Scotland Outdoors

Mark and Rachel are joined by the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Professor Catherine Heymans who can tell us what’s actually happening to earth to make the days so short.Mark finds out whether our garden birds are impacted by the short days, and he also visits the Nature Scot Forvie National Nature Reserve where despite the dark and cold, new life is arriving as seal pups are being born.While we’re experiencing our shortest day, Antarctica will be marking their Summer Solstice. Rachel chats to Maggie Coll, a wildlife monitor with the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust who manage Port Lockroy. She tells us what conditions are like there and tips to cope with 24-hour daylight.Joining us in the car park is Professor of Human Geography at University of Edinburgh, Hayden Lorimer. We chat to Hayden about the different ways people have marked the winter solstice throughout time. And we also discuss the best ways to cope with the short days and lack of light.Our Scotland Outdoors podcast this week features the last instalment of our Kidnapped series. We hear an excerpt as Mark nears the end of his journey along the Stevenson Way.And Rachel meets storyteller Jackie Ross at the East Aquhorthies Stone Circle near Inverurie to hear some tales of the winter solstice and some superstitions linked to this time of year.

Mark Stephen follows the route from Balquhidder to Corstorphine in Edinburgh

Mark meets builder and artist Becky Little whose work is being displayed as part of an exhibition called A Fragile Correspondence at the V&A in Dundee. Her work involves using soil from different areas in Orkney made into cubes.A WWF Scotland scheme which is aiming to create seagrass meadows and restore oysters to the Forth has reached a major milestone. Rachel visits the Restoration Forth project to hear about what they’ve achieved so far and what their plans are for the future.Mark is in The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery and Museum where there’s currently an exhibition all about the Dundee Naturalists’ Society which is marking its 150th anniversary this year. Mark met up with some of the members to hear about the group’s history and what they get up to now.Listeners have been getting in touch with Out of Doors to tell us they aren’t seeing the usual numbers of garden birds at their bird feeders and tables. Mark met up with Ian Broadbent, North-East Scotland recorder for the Scottish Ornithologists' Club, to chat about whether numbers of garden visitors are down, and what might be the cause. They also speak about what we can do to help encourage birds and get them through the winter.We’re joined live by Dr Julie Oswald from the University of St Andrews who has developed a groundbreaking tool that uses machine learning to identify dolphin species based on their calls. We hear some examples of what dolphins sound like and find out why identifying them is important.It’s the time of year to coorie down and listen to some folktales and we have just the thing with two tales from our recent trip to Islay, an island full of myths and legends.There’s a new eye-catching steel sculpture in Callendar Park in Falkirk. It’s been created by artist Caspar J Wilson and is a memorial to those who experienced loss in the Covid pandemic. Rachel met Caspar and heard how he spoke to hundreds of people in the local community before creating the sculpture.And our Scotland Outdoors podcast this week features Helen Needham looking through some audio gems from BBC Scotland's archive including an Orkney Hurricane, Sightings of the Loch Ness Monster in the 1930's and Terrifying Sounds from the Hamilton Mausoleum which is what we hear an excerpt of.

