- Title: Atlantic Britain
- Date: 11th September 2004
- Summary: Adam and George continue north up the west coast of Ireland, in search of religion. Why has the western edge always attracted extreme religious fervour? They stop at the Skelligs, two craggy lumps of rock that look like gothic fairytale castles, the site of a sixth-century hermitage abandoned 800 years ago. Adam wants to know if the same sort of religious fortitude that inspired the early Christian monks to build these beehive cells can still be found today. On the Aran Islands he finds a Celtic monk offering spiritual tourism and is unimpressed. But joining a barefoot pilgrimage up Croagh Patrick, he finds what he was looking for: extreme devotion in the modern world.
- Description:Writer and novice sailor Adam Nicholson sails the length of Atlantic Britain,from the Scilly Isles to Orkney,in search of the strange and unusual people who,battered by the most extreme weather and seas in the world,cling to the edge of Europe. Writer and journalist Adam Nicolson has taken out a second mortgage to buy The Auk, a 42-foot sailing boat, to sail up the west coast of the British Isles. From the Scilly Isles up the west coast of Ireland, through the Hebrides and on to Orkney and beyond, it's a 1,500-mile sea journey along one of the world's greatest landscapes. Adam explores the history of the west coast: what originally drew people to live on the edge? And he finds out who still lives here today, and how their lives are shaped by the power of the Atlantic. The only problem is, he's never sailed anything bigger than a dinghy before.
- Broadcaster:Channel 4
- Collection: KEO Films
- Genre:Documentary and Factual
- Producer:Keo Films Ltd.
- Programme Episode:Episode 4
- Transmission Date:11/09/2004
- Rights:UK and Eire
- Decade: 2000s