Kingfishers, a Gunpowder Mill and a Halifax Bomber Relic

Scotland Outdoors

BBC

Nature, Society & Culture, Science

4.7 • 709 Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2025

⏱️ 86 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mark visits the Montrose Air Station Museum to hear about a new addition to their collection, part of a Halifax Bomber, which crashed in the Angus glens in 1944. Shan Brewis tells us the story behind the plane crash, and how the piece of wreckage came to be discovered exactly 80 years after the tragedy.

Red Squirrels in Scotland are often under threat, but Rachel finds out about the newest concern for our native population. Speaking to Meja Vesterlund from Saving Scotland's Squirrels, she hears about the threat of squirrel pox.

Global celebrations have been taking place this week for World Gaelic Week. Mark spoke to Robyn Ireland, Gaelic Officer with Nature.Scot, about the Forgotten Woodlands project, which mapped Gaelic place names in order to show historically wooded areas across Scotland, demonstrating both the ecological and cultural relevance of the Gaelic language.

Roslin Glen Country Park is something of a hidden gem, close by to the well-known Rosslyn Chapel. Mark is shown around by park ranger Alan Krumholds, who divulges the interesting industrial past of the area, and its present day, flourishing flora and fauna.

Erected in 2014, the Tom Weir Statue in Balmaha is a fitting tribute to the popular mountaineer, author and broadcaster. Rachel talks to John Urquhart, from the conservation charity ‘Friends of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs’, to reflect on the decade since the statue’s installation and the new campaign to upgrade the signage and information in the area.

Professor Catherine Heymans joins us on the programme, reflecting on the Planetary Parade phenomena that has gripped the UK over the past week, and shares her thoughts on the benefits of getting out to gaze up at the night sky.

Lossiemouth Community Council has discovered an innovative use for last year’s Christmas trees. Phil visits the beach where these discarded trees are being repurposed as a defence against coastal erosion.

Rachel is out on the Water of Leith with wildlife photographer Tom Kelly, to find out about the rich variety of species that he captures on a daily basis at his patch along the river.

Transcript

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0:00.0	He tells her that she will be sent to France as a secret agent, and if she's caught, she's going to be shot.
0:09.3	I'm Helen Obalam Carter, and this is history's secret heroes, where I shine a light on extraordinary stories from World War II.
0:17.6	What they wanted was someone to get themselves arrested and sent to Auschwitz.
0:22.0	Tales of deception, an incredible acts of resistance and courage.
0:26.3	She was a born soldier.
0:27.4	She's a freedom fighter in its widest sense.
0:29.9	The brand new series of History's secret heroes.
0:32.8	Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:34.7	This Scotland Outdoors podcast with Mark Stephen and Rachel Stewart from BBC Radio Scotland.
0:45.2	Hello and thank you very much for choosing to listen to this.
0:47.9	As we tell you every week, we do a couple of Scotland Outdoors podcasts every week.
0:52.7	One of them is built from the live program we do
0:55.9	for BBC Radio Scotland, which is called Out of Doors.
0:58.4	And this week we've been out planets spotting,
1:00.9	but not necessarily seeing very much.
1:06.6	You know, your mind you sometimes takes almost like a photograph.
1:12.1	You know, you see a moment,
1:17.4	you hold it in your head, and it sticks there. Thursday morning, very early, I was driving down to Edinburgh, and I was going past Forfe, and I happened just to turn around to the left, and there
1:22.0	was enough light in the sky. You know, the sky's kind of almost greenish. And there was a field of winter barley
1:28.7	and silhouetted against the light.
1:31.3	There were three rodeo.
1:33.8	Just beautiful.
	...

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