Helen Needham presents some audio gems from BBC Scotland's archive

Last week Rachel was in Aberfoyle where the Scottish Countryside Rangers Association was celebrating their 50th anniversary. The organisation brings rangers together to share ideas and highlight potential challenges facing the sector. She chatted to some of those who’ve recently retired, and those who are still working, about the history of the association and the importance of rangers across the country.Mark catches up with photographer Frank McElhinney whose work forms part of an exhibition called A Fragile Correspondence. It’s currently on show at the V&A in Dundee after travelling to the Venice Architecture Biennale. He tells Mark what it was like taking a little bit of Ravenscraig to Venice.A cottage where Queen Victoria enjoyed picnics will open to the public next year after being restored by the National Trust for Scotland. The cottage on Mar Lodge Estate had been in a state of disrepair for some years and Mark went along to see its transformation.Over the last few weeks, we’ve been chatting to the three finalists of BBC Scotland’s category at the BBC Food and Farming Awards, the Local Food Hero award. Earlier this week the winners were announced at a ceremony in Glasgow where Rachel and Landward’s Dougie Vipond presented the winners with a rather nice chopping board! We hear more from the event including from Rachel’s fellow judges Sheila Dillon and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and from the winners of the Local Food Hero award.Have you come across #thicktrunktuesday on social media? The hashtag has been around for a couple of years highlighting the joy of trees. We chat live to artist Tansy Lee Moir who has travelled to visit different trees and met lots of different people all through using the hashtag. She tells us what it is about trees that inspires her and why winter is the best time to appreciate them.Our Scotland Outdoors podcast this week contains the latest instalment of our series following the story of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novel, Kidnapped. We re-join the story after the Appin Murder of 1752 with Davey and Alan on the run and in need of help.Paul English explores a new 5K walking route near the Falkirk Wheel from a barge. He takes to the Jaggy Thistle to admire the route's colourful benches which are decorated with locally significant mosaic designs.Cold water swimming might seem like a modern pastime, but PhD student Lucy Janes has been researching urban swimming and found that it was actually pretty popular in Victorian Glasgow. She met Mark on the banks of the Clyde to tell him about who was going for a swim in the 1800s and what hazards they might have faced.

Mark follows the route through Glencoe, Kinlochleven and Rannoch Moor.

Rachel is in Fife to meet a woman who is leading the charge on making the outdoors accessible to all. Jan Kerr set up a rambling group for those who rely on wheels, particularly mobility scooters. She tells Rachel how it came about.Over the past few years, a group of badger enthusiasts has been surveying the Central Belt to track the number of setts they can find. Having completed the length of the River Clyde, the group are now surveying between Glasgow Green and Arthur’s Seat. Mark went along to meet them as they checked a site near the M8 motorway.In this week’s Scotland Outdoors podcast Helen meets up with professional woodworker Callum Robinson. We hear an excerpt where he explains where his passion for wood came from.Next week the winners of the BBC’s Food and Farming Awards will be unveiled at a ceremony in Glasgow. Out of Doors and Landward have our own category – the BBC Scotland Food Hero award. Over the past few weeks, Rachel has been visiting the three finalists, and this week we hear from Lisa Houston from the Lauriston Agroecology Farm near Edinburgh which concentrates on food growing, biodiversity and community.Christmas is fast approaching and many people already have their decorations up, including their tree! But have you ever considered renting a living Christmas Tree? Laura visits a farm in Aberdeenshire where you can do just that.November 30th is of course St Andrew’s Day. And while he is the patron saint of Scotland, his day is also celebrated in many countries around the world including Poland. We’re joined live by Grażyna Zuziak to tell us about the Polish traditions of St Andrew’s Day including future telling.Helen visits Sue Laidlow who has been knitting a blanket, or rather blankets, throughout 2024 which track the changing temperatures. As temperatures change, so does the colour of the wool used which results in a rather impressive record charting a whole year of highs and lows in our temperatures.Brothers Mike and Andy Truscott are artists who under the name Kinbrae, create soundscapes usually inspired by the landscapes and nature they love most. They’ve just released some new material and took Rachel to a park where they recorded some of the sounds.

