I lived in UK’s most remote community – we dug a cable to watch Scotland play

A GRANDAD has told how he once dug a tunnel to watch Scotland play at a major tourney – but is now happy to watch the upcoming Euros from the comfort of his couch.

Duncan Morrison, 64, was 18 when Ally McLeod promised the Tartan Army his team would return from the World Cup in Argentina in 1978 as champions.

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But his home village of Inverie, on the Knoydart peninsula, did not have a single television between the population of 124.

So locals organised a helicopter to deliver supplies before they dug a five-mile trench by hand to lay the first TV relay cable in the remote corner of the West Highlands.

A famous photo of shovel-bearing men with a working television and the iconic Knoydart range behind them later became a symbol for the Tartan Army’s dedication to backing McLeod’s men.

Duncan told the Scottish Sun: “The whole group of us wanted the telly for football, and that was our only motivation, we had to watch Scotland win the World Cup.

“Before that, we were able to listen to football on the radio, but it was patchy at best – but we’d listen to domestic games on that but would need to climb a hill to pick it up.

“Once it was decided we wanted to watch the game, we got the wheels moving, two of the guys knew a little bit about what they were doing.

“And we had to get engineers over from the Black Isle to test for the signal to see if it was possible.

“They checked where it would be best to bring in a receiver and they worked out the television signal was stronger from Stornoway.”

Duncan told how the villagers came together in the village hall to hatch a scheme and organise a whip around.

The band of 15 villagers then dug away in their spare time with the belief that their effort would be worth it when Scotland lifted the greatest prize in football.

He continued: “There was a committee that raised the funding, the women of the village arranged that and everybody chipped in.

“Then the helicopter dropped the cable and the materials for receiver over the mountains by helicopter and we were there to meet them, then we lowered all the equipment down ourselves.

“We chipped away at the dig in our downtime between work, we would do a little bit at a time until we lined them up to where the houses were.

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“We aimed to connect everyone – but the first house on the road, but they told us they didn’t want telly. But next door, they had it.”

What remains on the tale is the famous black cable still today pinned in places along the dry stone dyke metres from Inverie tiny ferry terminal.

The transmission boxes to connect the houses from the road are long gone – suspected to have been sold off when satellite television arrived – but the original wiring remains in place along Knoydart’s only tarmaced road.

Scotland again crashed out at the group stage but Duncan told how he will never forget the feeling of turning on the box for the first time

He added: “When it came round to watching the games, we went to each other’s houses to tune in, it was very social, it brought us together, despite the result.

“Everyone else was connected as we went, the community wanted to be a part of it, and football brought us together.

“It was a good laugh, it was something we just did, we trusted that it would work in the end.”

Now retired and living in Tain, Ross-shire, Duncan is enjoying Euro 2024.

He said: “I’ll be backing Steve Clarke’s men in Germany but I’ll just be watching the television from my home instead.

“It’s an awful lot easier these days, that’s for sure.”