[theme music] ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: We are an island nation.

♪ ♪ Scattered around our coastline are hundreds of them.

Most are tiny.

I always like the evening light.

NARRATOR: They are home to unique communities, a mix of wildlife, and people.

Sway, sway.

NARRATOR: Many are remote, majestic I like being outside and seeing all the nature that lives here.

NARRATOR: With breathtaking landscapes.

It's just fantastic.

There's just so much to see just from this one viewpoint.

NARRATOR: Some are steeped in history and traditions, communities living very different lives from those most of us know.

If, 10 years ago, you would have told me that I could make a living knitting and being a designer and have sheep and live by the sea, I wouldn't have believed you.

NARRATOR: This is the story of life on our tiny islands.

[seagulls crying] The UK has lots of inhabited islands sitting off its coastline.

Some just have populations of seasonal nature wardens who come and go in much the same way as the birds they monitor.

Other islands have year-round communities who create a life for themselves in a tiny world surrounded by sea.

But whatever their location and unique circumstances, they all share one common experience-- the boat, that vital link with the mainland.

Tom has lived on Rathlin in Northern Ireland for over 16 years.

He's been working on the island's ferry for the last 13.

TOM: People are working the ferry feel very proud.

This ferry is the lifeline service to the island.

Ferry is a big employer on the island.

I think it's the biggest at the minute.

And then you have farming, fishing, tourism, of course, during the summer.

Winter time, very few tourists.

But the service still has to run to supply the island.

Even medicines have to come in.

The ferry does everything.

NARRATOR: Rathlin Island is situated just three miles off the north coast of Northern Ireland.

It's shaped like the letter L, just under 5 miles by 4, with a growing population that's currently 150.

TOM: There it is, beautiful Rathlin.

We're back and forward quite a lot most of the day.

But on the last ferry sail, it feels different because you're going home.

The end of a working day, nice and relaxed.

And then there's nobody else coming into the island.

So it's peaceful at night, you know?

I was day tripping in the mid to late '80s.

And I just loved the place, so I kept coming back.

And then in 2006, I think it was 2007, I was working in Dublin and I was on a building site.

And I was just fed up with it, to honest with you.

I was just going, it's just not right.

I don't feel good about this.

I actually just jumped in the car and left.

So see you, said I'm on my way, never come back.

[gentle music] ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Four miles away from the harbor, the cliffs and stacks by the west lighthouse are teeming with bird life, all carefully observed by Tom's mate, James, a bird lover who lives on the island and works full time for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Now, we're coming up to the first week of June.

It's really the peak of the seabird season.

And I mean, there's thousands and thousands of birds here now.

This is the time of year where it's absolute chaos.

Rathlin is actually one of the largest seabird colonies in the UK.

It's the largest guillemot colony.

There's an awful lot of razorbills.

Awful lot of kittiwakes, too.

And of course, the puffin, everyone's favorite.

They've got the really bright orange bill, sea parrots and amongst all the many other names that they have.

And they choose to make their nests underground in burrows.

NARRATOR: The puffin population takes up most of James's time.

He's come to Rathlin to try and save them because their numbers are plummeting.

30 years ago, there were over 1,500 individuals here.

At the last count, there were fewer than 410.

JAMES: My job is part of a project called the Liferaft Project.

And we're looking to eradicate the rats and ferrets from the island.

Now, those are two non-native species that were introduced to Rathlin.

And the effect that they've had on the breeding birds, especially the most vulnerable things like puffins, has been devastating, to say the least.

And really, now, the puffins are stuck breeding in the most isolated and hard to reach places.

My job is to monitor the puffins and other seabirds birds and see just how well they're doing year after year.

But we're not just interested in that.

We also want to look at where they're doing it and why that might be.

I get paid to look at birds all day.

That's, in a nutshell, really.

[birds crying] NARRATOR: 180 miles from Rathlin is the island of Bardsey.

It sits in the tidal flow of the Irish sea, 70 miles from Dublin and only two miles from the Welsh mainland.

It's 1 and 1/2 miles long and just over half a mile wide, with a seasonal population of nine.

As islands go, Bardsey is pretty special.

In the sixth century, Celtic druids regarded it as a sacred place.

By the Middle Ages, it was known as one of the holiest places in Britain.

I'm not sure how, but 20,000 saints are said to be buried here.

