WALK ON WILD SIDE
WE Brits are an island nation, so it’s hardly surprising that we have such a fascination with our own shores.
We also happen to have one of the most diverse coastlines in the world, ranging from sheer chalk cliffs and rugged rocks to flat, sweeping sands, undulating dunes and sheltered harbours, coves and bays.
Someone who knows this all to well is actor and presenter Robson Green, who has been all around the world in his Extreme Fishing series.
He won’t have a rod in his hand for much of this series, however (although he may be tempted in between filming) – as viewers of the first two episodes will know, it’s more of a social and geographical history of the people who live and have lived alongside our coasts.
This week, he travels to some of the most remote areas of the British Isles – the Outer Hebrides.
There, he finds an area all-but unspoiled by human hands, and thoroughly wild, courtesy of a unpredictable and often rather brutal weather systems.
Robson said, “I’m about to immerse myself in the Hebridean way of life, on a coastline frequently battered and bruised by the wild and unpredictable Atlantic Ocean and its challenging climate.”
He gets hands-on right away on the Isle of Lewis, learning how to weave Harris tweed in a traditional crofter’s blockhouse in the village of Gearrannan – with albeit rather mixed results – before going snorkelling for sugar kelp off the nearby coast. If he’s in need of a snifter to warm up after his foray into the icy Atlantic, he will be thrilled to then find out how the seaweed is used to flavour a local artisanal gin.
While the area is perhaps better known for another, more iconic spirit, gin is in fact on the rise. Robson explains: “The Highlands and Islands of Scotland are famous for their whisky, but now gin is enjoying a revival ... it takes only a teaspoon of sea kelp to flavour dozens of bottles of gin”.
Also on the island, he has a rare encounter with one of the UK’s most impressive species, the white tailed or sea eagle. With a wingspan of eight feet, they are the country’s largest bird of prey – and they make for quite an imposing sight.
On Harris, he goes camping on the beach at Luskentyre, which is home to all manner of wildlife, before heading over to the Uist, where he’s hoping for a more comfortable night’s sleep – and stays in an ancient stone roundhouse, known as a shilling.
Then it’s on to the Isle of Barra, where he helps out at the airport – which is unique in the fact that it’s the only airport in the world whose sole runway is actually the beach, meaning that flight times must be coordinated with the tides.
Who knew that such extraordinary scenes could be found within our shores?