep enough to drown
the London Shard,

which is an incredible thought.

What lies hidden in the depths here
is the subject of much speculation.

As far back as 1887, there were
reports of a creature in the loch.

I intend to find out if Nessie really
does have a less famous cousin.

Joining me on this monster hunt
is Professor Eric Verspoor,

an expert in aquatic biodiversity,

and local man Ewen MacDonald,

who says he's had a close encounter
with the Loch Morar monster.

Have you really seen it?
Oh, I've seen it.

I've seen it just up there.

I was sitting on the bank one day,

and seen this thing
coming down the loch.

What did you think it was
that you'd seen?

Well, I had in the old days
known people,

you know, this monster, the Mhorag.

The Mhorag?
The Mhorag.

Ewen's not the only one
to have spotted Mhorag.

In 1948, nine people in a boat

claimed to have seen
a 20-foot long creature.

And 20 years later, two boatmen
claimed to have accidentally hit it.

So do you think we'll see Mhorag
today?

You never know.

One man who hopes we do
is Professor Verspoor.

He's determined to get to
the bottom of this mystery.

Now, Eric,
you're something of an expert

when it comes to discovering
what's in the depths.

What do you reckon? Do you think
there's much chance of there really
being a strange and new species?

I think, undoubtedly, we will find
DNA that we cannot match,

because this is a mystery,
this is...

It's a very deep mystery too.
Absolutely.

There's a lot of water in here
that's not really been
studied before.

Absolutely, and lochs,
they're like islands,

and they have a unique
evolutionary capacity

to evolve unique species
of organisms.

Really?

So that I would be very surprised
if we don't find organisms

that we have not encountered
previously,

that will be unique to this loch.

The professor has the equipment
to back up the theory.

This surprisingly low-tech device
is called a Niskin bottle.

Well, what we do is, we put it on
the end of the line

and you lower it to the depth

that you want to get the water
sample from, to two metres.

Down to two metres.
This is your control sample?

Yes, here we would expect to find
DNA of the typical species,

and then you send down a weight

and it triggers the mechanism
to shut the tube.

This is not just theory.

Eric has already used
these techniques

to identify several new species
of trout in Scotland's lochs.

There we are.
It's full of water, rather heavy.

And what we'll do is empty that
into one of these bottles here.

There's the bottle.
Right. This is gonna be number one.

And that's all sterilised, is it?
It is all sterilised.

That's our water sample going in.
Yes.

We're gonna have a long way to go,

if we go all the way down
to a thousand metres.

We do, and...
That's a lot of samples.

It's a very slow process,
as you can see.

For the professor,

this could be the start
of months of meticulous study.

You need a lot of patience
to be a scientist.

And who knows -
perhaps we'll finally establish

whether the Loch Morar monster
belongs to the realm of science

or superstition.

But now it's time
to hit the road again.

Although, from this point on, actual
roads become something of a rarity.

I'm taking a track from
the north shore of Loch Morar

that leads to the Tarbet ferry, the
gateway to the Knoydart Peninsula,

220 square kilometres of rugged
terrain bounded by two lochs.

To the north, Loch Hourn,
which means Hell in Gaelic,

and to the south, Heaven,
or Loch Nevis.

This ferry service is something of a
lifeline for the people of Knoydart.

With no road connection,

the only alternative to arriving
by water is a tough, two day hike.

Our landing place is the pretty
little village of Inverie,

home to Britain's remotest pub.

Today, Knoydart has a population
of around a hundred people.

After a community buyout,
many of them now own the land

they live and work on.

But that wasn't always the case.

At one time,
a thousand people lived here,

but the all too familiar story
of famine, eviction,

and forced emigration saw many of
them gradually replaced with sheep.

In 1948, however, seven men stood up
to their hated landlord,

and inspired generations to come.

They became known
as the Seven Men of Knoydart,

and their famous land raid
is still celebrated today.

The story is told in this song,

performed by Eilidh Shaw
and Drew Harris.

Who were the Seven Men of Knoydart?

They were just local men that
worked on the land, Highlanders.

Estate workers, crofters,
ferrymen, road men,

and boys that had just
come back from the war.

They were hoping for work,
employment, and food on the table.

And they had a landowner
who was holding onto the land.

The landowner was
the 2nd Baron Brocket.

A Tory politician, he bought Knoydart
in the 1930s,

evicting tenants and
vehemently opposing land reform.