The Bardsey Island Trust, who manage the island, take this spiritual legacy very seriously.

And six months, every year during the busy season for visitors, they ensure there's a resident chaplain.

At the moment, it's this guy, Adrian, a retired parish priest from Yorkshire.

ADRIAN: I first came to the island in 1981 when I was a student at Cambridge.

And on and off, I've come ever since.

And at the moment, I come for two fortnights a year to take my part in the chaplaincy rotor, the rotor by which there's a chaplain on the island every week from Easter time until the end of September.

This is the medieval monastery tower, the abbey tower.

It's all that's left of the abbey, which was here for nearly 400 years in the Middle Ages.

Everything else was is gone because when Henry VIII's men came and demolished the monasteries, the local people here were always short of building stone.

So when there was some free stone on the ground, they picked it up and worked it into their farmhouses.

It has a special memory for me because it was in this tower that I actually proposed to my wife in 1986.

What was special about this particular abbey was that it was at the end of a pilgrimage route, which went all the way across North Wales.

[mysterious music] ♪ ♪ It's often said there are 20,000 saints buried here.

I think what we're meant to conclude from that is a very big number of people.

And it is quite likely that that is the case because there was also a tradition that if you came here and died on Bardsey, as it were, you had a sort of a help up into the journey to heaven.

You missed out some of the stages of purgatory.

And in fact, one of the medieval popes made a declaration that three pilgrimages to Bardsey were the equivalent of one to Rome.

So it meant the pilgrims came here not only once, but three times No doubt, it increased the coffers of the monks as well.

♪ ♪ The land holds very much not just memories, but I think it holds prayerfulness.

When you bear in mind that the monks here would have prayed at least seven times a day for seven days a week, for 52 weeks a year, for nearly 400 years.

It comes out at one million acts of worship.

Now, if, on one million occasions, the monks have gathered here and poured out their longing and their yearning and their adoration for the divine reality, surely something of it is still hanging around in the landscape.

I think it is.

And I think it's not just my own personal idea because when I talk to visitors who come here and say, well, I'm not at all religious or spiritual, by the time they've walked around the island, and I talk to them just before they get on the boat going back home, they say not religious or spiritual, but there's something about this island that's very special.

So we're now at Bae'r Nant, which is the place where the medieval pilgrims landed.

They came across from St.

Mary's Well on the mainland over there, and came across right into this bay.

It must have been quite a treacherous landing.

They might even have had to have jumped onto the rock when the waves lifted them up.

I like to come to this spot because this is where the pilgrims touched land.

This is where they.

They finally made it, and they knew that they'd got to, as it were, the goal of their journey.

In many cases, I suppose, what their life was about this life's journey.

[waves rolling] I could sit here for hours and hours, simply watching the waves, watching the currents.

You can't take your eyes off them.

And I suppose that's something to do with wonder and awe, which is something to do with what spirituality is all about, really.

[waves crashing] NARRATOR: It's nearly time for the morning service held in the island's chapel, built in 1875.

[bell tolling] ADRIAN: Now, at the moment, we've actually got 14 people on the island who have come for a specific retreat.

So there are more people probably in chapel this week than we normally would have.

Let us be aware of where we are and of how we are feeling this morning.

We've called it a Celtic retreat, which means that they're coming here to reconnect with the natural world.

The Celtic church was very much connected with the natural world.

It saw God in every flower and in every blade of grass.

♪ All around us, we have known you ♪ ♪ All creation lives to hold you ♪ ♪ In our living and dying ♪ ♪ We are bringing you to birth ♪ [serene music] ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: There are hundreds of tiny islands around the UK and each one has its own feel.

The feel can be very personal depending on what type of islander you want to be.

Can you feel the magic?

This is Easdale in the inner Hebrides, just off the west coast of Scotland.

It's very, very small, but perfectly formed at just half a mile long and wide with a population of 60.

Each of these 60 people will have their own version of Easdale.

This is Lisa's.

She's an artist who moved here with her partner from the North of England a year ago.

Ah!

I love this.

This is amazing there.

Sometimes, I'll use this as like, a tree.

So when that's completely dry because it's a little-- just a bit damp there.

I'll use that in like a-- I actually quite like that.

I'm going to use that in a sculpture.

NARRATOR: In her whitewashed cottage around the green, Lisa has set up an art gallery stocked with art and souvenirs inspired by the island she now calls home.

