Joy of the Coast 1

To discover the pure pleasure of seaside leisure, the team seek out the ideal locations to enjoy their personal passions and experience the joy of the coast.

Nick Crane heads to his beloved Inner Hebrides in Scotland to attempt a daunting, long-coveted mountaineering challenge on the Isle of Skye. For years, Nick has dreamed of climbing the fearsome Cioch. This singular and impressive spear of rock, the scene for a spectacular sword fight in the film Highlander, was only conquered for the first time in 1906. The men who originally attempted the hazardous route to its summit were an unlikely pair - John Mackenzie, a Scottish mountain guide, and Norman Collie, an English professor of chemistry - but their joint endeavour would bind them into a 30-year friendship. Nick uses Victorian mountaineering gear as he attempts to follow in the footsteps of Mackenzie and Collie and climb the Cioch for himself. Along the way, he learns something of the triumph and tragedy of their lives, but Nick's reward at the climax of the hazardous ascent comes with the discovery of a new favourite view - an incredible seascape framed by Britain's most glorious coastal peaks.