A Nazi sympathizer who attended
Hitler's 50th birthday party,

Brocket was despised
by the people of Knoydart,

and particularly by the ex-soldiers
among the land raiders.

(VIOLIN PLAYS)

So they took it for themselves?

Yeah, he tried to stop them,
and put his lawyers onto it.

It think he won in the courts,
but morally,

the Seven men of Knoydart
won the moral high ground.

When was the community buyout?

1999.
Uh-huh.

So the Seven Men of Knoydart...

Here before there was a opening up
the land, and holding onto it,

and giving the people that live
on the land the rights to be here,

and work on the land.

So they're heroes, in your eyes?
Absolutely, ay, they are.

(DREW SINGS)

Leaving Inverie, I'm heading west,

following the road that runs high
above the dark waters of Loch Nevis.

The views are stunning,

and the landscape dramatic.

No wonder the Gaels who lived here
called it Na Garbh Chriochan,

or The Rough Bounds, in Gaelic.

A fitting name
for a spectacular wilderness

which dwarfs the human scale.

On the edge of this wild land is
a small settlement called Doune,

and here on this isolated part
of the coast

lives a real Family Robinson.

Hi, Paul, good to meet you.
Nice of you to meet me here.

No problem.
Where do you stay?

Doune here.
Doune here?

OK, down there
it's a little bit boggy.

Jamie was a teenager when he and his
parents were cast up here, at Doune.

They'd left Cornwall
to start a new, simpler life.

It's a pretty remote place
to come to.

It is.

And what was out in Doune,
when your parents took it over?

Very little.

There was a small ruin which
was built as a shepherd's cottage

by Irish stone dykers
following the clearances,

and there was no roof,
it was last inhabited in 1923.

Jamie helped his parents turn this

into this.

And he learned to be resourceful.

He can turn his hand to welding,
boat repair,

and of course, house building.

There's a hamlet of cottages
here now,

and he even found time
to build himself a house.

It's a school for self-reliance,
really.

I would... Yeah, that's a
very good way of putting it.

It may be on the mainland,

but there's very much
an island mentality here.

WOMAN: This is the garden.

This is more valuable than anything
during the winter,

because I can grow enough food
to keep us going.

And when, after much travelling,

Penny became Mrs Robinson,
she brought a taste of the exotic.

This is my Garden of Eden.

Fantastic place.

That is an apricot.
It does really well in here.

This is a kiwi, and then a fig tree.

A fig tree, my goodness.

Is that the only fig tree
in Knoydart?

I think it is the only fig tree
in Knoydart.

Leaving Jamie and Penny
in their Garden of Eden,

and feeling a little leg-weary,
I take to the water again,

heading for the top of Loch Nevis

to make the cross-country hike
to Loch Arkaig.

"Bridge in dangerous condition."

Ohh! Oh!

That's very wobbly.

My path takes me below the
magnificent summit of Sgurr Na Ciche,

which translates as
the Peak of the Breast.

I can't think why.

But here, in this utterly spectacular
landscape, I have found paradise.

I'm at the heart
of the Rough Bounds of Knoydart,

at the fulcrum between Heaven
and Hell, but this is no purgatory.

To me,
it's more like God's own country.

It's really beautiful.

(ETHEREAL MUSIC)

But heading to the next loch
on my journey,

my thoughts return
to more earthly concerns.

Loch Arkaig may be
just 19 kilometres long,

but believe it or not,
there's gold in that there loch.

Or at least somewhere on its shore.

And these guys are trying to find it.

But this isn't just any old gold.

It's Bonnie Prince Charlie's gold.

Hi, Robert.
Hello there, Paul.

And with the help of Robert Cairns
and his fellow detectorists,

I plan to get some.

And this is an old graveyard?

This is the old graveyard

where allegedly the gold was buried
in a shallow grave.

So this gold was to fund
the Jacobite Rising in 1745?

Yes, to raise money to buy arms
for the Battle of Culloden.

In April 1746, two ships
unloaded seven casks

of Spanish and French gold at Loch
Nan Uamh, where my journey began.

It never made it to the Prince
in time

to prevent catastrophic defeat
at Culloden.

Before he fled, Bonnie Prince Charlie
gave the order

for his treasure to be buried,
but no-one today knows where.

We've all picked up
quite a strong signal here.

But we might just have found
some of it.

It'd be a wonderful thing
if you actually found Jacobite gold,

and we happen to be here
to witness it.

You've found something down there.

Ay, right along here.

How credible do you think
these accounts are?