One of the things I do is Easdale houses.

Actually, it came up as a great idea after living in Blackpool.

I just came to me that someone had like a nice little white cottage.

And it did really well, and it kind of worked.

As soon as I've done them, the light going out at the moment.

I'd lived in Blackpool for 31 years, and just that chapter of my story had ended.

I wanted a quieter life, more peaceful life.

And literally, the universe just was like, boom.

And then we came here.

Ta-da!

Just sits in the palm of your hand.

NARRATOR: Most people know Easdale for its history.

It's one of the slate islands.

And in the 1800s, slate was a huge business.

Nearly 400 people lived and worked here.

But then it all went wrong.

This is where they would have done the mining.

The slate would go out all over the world.

And then in like, 1881, there was a massive tidal wave so it left all the water in all the quarries.

It kind of wiped out the whole of the slate and the quarry and the mining industry, really, in one fell swoop overnight.

And today, now, people swim in them.

NARRATOR: The island's history and beauty bring a regular stream of visitors who make the five-minute trip from the mainland in what the islanders call a ferry, but we might call a boat.

The ferry, let's call it that, goes backwards and forwards all day.

It's a lifeline for the islanders, too, taking them to their cars on the mainland so they can get to work and school.

LISA: I remember stepping off the boat, and I was like a little kid in a sweet shop.

I was just like, proper excited.

It was like my idea of paradise, heaven.

And this is my wheelbarrow, this nice, bright, sunny yellow one.

I call it like my 4x4 of the island.

We'll use these wheelbarrows because there's no cars on the island.

And so when the ferry comes in and we've done our shop, we need to transport it back to our houses.

Otherwise, it gets rather heavy.

I remember, like when I first moved to the island, I went like that, looking for cars because it's just like, your brain-- like, my brain was still telling me to look and check for cars.

And then I totally forgot that we live on an island now, and there's no cars on the island.

[gentle music] ♪ ♪ I get up in the morning and just live and flow, really.

♪ ♪ One of the things I like to do is just to walk around the island and just see what I find.

♪ ♪ I love being by the sea.

It brings me alive.

It heals you.

It calms me.

Check that out.

The reason I became an artist was mainly because of the sea.

Oh, magic.

♪ ♪ Whoop!

Nope.

♪ ♪ Ah, I love that.

You can see the pyrite in there, which is usually classed as fool's gold.

And the whole of the island has this slate on it.

And if you believe in that kind of thing, which I do, the benefits of pyrite is good for your emotions.

I don't think there's anyone here that's stressed.

[waves crashing] It brings out my inner child.

That's why I love it here.

I love the fact that I can be me, and it doesn't matter.

And basically just like a Peter Pan, like, every day.

Oh, I love it.

See, it's like the Secret Garden.

It's like the Secret Garden, you've got the walls.

Imagine like an invisible-- it's an invisible gate, and you just walk on through.

I have a racing mind, and I'm trying to be more in present moment.

And I find that when I'm outside, well, you're just observing.

Isn't it beautiful?

[tranquil music] ♪ ♪ I've not done this for like, yonks.

Look.

♪ ♪ I never thought my life would turn out this way.

And at first, I remember when I moved here, I felt that I wasn't worthy of being somewhere like this.

And it's only over the past couple of weeks, I'm starting to realize that everyone's worthy of this life.

Slam dunk.

♪ ♪ NARRATOR: It's late spring on Rathlin.

And Tom's ferry from Ballycastle is starting to get busy with nature lovers.

What are you hoping to see?

Well, I hope the birds are awake.

The puffins are in and out at the minute.

They're sort of rafting in and out.

But yeah, hopefully, they'll be back in today.

But you should see something.

And you always keep your eyes peeled going across, too, you know.

- We've got it.

NARRATOR: Rathlin sits on the edge of Northern Ireland around 30 minutes by ferry from the mainland.

While most of the island's visitors make the trip to see the seabird colonies at the West Lighthouse, James is looking further afield.

Along with his colleague, Rick, and some volunteers, James has chartered a boat to search for small puffin colonies in more remote corners of the island.

The plan is to count what they see and plot exactly where the puffins are nesting.

JAMES: The whole island gets counted about every five to 10 years.

But this year, we've got the time.

And we have the personnel to be able to do it a bit more often.

This is our first boat trip, though, so we're quite excited to see what we can see on the parts of the island that aren't visible from land.