Helen Needham meets woodworker and author Callum Robinson

The Forth Bridges Trail is a five-mile circular route which brings together various points of interest in North and South Queensferry and crosses the Forth Road Bridge. New stops were added onto the route earlier this year, so Mark took a wander along part of it to hear about the area’s fascinating history.When you think of Beaver reintroduction sites you probably imagine the Cairngorms, Knapdale or rural Tayside but certainly not the heart of London. A few weeks ago, Rachel went to visit The Ealing Beaver Project where beavers are making their home right beside a retail park! Dr Sean McCormack gave her a tour and explained how they hope the beavers, who have been relocated from Scotland, might help with flooding in the area.At the end of the summer Mark visited Loch Katrine, home to the Steamship Sir Walter Scott. But the Loch is also home to other boats and Mark went to speak to one man who’s been restoring his very own steamship.We're joined live by Dr Cat Barlow, project manager with the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project who tells us about their plans to expand and re-introduce the species to England and Wales following their success in Scotland.Next month, the winners of the BBC’s Food and Farming Awards will be unveiled at a ceremony in Glasgow. Out of Doors and Landward have our own category – the BBC Scotland Food Hero award. Over the past few weeks Rachel has been visiting the three finalists, and this week we hear from the Cosaig Growers. Back in 2016, Kate Wieteska and Jake Butcher bought a challenging piece of land on a hill in the north west Highlands and since then they’ve completely transformed it in order to grow fruit and vegetables. Rachel paid them a visit while they were getting on with some scything.We hear a short Islay folktale recorded on our recent trip to the island which is home to lots of fantastic myths and stories.In this week’s Scotland Outdoors podcast we feature the latest instalment of Mark’s journey along the Stevenson Way which is based on the novel Kidnapped. We hear an extract where Mark hears about a real event, the Appin Murder of 1752 which is one of the most notorious of its kind in Scottish history.

In this section, Mark leaves Mull and crosses over to Morven before heading to the site of the famous Appin Murder and the monument to mark this bloody event near Ballachulish Bridge.

Moray Ocean Community is a group of citizen scientists aiming to raise awareness of the importance of marine habitats and species. A couple of weeks ago, Mark joined members as they conducted seagrass surveys in Findhorn Bay and learned all about the range of work they carry out.Rachel is in Leven in Fife where a multi-million pound project is underway to refurbish a former flax mill. She hears about the plans including a visitor centre, a community hub and an area to show off the mill’s history.Scotland's first Alpine Coaster has opened at the Midlothian Snowsports Centre at Hillend near Edinburgh. We sent our rollercoaster expert Paul English along to experience the new way to enjoy the rolling Midlothian hills.Next month the winners of the BBC’s Food and Farming Awards will be unveiled at a ceremony in Glasgow. Out of Doors and Landward have our own category – the BBC Scotland Food Hero award. Over the past few weeks Rachel has been visiting the three finalists and this week we hear her trip to the Stranraer Oyster Festival. She headed out on a boat on Loch Ryan harvesting oysters ahead of the 2024 festival kicking off.We chat live to the Glasgow Poet Laureate, Jim Carruth. Much of Jim’s writing is inspired by the rural landscape and those who live and work in it and next week he’s organised an event to raise money for the Royal Scottish Agricultural Benevolent Institution or the RSABI. We chat to Jim about where the idea for the event came from and why he finds raising money for the RSABI so important.Portmoak Moss is one of the few remaining raised bogs in central Scotland. The Woodland Trust site near Glenrothes holds a special place in the heart of the community as St Andrews University student Natasha Currie discovered when she set out to make a soundscape about it. She met up with Mark to tell him what’s so special about Portmoak and we hear excerpts of her recordings.Matt Sowerby is a climate activist, writer and performer who was visiting Aberdeen recently. For this week’s Scotland Outdoors podcast, Helen Needham met up with him on Aberdeen Beach where he explained what climate anxiety means for him and how he finds a sense of hope in what appears to be a crisis.And Rachel heads along to a moonlit dip at Monikie Country Park in Angus. The ‘Dook n Chat’ under a (nearly) full moon was part of the Angus Outdoor Adventure Winter Festival which comes to a close this weekend.

Helen Needham speaks with climate activist and writer Matt Sowerby

Mark Stephen and Rachel Stewart with stories from the great outdoors

We've dug into our archive to bring you a programme originally broadcast in 2012 when Mark Stephen followed the route taken by protagonist David Balfour in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel, 'Kidnapped'.In this first section, it's a brief visit to the Hawes Inn in South Queensferry before taking a boat to the Island of Erraid - which sits off Mull - and the magnificent beach where Davey found himself shipwrecked.Mark is following the Stevenson Way.

