So this is Stinky Bay. The clumps of seaweed on the shore can pack quite a punch, apparently. Its real (and far more romantic) name is Poll Na Crann, Gaelic for the ships’ masts washed up after savage storms pummelled the coast. ‘In 1830, some boys stoned a mermaid to death here. Her body was found on the sand the next day. And down there’ — my Gaelic-speaking guide, James MacLetchie, points to a huge rock — ‘is where a group of 14th-century crofters tied the nuns of Benbecula at low tide. The cows had stopped milking so they accused them of witchcraft. The seaweed still looks like their curled fingers gripping the rocks as they drowned.’
‘The locals are a friendly lot then?’ I yell, struggling to close the car door into a wind that has the exfoliating potential of a spa facial.
I’m on the tiny island of Benbecula in the Uists, a string of rocky outcrops in the North Atlantic, separated from the mainland by the ‘Minch’ strait. I’m closer, in fact, to Reykjavik than London — and it feels like it. Down on the beach, through the sheeting spray, we can just make out Monty Halls, marine biologist and TV presenter, battling against a force seven wind and throwing sticks of salty kelp for his big black mutt, Reubs. Mad dogs and Englishmen — without the midday sun.
Monty is spending six months here, in the Outer Hebrides, filming his second BBC Great Escape programme. The first, based in Applecross on the west coast of Scotland, focused on his attempt to live like a crofter. Around three and a half million viewers tuned in and tourism in Applecross increased by 1,000 per cent. This year, the Uists are hoping for their share of the action, when Monty turns his back on city life once again, this time to become a countryside ranger.
I’m here to spend a few days with Monty and James, the inspiration for the series. James was the ranger here for five years until funding ran out. Since then he has worked as a freelance tourism consultant around the world, developing sustainable tourism programmes in the Falklands and Iceland. He has been showing Monty the ropes, and one of Monty’s aims while he’s here is to raise enough money for the post of ranger to be reinstated permanently.
‘Any other country on earth would make sure they had a full-time ranger here if the islands belonged to them,’ says Monty. ‘This is our New Zealand. Every nation needs a wilderness and this archipelago is ours. Visitors need to be educated about the wildlife when they come here, the ranger is their guide and he’s also the guardian of the environment.’
