Dave MacLeod. Photo: © Richard Else

The Scotsman currently pushing climbing’s boundaries will feature in a live television broadcast on a route described as one of the hardest in the British Isles.

Dave MacLeod, famous for his E11 climb Rhapsody on Dumbarton Rock, and Echo Wall high on Ben Nevis’s north face, will tackle the huge rock overhang of Sròn Uladail on Harris in August, with extreme sports expert and climber Tim Emmett.

The exploit will be recorded and broadcast live by Triple Echo for BBC Scotland. Viewers in the rest of Britain can either see it on the BBC’s HD channel or see it streamed live on the corporation’s website. It will also be available on the iPlayer.

Sròn Uladail. Photo: © Richard Else

Sròn Uladail is a 215m (700ft) high gneiss rockface with 45m (150ft) of overhang.

A previous live broadcast by Triple Echo in 2007 of The Great Climb in the Loch Avon basin in the Cairngorms had to be cancelled because of the weather. MacLeod reckons the chances of a repetition of this are slim. He said: “The Sròn is just about the biggest natural umbrella in the UK. The part we want to climb stays completely dry in the foulest of Atlantic weather fronts.

“Our only Achilles’ heel might be if an isolated hold or section of the route is seeping from a crack, or the top of the overhangs are too hard to climb in the wet.”

Recce-ing of the routes is prevented at the moment by a pair of golden eagles raising their chicks on the cliff, which lies about 3km (2 miles) south of Loch Rèasort in North Harris.

Tim Emmett. Photo: © Tim Emmett

The live climb will be preceded by a Five Islands Challenge by the pair of climbers to be filmed next month. Footage from the challenge, involving routes on Scottish islands, will be interspersed with live material during the August climb and more of the filmed challenge can be included if necessary.

Richard Else of Triple Echo said: “Sròn Uladail can be climbed in the wet, and will be done on the day, but we will be recording the Five Islands Challenge in May.

“We are not saying which islands they are. We will be very reliant on the weather and conditions, but probably at least three of these places will never have been climbed before.”

Mr Else explained what makes the Sròn such a difficult prospect. “Sròn Uladail is about 700 feet high,” he said. “It is the biggest overhanging cliff in the British Isles, with a distance of 150 ft from its base to the edge of its overhang.

“It’s also the holds that make it so hard. Doug Scott climbed it first, but he used artificial holds, which we don’t do now, and it took him three years to do it.”

The company has previously worked with MacLeod. Else said: “I’ve worked with Dave McLeod on a film called To Hell and Back. I really rate Dave as a person and as a climber.

“And Tim Emmett is a great guy too. I’m sure he won’t mind me saying he’s completely bonkers.”

To Hell and Back was the account of MacLeod’s ascent of a route on Hell’s Lum that would have formed part of the aborted The Big Climb.

Sron Uladail. Photo: © Richard Else

The Sròn Uladail programme will also feature a new long-distance trail put together by journalist and broadcaster Cameron McNeish.

Mr Else explained: “We have previously produced long distance trails in Sutherland and on Skye, which were designed not just to be walked as a whole but in parts, and people can customise them.

“We have, in effect, given that trail to the local community to develop green tourism.

“The Cameron McNeish trail through the Western Isles will combine walking, kayaking and biking and local people are already looking at providing one-way bicycle hire.”

Speaking of the prospects for the route if he can’t make it, MacLeod said: “I’ll fall off and that’ll be that! I’m expecting we’ll have a ‘living end’ standard piece of climbing to do. I’ll be giving it plenty and will be arriving well prepared, psyched and ready for a fine battle. I’m sure Tim will be too.

“But such is the nature of doing new things in sport; barriers can’t be broken every time. So we might fall off. We’ll all find out on the day. No pressure then!”

The live Sròn Uladail programme will be screened on BBC2 in Scotland on 28 August.