1 00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:36,360 NEWSREEL: Scientists are carrying out tests on the package of soil 2 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:38,880 contaminated with anthrax spores. 3 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:42,120 Anthrax, it's pretty lethal. 4 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:44,640 Some pretty horrific ways to die from anthrax. 5 00:00:52,240 --> 00:00:54,560 The whole country had been put at risk as the result 6 00:00:54,560 --> 00:00:57,120 of an environmentalist group's protest. 7 00:00:57,120 --> 00:01:00,200 And everyone was thinking, "I wonder who the hell did that?" 8 00:01:04,880 --> 00:01:09,560 I felt that there was more known than was being said. 9 00:01:09,560 --> 00:01:11,120 She obviously had form, 10 00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:14,000 and it wouldn't have been her first run-in with Special Branch. 11 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:16,360 You know, there were folk getting their phone tapped. 12 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:19,320 and we were seen as, you know, the enemy of the state. 13 00:01:26,520 --> 00:01:28,040 Oh, there we go. 14 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:29,880 It really is, it's releasing death. 15 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:33,880 NEWSREEL: What were these scientists up to on the island, do you think? 16 00:01:33,880 --> 00:01:37,960 I couldn't very well tell you what they were up to. 17 00:01:37,960 --> 00:01:40,240 We were told not to talk about this at all. 18 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:42,640 Anthrax must never been mentioned. 19 00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:52,720 Were you involved in Dark Harvest? 20 00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:55,320 They thought we were all hippies. 21 00:01:55,320 --> 00:01:59,080 This reporter, he said, "Come on, go on, you can tell me. Who did it?" 22 00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:00,400 Were you involved? 23 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:06,480 This was a person of great interest to the authorities. 24 00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:11,600 On the map, this is called Gruinard Island. 25 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:14,880 Hereabouts they call it the Island of Death. 26 00:02:23,880 --> 00:02:25,840 KEY JANGLES 27 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:44,480 ARCHIVE: Hebrides, Bailey, westerly six to gale eight, 28 00:02:44,480 --> 00:02:49,000 but locally severe gale nine in Hebrides at first. 29 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:51,880 # There's a storm coming 30 00:02:54,040 --> 00:02:56,000 # You'd better run 31 00:02:57,280 --> 00:03:00,000 # There's a storm coming 32 00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:05,360 # Goodbye to the sun 33 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:08,200 # There's a storm coming 34 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:15,760 # You better run, boy, run 35 00:03:18,640 --> 00:03:20,600 # You'd better run. # 36 00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:31,440 # Can you feel it coming in the air tonight? 37 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:34,560 # Oh, lord 38 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:36,120 # Oh, lord... # 39 00:03:45,160 --> 00:03:48,320 NEWSREEL: The police in Scotland have set up a special task force 40 00:03:48,320 --> 00:03:51,880 to investigate a statement from the group calling itself Dark Harvest 41 00:03:51,880 --> 00:03:54,520 and sent to the Glasgow Herald. 42 00:03:54,520 --> 00:03:55,920 It said... 43 00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:57,560 By the time you read this, 44 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:00,400 the campaign will have started in earnest. 45 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:02,600 The first delivery will have been made. 46 00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:05,440 And where better to send the seeds of death 47 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:08,200 than to the place from whence they came? 48 00:04:08,200 --> 00:04:11,120 I thought at the time the authorities were pretty worried. 49 00:04:11,120 --> 00:04:13,360 Bombs were going off in Ireland. 50 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:17,400 They probably thought, "Oh, God, this is all we need." 51 00:04:17,400 --> 00:04:19,360 A great, long, lengthy letter. 52 00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:22,280 The language is quite dramatic, quite theatrical. 53 00:04:22,280 --> 00:04:25,520 A biblical reference - most unusual to have a biblical reference 54 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:27,160 in something like that. 55 00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:34,440 "Seeds of death." The implication is, you reap what you sow. 56 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:37,720 We are simply delivering it back to them 57 00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:40,400 and saying, "We don't want this." 58 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:45,560 The letter was from an unknown group called the Dark Harvest Commandos, 59 00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:49,520 and their first target was this secret research facility 60 00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:50,960 in Wiltshire. 61 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:54,880 Inside this ordinary-looking building, 62 00:04:54,880 --> 00:04:57,560 scientists work with some of the most dangerous substances 63 00:04:57,560 --> 00:05:00,080 in the world. It's Porton Down, 64 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:04,520 the Ministry of Defence's chemical defence establishment. 65 00:05:04,520 --> 00:05:08,600 Porton Down was one of the most secretive places in Britain, 66 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:11,040 and was closely guarded. 67 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:14,000 They were on the alert, and they did an initial search 68 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:16,600 of their premises and found nothing. 69 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:23,400 They checked again, and this bucket was found outside the perimeter. 70 00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:25,960 The bucket was filled with soil, 71 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:27,960 but according to their letter, 72 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:33,520 this soil also contained a deadly agent of germ warfare. 73 00:05:33,520 --> 00:05:35,520 Bacillus anthracis. 74 00:05:36,840 --> 00:05:39,080 Better known as "anthrax". 75 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:42,880 A Government minister said today that the whole country had been 76 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:46,080 put at risk as the result of an environmentalist group's protest. 77 00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:48,440 The group dumped a sample of soil, which they claimed 78 00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:50,680 was contaminated with anthrax, near the perimeter 79 00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:54,160 of the Porton Down biological research station, in Wiltshire. 80 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:57,720 First thing that they did is deny it. 81 00:05:57,720 --> 00:05:59,120 They said it's a hoax, 82 00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:01,880 it's not really anything to alarm the public about, 83 00:06:01,880 --> 00:06:03,600 there's no public risk here. 84 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:06,120 Those scientists at the station are conducting tests 85 00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:07,240 on the package of soil. 86 00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:09,280 We understand that they think it's very unlikely 87 00:06:09,280 --> 00:06:11,480 that there's any anthrax in the sample. 88 00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:19,880 Anthrax is a naturally occurring but deadly organism. 89 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:23,880 In the Bible, it was one of the ten plagues of Egypt, 90 00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:27,880 and any outbreak can have fatal consequences. 91 00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:30,040 The bacterium forms spores. 92 00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:32,280 If they're in the air and you breathe them in 93 00:06:32,280 --> 00:06:35,800 and they get into your respiratory system or get into your lungs, 94 00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:38,560 the little seeds will germinate into bacteria, 95 00:06:38,560 --> 00:06:40,400 the bacteria will start to grow, 96 00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:44,440 and then they start producing nasty things which will cause you to die. 97 00:06:44,440 --> 00:06:45,800 It's pretty lethal. 98 00:06:47,280 --> 00:06:50,040 On the skin, blisters, often with very black spots, 99 00:06:50,040 --> 00:06:51,880 look very ugly. 100 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:55,560 Swellings, flu-like symptoms - you're getting the whole works. 101 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:58,800 You're getting nausea, you're getting hoarseness, 102 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:02,040 you're getting bloody vomit, abdominal pains, 103 00:07:02,040 --> 00:07:04,920 bloody diarrhoea, septicaemia, meningitis. 104 00:07:04,920 --> 00:07:08,480 Some pretty horrific ways to die from anthrax. 105 00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:11,840 ARCHIVE: In a rabbit, symptoms will appear in about 18 hours. 106 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:16,280 In a man, about 24. In a child, perhaps a little sooner. 107 00:07:18,040 --> 00:07:23,520 If you can imagine the tissues swelling. 