A recent report showed that almost a quarter of all ancient pinewoods are at risk of disappearing altogether. Earlier this week, Mark attended Scotland’s Pinewood Conference in Fort William to find out what’s being done to preserve these woodlandsIt’s prime cider making time. Rachel visits Digby Lamotte at his cider making business in Perth to follow the process of producing this increasingly popular drinkIn the late 1700s, Dr James Mounsey, a physician, is said to have smuggled out several pounds of rhubarb seeds - worth more than gold - out of Russia to his home of Edinburgh, where he was soon honoured with the Freedom of the City. Author Barclay Price has written about James Mounsey and others in his new book Honoured by EdinburghThe North Coast 500,a hugely popular tourist route in the North of Scotland, attracts thousands of visitors each year. David Richardson of the NC 500 joins the programme to talk about the new NC500 pledge - an initiative created to encourage visitors to experience the route responsibly and respectfullyKiri Stone is the person behind woodswoman workshops in Fife. Rachel went along to one of the outdoors workshopsTracey Howe has just embarked on 5000 mile walk round the UK coastline. Following the death of her wife of nearly 40 years, Tracey found herself depressed and unable to leave the house but owning a dog forced her to get outside. Linda Sinclair met Tracey on one her final training walks

Mark is back at the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Montrose Basin site, but this time it isn’t geese he’s looking for, it’s mosquitos. Mark hears about the monitoring programme that the Basin is part of and why it’s important to track mosquitos for human health and also bird health.Back in 2021 Storm Arwen wreaked havoc on the North East causing lots of damage including to some of the buildings at the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses in Fraserburgh. Recently Rachel went for a visit to see how the repair work was progressing.The archipelago of St Kilda, the most westerly islands of the UK, is a wild place with a fascinating history. It was inhabited until 1930 by very hardy folks, many of whom were adept at climbing the cliffs and sea stacks to hunt for birds and their eggs. St Kilda’s climbing history is now being explored in a new film by professional climber and filmmaker Robbie Phillips. Helen Needham met up with Robbie to hear about how the film came about.Earlier in the week, it was announced that Jim McColl had died at the age of 89. Jim was one of the presenters of BBC Scotland’s Beechgrove Garden from its outset until his retirement from the programme in 2019. We hear an archive clip of Mark chatting to Jim about how he got involved in the first place.Back to the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses in Fraserburgh where Rachel hears about a project to restore one of the old lighthouse keepers’ cottages to how it might have looked in 1963.And we chat live to Mike Bullock, chief executive of the Northern Lighthouse Board, about the role of modern day lighthouse keepers.From now until Halloween, Glamis Castle near Forfar will be running what they are calling Ghosts of Glamis tours. Mark recently went along to hear some of the ghostly tales and see if he could spot any spooky goings on…In this week’s Scotland Outdoors podcast Mark chats to Dr Roisin Campbell-Palmer, Head of Restoration at the Beaver Trust. We hear an excerpt where Roisin tells Mark about her early involved in the re-introduction of beavers to Scotland.If you read the Guardian newspaper, you may be familiar with the Country Diary. It’s a daily natural history column which offers the reader seasonal observations and snapshots of the British Countryside. Recently Rachel met one of the regular contributors, Merryn Glover, at Loch Inch in the Highlands and asked her to reflect on what autumn means to her.