[serene music] ♪ ♪ Rathlin is my fifth island I've worked on.

I started working in conservation out in a place called the Isle of May, which is another big seabird colony in Scotland.

Since then I've just thought, wow, if I could get paid to look at birds and study them, hopping from island to island every year, I'd be the happiest man in the world.

♪ ♪ So this is the spot where we know that the first puffin colony is along the east side of the island.

So we're just going to stop the boat and try and get a count of the birds on the land and on the sea.

A lot of birds on the water right now are puffins.

OK, Rick.

So how many did you get on land?

One.

Just one?

No worries.

Annie, did you get any?

Just one.

And Neve, did you get any?

Nope?

No worries.

And how many did you get on water?

10?

Rick?

About 35 if you count the ones circling the boat.

Yeah, 35.

And Annie?

Around 20.

20?

No worries.

And I know there's a colony there.

You can see it.

One on land.

So, yeah, we're just going around.

And we'll take photos of where we see the puffins on land.

And using the GPS on the phone, it'll create a geotag for each photo so that when we plot them on a map, we can see exactly where we've been seeing the puffins.

And then at the end, we'll pick out the maximum scores for each part of the island, and then add that all together into one refined population estimate for the entire island.

It's a really important way of keeping track of the population, is to count them and see how those numbers compare to what they used to be.

[birds crying] NARRATOR: Back in the harbor, tom's shift is over and is on his way home.

TOM: Hey, George, how's it going?

- Thanks.

- All good in the hood?

Yeah, I guess so.

Would you believe that as George Best's uncle?

George Best, the famous footballer?

That was his uncle.

Everybody knows everybody, more or less.

Everybody seems to know your business, too, which is quite funny.

In fact, there was one stage I bought a new bed.

And it came over on the ferry, so I had to put it on the top of my car to get it round to the house.

The next couple of hours, people were saying, I see you got a new bed, Tom.

But that's just the way it works here.

It's a small community which is slowly growing.

NARRATOR: It's unlikely the island's growing population will ever encroach on the wilder parts of Rathlin.

There is some farming.

But most of the island is a grassy, boggy paradise, perfect for Tom's passion, nature photography.

TOM: Any chance I get if there's any decent light, I would always get out with the camera looking for the hares or looking for anything, any wildlife.

I have thousands of pictures of hares.

But you always strive for something else.

It's that addiction, I suppose.

[serene music] We're going to head out here and see if we can find some hares.

Hopefully, there'll be some hare at this place where we're going now.

It's normally a good spot for them.

♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Irish hares are descended from mountain hares, but are now their own subspecies with their own unique genetic characters, which is a scientific way of saying they are very special and only found in Ireland.

They are also very hard to photograph.

Spotting them can be difficult.

But it can be rewarding at the same time because you can't get close to them.

But it's always keeping trying to keep low as well and the noise down, of course.

And the wind with you in the right direction.

♪ ♪ I've just seen a hare, one of the Irish hares on the island just running behind that wall there.

There's a lot of effort put into it.

But when you get the shot you're after, it's just great to see them.

When I see these wild animals up close, it's brilliant.

Just seeing that hare again, he's just scarpered away.

He's behind that big wall.

He obviously heard us.

♪ ♪ I mean, there's something mystical about it.

I don't know what it is.

I suppose there's a lot of it in Irish folklore as well, about it being a strange animal and having magical powers and stuff like that.

♪ But there's just something about them.

# ♪ What I've gained from being here is peace and peace in my soul and peace-- and I'm at peace with myself.

It's unbelievable.

And I very rarely now get stressed about anything or frustrated.

There's one there.

It's just that red beard.

He's just moving up that hill.

(WHISPERING) Oh, he's back there.

He's buried in the grass.

I can hardly see him.

All you can do is keep trying.

♪ ♪ NARRATOR: The weather is getting warmer, particularly in the Isles of Scilly, which enjoy the UK's mildest island climate.

The Isles of Scilly sit off the southwest tip of England.

Five of its islands are inhabited and one of the smallest is Bryher, which is just 1 and 1/2 miles long and under a mile wide with a population of 80.

Bryher is just a short boat trip from the main island of St.

Mary's, and virtually just to swim from its busier island neighbor of Tresco.

As the brochures would say, it's a perfect spot for tourists looking for somewhere unspoiled but accessible.