108 00:07:23,520 --> 00:07:25,680 You start bleeding 109 00:07:25,680 --> 00:07:28,440 from the inside out, so it's really quite unpleasant. 110 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:37,800 The suspect soil that the Dark Harvest protesters left 111 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:42,720 outside Porton Down was brought into the facility for analysis, 112 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:46,400 and Government scientists quickly established 113 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:49,880 it came from over 600 miles away. 114 00:08:04,280 --> 00:08:07,200 Gruinard Island... 115 00:08:07,200 --> 00:08:09,400 ..sitting just a mile from the mainland 116 00:08:09,400 --> 00:08:12,280 in the far northwest of the British Isles. 117 00:08:12,280 --> 00:08:14,840 It's a place that holds many secrets. 118 00:08:16,120 --> 00:08:19,520 I've come a long way to visit that island lying out there 119 00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:21,360 in its lonely sea loch. 120 00:08:22,920 --> 00:08:27,600 Hereabouts, they call it the Island of Death, the Mystery Island. 121 00:08:31,640 --> 00:08:34,680 But in the years before the Second World War, 122 00:08:34,680 --> 00:08:37,200 Gruinard Bay was a peaceful place. 123 00:08:40,120 --> 00:08:43,120 The island had been uninhabited since the Clearances, 124 00:08:43,120 --> 00:08:46,840 but was overlooked by a scattering of mainland villages, 125 00:08:46,840 --> 00:08:49,760 which in the pre-tourist era were home 126 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:52,920 to God-fearing, Gaelic-speaking crofter folk. 127 00:09:02,440 --> 00:09:05,480 Now, this is not a story of old, dark deeds 128 00:09:05,480 --> 00:09:07,120 or Highland superstition. 129 00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:10,760 No, this story started in 1942. 130 00:09:16,440 --> 00:09:18,960 In the early years of the Second World War, 131 00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:22,520 the Northwest Highlands were strategically important - 132 00:09:22,520 --> 00:09:27,600 sparsely populated and far away from enemy eyes. 133 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:30,440 The British Army arrived in droves. 134 00:09:30,440 --> 00:09:32,560 There were battleships in the bay, 135 00:09:32,560 --> 00:09:34,960 armoured cars in the ditches 136 00:09:34,960 --> 00:09:38,680 and a warm welcome in the villages of Laide, Aultbea, 137 00:09:38,680 --> 00:09:40,520 Gairloch and Ullapool. 138 00:09:42,920 --> 00:09:46,880 The area was changed completely during the war years. 139 00:09:46,880 --> 00:09:49,240 A huge amount of activity. I mean, as a kid, 140 00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:52,920 you loved seeing all the things that were happening. 141 00:09:52,920 --> 00:09:55,400 Soldiers crawling everywhere. 142 00:09:55,400 --> 00:09:59,440 Operations on the island were shrouded in secrecy, 143 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:03,360 and the locals were kept at a distance. 144 00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:06,560 It was secretive. We knew there was something going on there. 145 00:10:06,560 --> 00:10:09,200 And there was a barrier across the road, 146 00:10:09,200 --> 00:10:12,360 people in white suits going to the island. 147 00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:20,600 There was that feeling that there was things happening, 148 00:10:20,600 --> 00:10:23,560 that people weren't sure what was going on. 149 00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:29,960 I was working on the farm along there, opposite the island, 150 00:10:29,960 --> 00:10:32,160 and I was seeing them back and forth 151 00:10:32,160 --> 00:10:33,960 with the cattle and the sheep. 152 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:35,880 They ferried them right across to the island. 153 00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:40,400 What were these scientists up to on the island, do you think? 154 00:10:40,400 --> 00:10:42,880 I couldn't very well tell you what they were up to. 155 00:10:51,840 --> 00:10:53,640 I was seven or eight. 156 00:10:53,640 --> 00:10:57,240 We were going to Ullapool in the car, passing the island... 157 00:10:59,400 --> 00:11:04,840 ..and when we came to Gruinard, there were sort of puffs in the air. 158 00:11:04,840 --> 00:11:07,120 A few little explosions going off. 159 00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:10,240 But just on this near the part of the island, on this side, 160 00:11:10,240 --> 00:11:12,040 there were several of them, 161 00:11:12,040 --> 00:11:15,760 and they were little sort of puffs in the air. 162 00:11:15,760 --> 00:11:18,880 What on earth is it? What are they doing there? 163 00:11:18,880 --> 00:11:21,040 There were rumours and whispers about 164 00:11:21,040 --> 00:11:23,200 what might be going on on the island, 165 00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:27,320 but over on the mainland, disturbing things began to happen. 166 00:11:29,640 --> 00:11:33,520 My brother went out about eight o'clock in the morning. 167 00:11:33,520 --> 00:11:36,040 First of all, he went to the barn, 168 00:11:36,040 --> 00:11:40,200 and he found one of the cows dead in the stall. 169 00:11:40,200 --> 00:11:43,000 He came in to tell my father. 170 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:47,040 Then he went down to the hill to have a look at the sheep, 171 00:11:47,040 --> 00:11:49,520 and he found eight dead. 172 00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:53,880 Follow me. 173 00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:56,880 This is the community church in Aultbea. 174 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:00,680 Please come in. 175 00:12:00,680 --> 00:12:04,080 Danny Grant is an elder in the local church. 176 00:12:04,080 --> 00:12:08,560 As a child, he witnessed something he'll never forget. 177 00:12:08,560 --> 00:12:11,400 I actually saw it with my own eyes - 178 00:12:11,400 --> 00:12:15,480 a big horse dumped in this hole, with the legs... 179 00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:18,080 Rigour mortis had set in, so that... 180 00:12:18,080 --> 00:12:21,880 I remember having to cut... They cut the legs off the horse. 181 00:12:21,880 --> 00:12:24,480 That wasn't a very pretty thing for children to be watching, 182 00:12:24,480 --> 00:12:27,200 but we all... I remember seeing this. 183 00:12:27,200 --> 00:12:32,440 And then telling the adults about all they sheep lying in the fields 184 00:12:32,440 --> 00:12:35,720 with their legs in the air, and they're all dead. 185 00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:37,240 Maybe a dozen or more. 186 00:12:37,240 --> 00:12:41,320 Within hours, I believe, they were finding cows. 187 00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:43,880 And people were obviously alarmed. 188 00:12:43,880 --> 00:12:47,560 I lost one horse, and I lost six or seven sheep. 189 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:53,200 Now, what happened to these animals? Have you any idea at all? 190 00:12:53,200 --> 00:12:55,160 Well, I'm sure they would be poisoned. 191 00:13:07,600 --> 00:13:09,760 Scientists at Porton Down in Wiltshire 192 00:13:09,760 --> 00:13:12,160 are carrying out tests on the package of soil 193 00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:14,160 contaminated with anthrax spores, 194 00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:16,480 which was dumped at the chemical defence establishment 195 00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:19,320 by a Scottish protest group. 196 00:13:19,320 --> 00:13:22,920 It's taken three days of tests here at the public health laboratories 197 00:13:22,920 --> 00:13:25,480 to confirm that anthrax spores were in the soil, 198 00:13:25,480 --> 00:13:26,960 which was dumped on the perimeter 199 00:13:26,960 --> 00:13:29,280 of the Government's defence establishment. 200 00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:33,600 We've shown that there is anthrax in the soil. 201 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:36,640 It could be dangerous, but under very unusual circumstances. 202 00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:39,280 It would have to get in through a cut in the skin, 203 00:13:39,280 --> 00:13:42,680 and that would be very unlikely. 204 00:13:42,680 --> 00:13:46,320 The Government seemed very keen to play down any danger, 205 00:13:46,320 --> 00:13:49,160 but the story was now front-page news. 206 00:13:50,320 --> 00:13:53,560 Public attitude changed at that point, and the media as well. 207 00:13:53,560 --> 00:13:56,720 It suddenly became a really serious thing because anthrax, 208 00:13:56,720 --> 00:13:59,440 you know, this stuff is dangerous. 209 00:13:59,440 --> 00:14:03,800 The MOD scientists knew very well how dangerous. 210 00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:08,520 Dark Harvest had targeted Porton Down for a reason. 211 00:14:08,520 --> 00:14:11,080 "Where better to send our seeds of death 212 00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:13,800 "than to the place from whence they came?" 213 00:14:22,040 --> 00:14:24,040 With the war on a knife edge, 214 00:14:24,040 --> 00:14:29,360 Churchill feared the Nazis had developed a biological bomb, 215 00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:32,480 so he tasked his team of top scientists 216 00:14:32,480 --> 00:14:36,400 with finding ways to harness anthrax as a weapon. 217 00:14:37,520 --> 00:14:39,800 This was highly secretive. 218 00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:43,040 You can get all sorts of different strains of anthrax, 219 00:14:43,040 --> 00:14:46,000 but this was one of the more potent strains. 220 00:14:58,360 --> 00:15:01,440 Some of the moral equivocations of peacetime 221 00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:04,360 had to be put to one side just to see the potency 222 00:15:04,360 --> 00:15:07,320 and potential of this form of weapon system. 223 00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:10,640 To see whether this particular strain 224 00:15:10,640 --> 00:15:12,760 would have the effects they expected. 