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00:00Ireland, an ancient land, filled with wonder.
00:09I absolutely love it. I mean, we live in paradise.
00:12I've dived all over the world. I've never seen anything like it before.
00:16The country's national parks are the guardians of this landscape.
00:21They display the stunning habitats and incredible wildlife.
00:27And they celebrate the rich history of this island.
00:33These secret places were absolutely vital to their survival.
00:38The amazing thing about this garden, the layers of history that have been added to it, have enhanced it.
00:44But these are also places visited by millions.
00:49In each episode, we'll soar above two of these parks.
01:00To witness the traditions they maintain.
01:04There's very little difference in what I'm doing here now and what they did 100 years ago.
01:10To follow the vital work they champion.
01:15If we don't look after it and care about it, it's not going to be here for much longer.
01:20And to marvel at the natural beauty they protect.
01:27Poisoned in the east of Ireland is Wicklow Mountains National Park.
01:47Park, and up in the far-flung north sits Glenvay.
02:00These are the two biggest of Ireland's purely landlocked parks.
02:06Their landscapes share many qualities, but each has a distinct identity to set them apart
02:12from each other.
02:30Standing in the tranquil mountains of Donegal, carved out of a vast wilderness, Glenvay is
02:41a former private hunting estate.
02:49Its quiet splendour now opened up to those seeking out this remote outpost's many charms.
03:11In contrast, right on Dublin's doorstep, in a region marked by centuries of human habitation,
03:19Wicklow Mountains is a much busier place.
03:28With over one million visitors a year, it's a hotspot for those wanting to enjoy the great
03:34outdoors.
03:53And on this fine morning in the north of the park, the weather is good and the sky is clear.
04:02Hoping it stays that way are these two early risers.
04:06If their luck is in, they will get to experience the park in a way few ever do.
04:17Ireland's weather is famously changeable.
04:19It's challenging for the small number of paragliders who love to fly in these mountains, where the
04:25conditions don't allow them to do it that often.
04:29So when the forecast does look promising, this is the place they flock to first.
04:37You can't see it from here, but this is a bowl surrounding a lake.
04:41The wind comes all the way up, into the bowl, and beautifully fullens up, and wait, that's
04:47what we fly in, fly all the way around the bowl.
04:54Loch Bray consists of two lakes, overlooked by steep granite hills carved out by glaciers
05:00during the last ice age.
05:03This geography helps create the perfect conditions for flying, but only if the wind is blowing
05:08in an easterly direction, something that is fairly uncommon for this area.
05:16One of the great skills out of paragliding is the expertise in watching and understanding
05:21weather sites, that we're always looking at them all the time.
05:25In Ireland, the prevailing wind is no south-west to north-west.
05:29To fly in Loch Bray has to be really an easterly wind, the weather has to be absolutely right.
05:34Like today, it's a high pressure, the heat is bringing in a sea breeze, that's why it
05:39works.
05:40But it doesn't happen all the time, so therefore you grab the days when you can get them.
05:47When weather and wind align, these local paragliders drop everything and race up these summits.
05:54From the ground, the views are stunning, but these aeronautical daredevils want to enjoy
06:00them in the way only they can.
06:24When I first started paragliding, it was the idea I was flying, the idea I was in the air,
06:46it was just wonderful.
06:47It's quiet.
06:48It's peaceful.
06:49I just have to fly.
06:52It's now almost the end of summer.
06:58This is the first and perhaps only chance they will have to fly over Loch Bray this year.
07:05But for Pearce and his fellow enthusiasts, who've waited so patiently, days like this make it
07:17all worthwhile.
07:18That was a booming day.
07:33Lots of thermal booming off.
07:35You go out there and you're flying along and you're not sure whether you'll stay up in
07:39the next minute, you're just lifted up out of it.
07:43And yeah, great, and then coming in to land, I didn't know whether I would be able to land.
07:49Every time you come in, you get lifted up again, but I timed it and I got down nice and neatly,
07:53one go.
07:54Very pleased with that.
