Scotland Outdoors

This week Out of Doors is live from the village of Cullen in Moray.The village is popular with holiday makers over the summer months but it’s home to a thriving community all year round. Mark went for a wander to hear more about what people are up to. And we’re joined live by David McCubbin from Discover Cullen who tells us about what attracts visitors to the area.Rachel finds out that the Cullen we know now, is not the original Cullen. Two hundred years ago the village was demolished and rebuilt in its current location. She hears more from the local heritage group and visits an incredible model of Old Cullen.Its coastal location makes Cullen the ideal spot for sea swimming. We’re joined live by members of the Wild Dookers swimming group before they head out for an early morning dip. And we catch up with them afterwards to hear about the benefits of a cold-water swim.Artist Rob Greenwood can often be found at the harbour or on the beach at Cullen sketching the wildlife and fishing boats. We chat to him about what inspires him about the area and challenge him to create a masterpiece during the programme.Rachel spends some time with local bird recorder Martin Cook in nearby Portknockie to see if they can spot some of the seabirds that the area is known for.We couldn’t visit Cullen without tasting some Cullen Skink. The famous haddock and potato soup originates from the village, and we’re joined by the current Cullen Skink champion, Kellie Spooner, to hear about the key to making a good Cullen Skink.As well as sea swimming, surfing and other water sports are popular along the coastline. Rachel heads out for a surfing lesson and hears what makes the area so good for taking to the water.A recent addition to the beach at Cullen is a wood-fired barrel sauna. Mark headed along for a dip in the sea so he could try it out and hear from owner Becky how it all came about.And regular visitors to the beach will know Andrew and his coffee van- he joins us to tell us about why he loves the village so much and provide us with some much needed coffee.

Rachel Stewart visits Tricia Stephen of Phantassie Organics in East Lothian

The 29th of June marks the beginning of swift awareness week. Mark meets Cally Fleming of the Huntly Swift Group at the Bennachie Centre to chat about these amazing birds.The beautiful garden at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre celebrates the Scottish plant explorers of the past. In recent years, a major project has been underway to restore the Explorers garden. Head gardener Caroline Bavey gives Rachel a tour.In the latest edition of Our Story, Mark visits Danish ceramicist Lotte Glob, one of the founders of the Balnakeil Craft Village near Durness. Mark takes a wander around her Sculpture Croft on the shores of Loch Eriboll.Every year, the Rare Breeds Survival Trust publishes a watchlist which gives an indication of how our native breeds are faring. Rachel meets up with some farmers who keep rare native sheep at the Highland Show, Denise Playfair and Johnathan James, as well as Steve McMinn from RBST in Scotland.It seems that we have been aware of less insects in our gardens and in the wild this June, but why is this? Craig Macadam of Buglife joins us live to discuss the reasons for the decline of insects in Scotland and what we can do about it.Every year, more and more people are signing up to the Shorewatch scheme, a citizen science project run by the marine charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation. Rachel joins Shorewatch Coordinator Katie Dyke and two seasoned spotters Gary Fahey and Ronnie Mackie at the top of the Burghead visitor centre to learn about the scheme while also watching out for dolphins.Producer Helen Needham’s series for BBC Radio 3, Dig Where You Stand, has been on this week. The series involves five musicians from the Celtic Nations unearthing old tunes and songs from specific places. We hear from Allan Henderson, a multi instrumentalist originally from Mallaig, as he shares a story and a tune called Dalshangie that he learnt from his fiddle teacher, Aonghas Grant.Mark visits Blackthorn Salt in Ayrshire to visit the impressive Salt Evaporation Tower. He meets Master Salter Gregorie to find out more about the business and the process behind making the salt.

Mark Stephen visits Lotte Glob and learns about her deep connection to landscape and rock