225 00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:18,520 What they didn't know, of course, was what would happen 226 00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:21,920 if they were trialled in more realistic field conditions. 227 00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:30,480 They had to find a testing site that was remote, uninhabited, 228 00:15:30,480 --> 00:15:33,160 isolated but accessible from the mainland. 229 00:15:38,840 --> 00:15:42,440 And that's where you bring the story up to Gruinard. 230 00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:54,040 Wartime scientists carefully packaged their weaponised anthrax 231 00:15:54,040 --> 00:15:57,400 and headed 600 miles north. 232 00:15:57,400 --> 00:16:00,360 Transporting this was a risk in itself. 233 00:16:01,680 --> 00:16:03,480 It's a long, long way from Porton, 234 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:05,760 but it's also a long, long way from 235 00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:09,560 people who could be affected by an accidental downwind 236 00:16:09,560 --> 00:16:12,360 draft of anthrax spores. 237 00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:20,920 A beautiful and uninhabited little island 238 00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:26,760 was about to witness one of the first weapons of mass destruction. 239 00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:33,360 In a lot of ways, this island is the key to some of the big secrets 240 00:16:33,360 --> 00:16:36,040 and what ifs of 20th century history. 241 00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:41,120 ARCHIVE: It was here in 1942 242 00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:44,840 that the very first scientifically controlled BW field trials 243 00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:46,920 were carried out. 244 00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:51,200 You have the UK using the Highlands as a base of operations 245 00:16:51,200 --> 00:16:54,160 for war on a scale that people hadn't comprehended before. 246 00:16:57,400 --> 00:17:00,720 You're seeing on this seemingly uninteresting island 247 00:17:00,720 --> 00:17:06,080 the beginning of a kind of terrifying military power 248 00:17:06,080 --> 00:17:08,920 that was just as great as nuclear weapons. 249 00:17:10,880 --> 00:17:13,400 ARCHIVE: There were no facilities anywhere for these tests, 250 00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:15,560 which were, of course, much more hazardous 251 00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:17,680 than comparable chemical warfare trials, 252 00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:20,920 and so this island was picked especially for its isolation. 253 00:17:22,600 --> 00:17:25,640 What actually happened on Gruinard Island 254 00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:29,640 was a source of mystery and rumour until the declassification 255 00:17:29,640 --> 00:17:32,360 of this extraordinary MOD film, 256 00:17:32,360 --> 00:17:36,680 which captured every detail in technicolour. 257 00:17:36,680 --> 00:17:40,480 ARCHIVE: The sheep are being put into exposure crates. 258 00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:43,600 The crate is necessary to hold the animal in the right place 259 00:17:43,600 --> 00:17:47,320 on the layout and to ensure that it faces the cloud. 260 00:17:48,520 --> 00:17:50,840 It's an incredible historical document, 261 00:17:50,840 --> 00:17:52,480 the cutting edge of science, 262 00:17:52,480 --> 00:17:55,080 and they're documenting it as they go along, 263 00:17:55,080 --> 00:17:58,080 step by step, so that potentially they could do this again in future, 264 00:17:58,080 --> 00:17:59,400 somewhere else. 265 00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:04,600 The ambition was to develop a frightening new weapon - 266 00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:06,360 an anthrax bomb. 267 00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:09,760 It is quite a chilling film. 268 00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:13,080 The aim was to test, first, whether the anthrax 269 00:18:13,080 --> 00:18:15,280 would survive explosion in the field. 270 00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:16,960 They didn't know that. 271 00:18:16,960 --> 00:18:20,400 And then, would it remain virulent thereafter? 272 00:18:20,400 --> 00:18:24,400 ARCHIVE: The men wear ordinary cloth overalls, rubber boots and gloves, 273 00:18:24,400 --> 00:18:26,960 a respirator with particulate filter 274 00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:29,480 and a cloth hood to keep the hair clean 275 00:18:29,480 --> 00:18:32,040 and reduce risk of leaks. 276 00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:36,800 One of the men in the protective suits was Allan Elton Younger. 277 00:18:36,800 --> 00:18:39,760 Anthrax is almost indestructible. 278 00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:46,800 Therefore, it was perhaps the best organism to stand up to the blast. 279 00:18:46,800 --> 00:18:50,200 80-odd sheep were tethered at various stages 280 00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:52,880 downwind of the likely explosion. 281 00:18:52,880 --> 00:18:56,200 The explosion was done by remote control. 282 00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:57,960 And you see them all lined up. 283 00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:04,440 ARCHIVE: The bomb was fired and the wind carries the cloud 284 00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:06,840 towards the line of animals and impingers. 285 00:19:06,840 --> 00:19:08,280 Oh, there we go. 286 00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:14,720 This tiny moment, this puff of powder, and it really is, 287 00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:16,280 it's releasing death. 288 00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:23,360 It isn't a great bang - a draft of highly potent spores 289 00:19:23,360 --> 00:19:27,840 moving down on the wind and causing infection and death 290 00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:29,640 wherever it goes. 291 00:19:29,640 --> 00:19:32,640 They sent up clouds of bacillus spores into the air, 292 00:19:32,640 --> 00:19:35,520 the sheep inhaled them, and then they observed the sheep 293 00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:38,520 to see how quickly they died. 294 00:19:38,520 --> 00:19:41,640 ARCHIVE: On the third day after exposure, the casualties begin. 295 00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:44,160 Dead sheep can be seen further down the line. 296 00:19:46,120 --> 00:19:50,640 Also watching from nearby shores were local crofters. 297 00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:53,840 Did you ever see anything? 298 00:19:53,840 --> 00:19:57,040 Well, I used to watch the smoke 299 00:19:57,040 --> 00:19:59,360 coming down on the top of them. 300 00:19:59,360 --> 00:20:00,600 What do you mean "the smoke"? 301 00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:01,920 Was it a cloud of...? 302 00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:04,440 A cloud rolling above the Earth... Uh-huh. 303 00:20:04,440 --> 00:20:08,120 ..coming towards these animals. 304 00:20:08,120 --> 00:20:09,720 Where were the animals? 305 00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:11,720 They were staked over there. 306 00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:15,160 I see, they were tied up in a line, were they? Yes, in a line. 307 00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:18,360 I've heard it said that some people did see these animals 308 00:20:18,360 --> 00:20:21,400 falling dead when this cloud hit them. 309 00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:24,720 Well, I'm sure I did the same. Did you? 310 00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:26,160 Yes. 311 00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:28,320 ARCHIVE: All the sheep in the cloud died. 312 00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:32,840 Postmortem is usually carried out to confirm appearances. 313 00:20:32,840 --> 00:20:38,800 One useful feature of this operating theatre is running water. 314 00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:41,400 There's a little waterfall close by. 315 00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:46,160 I think, had I been living locally, I would've... 316 00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:49,080 ..been very anxious to hear about it. You know, 317 00:20:49,080 --> 00:20:53,320 there's live anthrax being released less than a mile from your home, 318 00:20:53,320 --> 00:20:58,920 from your farm, I think is enormously anxiety inducing. 319 00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:05,880 Infected sheep carcasses were burnt 320 00:21:05,880 --> 00:21:09,080 or buried under tonnes of rubble... 321 00:21:10,360 --> 00:21:14,640 ..when a cliff on the island was blown up. 322 00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:17,360 The experiment was deemed a success, 323 00:21:17,360 --> 00:21:22,960 and in 1943, the scientists packed up and returned to Porton Down... 324 00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:27,840 ..but the anthrax remained. 325 00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:31,240 ARCHIVE: The examination of soil samples from the layout 326 00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:34,000 showed heavy contamination. 327 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:37,200 It soon became clear that the contamination 328 00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:39,480 wasn't confined to the island. 329 00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:45,200 A message came down from here that there had been a case of anthrax, 330 00:21:45,200 --> 00:21:48,120 and that we were suspected. And this came in clear, 331 00:21:48,120 --> 00:21:51,960 and of course, the great secret, as far as we were concerned... 332 00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:55,120 I mean, we were told not to talk about this at all, 333 00:21:55,120 --> 00:21:58,160 and particularly anthrax must never be mentioned. 