07:55Have a rest and give it another go.
08:02Wicklow Mountains has over 23,000 hectares out there for people to enjoy.
08:12At its heart are some of the highest peaks in Ireland.
08:16It has rivers, lakes and waterfalls.
08:24Glacial valleys and extensive boglands.
08:34It's a landscape that offers something for everyone.
08:43But not everyone in the park is looking for adventure.
08:50For centuries, hill farmers have made a living in the valleys of Wicklow.
09:00Much like Dhoni Anderson, who shepherds his sheep on uplands on the northern side of the park.
09:06Where are you?
09:16Our family would have been farming here for generations, like my father and his father and lots of grand uncles and all would have been up here.
09:25And it's just something that was handed down.
09:28And even though times have changed an awful lot, there's very little difference in what I'm doing here now and what they did maybe 200 years ago.
09:35Today, sheep farming remains the dominant agricultural activity in Wicklow Mountains National Park.
09:47I suppose I just liked the life.
09:57I took on sheep farming and things because I liked the dogs and I worked with dogs since I was going to school.
10:05So it was just part of my natural progression, I suppose.
10:17The park authority has inherited a system of grazing rights established back in the 18th century that allows Dhoni and other local farmers to let their sheep live out on these hills.
10:33The National Park acquired this land with the grazing rights on it and so far they seem to be happy enough.
10:41So we're lucky and if we can have a good relationship with the National Parks, hopefully that will carry on for years.
10:52Much of the land the sheep are grazing consists of bog land.
10:56In fact, bog land makes up more than two thirds of the park's 23,000 hectares.
11:12It's a habitat that draws scientific interest.
11:16Like here in the Liffey Head bog, two kilometres south of Loch Bray.
11:24Where scientists are gathering data that provides detailed insight into how bogs function.
11:30How they filter water that runs off into the rivers below.
11:40And allows the park authorities to explore measures they can implement to maintain the health of these precious environments.
11:48These unique wetlands consist largely of peat and hundreds of hectares of this have now been exposed
12:12and are lying unprotected and in need of stabilisation and restoration.
12:23After oceans, peatlands are the world's largest natural carbon store,
12:28playing a vital role in regulating climate change and so need to be protected.
12:34Over the centuries, human activity has damaged these bogs.
12:41But now the park authorities are confronting the issues left behind
12:46and are determined to save these fragile places.
12:49Over in the southwest of the park, a group of individuals are braving the elements.
13:08Teaming up with the park's rangers, these dedicated volunteers are fighting to save the world.
13:10The park's rangers are fighting to save the world.
13:11The park's rangers are braving the elements.
13:12The park's rangers are braving the elements.
13:15The park's rangers are fighting to save the land they love.
13:33Teaming up with the park's rangers, these dedicated volunteers are fighting to save the land they love.
13:39So the top layer you can see is vegetation and it's lovely heathers, grasses, mosses, perfect.
13:59It shouldn't be exposed like this at all, really.
14:02What's happened is that the weather has gotten in and it's starting to erode.
14:05You can see it flaking off, so you can literally, you can see this is starting to crumble and it's coming away.
14:11And literally through the action of the wind and the rain and the water, you can hear it behind me there,
14:15all this will be eroded away slowly but surely inexorably over time.
14:22Research shows that when bogs become damaged, they stop functioning as carbon sinks and turn into carbon emitters.
14:35In the past, Ireland saw boglands as a resource.
14:39Places to drain, to graze livestock on, or even to dig up the peat for use as fuel for cooking and heating homes.
14:48But today, bogs are viewed as places to protect and the race is on to slow the erosion and reverse the damage.
15:03Today, we are building stone dams.
15:16As you can see in front of us here, we have a set of volunteers and some of our staff members.
15:20And they're reconstructing the pile of rocks in a gully, which sounds crazy, but they are.
15:25And the idea is that they're going to slow the water down here.
15:28They're going to trap the sediment and prevent it from being lost off the bog, which is really important.