This week Rachel has been at the Royal Highland Show at Ingliston just outside Edinburgh. One of the first places she headed to when she arrived was the goat tent. She meets some of the keepers as they got their animals ready for judging and met some goats with an Outlander connection.Mark visits the village of Ochiltree in East Ayrshire where the local community has established a heritage walk to highlight its fascinating history from the Bronze Age, its connections with James Boswell right through to its role in mining in the 1950s. Billy Cooper showed Mark around.In this week’s Scotland Outdoors podcast Helen Needham headed out for a walk with author Linda Cracknell. It’s ten years since she published her first book about walks she’d done around the world, and to mark that anniversary she’s added a new chapter about the Flow Country. She tells Helen about her experience of that remote part of Scotland.Last year, competitors from around the world attended the Golden Shears sheep shearing world championships at the Royal Highland Show. This year, a ladies competition is being held at the Highland for the first time. Rachel went along to meet one of those taking part and shearing steward Bruce Lang.The National Museum of Scotland is curating an exhibition which will open in July looking at Scotland’s important role during the Cold War. Our location and geography meant the country played both a visible and invisible role. Mark meets curator Dr Meredith Greiling at the National Museum of Flight to hear more.Back at the Royal Highland Show Rachel visits agricultural charity RSABI’s health hut. The hut offers basic checks of things like blood pressure and nurse Irene Scott tells Rachel about its important role in reaching those who might be reluctant to visit their GP.Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Authority is introducing a bus pilot. The bus will run between Aberfoyle and Callander during the peak summer months and will stop at several popular visitor locations on the route, including Loch Katrine, Ben A’an and Ben Venue. We’re joined live by park Chief Executive Gordon Watson to tell us more about the new buses and sustainability across the park.And we end the programme on a musical note as Rachel meets members of the Farmers Choir at the Royal Highland Show. The group enjoy getting together for a sing song while raising money for good causes and they give Rachel a taste of their

Helen Needham goes for a walk in Aberfeldy with writer Linda Cracknell to discuss the new edition of her book 'Doubling Back'.

Open Seas is a Scottish charity that focusses on protecting our marine environment and the things that live in it. A few weeks ago, Mark joined them in Skye where they were carrying out seabed surveys. While the weather didn’t play ball and they didn’t get out on their planned boat trip, the team did manage to show him the kind of footage they record and why it’s important in influencing the kinds of protection marine areas can get.Rachel is in Pitlochry where the Firebrand Theatre Company along with the Festival Theatre are staging a play all about naturalist and poet Nan Shepherd: Naked and Unashamed. She hears about how the play came together and the extraordinary legacy of Nan.Wigtown is now well known across Scotland and the wider literary world as Scotland’s Book Town. It’s a title it has held since 1998 and since the first festival in 1999, the town has seen its prospects transformed. Mark met up with Anne Barclay from the festival company to hear about the positive changes in the town over the past 25 years.Rachel heads out on a coastal foraging walk as part of the 2024 Moray Walking and Outdoor Festival which kicks off this weekend. Forager Daniel shows her some of the things that can be found along the coastline from plants to seaweeds, foods and medicine.By the time Out of Doors is broadcast, Scotland will have played Germany in the opening match of Euro 2024. For the past few days Scotland fans have been arriving in Munich and the town is covered in tartan and saltires. But what is the origin of the white cross on a blue background? Mark visits the Scottish Flag Trust at Athelstaneford in East Lothian to find out more.The story of modern whaling in the Southern Hemisphere is a controversial one. Many British companies played a key role in the industry, and they had a largely Scottish workforce. A project is underway to collect the memories of those who worked in the industry and their families before it’s too late. We chat live to Helen Balfour from the Whalers’ Memory Bank to find out more about the project.A couple of weeks ago the last seagoing paddle steamer in the world, The Waverley, made its first ever visit to Ullapool. Our news colleague in Inverness Stephen Macleod went along to experience the excitement.In this week’s Scotland Outdoors podcast, Rachel speaks to Artist in Residence at the Rahoy Nature Reserve, Liz Myhill. Her role is to raise awareness of the huge reserve and encourage people to visit and explore. We hear an excerpt.More than 130 years ago two men began a years' long adventure to discover, climb and map Skye's famous Black Cuillin. Professor Norman Collie was a scientist and John Mackenzie was a local mountain guide. The unlikely pair are considered among the greatest pioneering mountaineers of their time and in 2020 after several years of fundraising, a statue was erected in their memory. Mark went to visit it in Sligachan and hear Collie and Mackenzie’s story.

Rachel Stewart speaks to Artist in Residence Liz Myhill. The landscape and wildlife artist has been creating pieces based on her time at the Rahoy Hills Reserve in the Morven peninsula. It is managed by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and is widely regarded as being a unique and wild place. Her role is to raise awareness of the huge reserve and encourage people to visit and explore. She has spent several weeks on location, experiencing the different seasons and hopes her artwork will reflect the rich diversity of plant and animal life which can be found there. During her residency, she has been assisted by Steve Hardy who has been the ranger at the site for more than twenty years. His recordings of nature captured at Rahoy feature in the podcast.