334 00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:01,760 And this signal came in clear, 335 00:22:01,760 --> 00:22:04,320 which horrified all of us. 336 00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:09,400 On the mainland, in the six months after the experiments, 337 00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:13,280 between 30 and 50 sheep, seven cows, 338 00:22:13,280 --> 00:22:16,640 two horses and three cats died. 339 00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:20,600 Government officials promptly paid compensation to crofters 340 00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:24,640 and persuaded them that the anthrax infection had come ashore 341 00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:29,360 when a carcass was dumped from a passing Greek ship. 342 00:22:29,360 --> 00:22:33,480 Porton Down dispatched two men to Gruinard in another attempt 343 00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:36,320 to rid the island of spores. 344 00:22:36,320 --> 00:22:39,480 We've gone with all our equipment and just set fire to the heather, 345 00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:44,680 which, by that evening, was burning right over the island, 346 00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:46,240 a huge cloud of smoke. 347 00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:54,160 Churchill's anthrax bomb was never used. 348 00:22:55,360 --> 00:22:57,040 By the end of the war, 349 00:22:57,040 --> 00:23:02,360 Gruinard had been poisoned, burned and abandoned. 350 00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:10,560 As months turned to years, and years to decades, 351 00:23:10,560 --> 00:23:13,280 the deadly spores remained. 352 00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:21,560 ARCHIVE: The contamination has continued very heavy 353 00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:22,800 over all these years, 354 00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:26,080 and we might have to wait as long as 100 years for it to get clear. 355 00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:28,000 You don't get any trouble now, of course, 356 00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:30,240 from this long-ago affair, do you? 357 00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:33,840 Well, yes. In this particular place, yes, I lose sheep, 358 00:23:33,840 --> 00:23:36,320 you know, in the spring. 359 00:23:36,320 --> 00:23:39,400 It wasn't until 24 years after the experiment 360 00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:43,200 that the warning signs even mentioned anthrax. 361 00:23:49,360 --> 00:23:51,200 Generations of Highlanders 362 00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:54,760 grew up in the shadow of the Forbidden Island. 363 00:23:54,760 --> 00:23:58,560 They didn't know exactly what happened on Gruinard, 364 00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:03,800 but they were warned they must never set foot on the Island of Death. 365 00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:05,320 Let me get this light on here. 366 00:24:08,600 --> 00:24:15,640 But every year, one local made the short journey across Gruinard Bay. 367 00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:17,240 '83, '82. 368 00:24:19,120 --> 00:24:20,520 '81. 369 00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:25,760 Every January, we had to go out and bolt these ones on. 370 00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:29,200 '85, '86, '87, '88... 371 00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:34,360 ARCHIVE: The island is still so heavily contaminated with anthrax 372 00:24:34,360 --> 00:24:37,720 that anyone wanting to land there needs a protective suit 373 00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:40,520 and a seven-and-a-half month course of injections. 374 00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:46,480 The sign just was to stop people landing. 375 00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:49,840 Anywhere you could possibly get a boat ashore, there's a sign. 376 00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:53,640 It was under experiment and landing was prohibited. 377 00:24:56,120 --> 00:25:00,600 My great, great, great grandfather was born on the island. 378 00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:06,160 When I always hear it being dubbed Anthrax Island, 379 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:10,680 I kind of feel, well, there was something happened there before. 380 00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:13,720 There were people there before, living there before. 381 00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:15,360 There's no written documents, 382 00:25:15,360 --> 00:25:19,680 so it was just snippets of oral history that's come down. 383 00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:22,800 They would've been cleared off the island. 384 00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:27,640 They were forced out of their homes, like most people were back then. 385 00:25:33,800 --> 00:25:36,920 If you say that an island is forbidden, 386 00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:41,360 I think it does come with a sort of perverse fascination. 387 00:25:41,360 --> 00:25:44,280 This idea that the ground is poisoned 388 00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:46,600 and that it might be dangerous for you to be there 389 00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:50,480 all adds to that sense of taboo, of forbiddeness. 390 00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:53,040 There is some kind of legendary aspect, I think, 391 00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:54,720 to the concept of the toxic island, 392 00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:56,800 the poisoned island, that we all tap into, 393 00:25:56,800 --> 00:25:59,040 and it has some kind of psychological power. 394 00:26:04,120 --> 00:26:08,240 We were never warned, we were just told not to go up on the land. 395 00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:10,240 Just stay on the shore. 396 00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:18,160 It was less than £200 a year. HE CHUCKLES 397 00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:21,840 PRODUCER: To go to Anthrax Island? Aye. Yeah. Yep. 398 00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:24,440 It was a lot of money in them days to us. 399 00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:25,720 Yeah. Yeah. 400 00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:32,480 Four decades passed, and Gruinard was still not safe. 401 00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:36,520 Can you foresee a time when the island will be free 402 00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:38,080 for people to land on? 403 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:43,000 No. The spores are surprisingly resistant to degradation. 404 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:45,080 Indeed, that was one of the reasons for them 405 00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:47,320 being selected in the first place. 406 00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:51,360 And we would expect there to be an area of contamination 407 00:26:51,360 --> 00:26:54,960 for the next tens, perhaps even hundreds of years. 408 00:27:09,360 --> 00:27:14,520 Four days after bringing infected Gruinard soil to Porton Down, 409 00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:18,880 the Dark Harvest Commandos were to strike again. 410 00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:25,120 "That we still have the problem to worry about today 411 00:27:25,120 --> 00:27:29,840 "is due to 40 years of total official indifference. 412 00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:32,480 "That's indifference is about to end." 413 00:27:43,360 --> 00:27:47,080 The Conservative Party conference of 1981 414 00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:50,520 was held in Blackpool amidst tight security. 415 00:27:51,800 --> 00:27:54,760 But it wasn't only Thatcher, Heseltine and Heath 416 00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:56,840 making headlines by the sea... 417 00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:04,840 NEWSREEL: At Blackpool this afternoon, 418 00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:06,840 a second suspect package was found. 419 00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:08,800 It was left in the Tower buildings near where 420 00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:10,960 the Conservative conference is being held. 421 00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:13,880 The Blackpool Tower was closed to the public after the discovery 422 00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:17,320 of a tin box believed to contain soil contaminated... 423 00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:19,160 And the oil, contained in a tin box, 424 00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:22,080 was sent to Porton Down for analysis. 425 00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:25,760 This was found behind a locked door, and somebody had somehow managed 426 00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:29,600 to get in to that door during normal operational hours of the tower. 427 00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:38,400 Two packages in five days meant that this was a campaign. 428 00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:46,280 The letter to the newspapers had claimed 429 00:28:46,280 --> 00:28:49,400 that 300lbs of soil had been taken, 430 00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:52,200 enough for many more attacks. 431 00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:56,080 So this was very alarming. Raising the prospect of massive escalations 432 00:28:56,080 --> 00:28:59,200 of this contaminated soil was a huge issue. 