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 histor...
Nov 16, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Helen Needham speaks with climate activist and writer Matt Sowerby
Nov 13, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mark Stephen and Rachel Stewart with stories from the great outdoors
Nov 09, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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.
Nov 06, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 woodlands It’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 drink In the late 1700s, Dr James Mounsey, a physician, is said to have smuggled out several po...
Nov 02, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 repa...
Oct 26, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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
Oct 23, 2024•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 make...
Oct 19, 2024•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mark and Rachel visit the island of Islay, the southernmost 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 ston...
Oct 16, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 t...
Oct 12, 2024•1 hr 22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dutch Elm disease has killed millions of elms across the world over the past century. But there is still hope that this mighty tree can be saved. Helen hears from David Shreeve of the Conservation Foundation about his new book Great British Elms. And from Max Coleman of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh about a conservation project in Scotland to plant resilient elms.
Oct 09, 2024•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this week’s Scotland Outdoors episode, Mark meets Tim Simons of Scotways to learn more about the history of outdoor access in Scotland. Celebrations were held last month to mark the 60th anniversary of the Forth Road Bridge and honour the structure, which at the time of construction was one of the longest in the world. Recently, Rachel was invited to view it from a slightly different angle on a Forth Boat Tours trip with Alastair Baird as her guide. To mark 40 years since they took over the r...
Oct 05, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mark Stephen meets Tim Simons of the Scottish Rights of Way and Access Society
Oct 02, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast ScotWays (Scottish Rights of Way and Access Society) have published the sixth edition of Scottish Hill Tracks in around 100 years. The book launches on Saturday 28th September. Over the last five years hundreds of volunteers have helped to compile the book. Mark meets with ScotWays Director Tim Simons to discuss the book and its importance. The importance of seed saving is increasingly being recognised across the world as a way of establishing resilience in the natural environment. It is also th...
Sep 28, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast A weaving of Ian's essay 'The Sacred Mountain' with a walk up Aberdeenshire's most prominent hill, Bennachie. As we pass through the Autumn Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, we offer an invitation to reflect on the changing of the seasons by visiting a special place.
Sep 25, 2024•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast With many parts of Scotland finally getting harvest underway, and planting for 2025 harvest being undertaken, NFU Scotland is asking growers to now complete its 31st consecutive annual harvest survey. Mark meets with Scott Campbell, North East representative on the NFUS Crops Committee, to chat about how the harvest has been so far and what the implications are further down the line. Helen Needham meets Gretchen Daily of the Natural Capital Project at Stanford University. A special festival gets...
Sep 21, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Helen Needham meets Gretchen Daily of the Natural Capital Project at Stanford University
Sep 18, 2024•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Phil Sime visits an RSPB reserve on North Uist where local crofters work alongside the charity to improve the habitat for birds including corncrake and Golden Eagle. Rachel is in Milton near Invergordon hearing about a rather impressive beech tree that has an important place in local history. She hears about efforts of the community woodland to help preserve it for future generations. The Forth Bridge is a railway bridge and a UNESCO world heritage site, and it never fails to impress Mark when h...
Sep 14, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2023, Musician and Sound Artist Jenny Sturgeon spent 37 days walking the 864 km trail from Kirk Yetholm in the Borders to Cape Wrath in the North West Highlands. Along the way, she recorded sounds and wrote about her journey which have been mixed together for this podcast to produce an immersive and inspiring piece.
Sep 11, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast There was much celebration in Caithness a few weeks ago when it was announced that, after decades of planning and preparation, The Flow Country has been awarded UNESCO World Heritage Status. It’s the first in Scotland to be granted this status on purely natural criteria and is also the only peatbog in the world with World Heritage status. At one time, scything would have been common practice in Scotland, for making hay or harvesting crops. But, with the advent of machinery, land managers were no...
Sep 07, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dorothy Pilley was a pioneering climber who wrote of her adventures in the high peaks in her book 'Climbing Days' which was published in 1935. Thanks to the efforts of her great great nephew, Dan Richards, it has been republished. It contains vivid descriptions of her adventures around the globe and is testament to her personal strength and bravery as a woman breaking new ground in this domain.
Sep 04, 2024•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's time for the second Big River Watch of the year. It’s a chance to spend time observing the health of your local river between the 6th and 12th of September. The River Dee trust are taking part in the forthcoming survey and Keilidh Ewan, education and outreach officer for the trust gave Mark some more information. A new trial is underway in Scotland which could cut the harmful emissions associated with manure on farms. Two farmers are trying out a system called Bokashi which the Soil Associa...
Aug 31, 2024•1 hr 22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mark Stephen meets long distance walker Claudia Zeiske in Peterhead after the completion of her 220 km walk from the Cairngorns to the coast of Aberdeenshire. Along the way she has been collecting stories of the effect COVID had on the communities she passed through. In her rucksack has been a bright pink tablecloth which she has embroidered messages on and invited those she has met to sign
Aug 28, 2024•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Andrew O'Donnell is a natural history film maker but he's also a musician who records under the moniker of Beluga Lagoon. Maud Starts meets up Andrew on a river bank where they watch dippers and talk about his latest album
Aug 27, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast In January 2015, Margaret and Angus Mackenzie’s son Neil died in a climbing accident in Canada. Neil loved the outdoors, and to continue his memory, the couple set up a trust in his name to provide funding for those wanting to access outdoor pursuits. This year they’re undertaking a bit of a walking challenge as Mark found out when he went to meet them. Across the country, a growing number of citizen scientists are monitoring the state of our rivers. Rachel heads to the Clyde Valley to catch up ...
Aug 24, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mark Stephen visits Kenneth Steven at his home on Seil Island in Argyll
Aug 21, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Glenmore Lodge, the Scottish National Outdoor Training Centre, has recently established Scotland’s first hill navigation training course to be delivered in British Sign Language. One of those involved in setting it up was deaf climber and mountaineer Morag Skelton. Mark chatted to Morag for the Scotland Outdoors podcast, and we hear an excerpt where they speak about her childhood outdoors and the practicalities involved in climbing when you can’t hear. For our latest Scotland Outdoors podcast, R...
Aug 17, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Scottish gardening expert M.T O'Donnell talks about what measures people can take to make their gardens more appealing to nature. She shows Rachel Stewart around her own garden near Glasgow and discusses how to create useful habitats for wildlife and plant good food sources for birds and insects.
Aug 14, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mark Stephen and Rachel Stewart present Out of Doors live from Dynamic Earth as part of BBC at the Edinburgh Festivals. We are joined by an amazing panel of guests, all with their own connections to Scotland and the outdoors. James Crawford is a writer, publisher and broadcaster. His latest book, Wild History: Journeys Into Lost Scotland, was published in 2023 and he has written and presented three series of the BBC One landmark documentary series Scotland from the Sky, which was Shortlisted as ...
Aug 10, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mark Stephen meets Morag Skelton at Glenmore Lodge in the Cairngorms
Aug 07, 2024•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