15:36Since 2021, over 3,000 timber and stone dams have been built in the park.
15:45This hard work is only made possible by the dedication of volunteers like those working here.
15:55I try to do it most weeks. It's an opportunity to give back to the hills.
16:00Because, you know, they can't do it on their own.
16:03So it's an opportunity just to give back and to appreciate then what we have.
16:12You know, it's lovely to come out and use the landscaping to hike and run around in it,
16:16but also to realise that, you know, if we don't look after it and care about it,
16:20that it's not going to be here for much longer.
16:25If managed correctly, evidence shows the mosses and grasses do grow back
16:30and the vegetation structure will recover.
16:37The ambition is to roll out bog restoration efforts across the entirety of the park.
16:44But historic wounds on the landscape are not restricted to these wetland areas.
16:49Humans have left a lasting impression elsewhere in Wicklow.
17:01Winding its way across the mountains near the southeastern edge of the park
17:05is an old pilgrimage route that once led devout Christians up and over the bogland
17:10and down through the Glendalough Valley.
17:16Their destination, a spiritual site now on the edge of the park.
17:21A remote monastic settlement founded in the sixth century
17:26that evolved into one of the most important early Christian centres in Ireland.
17:31But what many of today's visitors don't realise is that in the surrounding valleys are sites that had an even greater impact upon the appearance of this landscape.
17:45Here the slopes are scattered with ruins.
18:03Relics from a lost age of industry.
18:06Today, a walking trail called the Miner's Way is a reminder of what once took place here.
18:23These valleys now stand silent, but once they rang out with a clamour and noise of a lead mining industry
18:41that took off after that metal was discovered here in the late 18th century.
18:46It was that quest for lead that transformed this landscape forever.
18:56For those toiling in these mines, they were faced with gruelling work in a harsh environment.
19:03Mining operations continued off and on for over a century and a half.
19:20At the height of production, it provided employment for some 2,000 miners.
19:25But as former miner Robbie Carter recalls, even by the 1950s, the conditions remained hard and dangerous.
19:44When I started working here in the mine, I was 16 years of age and I worked at this plant for one year.
19:55I was feeding a crusher with a shovel for four hours non-stop.
20:02It was a tough job for a 16-year-old.
20:06Robbie trained up to be an operator himself, drilling deep in the mines.
20:11But it all came to an abrupt end when tragedy struck.
20:20We were really at half past three in the morning for about an hour when there was an explosion.
20:27There were two of us using two drills. He lost his life.
20:32My lung was damaged, chest bone was penetrated.
20:35I was very badly injured and the bleeding was dreadful.
20:44So I started to walk the course of a mile out.
20:50I was laid up for three and a half years.
20:53I'm still quite short of breath.
20:55But I've had a good life since then. I've been very thankful.
21:02The lat of the mines finally closed in 1957, bringing to an end over 150 years of lead mining in these valleys.
21:12Once viewed as an eyesore, today the old ruins and their social history are finally being recognised as something to be remembered and celebrated.
21:28The park authorities are busy conserving what remains to ensure their survival.
21:34So it's lovely to see them being restored again now.
21:39It is important that people remember the local history.
21:42And it's surprising the number of people that got interested in talking about it now.
21:47And hopefully we'll see more and more people coming into the valley.
21:52The wide open spaces of Wicklow Mountains National Park are popular all year round, as people flock to enjoy its stunning landscapes and mountain trails.
22:16In high season, some parts of the park see numbers skyrocket with a 92% increase in footfall.
22:25And it's at this time that the emergency services have to stay particularly alert.
22:30A message to bottom of Craig. Connie, Connie, come in. Over.
22:49Restoration is gone. Stand over.
22:52Most people explore the park without incident.
22:55But the mountain rescue team has to be ready for all kinds of emergencies.
23:03It's always good to know that if something does happen, there's someone out there who's willing to come out and get you.
23:0924 hours a day, 365 days a year.
23:12Connie, can you give me a status update at the bottom of the crag and if you need any further equipment on scene?