433 00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:08,600 The MOD considered putting soldiers on Gruinard to protect it. 434 00:29:08,600 --> 00:29:12,040 They considered sending a gunboat to patrol the waters 435 00:29:12,040 --> 00:29:15,440 or stationing police on the shore to keep guard. 436 00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:21,520 But securing Gruinard seemed next to impossible. 437 00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:25,040 They needed to catch those responsible. 438 00:29:25,040 --> 00:29:28,600 A general alert was issued throughout the UK, 439 00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:33,160 and a special taskforce was formed to track down 440 00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:35,960 the Dark Harvest Commandos. 441 00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:42,120 At the time I was based in Inverness, 442 00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:45,040 I was instructed to go and deal with it. 443 00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:49,240 Detective Inspector Colin MacDonald 444 00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:51,600 followed the winding Highland roads 445 00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:55,960 to Gruinard Bay and the tiny village of Laide. 446 00:30:01,720 --> 00:30:04,960 And I found it quite difficult. 447 00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:07,520 It was a close-knit community, 448 00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:11,320 and they didn't want to say anything, sometimes, 449 00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:14,120 in case they said too much. 450 00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:16,880 That's the only way that you could describe them. 451 00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:18,560 At the local post office, 452 00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:23,480 the police found a petition calling for the clean-up of the island. 453 00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:26,120 One name was of particular interest. 454 00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:29,640 The campaign organiser, John Alick MacRae. 455 00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:34,040 I was involved in getting this list of names 456 00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:38,320 to draw attention to the fact that human beings 457 00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:40,000 were surrounding the island. 458 00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:48,080 They wanted to know who had initiated in the list, 459 00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:51,200 and that is when I was interviewed. 460 00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:57,320 Declassified Government documents that have lain unnoticed 461 00:30:57,320 --> 00:31:00,480 in the National Archives for over a decade 462 00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:05,440 reveal John Alick was indeed a suspect. 463 00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:08,040 "By way of confidential background, 464 00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:11,520 "the Minister may like to know that the local Scottish police 465 00:31:11,520 --> 00:31:14,040 "have a strong suspicion that Mr MacRae, 466 00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:15,920 "the organiser of the petition, 467 00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:19,280 "was party to the action of the Dark Harvest group." 468 00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:25,640 They were convinced because they suspected a local. 469 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:31,120 But there were other locals living close to the island 470 00:31:31,120 --> 00:31:35,880 who had already carried out covert operations that made headline news. 471 00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:38,600 Here in the vaults of Gairloch Museum, 472 00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:41,880 they hold evidence that connected one local woman 473 00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:43,680 to a very similar caper. 474 00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:50,120 I've got letter here to Kay Matheson from the stonemason 475 00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:52,360 who repaired the Stone of Destiny. 476 00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:55,160 You know, it was broken in two whenever it was stolen. 477 00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:00,040 ARCHIVE: On Christmas morning, the stone was gone. 478 00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:02,160 The Dean of Westminster called the disappearance 479 00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:03,800 an act of sacrilege 480 00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:06,440 and spoke of the stone as a precious relic 481 00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:10,680 treasured by millions throughout the British Commonwealth. 482 00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:13,280 Kay Matheson is from the local area, 483 00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:15,560 became involved with a group of students 484 00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:19,680 who were also passionate Scottish nationalists. 485 00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:22,040 ARCHIVE: A nationwide search was organised. 486 00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:24,400 The police have issued the description of a man and woman 487 00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:27,120 who were seen in a Ford Anglia car near the Abbey 488 00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:30,440 in the small hours of Christmas morning. 489 00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:32,880 So that was described by one journalist 490 00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:34,680 as the greatest heist in history. 491 00:32:34,680 --> 00:32:37,480 And of course, it was all over the papers at the time. 492 00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:41,800 And Kay achieved great notoriety through that. 493 00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:45,720 These initials, JFS, apparently newly scratched on the chair, 494 00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:48,480 are thought to stand for Justice For Scotland, 495 00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:50,920 and support the theory that the stone's disappearance 496 00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:53,520 is the work of extreme Scottish nationalists. 497 00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:57,920 Inevitably, the local woman who famously stole the stone 498 00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:01,120 was suspected of stealing the soil. 499 00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:03,480 She obviously had form in that sense, 500 00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:06,480 and it wouldn't have been her first run-in with Special Branch. 501 00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:09,200 She would have had strong feelings, 502 00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:11,680 I think, about the British Government 503 00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:15,240 using Scottish land in that way. 504 00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:17,520 Behind closed croft doors, 505 00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:21,480 locals speculated and gossiped about this Highland whodunnit, 506 00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:23,960 but nobody was naming names, 507 00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:26,040 and they still won't. 508 00:33:26,040 --> 00:33:29,160 I think they thought a woman might be involved. 509 00:33:29,160 --> 00:33:33,760 A well-known activist woman for other things. 510 00:33:33,760 --> 00:33:39,440 She was definitely for the Highlands, for Gaelic, 511 00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:41,040 for education. 512 00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:43,000 PRODUCER: Who was that? 513 00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:43,000 SHE CHUCKLES 514 00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:47,040 I don't know if I can say much more than that. 515 00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:53,480 We really went round nearly every house in Laide 516 00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:58,240 to see if we could get anything, but it was a closed shop, really. 517 00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:01,840 I felt that there was maybe more known in the community 518 00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:03,520 than was being said. 519 00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:08,600 And it was just an instinct. 520 00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:12,360 The police weren't even allowed to go to Gruinard and inspect 521 00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:13,960 the scene of the crime. 522 00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:17,560 But one person who was authorised to visit the island 523 00:34:17,560 --> 00:34:19,440 was boatman Stuart Flett. 524 00:34:19,440 --> 00:34:20,840 '85, '86. 525 00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:27,120 In his diary, he recorded an important breakthrough... 526 00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:30,560 "Police probe new clue in Gruinard mystery." 527 00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:33,840 ..the raiders had used his boat. 528 00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:37,720 It was chained to a tree in the wintertime. 529 00:34:37,720 --> 00:34:41,880 The chain was broken, and a note saying, 530 00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:46,640 "Sorry about the chain, thanks for the use of the boat - Dark Harvest." 