Paradise Lost
Drunken parties, foul-mouthed tirades and booze and cigarette runs... how ‘holiday camp’ reality show Eden made Highland villagers’ lives a misery
‘Sounded like a massive orgy’
IT was supposed to be the start of a blissful new society, one free from the burdens of the modern world.
But those living close to the set of an ambitious new reality show claimed cast members caused misery in a Highland community by holding drunken parties, trading foul-mouthed tirades and treating their camp like a ‘holiday resort’.
Villagers reported being plagued by contestants begging for handouts after they failed to grow their own crops.
Some of the 23 strangers who signed up to Channel 4 show Eden: Paradise Lost were even spotted breaking free from their camp, a stone’s throw from the village of Acharacle, Argyll, to buy supplies using contraband cash.
Margaret Green, 70, who lives with her husband Andrew, 73, in the nearby village of Ardtoe – 220 yards from the camp – said: ‘We have lived in this beautiful part of Scotland for 20 years because of the peace and tranquillity, but during the last year that had been shattered.
‘We could hear the contestants shouting and swearing from across the water.
‘They were always coming over in a rowing boat to the village. One night a group came across and they must have gone to the pub in the village because they came back drunk, shouting and swearing at the bottom of my garden saying what a great time they had.
‘Another day a few of them stayed in a cottage near the pier and had hot showers and watched TV.
‘One night I don’t know what they were doing but it sounded like a massive orgy. It was more like an all-inclusive holiday camp than a social experiment.’
Production firm Keo Films sparked outrage by securing an exemption order, under Section 11 of the Land Reform Act, which temporarily revoked the public’s right to access the estate, and by fencing in the 600-acre plot – which takes in the ‘Singing Sands’ beauty spot.
Pensioner William Somerville, 70, from Retford, Nottinghamshire, who has enjoyed holidays in Ardtoe for the past 12 years, said: ‘We drive 12 hours for a two-week holiday every year and when we arrived last year the Singing Sands was out of bounds. There was also a patrol boat yelling at us to get off.’
The experiment began in March last year, with ten women and 13 men flown to the Ardnamurchan Estate. Producers said the ambitious series was a chance to ask: ‘What if we could start again?’
The participants were tasked with growing their own crops, raising their own animals and relying on completely natural resources to survive the year.
But after the first string of hour-long episodes – broadcast between July and August 2016 – ratings fell from 1.7million to 800,000, and the show disappeared from screens. Eventually, only ten of the 23 remained, with the experiment ending earlier this year. The show returns tonight for five episodes.
Contestant Caroline Gray, 28, from Kelso, Roxburghshire, told the Scottish Daily Mail on Saturday that as faith in the production company collapsed, campers began to go AWOL and made runs to the local shop to buy chocolate and cigarettes with cash smuggled in from the outside.
Miss Gray, who walked out after seven months, also said participants had visits from friends and family who bypassed security teams to drop off luxury goods. She and others claimed they were left to ‘starve’, forcing them to scrounge and cheat.
But fisherman and caravan park owner Hugh MacPherson, 50, of Ardtoe, said: ‘They had the best of everything flown in. Top soil, wood, even sheep. They didn’t start from scratch, the whole thing was a farce. Young crofters have less to work with. And they were far from isolated, we could hear them talking across the water. While the show was being filmed I was kept away from the Singing Sands by security. If I so much as stepped foot on the public beach there was a patrol boat telling me to leave. A lot of locals found it very intimidating.
‘The whole thing became a bit of a joke and people would go up to the fence and chat to the contestants. A couple of the locals would pop to the newsagents for them.’ The army of producers and sound engineers booked out Glenborrodale Castle, which costs £10,000 for four nights, and took rooms in the Loch Shiel Hotel.
A spokesman for Channel 4, on behalf of Keo Films, said: ‘The aim of Eden was to see if contributors could start a community from scratch away from the outside world. Whether all the contestants remained in Eden is discussed in the programme and we do not want to spoil the show for viewers by confirming who, if any, left.’
She said the Section 11 exemption was approved by the Highland Commission and Scottish Government, and was ‘in place for the safety of contributors’. Singing Sands could be accessed by the public ‘by boat’ and via the ‘edge of the coast at low tide’.
Eden: Paradise Lost will be on Channel 4 tonight at 10pm.