Rachel meets Peter Livingstone who has spent a decade campaigning to save the Aspen tree. Thanks to his hard work, numbers of Aspen in Renfrewshire have grown from single digits to thousands. He shows Rachel his nursery near Bishopton.Andrew O'Donnell is a natural history film maker and musician who records under the moniker of Beluga Lagoon. In this week’s Scotland Outdoors podcast, Maud Start meets up with Andrew on a river bank. We hear an excerpt where they watch dippers and talk about the nature themes in his music.Last week on Out of Doors we heard about how busy the island of Skye is all year round with tourists. While Mark was visiting, he took time to seek out a quieter style of tour with Mark Purrett from Skye Geography Tours. He took Mark to a less popular location and told him about the geography of the island.It’s osprey watching season and as always, there have been highs and lows at the various nesting sites around the country. Rachel visits the RSPB’s Loch Garten where they have had no shortage of drama this year. Ranger Jess Tomes tells her more.You might remember a few months, ago Mark went for a walk with Dr Kat Jones, Director of Action to Protect Rural Scotland, who had undertaken a challenge to walk Glasgow’s Greenbelt. Well she’s just completed her walks, so Mark went back to catch up with her to find out how it had gone.Later this year the BBC Food and Farming Awards will be held in Scotland. And here on Out of Doors alongside our TV colleagues at Landward, we are launching The BBC Scotland Local Food Hero award. Joining us to tell us more is presenter of Radio 4’s Food Programme, Sheila Dillon.Rachel is back at the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Rahoy Nature Reserve where ranger Steve Hardy lets her listen to some of the recordings he’s made of the amazing wildlife that makes its home in Rahoy.We catch up with the incredible Ethan Walker, who just nine months after suffering horrific injuries when he was hit by a car, is cycling to Munich for Euro 2024. We chat to Ethan live to see how far he’s managed to travel in a week.And as the country marks the 80th Anniversary of the D-Day landings, Mark is in Garlieston in Dumfries and Galloway where crucial parts of the invasion infrastructure were tested.

Rachel visits the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Montrose Basin reserve in Angus where a group of nursery children were out exploring the mudflats to see what beasties they could find. She speaks to nursery and reserve staff about the importance of getting young kids involved in nature.Isle Martin is a small island just three miles off the coast of Ullapool. It’s had many uses over the years including a herring station, a flour mill and a bird reserve. It’s now in community ownership and recently Mark went for a visit for the Scotland Outdoors podcast. One of the community trust directors Lesley Strachan took him for a tour and told him about their plans.It started as a lockdown project and has since become a big hit on social media. Aberdeenshire walks is a site promoting good routes and attractions for those eager to explore the area. Rachel went out for a walk with one half of the couple behind it, Anna Gill, to hear about how it all started and about their recent singles walks!The Fairy Pools on Skye have become a bucket list destination for tourists from right across the globe. However, that popularity had begun to cause issues with overcrowding. Recently as part of the Skye Iconic Sites Project, work was carried out to create car parking and toilet facilities at the fairy pools. Mark went to see the changes and hear from those involved in the project about the difference it has made, as well as chatting to some of the visitors from places as far away as Dubai and India.And sticking with tourist hotspots, we’re joined live by Dr Guillem Colom-Montero from Glasgow University who has carried out research into the parallels between Skye and the Scottish Highlands, and the Spanish island of Majorca. We chat to him about how tourism can be managed to benefit both visitors and those who live and work in popular destinations.The Rahoy reserve in the Morvern Peninsula is run by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and as well as being one of their largest reserves, it’s also one of the most biodiverse in the country. Rachel headed out for a walk with ranger Steve Hardy to see what they could spot.Why are the Fairy Pools on Skye so popular? Where does the legend of fairies come from and are they really a magical place? Catherine MacPhee is an archivist at the Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre, and she busts some myths on the history of the picturesque location.18-year-old Ethan Walker from Auchnagatt is about to embark on an incredible bike trip from Hampden Park to Munich for the Euros. It’s over 1,000 kilometres in total which is a big achievement for anyone, but even more so for Ethan who was run over in an horrific accident in New York State whilst over there on a football scholarship. Earlier this week Mark caught up with him and his mum, Jaclyn ahead of his trip and heard all about his incredible recovery journey