Plot

The Northwest Highlands is an area unlike any other on Earth. Beyond the bustling, choked streets of Edinburgh and Glasgow, past the picturesque and well-trodden mountains and valleys of Argyll and Lochaber, lies a very different place. Wild, storm-weathered wildernesses of rock, heather and bog stretch north for hundreds of miles. This place, which lays claim to the lowest population density in Western Europe, nevertheless supports a people with a proud history, culture and industry, who depend on the land around them as much as it depends on them. The people and the land, inextricably linked, are now facing challenges of an unprecedented nature and scale: mass tourism, widespread ecological destruction and a declining and ageing population. 'Small Country' is an exploration of this land, its people and the future they now face. Following the lives and work of those who depend most on this landscape, including fishermen, farmers and guides, we see the true scale of the changes that have gripped the Northwest, the disappearance of tight-knit crofting communities and the rise of industrial exploitation. This is a country growing like never before.