The story is real. The gold
is somewhere in Loch Arkaig.

Sadly, it doesn't look like
we've found any treasure.

An agricultural implement
of some kind?

Exactly. It could be.
It's not gold, is it?

It's certainly not gold.

I suppose that's detectoring for you
- a lot of disappointment.

Yes, it's the hobby
of the eternal optimist.

(LAUGHTER)

But sometimes detectorists
do strike gold.

In 2009, an Anglo-Saxon horde
was discovered

worth a staggering £3 million.

(DEVICE BEEPS)
What's that?

(BEEPING)

Digging, with furious intent.

There's no telling what Charlie's
gold might actually be worth,

but in Scots law, any find
actually belongs to the Crown.

But an independent panel
decides a finder's reward,

so I could still become
a millionaire.

We might get something here.

Sadly, my treasure probably
wasn't buried in 1746.

What do you reckon, from the 1980s?

1980s ring pull.

It's maybe more tin can
than gold coin,

but Robert and his team
are not giving up.

So this is the start?
Yes.

Hopefully at some point in time
it will be found.

Leaving the ever-hopeful
gold seekers,

I continue my lochside journey
on foot,

passing through country that's
bound up with Jacobite history.

And along a stretch of road known
rather chillingly as the Dark Mile,

which leads eventually
to Achnacarry House,

the ancestral home of Clan Cameron.

But if clan history seems to belong
to Scotland's dark and feudal past,

there is evidence, if you know
where to look for it,

of the part that Achnacarry House
and its grounds played

in more recent battles.

These crumbling concrete foundations
mark the outline

of a typical World War II
landing craft,

and was used to simulate landing
on heavily defended enemy territory.

And it's an amazing thought
that the men who practised here

went on to do it for real
on the beaches of Normandy.

Those men were commandos,

and Achnacarry House and its estate

were requisitioned
for their intense training.

And it's here I meet Clan Chief
Donald Cameron of Lochiel.

25,000 commandos were trained here.

25,000? That's a lot of men.

They were here for about nine,
seven to nine weeks.

Why did they choose Achnacarry?

This is wild country,
good training country,

and also completely off the
beaten track, so no prying eyes.

Only the fittest
could become a commando,

and here they were tested
to the full, marching over hills,

climbing cliffs, zip-lining across
Loch Arkaig,

were all part of a gruelling regime.

(EXPLOSION)

The enlisted men were billeted
in Nissen huts in the grounds.

Achnacarry itself was reserved
for the top brass.

Now, what's fascinating for me

are the murals
that were painted on the wall.

We got one here,
would have been above the fireplace,

shows a battle scene, we've got
ships, we've got aircraft on fire,

a dogfight going on.

And behind us,
where your ancestor is,

there used to be a dart board.

(BOTH LAUGH)

And we've got this fantastic mural.

But that's an extraordinary,
dramatic scene.

We've got a battleship,
we've got aircraft coming in,

we've got bombs going off.

Who painted these remarkable murals?

They were done by a chap called
Brian Mullen,

who was an instructor here
during the war.

So he was rehearsing D-Day
with the commandos here,

training them up in the lands
around Achnacarry,

and then what, in the evenings,
in his spare time,

he was rehearsing in paint
the scenes that he might encounter?

Well, there's some nude mermaids.

He probably wasn't expecting
to encounter them.
Oh, right.

Where are they? Let's have a look.
Oh, yes, there we are.

He was a good artist, I think.
They're fun, aren't they?

After the war,
the house was returned to the family,

who decided upon a more traditional
decorative scheme.

I'm afraid my parents didn't think
they could live with them.

So they got painted out?
They got painted over in about 1951.

And what of the man who created
these dramatic murals?

Tragically, Lance Corporal
Brian Joseph Mullen

died at just 33 years old
in one of the scenes he'd depicted.

He fell on the 6th of June, 1944 -
D-Day.

Just a short distance
from Achnacarry,

I reach the end of my journey
from the coast,

through the Rough Bounds,
to Lochaber.

This monument was unveiled in 1952,
and as the inscription says,

it's dedicated to the memory
of the officers

and men of the commandos who
died in the Second World War.

It also says that this country
was their training ground.

And standing here
in this magnificent setting,

I can't think of a more fitting place

to end my Grand Tour
through Lochaber.

On my next Grand Tour,

I'll discover how geological forces
have shaped the lochs and landscape

of beautiful Sutherland.

Captions by Red Bee Media
(c) SBS Australia 2019