Episode description

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.