Bryher's population triples in the peak season.

And many visitors stay on the island's campsite, which is managed by Jo.

Her days usually include a trip down to church quay to collect campers and supplies.

All our deliveries come in on the freight boat.

And so we've got no DPD or anything like that here.

So we have to come down to the quay and collect it ourselves on the islands.

[locking gates] People do ask, why do you need such a large vehicle.

But the thing is, when you're coming to Scilly, you can't bring your car with you.

We've only got a passenger ferry.

Particularly for campers, you've still got to bring quite a lot of luggage just to be able to set up your pitch.

So we also use the tractor and trailer to go and meet our guests on the quay, unload the boat, load up our trailer and we bring it up to the campsite for them.

[trailer whirring] So we've had the campsite for about-- this is our eighth season now.

I was born on the islands and grew up here.

And it was always my ambition to come home.

And so when the opportunity to come back and do the campsite came up, we jumped with both feet and went for it.

Living on an island is definitely not easy.

One example, I had a GCSE exam when I was 16.

And the weather was just too rough.

So I had to phone the school and say I'm really sorry, but I can't actually make it to my exam.

You get cut off.

We've had power cuts and stuff.

But you get the benefits of living here.

They far outweigh any hardships.

And actually, the hardships make it even better.

NARRATOR: Jo moved back to Bryher with her husband, Tom, who now works on Tresco.

They had Ollie four years ago.

Shall we go to the beach?

Yes.

- Would you like to go?

- Yes.

Come on.

He's been growing up on the island and a lot on the campsite as well.

It's just a fantastic way for him to grow up, being almost feral, in a way, like I was growing up Daddy.

Yes?

Can you just do that?

Right.

One, two, three.

Ahh!

JO: I want him to grow up realizing how lucky he is.

One, two, three.

Whoo!

Can I hold that for you?

JO: Zoe, who used to run the shop, runs Bryher bake box now.

But her cinnamon buns are something of a legend.

[laughter] Cinnamon bun Sunday.

It is.

It's a special treat on a Sunday, quite like most things on Bryher.

There's quite a lot of honesty stalls around.

She's got a card machine, and she's always worth a visit.

- We could plant him.

- Yes.

One, two, three.

Oh!

What does the magic water do?

Turn me into a big plant.

Oh.

You're a big plant now.

Oh, I've got so many memories of being down on this beach as a child.

It's the closest beach to where I grew up as well, so it's nice and easy for us to get to.

And he loves it down here.

[calming music] NARRATOR: Ollie may love the beach, but Jo's childhood passions have evolved from sandcastles to rowing, specifically rowing local boats called gigs.

This week, there's a big race.

So Jo's off for some training on island neighbor, Tresco.

JO: Being so closely linked with Tresco, we do have boats I suppose, in the way that on the mainland, you drive a car around, we drive boats.

Just being on the water and having the wind in your hare is just really freeing.

We're going out tonight because there's a few of us that want to get going and get ready for Wednesday's race.

[door opening] This is my seat.

I might have got a little bit possessive over it.

I stitched my name into it and everything, so no one else used it.

I've just got a new foam in.

It made sense to me.

I'm looking for the other seats now.

Oh, there it is.

Is your mom still here?

Yeah.

Oh, did she get to see your race yesterday?

Oh, no.

Gig racing brings a whole new idea of community across the islands.

So between us and Tresco, we have a gig club together.

Being neighboring islands not very far apart, we're about half a mile apart.

It expands further than just when you're out on the water.

When I go down to St.

Mary's, I'm seeing all the gig crews that I row against.

And it's lovely to see them.

They become your friends.

[water splashing] The clicking of the pins is kind of known as the heartbeat of the gig.

[oars moving] So you want the two pins to be clicking as one.

So all six paddles are doing exactly the same, all those pins clicking at exactly the same time.

And if you nail it, it is like a heartbeat.

[water splashing] NARRATOR: Over 200 miles North of Bryher in Northwest Wales is Bardsey Island, just off the Llyn Peninsula.

[somber music] This island has a long history of religious worship and pilgrimage.

Today, that tradition is continued by people like Adrian, a retired parish priest who's part of a team of regular island chaplains.

People sometimes ask, why is there a chaplain on the island.

It's a very small island.

And there are very few people actually living here.

It's an interesting question.

