When is a broch not a broch? When it's a windmill, of course – Caithness Broch Project take BBC to task over glaring error
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Many Caithness broch lovers took to social media last night to condemn what they saw as an editorial error in the latest episode of the BBC series Great Coastal Railway Journeys.
TV presenter Michael Portillo was on the far north line heading into Caithness as part of his exploration of Britain's rail routes. After visiting Spittal Mains quarry, the former Tory politician then did a quick overview of other attractions in Caithness in which he described the ancient Iron Age towers that are particularly profuse in the county, brochs.
It may have been a seemingly harmless editorial mistake but as the narrator described brochs an image of the masonry rubble stump of Castlehill's pumping windmill popped up on screen. The ire of the Caithness Broch Project (CBP), which promotes all things broch and aims to reconstruct one, was truly up and the organisation took to Twitter to air its condemnation of the error.
Kenneth McElroy, a CBP director and co-founder, said: "It was great to see Caithness featuring on Great Coastal Railway Journeys and about time too.
"It was disappointing, however, to see a lack of research when it came to the county – the windmill at Castletown is not a broch, and is not prehistoric, being barely 150 years old. A cursory glance online, or even at some of the visitor information panels at the flagstone site would have revealed this.
"Of course, it led into the flagstone story, but it appeared, to me, to be just another case of a lazy attempt to understand or discuss the story of Caithness. This sort of mistake might not sound like much, but it's a depressing and all-too-familiar portrayal of Caithness in the media. To me it seemed to suggest that they couldn't really be bothered."
Mr McElroy added: "It's interesting to note that the next episode of the Great Coastal Railway Journeys, seems to be largely dedicated to Orkney – which has approximately 0ft of railway.
"We all know Orkney is great, and special for many reasons, but having a railway is not one of them. You could have, without a doubt, had two separate programmes dedicated to both Caithness and Sutherland. Both places, until very recently, very much overlooked in terms of tourism. Certainly Caithness has, despite its wealth of archaeological and historical attractions, food and drink and outdoor pursuits. Who wouldn't want to see Michael Portillo cowping off a surfboard?"
Recent episodes have featured Culloden battlefield, the Strathspey Steam Railway, Loch Morlich, the Findhorn eco-community, Fort George and Cawdor Castle. Michael also had a trip to Carrbridge, home of the World Porridge Making Championships.
In the tonight's half-hour episode on BBC2 at 6.30pm, Michael heads down to Scrabster to cross the Pentland Firth. His tour of Orkney takes in Stromness, Kirkwall, Scapa Flow and North Ronaldsay.
Each episode of Great Coastal Railway Journeys is watched by around 1.3 million viewers within the UK and the series can also be seen on the BBC iPlayer online.
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