531 00:34:54,480 --> 00:34:58,240 The newly found note helped the police build up a better picture 532 00:34:58,240 --> 00:34:59,840 of what happened, 533 00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:02,640 and the letter to the newspapers spelled out in detail 534 00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:04,320 why it happened. 535 00:35:05,880 --> 00:35:10,280 "A team of microbiologists from two universities, 536 00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:14,200 "guided by members of our local population, 537 00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:18,360 "affected a landing on the island last week. 538 00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:23,600 "A large number of soil samples from all over the island, 539 00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:25,600 "with a total weight of 300lbs, 540 00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:30,320 "were securely bagged and removed to the mainland. 541 00:35:30,320 --> 00:35:35,480 "For the next 12 months, these bags will be deposited 542 00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:38,280 "at appropriate points." 543 00:35:38,280 --> 00:35:41,000 The really terrifying thing is that they say, 544 00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:43,880 "This is just the start." This is just the start of a campaign, 545 00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:46,600 and that's when I think the full machinery 546 00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:48,840 of the Secret State would get into gear. 547 00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:57,760 The mystery of who the Dark Harvest Commandos were 548 00:35:57,760 --> 00:36:03,240 played out in a climate of Cold War paranoia and polarised politics. 549 00:36:08,680 --> 00:36:12,640 The Ceilidh Place in Ullapool was a forum for the kind of debates 550 00:36:12,640 --> 00:36:14,720 that radicals and left-wingers were having 551 00:36:14,720 --> 00:36:17,760 throughout the 1980s in Scotland. 552 00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:21,960 We do have to make sure that our view is clearly stated. 553 00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:23,920 We are opposed to nuclear weapons. 554 00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:26,480 We will eventually get rid of them. 555 00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:28,840 People don't expect 556 00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:32,720 any kind of hotbed of radicalism in the Highlands. 557 00:36:32,720 --> 00:36:34,520 But they're wrong. 558 00:36:34,520 --> 00:36:40,280 Jean Urquhart ran the Ceilidh Place and formed the local branch of CND. 559 00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:42,040 As a prominent activist, 560 00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:45,000 Jean was interviewed about Dark Harvest, 561 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:49,400 and it wasn't the local bobby asking the questions. 562 00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:54,800 It was military police who came up, and we were quite taken aback. 563 00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:58,360 We were quite naive because CND was seen as, you know, 564 00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:01,360 as kind of the enemy of the state. 565 00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:03,840 And of course, it's quite a different thing 566 00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:06,560 to the friendly polis in Scotland. 567 00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:09,480 With these, there was no relaxed conversation about anything. 568 00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:12,480 I mean, it was pretty grim, I remember that. 569 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:15,480 CAMERA CLICKS 570 00:37:15,480 --> 00:37:18,080 You know, there were folk getting their phone tapped. 571 00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:20,960 And it did, it did have an effect. 572 00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:23,440 In a climate of fear and suspicion, 573 00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:26,320 the Dark Harvest protests were vilified 574 00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:28,480 by the press and politicians. 575 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:33,400 The Ministry of Defence called their action incredibly irresponsible, 576 00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:36,840 and they warned anyone finding any other packages not to touch them. 577 00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:40,640 But the mysterious group wrong-footed the authorities again 578 00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:43,520 when it was discovered that the second package 579 00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:49,440 placed in the Blackpool Tower was actually harmless, uninfected soil. 580 00:37:51,520 --> 00:37:55,680 The MOD were interrogating, the Special Police Task Force 581 00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:59,480 were investigating, and the press were digging. 582 00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:06,400 Oh, we went after it big time. And it was a really exciting story, 583 00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:08,160 of course it was. 584 00:38:08,160 --> 00:38:10,280 It's a story which it seemed the authorities 585 00:38:10,280 --> 00:38:11,960 couldn't get to the bottom of. 586 00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:13,680 We kind of thought maybe 587 00:38:13,680 --> 00:38:16,280 we had some pretty good candidates. 588 00:38:21,640 --> 00:38:24,440 Iain found out about a hidden community 589 00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:27,240 just across the bay from Gruinard. 590 00:38:27,240 --> 00:38:29,480 This film is about Scoraig, 591 00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:32,800 in the Western Highlands of Scotland. 592 00:38:32,800 --> 00:38:34,680 There are two ways of getting there - 593 00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:37,280 by footpath through the hills, 594 00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:39,040 or by sea, 595 00:38:39,040 --> 00:38:42,520 across what in past times was called the loch of the many winds. 596 00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:49,080 Scoraig was a small alternative community 597 00:38:49,080 --> 00:38:53,280 inhabited by anti-establishment environmentalists, 598 00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:56,080 and all off grid. 599 00:38:57,880 --> 00:39:01,240 Topher Dawson, in his boathouse at the very centre of the community, 600 00:39:01,240 --> 00:39:04,600 is well-placed to observe the passing sea. 601 00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:09,600 Topher set up, without much previous experience, as a boat builder. 602 00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:14,360 They thought we were all hippies, which we weren't, but... 603 00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:18,040 ..we were different, and it was kind of homespun. 604 00:39:18,040 --> 00:39:20,360 It wasn't like, "Let's set up a commune." 605 00:39:20,360 --> 00:39:22,560 It was just people arrived one at a time 606 00:39:22,560 --> 00:39:27,200 and gradually it evolved something. 607 00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:28,880 Well, the house is round. 608 00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:32,840 This is the stairs going up to my bed, which hangs from the ceiling. 609 00:39:32,840 --> 00:39:34,840 I don't know if it's a bed or a bedroom. 610 00:39:34,840 --> 00:39:37,720 I haven't really worked that out. 611 00:39:37,720 --> 00:39:39,680 People were conscious that we couldn't live 612 00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:41,240 the way we're living. 613 00:39:41,240 --> 00:39:44,240 They wanted to grow as much of their own food as possible, 614 00:39:44,240 --> 00:39:47,720 to recycle stuff and re-use stuff. 615 00:39:47,720 --> 00:39:51,360 And we were very definitely against nuclear weapons, 616 00:39:51,360 --> 00:39:55,320 and so by extension, bio-warfare too. 617 00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:57,400 We all kind of disapproved of it and felt that 618 00:39:57,400 --> 00:40:00,880 it was a pretty irresponsible thing to do. 619 00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:05,320 Gruinard was just a short boat trip away from Scoraig. 620 00:40:05,320 --> 00:40:07,640 I'd be astonished if the cops didn't look at Scoraig, 621 00:40:07,640 --> 00:40:10,560 because they were living an alternative lifestyle. 622 00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:15,320 They weren't terribly impressed with the establishment in general. 623 00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:19,880 If you wanted to call them hippies, 624 00:40:19,880 --> 00:40:22,280 nonconformist of one kind or another, 625 00:40:22,280 --> 00:40:25,240 well, I suppose that's a qualification for the kind of people 626 00:40:25,240 --> 00:40:27,040 who might've been in Dark Harvest. 627 00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:29,720 It's called gossip, and a lot of people don't like gossip. 628 00:40:29,720 --> 00:40:31,840 I mean... 629 00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:33,760 ..I suppose there's a fine line between that 630 00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:35,520 and talking behind people's back. 631 00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:39,920 I got rung up by this reporter, and he said, 632 00:40:39,920 --> 00:40:42,120 "Come on, go on, you can tell me. Who did it?" 633 00:40:42,120 --> 00:40:45,720 And I-I couldn't tell him anything. 634 00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:50,840 I do definitely remember coming home and people saying to me, 635 00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:52,920 "Oh, you missed this great excitement!" 636 00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:54,200 I do remember that. 637 00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:58,760 Topher cannot account for his exact whereabouts at the time of the raid, 638 00:40:58,760 --> 00:41:02,920 but he insists he wasn't on Gruinard Island. 