I think part of the reason is to try to embody the very ancient Christian history of the island, which runs back 1,500 years.

People come here, and they see some of the monastic ruins.

But it's quite important, I think, to have someone who embodies the fact that it's not just a tradition that belongs and ended in the past, but the spiritual tradition of the island continues into the present day.

NARRATOR: While he's here, Adrian lives in this house known as the hermitage, so-called because it was once used by Sister Helen Mary, a hermit who lived on Bardsey for 15 years from the late '60s.

ADRIAN: It's a sort of barn conversion that isn't completely converted.

But it's a very cozy place, except when the wind comes in.

She spent quite a lot of time here, but even more time in the Betws, the little oratory, which is just across the yard.

And there, she prayed all around the clock, really.

[somber music] ♪ ♪ Sister Helen Mary was a remarkable person.

As a young woman, she had been a very accomplished pianist and trained in Vienna, and also a very accomplished linguist.

But she felt the call to be not only a nun, but to be an enclosed nun, to live in silence.

And after a while, even that didn't seem enough for her.

And so she requested that she could move out to a more remote place.

♪ ♪ So she wandered around the island a bit as well, but always in silence.

♪ ♪ She had hoped that she would die on the island, but she became too frail in the end and so had to go off.

♪ ♪ The chapel has a lovely feel in the daytime for prayer, but it's even more special at night.

Quite often, I get up about 2 o'clock in the morning and come out and sit in here with just the candle alight.

And there's an intense sense of calm.

♪ ♪ NARRATOR: This evening service starts in 30 minutes.

But luckily for Adrian, it's only a five minute walk up the Main Street.

I love walking up this track, aware that thousands and thousands of feet have trodden the same path, pilgrims from Middle Ages and the present time.

And you can see the track is actually worn away by all the footprints that have scraped out this pathway.

[serene music] ♪ ♪ It's just getting towards sunset now, and it's been a stunning day.

And it looks like it's going to be a stunning sunset.

We're going to delay the start of compline by a few minutes, get everybody who's in the chapel now to come out and to wait and watch the sunset.

And then we'll go into chapel to complete the evening act of worship.

[flute music] ♪ ♪ ADRIAN: The evening service is all about a reflecting on the day that's already gone and giving thanks for it and then, as it were, gathering it up, and then very deliberately moving into the quietness and the stillness of the night.

♪ Before the ending of the day ♪ ♪ Creator of the world, we pray ♪ When people come here, they're freed, in a way ♪ Love would be ♪ Life is simplified out on an island.

♪ While we sleep ♪ And when it's simplified out, the more important things begin to emerge.

♪ Amen ♪ [waves crashing] NARRATOR: It's a calm evening on Bryher and Tresco in the Isles of Scilly, but not for much longer because tonight, gig racing teams from across the islands are gathering for their first meet of the season.

JO: Get some spare pins.

There are some in the bag up at the front of the shed.

And then we need paddle.

NARRATOR: 30 miles from Cornwall, the islands of Bryher and Tresco have less than half a mile between them.

They share close ties, including gig racing teams.

Jo's team will be proudly crewing the Czar tonight.

Built in 1879, it's the oldest gig still racing.

JO: The Czar definitely an amazing gig and such an honor to row in her.

They're called pilot gigs because they used to take out a pilot to drop onto the boats to help guide them into the safer waters.

That's really where the gig racing began.

You're racing out to get that money to pilot that boat in.

I believe that the Czar actually paid for herself within one day of arriving on Scilly.

She attended two shipwrecks, which is just incredible.

It's the best feeling in the world, rowing on home waters in a traditional Scillonian gig.

So you can't beat it, really.

Tonight, we'll be racing from the end of Tresco.

It's a nice, short, sharp one.

I think it'll be over in about eight minutes.

But we'll feel every one of those eight minutes.

[piano music] When you're lining up on that start line, looking out at those other gigs, you're ready.

You want it.

Pretty nervous, starting to get keyed up.

Everyone's attention is on their paddles.

Flags up.

And over the radio, you hear them shout go.

[exhilirating music] ROWER: 1, 2, 3.

JO: Pulling away on that start, you've got to get that gig moving so you're pulling as hard as you can.

Every stroke counts.

You can see the other gigs moving, and you're trying to just do your best to pull past them.

ROWER: Five.

JO: The noise is just amazing.

Although you're focusing on what you're doing, you can hear the noise of all the paddles hitting the pins.

