A topical guide to life in the Scottish outdoors.
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Mark catches up with another of the finalists in BBC Scotland’s Make a Difference Award environmental category. Midlothian Wildflowers started as a small group of people from the Bonnyrigg and Rosewell community carrying out some guerilla gardening. Julia Pennycuik from the group tells Mark how it grew from there and why it’s been nominated for the award. This weekend Grantown on Spey in the…
Mark Stephen climbs inside the Tay Road Bridge to mark its 60th Birthday
Mark visits Greenhead Moss Community Nature Park in Wishaw. The 100-hectare site contains many different habitats including ponds, wildflower meadows and woodlands. He takes a tour with countryside ranger Derek. Deveron Wildland is a newly established rewilding estate in Aberdeenshire. Rachel went for a visit to hear about what the plans are for the site as well as to try her hand at nature…
Helen Needham digs into the BBC Archive to share some audio gems from the past
Mark visits Glasgow’s Queen’s Park Glasshouse which was threatened with closure earlier this summer. He speaks to some of those involved in the campaign to secure its future which seems to have been successful. Rachel tries her hand at Nordic Walking which may look gentle but actually involves a full body workout! She went along to a group in Blair Atholl run by Eilidh Paterson who explained…
Mark Stephen meets naturalist and author Polly Pullar in the sheep shed of her farm in Perthshire. Polly's latest book In The Company of Sheep describes her fascination with them
Mark Stephen and Rachel Stewart with a special programme from the Scottish Crannog Centre
Helen Needham visits the spectacular seabird colony on a skiff
A few weeks ago, Mark went along to a conference at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen. Under the banner of Living Labs, the institute brought together folk living in rural or island communities, and Mark chatted to Phyl Meyer from Tiree and Euan Maclachlan from Assynt to find out what sort of challenges they face in everyday life. The island of Fetlar is known as The Garden of Shetland due it…
Mark Stephen takes a Land Rover tour of the Inner Hebridean island of Lismore to explore its history, wildlife and nature
In this week’s Scotland Outdoors podcast Mark meets author Cal Flyn, whose latest book is called The Savage Landscape – How we Made the Wilderness. We hear an excerpt of Cal explaining where her interest in exploring the meaning of wilderness came from. Rachel is on the North East coast on a seabird spotting safari run by the Aberdeen Countryside Ranger Service. The trips have become popular with…
Mark Stephen meets Cal Flyn, author of The Savage Landscape - How We Made The Wilderness in which she explores the meaning of wilderness in a journey into the forests, deserts and ocean floor
Mark is in Forres to meet up with naturalist and educator Dan Puplett. Dan’s been running bird language courses, helping people understand what birds are really saying and how to interpret their different calls. Ardersier Common has officially become the Highlands' newest Local Nature Reserve after more than two decades of conservation work. Home to the rare small blue butterfly and one of the…