639 00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:07,080 I don't know how many people could think of an alibi for, 640 00:41:07,080 --> 00:41:10,880 I don't know, two, three days, 40 years ago. 641 00:41:10,880 --> 00:41:12,080 I can't. 642 00:41:12,080 --> 00:41:14,120 You weren't driving down to Blackpool? 643 00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:15,680 Oh, no. 644 00:41:18,200 --> 00:41:23,280 After two months, the investigation was going nowhere. 645 00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:26,920 Nobody in the wee coastal villages of Wester Ross 646 00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:28,880 was talking to the police. 647 00:41:30,120 --> 00:41:32,600 They didn't want to say anything that would 648 00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:36,920 take us to a neighbour or to a relation. 649 00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:40,800 There were no clues, no trace of the soil to be found. 650 00:41:40,800 --> 00:41:43,640 And everyone was thinking, "I wonder who the hell did that?" 651 00:41:43,640 --> 00:41:47,440 Running possible candidates past. 652 00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:49,840 In our household, there was definitely 653 00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:53,440 a name thrown about of someone who was local. 654 00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:55,640 Mm-hm. 655 00:41:55,640 --> 00:41:57,440 A neighbour of mine on Scoraig, 656 00:41:57,440 --> 00:42:00,480 he was being pestered by several reporters, 657 00:42:00,480 --> 00:42:02,760 and in the end, he said, 658 00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:05,600 "The person you should speak to is that Topher Dawson. 659 00:42:05,600 --> 00:42:10,240 "He's got a degree in microbiology from Cambridge University." 660 00:42:10,240 --> 00:42:13,000 And, of course, that got them very excited. 661 00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:15,280 I don't have a degree in microbiology. 662 00:42:15,280 --> 00:42:17,080 I'm an engineer. 663 00:42:17,080 --> 00:42:19,920 That's what I... I know nothing about biology. 664 00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:22,920 But he really... He really dropped me in it. 665 00:42:22,920 --> 00:42:25,840 MUSIC: In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins 666 00:42:25,840 --> 00:42:28,720 As the end of 1981 approached, 667 00:42:28,720 --> 00:42:34,600 it seemed everyone was aware of the poisoned island of Gruinard. 668 00:42:34,600 --> 00:42:38,960 Dark Harvest put that story front and centre. 669 00:42:38,960 --> 00:42:42,480 They succeeded in putting the spotlight on what was, 670 00:42:42,480 --> 00:42:46,200 when you think about it, an absolute scandal. 671 00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:51,360 They claimed to have 300lbs worth of infected soil, 672 00:42:51,360 --> 00:42:54,640 and no-one knew where they would strike next. 673 00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:07,280 # I can feel it coming in the air tonight 674 00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:08,440 # Oh lord... # 675 00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:11,240 A new letter appeared... 676 00:43:11,240 --> 00:43:15,080 ..pinned to the door of the Scottish Office. 677 00:43:16,240 --> 00:43:18,240 You have a kind of heart in mouth moment. 678 00:43:18,240 --> 00:43:20,240 What have they done now? 679 00:43:20,240 --> 00:43:21,960 Instead of threats, 680 00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:25,920 the letter declared that the aims of the protest had been met, 681 00:43:25,920 --> 00:43:29,480 and there would be no further action...for now. 682 00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:32,920 MUSIC STOPS 683 00:43:37,480 --> 00:43:39,640 They thought they'd done enough. 684 00:43:39,640 --> 00:43:41,920 They were suspending the operation. 685 00:43:41,920 --> 00:43:44,440 Just as mysteriously as they'd appeared, 686 00:43:44,440 --> 00:43:47,240 the Dark Harvest Commandos disappeared. 687 00:43:50,760 --> 00:43:55,400 In 1986, locals again watched as the men in white 688 00:43:55,400 --> 00:43:57,320 returned to the island. 689 00:43:57,320 --> 00:44:00,840 NEWSREEL: Today, Gruinard is a hive of almost surreal activity 690 00:44:00,840 --> 00:44:04,040 as teams of scientists, vaccinated against anthrax 691 00:44:04,040 --> 00:44:06,000 and dressed in protective clothing, 692 00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:09,240 prepare to return the island to its natural state. 693 00:44:09,240 --> 00:44:13,160 The Government had to act and clean up the island. 694 00:44:13,160 --> 00:44:15,680 There's quite a lot of political pressure on us. 695 00:44:15,680 --> 00:44:19,960 I mean, to be frank, it is a political embarrassment. 696 00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:22,400 I just remember we were all delighted. 697 00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:24,440 Somebody's done something. 698 00:44:27,600 --> 00:44:30,080 ARCHIVE: Rows of tubing, not unlike garden hose, 699 00:44:30,080 --> 00:44:32,040 but infinitely more sophisticated, 700 00:44:32,040 --> 00:44:36,120 will spray the infected areas with hundreds of gallons of sea water 701 00:44:36,120 --> 00:44:38,160 and a chemical, formaldehyde. 702 00:44:38,160 --> 00:44:40,280 11 of the 500 acres of the island 703 00:44:40,280 --> 00:44:42,960 were treated with this toxic solution, 704 00:44:42,960 --> 00:44:46,880 and the Gruinard soil was again tested at Porton Down. 705 00:44:46,880 --> 00:44:49,120 Hundreds of soil samples are being analysed, 706 00:44:49,120 --> 00:44:51,320 but it's almost certain that the island 707 00:44:51,320 --> 00:44:53,120 is virtually clear of anthrax, 708 00:44:53,120 --> 00:44:56,720 though there are likely to be a few deeply buried spores left, 709 00:44:56,720 --> 00:44:59,320 and anyway, no test is foolproof. 710 00:45:02,800 --> 00:45:05,080 The scientists worked to find out 711 00:45:05,080 --> 00:45:08,200 if they had solved the problem they created. 712 00:45:11,120 --> 00:45:12,920 But for the authorities, 713 00:45:12,920 --> 00:45:17,120 the investigation into who carried out the Dark Harvest operation 714 00:45:17,120 --> 00:45:18,560 remained unsolved. 715 00:45:21,760 --> 00:45:25,040 And the mystery would deepen some years later 716 00:45:25,040 --> 00:45:27,960 when an investigative journalist uncovered evidence 717 00:45:27,960 --> 00:45:31,000 that implicated a fiery Scottish politician. 718 00:45:32,240 --> 00:45:36,720 It was after I came up to Scotland that I became interested 719 00:45:36,720 --> 00:45:39,120 in Dark Harvest Commandos 720 00:45:39,120 --> 00:45:42,000 and a Glasgow lawyer called Willie McRae. 721 00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:44,360 ARCHIVE: William McRae, the SNP candidate, 722 00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:48,880 was born in Wester Ross and is now a solicitor in Glasgow. 723 00:45:48,880 --> 00:45:51,440 The name of Willie McRae must be linked. 724 00:45:51,440 --> 00:45:53,800 Thinking about who lived in the area, 725 00:45:53,800 --> 00:45:55,480 he was an activist there. 726 00:45:55,480 --> 00:46:00,120 It was the area he had aspired to represent in Parliament. 727 00:46:00,120 --> 00:46:02,960 And I say that, so far as Scotland is concerned, 728 00:46:02,960 --> 00:46:04,920 that is a standing disgrace, 729 00:46:04,920 --> 00:46:09,160 and the primary scandal of over 250 years of union. 730 00:46:09,160 --> 00:46:15,240 He was a great deal more nationalist than most people, 731 00:46:15,240 --> 00:46:17,400 than most nationalists, you know. 732 00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:19,120 We say it's Scotland's oil. 733 00:46:19,120 --> 00:46:22,640 We expect to control and spend the revenue on Scotland's oil. 734 00:46:22,640 --> 00:46:27,200 Willie McRae was a vocal campaigner who successfully opposed 735 00:46:27,200 --> 00:46:30,960 the contamination of Scottish soil with nuclear waste. 736 00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:34,720 He attracted quite a lot of admirers 737 00:46:34,720 --> 00:46:38,240 because of his skilled opposition to this. 738 00:46:39,240 --> 00:46:42,480 Among those was Adam Busby. 739 00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:46,960 I would only condone violence as a last resort anyway. 740 00:46:46,960 --> 00:46:49,320 What do you mean by a last resort? 741 00:46:49,320 --> 00:46:52,680 I mean, as a last resort. I can't really define it. 742 00:46:52,680 --> 00:46:55,760 NEWSREEL: An incendiary device addressed to the Prime... 743 00:46:55,760 --> 00:46:57,880 An incendiary device inside a letter went... 744 00:46:57,880 --> 00:47:00,800 Adam Busby was a violent extremist, 745 00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:03,760 who would go on to organise a campaign of letter bombs 746 00:47:03,760 --> 00:47:05,960 and intimidation to further the aims 747 00:47:05,960 --> 00:47:10,200 of the Scottish National Liberation Army. 748 00:47:10,200 --> 00:47:15,200 Adam Busby was a person of great interest to the authorities. 749 00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:21,560 And then you go into a much more sinister aspect of the whole story. 750 00:47:23,080 --> 00:47:26,200 Adam Busby was a young man with 751 00:47:26,200 --> 00:47:30,280 even more fierce nationalist views. 752 00:47:30,280 --> 00:47:32,920 He was friendly with Willie. 753 00:47:32,920 --> 00:47:38,680 I know that Adam had very high regard for Willie. 754 00:47:42,200 --> 00:47:47,080 The self-declared leader of the SNLA claimed that Willie McRae 755 00:47:47,080 --> 00:47:49,760 had been the inspiration behind Dark Harvest. 756 00:47:51,440 --> 00:47:56,280 Adam Busby told me that this was the idea of Willie McRae. 757 00:47:57,600 --> 00:48:02,160 Willie McRae's suggestion was what about giving the English Government 758 00:48:02,160 --> 00:48:03,880 a taste of its own medicine? 