HEBRIDEAN PETROLHEADS FEATURE ON BBC ALBA

TRUSADH - CINN-CONNAIDH NAN EILEAN / HEBRIDEAN PETROLHEADS
Monday 2 August at 9pm on BBC ALBA

Motors are an all consuming passion for many island folk who spend much of their free time with their nose in an engine. Islanders’ fascination with all things mechanical is explored in an intriguing new documentary in the Trusadh series being broadcast on BBC ALBA on Monday 2 August.

The programme, ‘Cinn-Connaidh Nan Eilean / Hebridean Petrolheads’, meets island folk who restore buses, tractors, even an Indian jeep, as well as a father who has taken up a dangerous hobby at an age when many would be thinking of winding down.

Sandy Morrison, 62, from Dunvegan, Skye, has recently started rally driving, encouraged by successful driver son Neil, albeit to the despair of many including his wife Faye. “My wife says I’ve lost the plot and I’ve got a screw loose,” says Sandy with a wry smile.

Faye adds: “I thought he’d get wiser as he got older but he’s got worse. Neil is now involved too so there is even more commotion than before.”

Another whose passion for motors has proved a little distracting from family life is Donald ‘Cudaig’ Macleod, of Callanish on Lewis. The mechanic, who’s currently doing up a Massey Ferguson, gives his wife credit for her patience: “I’m married and she’s done well to stay with me. She says the tractors and pigs get more attention than she does.”

Duncan Campbell, of North Uist, is restoring a 1991 H-registered Indian Mahindra jeep he bought for £100. In the islands, parts can be hard to come by but resourceful Duncan has used old bed springs to close the bonnet and fashioned little brackets from lager can ring-pulls. “It’s good to have a pastime. Even if it’s ready I can still improve on it,” he smiles.

The programme also follows the iconic red and green liveried MacBrayne’s buses out for an annual excursion through Skye, with plenty reminiscing. The buses, the last of which stopped running in 1972, were once a regular feature on Highland roads. The owner of one bus, Donnie MacDonald from South Uist and his friends in the MacBrayne Circle are determined to keep them going. Donnie says: “I spend a lot of time restoring the bus – too much time probably!”

For mum-of-two, teacher Donna Barden, from Coll on the Isle of Lewis, seeing her late husband Alasdair’s home-made NG restored brings back happy memories of the couple’s honeymoon in the car. Motor enthusiast and GP Alasdair died tragically 12 years ago in a gyrocopter accident.

But Donna has decided to take the old NG from the garage and have her brother Iain Campbell make it roadworthy in time for her nephew’s wedding. She says: “I hope the couple who are getting married like the car and it doesn’t let them down. If Alasdair was here he’d be so happy that it was being used for such an occasion.”

Produced by mactv and directed by Magnus Graham for BBC ALBA, ‘Cinn-Connaidh Nan Eilean / Hebridean Petrolheads‘, will be broadcast on Monday 2 August at 9pm.