Season 1

A personal portrait of the crofting calendar on South Uist, past and present. Made from rock as old as the moon, Uist has been shaped by winds, tides and the people who have continuously worked this landscape for 5,000 years. The traditional crofting methods enable rare species of birds and flowers to thrive that are extinct elsewhere in the British Isles. Conflicts arise from the dramatic weather system and the front-line cycles of life and death, and from the flocking geese. Over the last 30 years, the resident population of Greylags has increased from less than 1,000 to over 9,000 birds. With little to check the breeding Greylag, the geese are destroying the cultivation of Uist corn. How the crofters meet these and other challenges with wits, humour and determination is a core driver of the action. Always there is the need to sow the seed and cultivate the corn to feed the cattle. And to shepherd the sheep on the hills.