Scotland Outdoors

Josie Vallely - also known as Quinie - is a multi disciplinary artist based in Glasgow. She also loves horses and spends her free time exploring the Scottish countryside - mostly on foot - with her horse Maisie. Helen goes out for a walk with Josie and Maisie near Dumbarton and tunes into their slow approach to moving through the world.

The Whithorn Way follows an ancient pilgrim route from Glasgow to Whithorn in Dumfries and Galloway. In this episode, Mark and Rachel visit the Lochwinnoch Community Larder where food waste from supermarkets is re-distributed to the community. This is followed by a refreshing visit to the Lynn Sprout waterfall. Then it's off to Kilwinning to meet the Ancient Society of Kilwinning Archers. Mark and Helen then take the Garnock Valley Cycle Way to Irvine, whilst Rachel stops off at the Garnock Floods Wildlife Reserve. We end on the waterfront in Irvine with ice cream and sunshine.

Mark and Helen visit Ingliston for this year’s Royal Highland Show. They meet a nurse with her prize winning Highland cow and They also explore the history of the Highland pony, and its enduring connection to Scotland’s rural heritage.A festival devoted entirely to composting is taking place in Fife. Rachel visits Cambo Gardens to discover what it's all about, with head gardener Callum Halstead as her guide.Mark and Rachel will be speaking to author Keli Tomlin about the significance of the summer solstice which marks the longest day and shortest night of the year.In Perthshire, Rachel meets scientist Dr Marion Bruce to learn about an exciting new project: The Wild Scottish Flavour Wheel. From seaweed to sticky willy, it’s a guide to the diverse—and often surprising—tastes found in Scotland’s wild landscape.Mark chats with Jim Wilson from Soil Essentials about how autonomous tractors are helping to ease the workload for farmers and transform the future of agriculture.Whatever the weather, a group of over-50s in West Lothian meets each week to take part in a variety of activities organised by the Xcite Ageing Well programme. This week, Rachel joins the Linlithgow walking group—some of whom have been coming for years—to find out what keeps them coming back.

The Perthshire scientist hopes the wheel will encourage people to rediscover some of the lost tastes and uses of our wild plants.

Rachel catches up with Nick Ray who previously kayaked around the coast of Scotland, sharing his journey and mental health challenges on social media throughout that year. He’s just completed another journey but walking this time, from far north to south via east and west. Rachel finds out why he decided to hang up his kayak for this challenge.Mark’s in Aberdeenshire and hears from Jim Wilson from Soil Essentials .who tells him how a spot sprayer is going to change the world!Bobby Motherwell, the poet in residence at RSPB Lochwinnoch has been keeping a close eye on the wildlife there. He shares a poem, inspired by his surroundings.The Mounthooly Roundabout in Aberdeen is one of the city’s busiest roundabouts and it’s a spot where hundreds, if not thousands of people pass by every day – But this is no ordinary green oasis! Recently a community group have been transforming the roundabout into a food forest – Last week, I took a wander down to Mounthooly to meet up with Graham Donald, community development officer along with some of the other folk involved in the project to see their progress.Mark and Rachel chat with Richard Reynolds, who, 21 years ago, was one of the UK’s first modern guerrilla gardeners, and ask how attitudes have changed over the years.Tucked away on the Moray Coast lies Culbin Sands, a remote stretch of fragile shoreline where the golden sands meet the crystal clear waters of Findhorn bay. It's not the easiest place to reach, unless you're up for a three-hour hike through the Culbin Forest, or you could go for the slightly less strenuous option which is to go by water taxi. Morven Livingstone and Phil Sime, along with guide dog Striker met up with Jane Campbell Morrison from Findhorn Water-Sports who gave them a tour around the bay.Sand in Your Eye are a sand sculpture group who depending on the tide are creating a sand sculpture of Beethoven on Elie Beach. Rachel pops along hoping to see the end result.Scotland’s last remaining Timeball has just been restored and is back in place at the top of Edinburgh’s iconic Nelson Monument. Once a vital tool for sailors navigating the Firth of Forth and Port of Leith, this Timeball helped ships set their clocks precisely to 1pm Greenwich Mean Time 365 days of the year. Earlier this week, Mark caught up with Karl Chapman, Head of Heritage at Cultural Venues, Museums and Galleries, to learn all about the fascinating restoration project and why this historic timekeeper still matters today.

