Rachel is in Lochaber where one of the biggest nature restoration projects in the country is underway. The Nevis Nature Network Project covers 22 thousand acres which includes fragments of Scottish rainforest and rare montane scrub. She met project manager Ellie Corsie for a walk to hear about their restoration vision. Mark is on Calton Hill in Edinburgh hearing about the challenges of repairing our historical buildings. Many of our famous landmarks were built using stone that is no longer quarr...
Jan 18, 2025•1 hr 20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mark Stephen chooses some Burns favourites including his rendition of Tam O' Shanter
Jan 15, 2025•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast The weather has certainly been a big talking point for a lot of us this week. And it’s also the theme of a new exhibition at the McManus Art Gallery and Museum in Dundee. Rachel went to take a look at A Weather Eye along with curator Kirsty Matheson. We hear from Paul Hetherington of charity Buglife about the impact the mild weather before Christmas, and now the very cold weather, is having on our bees. Sadly, it’s not great news. A second pair of lynx has been captured after being found near Ki...
Jan 11, 2025•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Rachel Stewart speaks to photographer and Landward presenter Shahbaz Majeed
Jan 08, 2025•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Helen Needham meets musician and composer Cosmo Sheldrake
Jan 04, 2025•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mark Stephen and Rachel Stewart spend a day on the island of Jura to get a sense of life on the Ardlussa Estate where the Fletcher family have lived for five generations. Mark also visits Barnhill, the house where George Orwell wrote 1984 which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year
Jan 01, 2025•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mark Stephen gets a tour of the Palace with Curators Deborah Clarke and Emma Stead
Dec 25, 2024•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Dec 21, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mark Stephen follows the route from Balquhidder to Corstorphine in Edinburgh
Dec 18, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Dec 14, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Helen Needham presents some audio gems from BBC Scotland's archive
Dec 11, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 c...
Dec 07, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mark follows the route through Glencoe, Kinlochleven and Rannoch Moor.
Dec 04, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Nov 30, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Helen Needham meets woodworker and author Callum Robinson
Nov 27, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 E...
Nov 23, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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.
Nov 20, 2024•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 