759 00:48:03,880 --> 00:48:06,080 They want to dump nuclear waste here - 760 00:48:06,080 --> 00:48:10,240 why don't you dump anthrax-contaminated soil on them? 761 00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:21,720 Busby, however, was known for self-promotion, 762 00:48:21,720 --> 00:48:25,760 hoaxes and false claims, and even for fellow radicals, 763 00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:28,720 he's an unreliable witness. 764 00:48:28,720 --> 00:48:31,840 Adam Busby, now, he said he was involved with Dark Harvest, 765 00:48:31,840 --> 00:48:34,000 but I very much doubt that. 766 00:48:34,000 --> 00:48:36,240 He claimed a lot more than that. He claimed everything. 767 00:48:36,240 --> 00:48:38,360 Every dog in the street that was run over, almost - 768 00:48:38,360 --> 00:48:39,840 we used to laugh - Busby claimed it. 769 00:48:39,840 --> 00:48:42,560 Things that were done by other groups, he claimed it. 770 00:48:42,560 --> 00:48:46,160 Busby's later actions seem much less sophisticated 771 00:48:46,160 --> 00:48:48,280 than the Gruinard raiders. 772 00:48:48,280 --> 00:48:51,280 But there is a theory that the style of the letter 773 00:48:51,280 --> 00:48:53,920 indicates some involvement of McRae. 774 00:48:55,000 --> 00:48:58,840 I met Willie McRae once, heard lots of speeches by him, 775 00:48:58,840 --> 00:49:02,360 and the dramatic language, the almost biblical language, 776 00:49:02,360 --> 00:49:07,720 in parts, of the letter betrays many of his personal traits. 777 00:49:07,720 --> 00:49:10,760 McRae joined a list of possible suspects, 778 00:49:10,760 --> 00:49:14,280 each with different motives but the same aim. 779 00:49:15,480 --> 00:49:19,280 It's really about getting the island decontaminated 780 00:49:19,280 --> 00:49:21,680 on behalf of the local community. 781 00:49:35,960 --> 00:49:40,320 After being forced to act, after millions of pounds, 782 00:49:40,320 --> 00:49:43,680 after years of spraying and sampling, 783 00:49:43,680 --> 00:49:48,400 the MOD declared Gruinard anthrax free. 784 00:49:48,400 --> 00:49:52,280 It was a moment of joy for the people of Gruinard Bay 785 00:49:52,280 --> 00:49:55,920 and a victory for those watching from the shadows. 786 00:49:56,880 --> 00:50:00,240 The people who carried out the Dark Harvest Commando operation 787 00:50:00,240 --> 00:50:01,960 should've been patted on the back 788 00:50:01,960 --> 00:50:04,440 for trying to bring to the public's attention 789 00:50:04,440 --> 00:50:07,280 what had gone on up there. 790 00:50:07,280 --> 00:50:10,240 I think they're to be commended, to be quite frank with you. 791 00:50:10,240 --> 00:50:15,640 It was a really effective and imaginative action, 792 00:50:15,640 --> 00:50:20,240 and it resulted in a clean up, so I think they're good guys. 793 00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:27,800 And that should have been the end of this sorry tale. 794 00:50:27,800 --> 00:50:31,480 Extensive testing of the island soil meant it was deemed safe 795 00:50:31,480 --> 00:50:34,120 for people to once again go to Gruinard. 796 00:50:34,120 --> 00:50:38,280 But there was a final twist that wrong-footed MOD officials 797 00:50:38,280 --> 00:50:42,840 and raised serious questions about secrecy and safety. 798 00:50:42,840 --> 00:50:44,600 The second letter that had been 799 00:50:44,600 --> 00:50:46,880 pinned to the door of the Scottish Office 800 00:50:46,880 --> 00:50:51,160 not only signalled the successful end of the Dark Harvest campaign, 801 00:50:51,160 --> 00:50:54,560 it also contained a startling new claim 802 00:50:54,560 --> 00:50:57,520 that has implications to this day. 803 00:50:57,520 --> 00:50:59,960 That's when they also revealed that the soil 804 00:50:59,960 --> 00:51:03,800 had not actually come from Gruinard Island at all, 805 00:51:03,800 --> 00:51:07,680 it had been taken from the mainland opposite Gruinard. 806 00:51:07,680 --> 00:51:09,960 That actually it's from the mainland. 807 00:51:09,960 --> 00:51:12,320 It's not just the island that's infected, 808 00:51:12,320 --> 00:51:15,080 this is a much more serious risk, 809 00:51:15,080 --> 00:51:18,400 and far more irresponsible. 810 00:51:18,400 --> 00:51:22,080 At the time, the authorities publicly said, 811 00:51:22,080 --> 00:51:25,840 "We do not really have any evidence to justify 812 00:51:25,840 --> 00:51:28,040 "doing tests on the mainland." 813 00:51:31,680 --> 00:51:35,760 But recently declassified documents show that Dark Harvest 814 00:51:35,760 --> 00:51:39,880 forced the MOD to reassess their wartime experiments 815 00:51:39,880 --> 00:51:44,240 and that their secret findings were extremely concerning. 816 00:51:45,480 --> 00:51:48,040 "On at least one occasion, a test was performed 817 00:51:48,040 --> 00:51:51,920 "when the surface wind direction was at the limit of safety. 818 00:51:51,920 --> 00:51:55,680 "It is possible that one or more clouds of the anthrax aerosol 819 00:51:55,680 --> 00:51:57,920 "passed over the mainland coast." 820 00:51:59,200 --> 00:52:03,800 Forensic examination of these once secret documents is revealing. 821 00:52:05,520 --> 00:52:10,040 This clearly accepts that some clouds of anthrax 822 00:52:10,040 --> 00:52:13,200 could've blown over from the island to the mainland, 823 00:52:13,200 --> 00:52:16,800 and that there was no absolute guarantee 824 00:52:16,800 --> 00:52:19,720 there could be no contamination. 825 00:52:19,720 --> 00:52:23,240 "It would be extraordinarily expensive to sample and measure 826 00:52:23,240 --> 00:52:26,280 "the area that could've been affected." 827 00:52:26,280 --> 00:52:29,360 "I do not believe that it would be sensible to disturb 828 00:52:29,360 --> 00:52:33,360 "the sleeping dog of whether there is any anthrax contamination 829 00:52:33,360 --> 00:52:37,400 "on either of the two headlands downwind of Gruinard Island." 830 00:52:37,400 --> 00:52:41,120 So what he's saying is we should just let it lie 831 00:52:41,120 --> 00:52:43,280 and hope that it will go away. 832 00:52:45,840 --> 00:52:50,600 Timescale over which spores can exist is 40 to 50 years, 833 00:52:50,600 --> 00:52:55,760 but under some conditions might even be viable after 200 years. 834 00:52:56,760 --> 00:53:00,400 I think if somebody were to provide new evidence 835 00:53:00,400 --> 00:53:04,760 that there are anthrax spores in the environment on the mainland, 836 00:53:04,760 --> 00:53:07,200 then, you know, that would be a concern. 837 00:53:07,200 --> 00:53:12,360 These documents raise questions about whether the MOD in Porton Down 838 00:53:12,360 --> 00:53:17,720 in the 1980s, in the wake of the Dark Harvest incident, were honest. 839 00:53:17,720 --> 00:53:22,920 But if it's true, there's been no serious clean-up of the wider area, 840 00:53:22,920 --> 00:53:24,400 the story's not over. 841 00:53:31,720 --> 00:53:34,840 Today, for those touring the Highlands, 842 00:53:34,840 --> 00:53:39,880 Gruinard is just another picturesque little island off the coast, 843 00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:41,600 and anyone can go there. 844 00:53:43,240 --> 00:53:47,360 But the legacy of its past lingers in the mind, 845 00:53:47,360 --> 00:53:49,600 if no longer on the land. 846 00:53:51,720 --> 00:53:54,280 You sort of feel, when you travel through that area, 847 00:53:54,280 --> 00:53:57,440 this terrible irony between the beauty of the landscape 848 00:53:57,440 --> 00:53:59,560 and the horror of what has happened there. 849 00:54:00,680 --> 00:54:03,000 It is a real conflict. 850 00:54:03,000 --> 00:54:06,560 The fact that something so impossibly awful happened 851 00:54:06,560 --> 00:54:11,520 in such a beautiful place does add a lot of psychological depth. 852 00:54:14,600 --> 00:54:20,640 There are a number of MOD documents that remain sealed until 2069... 853 00:54:21,720 --> 00:54:25,440 ..and the question of who were the Dark Harvest Commandos 854 00:54:25,440 --> 00:54:27,760 remains unanswered. 855 00:54:31,480 --> 00:54:34,440 PRODUCER: Were you involved in Dark Harvest? 856 00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:36,040 No. 857 00:54:36,040 --> 00:54:41,600 And I know nothing whatsoever about who was involved. 858 00:54:44,920 --> 00:54:48,960 Kay Matheson wasn't backward in promoting the cause 859 00:54:48,960 --> 00:54:51,320 that she obviously felt very strongly about. 860 00:54:51,320 --> 00:54:55,000 But by the early 1980s, she was standing for MP, 861 00:54:55,000 --> 00:54:58,600 and I would suspect that she was perhaps trying 862 00:54:58,600 --> 00:55:00,240 to keep her nose clean. 863 00:55:03,360 --> 00:55:06,400 I think the Gruinard story was probably pivotal for us 864 00:55:06,400 --> 00:55:10,680 because it made us realise, actually, how sensitive 865 00:55:10,680 --> 00:55:13,520 the Government was to groups like ours. 866 00:55:14,560 --> 00:55:17,920 PRODUCER: Were you involved in the taking of the soil? 867 00:55:20,040 --> 00:55:23,480 In an era before eco-warriors and direct action, 868 00:55:23,480 --> 00:55:28,280 this protest saved at least one small piece of the Earth. 869 00:55:28,280 --> 00:55:33,680 It's a bit like Greenpeace before Greenpeace got famous, I think. 870 00:55:33,680 --> 00:55:35,920 PRODUCER: Would you have liked to have done it? 871 00:55:35,920 --> 00:55:38,600 I kind of, you know, it would be... 872 00:55:38,600 --> 00:55:41,360 ..it would be something you could be proud of. 873 00:55:41,360 --> 00:55:42,400 You know what I mean? 874 00:55:42,400 --> 00:55:45,480 It's a kind of exciting exploit, 875 00:55:45,480 --> 00:55:50,760 and I just wish I could say that I was part of it, cos I wasn't. 876 00:55:54,720 --> 00:55:56,200 I wish I had been. 877 00:55:56,200 --> 00:55:58,920 I would love to have been that person, but I wasn't. 878 00:56:07,040 --> 00:56:08,760 The people of the Highlands 879 00:56:08,760 --> 00:56:12,800 could once again set foot on Gruinard soil. 880 00:56:12,800 --> 00:56:19,960 Apart, that is, from the 300lbs worth of contaminated soil removed, 881 00:56:19,960 --> 00:56:24,160 put into sacks and hidden away by Dark Harvest. 882 00:56:28,080 --> 00:56:31,400 To this day, it's never been recovered. 883 00:56:32,920 --> 00:56:36,440 The tourists who follow the North Coast 500 884 00:56:36,440 --> 00:56:41,320 up past beautiful Gruinard Bay might want to take care 885 00:56:41,320 --> 00:56:44,240 if they spot an old sack of soil 886 00:56:44,240 --> 00:56:46,320 behind a Highland hideout.