Scotland Outdoors

Mark Stephen and Rachel Stewart with stories from the great outdoors

Mark meets Christopher Valentine-Allan who is growing mushrooms for the restaurant market in a repurposed nuclear bunker in Edinburgh.
Rachel learns the art of grass whistling with listener Mike Hendry and his sons, 7 year old Innes and 10 year old George.
Mark and Rachel are joined by BBC China Correspondent Laura Bicker who has just returned from a trip sailing to Antarctica on the Bark Europa tall ship.
Rab Anderson has recently released a fully revised and definitive edition of the Scottish Mountaineering Club’s original guidebook that describes the best walking routes on Scotland’s 222 Corbetts. Mark catches up with Rab near Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh to discuss The Corbetts.
The Brechin Buccaneers have won Cricketer magazine’s UK’s Greenest Cricket Ground competition. Rachel chats to Tanya Aldred from the Cricketer and Grant Hutchison from the club.
In this week’s podcast excerpt, Mark is near Glen Prosen with Amy Buckley and her Raven called Fable who has a large repertoire of vocalisations.
Helen Needham chats to Sarah Morbey an organic farmer in Aberdeenshire who, after growing wheat successfully on her farm, would like to establish a local grain economy for people in her area.
Last year, residents in Comrie in Perthshire got together to save thousands of snowdrops which they feared were about to be destroyed by new flood defence work in the area. Now, they plan to make Comrie the first snowdrop village. Rachel meets Andrew Ryalls who has become a bit of a master planter.

Mark meets Christopher Valentine-Allan who is growing mushrooms for the restaurant market in a repurposed nuclear bunker in Edinburgh.
Rachel learns the art of grass whistling with listener Mike Hendry and his sons, 7 year old Innes and 10 year old George.
Mark and Rachel are joined by BBC China Correspondent Laura Bicker who has just returned from a trip sailing to Antarctica on the Bark Europa tall ship.
Rab Anderson has recently released a fully revised and definitive edition of the Scottish Mountaineering Club’s original guidebook that describes the best walking routes on Scotland’s 222 Corbetts. Mark catches up with Rab near Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh to discuss The Corbetts.
The Brechin Buccaneers have won Cricketer magazine’s UK’s Greenest Cricket Ground competition. Rachel chats to Tanya Aldred from the Cricketer and Grant Hutchison from the club.
In this week’s podcast excerpt, Mark is near Glen Prosen with Amy Buckley and her Raven called Fable who has a large repertoire of vocalisations.
Helen Needham chats to Sarah Morbey an organic farmer in Aberdeenshire who, after growing wheat successfully on her farm, would like to establish a local grain economy for people in her area.
Last year, residents in Comrie in Perthshire got together to save thousands of snowdrops which they feared were about to be destroyed by new flood defence work in the area. Now, they plan to make Comrie the first snowdrop village. Rachel meets Andrew Ryalls who has become a bit of a master planter.

Mark Stephen meets Amy Buckley and her Raven called Fable

The impact of cruise ship light pollution on bird species is the focus of research presented at Scotland’s Nature Student Conference at Stirling University. Rachel chats to Adam Woodward who explored the issue as part of his master’s degree.
Cromarty is home to one of the world’s longest running bottlenose dolphin research programmes. Phil Sime and Morven Livingstone join Research Fellow Dr Barbara Cheney from Aberdeen University to discover how AI is helping to uncover new insights into the dolphin population.
In Milngavie, Mark talks to Dr Davide Dominoni of Glasgow University about how wildlife copes with and adapts to urban environments.
Back at Scotland’s Nature Student Conference, Rachel talks to whale scientist Dr Penny Clarke about studying mass stranding from space.
Mark is at Abernethy Forest Lodge with RSPB Residential Volunteer Catriona MacIntosh to find out how beetle surveys are contributing to a habitat disturbance and restoration project designed to improve capercaillie habitat and wider biodiversity.
In this week’s podcast excerpt, Rachel speaks to poet Anne Wiseman about Crovie’s past and its fragile future.
Queen bees are emerging from their hibernation into the spring sun. Rachel and Mark are joined by Paul Hetherington of BugLife to find out what bees are up to at this time of year and how we can support them in our own gardens.
Dr Désirée Coral’s exhibition ‘Essays on Salt – The First Harvest’ incorporates salt alongside glass, clay, video, photography, and ready-made objects tied to salt harvesting and trade. Mark meets Désirée at the Worm Gallery in Aberdeen to find out how she harvested seawater and evaporated it herself in St Andrews and Aberdeen to create the exhibition.