There's nothing like it.

♪ ♪ ROWER: 3, 4, 5.

JO: Anything can happen in a race.

Someone can suddenly have a burst of energy, and they'll storm through you.

So you can't let up at all.

As soon as you start to relax and think you might have it, that's when they're going to come back at you.

And that's when you're going to lose it.

At no point in that race are you giving up or letting it go ROWER: All together as one.

♪ ♪ Let's return together, nice and settled.

Tidy rowing.

Lots of power.

[indistinct yelling] Blades full of water, send it backwards.

[indistinct yelling] They've got nothing now, all behind us.

This is our race.

♪ ♪ [horn blasting] [indistinct yelling] JO: When we realized we won, absolutely over the moon.

Very exhilarating feeling Oh, my God.

JO: I felt very much out of breath.

It took a long time to steady my breathing.

[indistinct yelling] It's amazing to win.

But watching all your friends crossing the line and seeing all those other gigs out there and just being a part of such a tradition and heritage of Scilly, there's nothing quite like it.

NARRATOR: 370 miles north of Bryher, just off the north coast of Northern Ireland, is the island of Rathlin.

Its population of 150 are mainly situated around the harbor.

That's a human population.

Over on the cliffs and stacks by the West lighthouse, there are thousands of guillemots, kittiwakes, and razorbills.

The island seabird colony is also famous for puffins, but their numbers are in decline.

[serene music] ♪ ♪ James and Rick are involved in a five-year project to save the population.

And they're currently creating a detailed map of the colony.

Today, they're putting down their binoculars and using a drone.

JAMES: It's a game changer.

It's a complete game changer.

And it's really quite exciting to be a part of the pioneer phase for this technology.

This is our GNSS receiver.

It's essentially a super accurate GPS device.

And this thing is communicating to satellites that are communicating to a known point with another thing similar to this on the base on the mainland.

And then this will talk to our drone and correct all of the location data that that has to make it super accurate.

So instead of being 3 to 5 meters as a normal GPS, it'll be around between 10 and centimeters accuracy so it can really improve your data.

Drones are-- I hate to say that they're the future because it's kind of doing us out of a job.

But they're really doing things that we, as people, can't.

What we've done here is to fly it, do some test routes, and just see the reaction that we get from the birds.

My colleague, Rick, will be looking at the drone.

And if it looks like it's too close or the birds are reacting in a negative way to the drone, he'll just tell me to back off.

So I'll slowly retreat until it's at a safe distance.

We can get great views of the cliffs.

We can get closer to the birds because the disturbance is that much less with the drone, which surprises a lot of people.

Once it's created this 3D model, we'll be able to have that permanently.

And we can show people in years to come that this is what Rathlin used to look like.

[serene music] ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Back at their office in the Manor House Hotel, James has been able to analyze the photos and footage and draw some pretty stark conclusions.

JAMES: Using the drone data, we can create a 3D map of the area that we've been surveying.

The detail of the map really is quite incredible.

Every little black dot there is a guillemot.

But you look at these big grassy areas, these what look like good habitat for puffins.

And they're just empty.

There's no birds breeding there.

But if I rotate around, you can see that these big grassy areas are actually connected to the top plateau of the island.

So if you're a ferret coming across the top here, it's much easier to climb down and into these areas that have probably been stripped bare than it is to climb down the near-vertical cliffs.

And obviously, these are the parts where puffins are safe to breed.

It's really quite obvious that they're stuck down at the bottom of the cliffs here.

So it's about 0.13 hectares.

So despite the size of this place and the vast amount of habitat that looks good for the puffins, you can see they're quite restricted to that quite a small area.

NARRATOR: Once the current puffin population has been thoroughly mapped, work will begin on removing rats and ferrets from the island, creating even more nature for visitors and residents of Rathlin to enjoy.

In which BBC comedy did General Von Klinkerhoffen appear?

NARRATOR: And who knows?

At the end of five years, James and Tom may also have brushed up on their TV trivia.

Oh, what do you call your mom?

What cat did Phoebe sing about?

Anything on birds we could maybe get right.

If there was a TV show about birders Sam Malone, Norm, and Cliff were three characters in which US comedy?

No cheating now.

I wish we could at least get some points.

Yeah.

MAN: Number 8, name the comedy character played by Michael Crawford in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.

[calming music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