The Whithorn Way follows an ancient pilgrim route from Glasgow to Whithorn in Dumfries and Galloway. In this episode, Mark and Rachel start with a quick stop off at Renfrew to contemplate the motivation for pilgrimage in medieval times. Then they head to Paisley Cathedral to learn about the unearthing of a drain which revealed a slate containing musical notation from the 1400's. And they end up at the RSPB's Lochwinnoch Nature Reserve for a bit of wildlife watching and poetry.

A new initiative in Buchan called Sma Wids to encourage farmers and landowners to plant trees, the largest surviving ice house in the UK at Spey Bay, lapwing chick ringing in Upper Deeside, the rare dandelions of Shetland, the seabird village of Fowlsheugh near Stonehaven and the latest news from the osprey nest at Loch Garten plus the tale of a medieval drain at Paisley Abbey along with the dramatic demise of an orca whale at Spey Bay on the Moray Firth in the 1960s

Mark Stephen visits Auchnerran, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust farm on Deeside to watch some lapwing chicks being ringed by research assistant Max Wright and data collector Honor Jones

Dendrochronology is a niche field of study, used to work out the age of trees, forests and wooden objects. However, it is not only useful for looking at the past, but also for considering how to manage wooded areas in the future. Mark met with expert dendrochronologist Dr Coralie Mills, and Borders Forest Trust Project Officer, Catriona Patience, to find out more about more about these scientific methods, and how they have informed forest management.Drones can have a lot of potential for wildlife researchers, and one person who has found them incredibly useful is Claire Stainfield, a PhD student at Scotland’s Rural College. She is using drones to monitor the numbers and behaviour of seal colonies on Newburgh Seal Beach, and Rachel met with her to find out what her research is all about.In the week that The Salt Path film is released, we dig into our archive to hear an interview with Raynor Winn, who shares her incredible story which the film is based on.Climate change and environmental pollution has a significant impact all over the globe, something that Professor Alice Ma, an Environmental Studies lecturer at the University of Glasgow, knows very acutely. When visiting her ancestral village in China in 2018, she was struck not only by the issues of pollution, but also the ways in which regional traditions and folklore interact and are disrupted by the climate crisis. Rachel met her in Glasgow to here more about these revelations, and the book they have since inspired her to write.Tucked away along the River Ness is the UK’s most northerly botanic gardens, in Inverness. As well as caring for colourful tropical plants in their glasshouses, the garden is also taking part in a project to distribute thousands of hanging baskets to various towns and villages across the Highlands. Phil Sime met with garden manager Ewan Mackintosh to find out moreAmy Dakin Harris is a professional dancer turned flower and herb farmer. She combines her two passions on her hilltop farm near Dunlop in East Ayrshire, offering specialist movement classes, alongside her flower arranging and foraging courses. Rachel joined her on site to hear more about her background, and how natural it feels for her to unite dance and nature.The government have announced this week that they have rejected the proposal to establish a national park in Galloway. Kevin Keane joins us live on the programme to tell us more about where this decision has come from, and what it means for the future of Scotland’s national parks.

The Whithorn Way follows an ancient pilgrim route from Glasgow to Whithorn in Dumfries and Galloway. In this episode, Mark and Rachel focus on the start of the journey at Glasgow Cathedral. Mark and Helen cycle down to Glasgow Green and imagine how pilgrims would have crossed the River Clyde. They then follow the River westwards to the new Govan- Partick pedestrian bridge. In Govan, they meet up with Rachel and go to the Govan Old Kirk where there are some unique Viking graves.