23:19And we will need additional rope and a TRP. Over.
23:22Okay, additional rope and TRP to assist in the anchoring and lowering of the stretcher once you start to move. Over.
23:31I suppose with any place, it's just that it is a numbers game. The more people you'll have in statistically, the more accidents will be.
23:38One of the more difficult call-outs the team have to deal with is when someone is injured and stranded on the steep mountain sides popular with climbers.
23:51Like this rocky outcrop found in the southeast of the park.
23:57We have a scenario we're working on today where we have someone stuck who's been climbing up on the cliff there.
24:14So in order to be able to get them down safely, we need to have technical people in place.
24:20So the group on top, their job is to make sure they have anchors, get ropes in, secure the person, make sure they're not going to fall or slip.
24:27And then lower them down to the bottom area there where then they can be extracted by stretcher.
24:30Securely anchored from above, the rescuer makes his way down to the injured climber.
24:42Safely roped together, the pair make their descent to the team waiting below.
24:48The terrain in the park can be challenging and anyone can be unlucky no matter how prepared they are.
25:06But there is one thing here that consistently catches people out.
25:12The change in weather is so extreme and can happen so fast.
25:15Thankfully today's rescue is only a training exercise.
25:29But the change in weather is very real.
25:34We can get the wind and the rain.
25:36We can have hail in the middle of the summer.
25:38And in the winter you can get the storms, you can get the snow, you can get all that kind of stuff.
25:42And flooding is a bigger issue and becoming bigger.
25:44The team perform roughly 90 rescues a year, with likely half of those occurring inside the park's boundaries.
25:53Naturally, these situations can be dangerous.
25:57So the training has to reflect the actual conditions they face day in and day out.
26:02You've been through adversity on the hill, you've been through sometimes extreme weather conditions, extreme challenging things.
26:09That's what glues a team together.
26:11Of course, exploring this rocky terrain can come with some risks.
26:16But on balance, they are relatively small and worth it for what this land offers.
26:20Which is something team members like Connie well appreciate.
26:30I love this area here.
26:33There's wild, isolated areas that people can go and walk and challenge themselves.
26:37And challenge themselves.
26:40And that's part of being the joy in the hills, is that sense of adventure.
26:46You should never be afraid to go out in the hills, you should always go out there and enjoy them.
26:50They are there to be enjoyed.
26:51While Wicklow Mountain's popularity can be linked to its close proximity to the capital city Dublin,
27:08some of Ireland's parks have more remote settings.
27:12Over 200 kilometres away, high up in the north of the country,
27:21in the heart of County Donegal,
27:26lies the mountain wilderness of Glenvay National Park.
27:32A place that offers an experience of nature far removed from the bustle of the modern world.
27:43Dominated by the Derivay mountain range, the park covers 16,000 hectares.
27:53In winter, the stark beauty of this vast nature reserve is revealed in all its glory.
28:05And as the seasons turn, this empty wilderness opens up, ready to be discovered.
28:12In the north-east of the park stands Glenvay Valley.
28:26With a six and a half kilometre long Loch Vay lying at its base.
28:39This dramatic landscape is found at the main entry point of the park.
28:44The first taste of the spectacle it has to offer.
28:47Overlooking the lake is Glenvay Castle.
28:54Considered by some to be the jewel in the park's crown, for many it is reason enough to visit.
29:05Opened in 1873, it was a romantic centrepiece at the heart of a huge hunting estate.
29:22Its last private owner, the wealthy American Henry McElhenney, turned Glenvay into a glamorous retreat for the rich and famous.
29:34Where its rumoured visitors included the likes of Greta Garbo, Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe.
29:43But McElhenney's lasting contribution to this estate is best witnessed in the gardens.
29:53The amazing thing about this garden is that it keeps its old Victorian character.
30:10And then the layers of history that have been added to it in the 20th century, particularly Henry McElhenney and all the things he did,
30:16have kind of enhanced it, not changed it. So we've got layers of history.
30:24It's one of the best gardens in Ireland.