Mark Stephen meets Dr Roisin Campbell-Palmer, Head of Restoration at the Beaver Trust. They meet at the Argaty Beaver Project near Doune in Perthshire to discuss her love of the mammal and how the reintroduction of the species is progressing

Mark and Rachel with the second part of their visit the island of Islay, the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides.The RSPB has two reserves on the island, one at Loch Gruinart and one at The Oa, which is where Mark and Rachel met warden David Dinsley to try and spot one of the bird species Islay is known for, the chough.Artist Heather Dewar was born on Islay in the 1940s, and although she moved away as a child, she returned regularly until she retired there. We chat to her about what makes Islay such a special place and hear some of her childhood memories.Islay is in a strategically important place in terms of shipping and trade. And between 1914 and 1918 the waters around it were an important route for troopships. Two incidents brought the First World War to the doors of the islanders, and author Les Wilson tells us about one of them and the impact it had on Islay. We also hear about a rather remarkable American flag which was made on the island and has been returned there after spending quite some time in the USA.And we couldn’t visit Islay, and island with ten, nearly 11 distilleries, and not talk about whisky. People come from all across the world to visit the distilleries and taste the drams with their unique Islay style. Rachel chats to Rachel MacNeill from the Islay Whisky Academy about how she gets people passionate about whisky. And we visit the Kilchoman Distillery to hear from Sharon McHarrie about how they are continuing some of the old traditions in their comparatively young distillery.

Mark and Rachel visit the island of Islay, the southern most island of the Inner Hebrides. They take a walk with gamekeeper turned outdoor guide, DJ MacPhee, to get an overview of the island which has a diverse range of landscapes and habitats.They then head to Loch Finlaggan, the seat of the Lord of the Isles, a site of huge significance for hundreds of years, and hear all about its history from Mairead Mackechnie of the Loch Finlaggan Trust.Next they visit a re-discovered ancient lifting stone on the shores of Loch Gruinart. Niall Colthart tells them about the legends attached to it and Mark tries his hand at lifting it.

Slugs are sometimes regarded as a garden pest, but they are more important than people might think. Rachel meets with retired teacher and slug expert Chris Du Feu after one of his workshops in Rosyth run by the Fife Nature Records Centre to ask whether he had noticed more slugs than usual this year.It’s rare these days to see a mature elm tree be it in the countryside or in our towns and cities. That’s because of Dutch Elm Disease which, over the past sixty years, has killed millions of trees throughout the UK. In this week’s Scotland Outdoors episode, Helen Needham visits Max Coleman of the Royal Botanic Gardens who has been involved in a Scottish project to create resilient elms for the future.Montrose Basin have recently been welcoming annual visitors pink-footed geese, who migrate from Iceland every year. Mark hears more about these spectacular birds from Visitor Centre Manager Joanna Peaker and freshwater ecologist Rachel Mackay-Austin.The harbour in Stranraer is at the heart of much of the regeneration of the town. Rachel met with historian Elaine Barton at the West Pier overlooking Loch Ryan to discuss the major role the loch played in the local economy.The October holidays in Scotland are traditionally called tattie holidays, as this is the time when children would be taken out of school to help with the potato harvest. Potato expert and “Tattie Talks” organiser John Marshall joins Mark and Rachel live to tell us more about how tattie picking has changed over the years.When we think of surfing, we don’t usually associate it with the cold waters of the north of Scotland. University of Edinburgh lecturer Dr Matthew McDowell has recently published a book looking at the history of surfing in the north of Scotland. Mark meets him at Dunbar beach, one of Scotland’s best surfing beaches, to discuss his findings.Returning to Stranraer, Rachel visits Aldouran Wetland Garden, a garden managed by volunteers, which lies just a few miles out of town. The site sits on the edge of woodland and features a pond, raised flower beds and a bird hide, as well as a rather interesting hungry caterpillar. Gordon Weymss and Jane Sloan gave Rachel a guided tour.Now that we are further into the autumn months, we start to notice the leaves changing on the trees. Mark meets artist Jonathan Mitchell to discuss the many colours involved in autumn leaves, and how they inspire his paintings.Highlands and Islands Airports Limited staff have teamed up with conservation programme Species on the Edge to create safe nesting habitat for the rare Little Tern at Islay Airport. Rachel meets Project Officer Lucy Atkinson to learn more about the project and the birds.