The best way to begin an exploration of the area is by going back in time to the听 Their mouths look out on the oldest rocks in Britain 鈥 but the caves provide a far more interesting view, a window onto pre-history itself. Alex Scott explains that the remnants of animals long lost to Scotland, from polar bear and lynx to tundra vole, are far more important than the occasional human skeleton dating from a later time.
But caving is for sport as well as for science. Richard squeezes through a tiny gap in the rock to enter, with Peter Dowswell, the longest cave system in Scotland. Many passages are accessible only to divers, so, from the surface high above, Peter and are digging 鈥 the spoil hoisted up with the help of a tandem 鈥 to allow access to all. It鈥檚 taken them, so far, eleven years.
John and Sheila Anderson run the in Lochinver. A charity originally set up to help fishermen away from home, it now provides a welcome for fishermen and tourists alike 鈥 as long as the fishermen are served their dinner first. With many ports in need of welfare centres for fishermen now out of business, John and Sheila鈥檚 work is as much pastoral as practical.
Struan Lothian and Joey Campbell are linked by two things: the hotel in Kylesku, run years ago by Joey鈥檚 family and now owned by Struan, and a fascination with the crews of the X craft which trained in the waters around the village. The local lochs鈥 similarity to Norwegian fjords, and the area鈥檚 isolation, made it a perfect training ground for one of World War Two鈥檚 most secretive missions. Joey is one of those local people praised for 鈥渒nowing so much, yet saying so little鈥, and recalls the men who came to her village to train for an attack on the Tirpitz.
Two estates in Assynt have recently been bought by the local community and making the 44000 acres pay their way is now the responsibility of the . One of their aims is to allow the regeneration of woodland, an aim which does not sit easily with the present number of red deer on the land. The season for hind culling drawing to a close, Claire Belshaw and Robbie Mackenzie take Richard stalking and explain both how the landscape has changed over the years and how it might, one day, be different once again.听
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