30:28Sean has been tending this garden for almost 30 years.
30:34In that time, he has nurtured an incredible variety of rare and important plants.
30:40Including this, one of his favourites.
30:46What you're looking at is the species, Dahlia coccinea, which basically means the red dahlia.
30:55This is probably the most historic of the flowers that we have in the garden, but there are many more that are unique to Ireland.
31:09So it's an important plant collection garden.
31:16Sean's taking his horticultural expertise out of the castle grounds and into the wide open spaces beyond.
31:30The park authorities are running a major tree and plant restoration project.
31:34It's taking root in the plant nursery just next door, where they're growing batches of trees and shrubs native to Glenveigh.
31:47We're collecting seed from foxglove, from woodrush, from small trees like holly and roan and hazel and bigger growing trees like birch and oak.
32:01You can store some seed like dry it out and then sow it when you like, like birch for example.
32:08So we then will produce the kind of numbers that we need to do targeted restoration work on our woodlands.
32:19When the seedlings are big enough to be planted out, the park rangers and teams of volunteers load up for a day of tree planting.
32:33The tree restoration project is an ambitious long-term vision for how the park will look far into the future.
32:50The plan is to grow 200,000 seedlings over 10 years and plant them in areas where woodland once stood.
32:57The rangers are heading away from the castle, up the valley to the top of the Glen.
33:11It's one of the most walked routes in the park, so hopefully visitors will soon start to see how it looked before human activity transformed the landscape.
33:22Years ago this valley would have been lined with native woodland, but over the years wildfire events, trees have been cut for lumber, for firewood, for land change use.
33:36It has become deforested.
33:39So we have developed a native woodland strategy.
33:45It gives us a plan to work towards re-establishing native woodland in a lot of the area where it's been lost.
33:53So the plan, boys, is that we plant a series of trees up along the gully here to the left-hand side of the gully.
33:59We'll try and get whatever we have here today and there.
34:02We plant randomly. There's no specific pattern as far as locations or what species of trees,
34:08because then we just plant them randomly a couple of metres apart.
34:10You should see the change in a year or two's time.
34:12Reforestation is hampered by the herds of red deer introduced back when it was a hunting estate.
34:23They eat the leaves off young saplings and stop their growth.
34:26So numbers have escalated quite a bit. And when you have deer in an area, you will not have native woodland regeneration.
34:36The rangers have been busy installing deer-proof fencing, which has proved highly effective in keeping deer away from newly planted trees.
34:48In those relatively small fenced-off areas, the trees are thriving.
34:58But now this project needs rolling out on a scale far greater than anything they have attempted before.
35:04We've looked at the amount of woodland that was on the park since the first maps were done here in 1835.
35:15We've been able to establish that over the last 120 years, we have lost about eight hectares of woodland every ten years.
35:25One day, this end of the valley will be a sea of trees.
35:29But for now, it's all about getting these young native saplings into the ground.
35:36We're in one of the steepest parts of the park here.
35:39It's tough digging up here. It's steep ground. It's rocky. There's a lot of vegetation.
35:44It's hard work. And the higher up you go, the tougher it gets.
35:48But it's worth it. We're getting them in. You know, we're getting a lot of trees planted today.
35:52This is going to take a while. You know, there's quite a bit of work on it, but it's actually nice work.
36:01You know, you're out of the office. You're out in the fresh air.
36:05Anyway, lads, I'm going to crack on, but these trees don't plant themselves.
36:15The long term plan speaks volumes about how seriously the park authorities take their role in prioritising the restoration of this landscape and the recovery of the threatened habitats that were damaged during this area's time as a hunting estate.
36:44Though the castle beside the lake tells a story of privilege and wealth, the land around it holds clues to the lives of those who once lived in the valley before being moved out to make way for the estate.
37:14At the northern end of Loch Vey are numerous small islands, one of which is called Stillhouse Island, a clue to what it was used for.
37:33Donegal is very famous for potching and it would have been, you know, just absolutely full of potching making.
37:49And a lot of farmers would have had their own stills, their own small pots and they would have grown grain and they would make the potching.
38:00Named after the copper pot it was made in, potching is an alcoholic drink that is famous across Ireland.
38:15It can be traced back to when early Christian monks first brought the art of distillation to these shores.
38:26Despite being banned under English rule, in the centuries that followed,
38:30potching became a part of everyday rural life where many farms had their own small illicit distilleries.
38:42These stills were hidden anywhere they could be kept secret from the authorities.
38:46This game of cat and mouse persisted until the licensed production of potching was fully decriminalized in 1997.
39:00There are still people making potching but I would say the tradition just kind of slowly died out.
39:18You could just get alcohol more easily, so the whole tradition, it was just too hard and I think it just fell off.
39:30These days, potching's history and heritage is inspiring a new generation of distillers.
39:36Who are taking the old potching makers small scale methods and applying them to their own craft whiskies.
39:44Which is made in much the same way but left to mature for longer in barrels.
39:49So this is a really young whisky and you know it's lovely, it's got kind of apricots, it's sweet.
40:04This is made from the grain that we grow, so it's got that kind of terroir and yeah, it's coming along lovely.
40:09That's the type of whisky I'm hoping to produce.
40:10We kind of keep it local.
40:11That's the type of whisky I'm hoping to produce.
40:15We kind of keep it local, keep the process under our own control.
40:37produce. We kind of keep it local, keep the process under our own control and you
40:43know this is how a lot of the potching would have been made, you know, local
40:47growers and just making it in-house and that's kind of the inspiration behind
40:53it I suppose.
40:56Travelling over the park it's easy to see how the potching makers of old evaded
41:02the law for centuries.
41:07As like much of Donegal, the landscape here is filled with caves, islands and
41:13hidden out-of-the-way places.
41:21It's a land with a sense of free and wild seclusion.
41:28A grandeur that once inspired its own ancient myths and legends.
41:37Sitting on the western edge of Glenvay National Park, beneath the mass of the looming mountains,
41:47is a secluded valley with a mysterious name.
41:50Well, we're at the entrance of the poison gland here in County Donegal. It's one of the kind of most beautiful places in the county.
41:56They were surrounded by mountains and it's, you know, very important geological formations, but it's also part of the mythology and folklore of the area.
42:09Because most of Donegal's border runs up against Northern Ireland and separates it from the rest of the Republic, this part of the country has developed its own strong sense of identity.
42:26It's a bit like Alaska stuck up on its own in the North West and that gives us a special character, an area where the predominant daily language is the Irish language, which, as well as preserving the language itself, has preserved a lot of the traditions and the mythologies and folklore associated with it.
42:43Donegal's heritage of ancient Irish culture runs deep.
43:00Donegal's heritage of ancient Irish Celtic culture runs deep.
43:05The myth connected to this area tells of the story of conflict between two gods, Lu and the evil-eyed Balor.
43:14When Lu plunged his magic spear in Balor's evil eye, poison spilled out onto the land.
43:21Balor in his death throes comes as far as this rock here and his decapitated head is placed on the top of the rock and the poison, more poison oozes out and it splits the rock and you can see the big split through the rock.
43:41Enriching these wild places with extra meaning, tales like these are a thread that connects back to the people who once lived here long ago.
43:58The extraordinary thing is that the myth has survived here in a way so that you can walk around this landscape and see, you know, the scenarios, the place where the story took place.
44:10Allegedly and natural features of the landscape are explained by this ancient myth.
44:20It's really fascinating place with so many layers of cultural distinctiveness and interest and we're very lucky, of course, to have at the heart of this and conserving all of this, the National Park at Glen Bay.
44:40Whether exploring the quiet seclusion of Glen Bay.
44:47Or walking the tourist trails through Wicklow Mountains.
44:51In their own way, each National Park offers a chance to escape.
45:02To examine the country's history.
45:07To examine the country's history.
45:12And to experience Ireland's stunning natural beauty.
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