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Scotland Outdoors

The Festival of Imbolc, World Wetlands Day and the Big Farmland Bird Count

Scotland Outdoors

BBC

Nature, Society & Culture, Science

4.7709 Ratings

🗓️ 1 February 2025

⏱️ 83 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Parts of the country are still recovering after last week’s Storm Eowyn including Jupiter Artland. The 100-acre sculpture garden on the outskirts of Edinburgh suffered quite a bit of storm damage as Mark saw when he visited earlier this week.

Rachel meets a group of volunteers from a whole variety of backgrounds who have come together to help restore the HMS Unicorn, a 200-year-old ship which is docked in Dundee.

Next Friday sees the start of the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust’s annual Big Farmland Bird Count. Mark headed to their demonstration Farm on Deeside to find out why the Trust wants farmers and land managers to take part in the count, and what they do with the data that’s gathered.

We celebrate World Wetlands Day on Out of Doors as Mark visits Frankfield Loch on the outskirts of Glasgow. The site is part of the Seven Lochs Wetland Park and Mark explores an area he hadn’t visited before.

At 11am on 31st January people in Stranraer gather to mark the sinking of the car ferry, The Princess Victoria. This year marks 72 years since the disaster and Rachel heard the story from historian Elaine Barton as they met up at the site of the memorial to the sinking.

This weekend is also Imbolc or Saint Brigid's Day, the Gaelic traditional festival which marks the beginning of spring. We chat live to author and celebrant Keri Tomlin about the origins of Imbolc and its significance.

And Rachel also recently spent time with Anna Neubert-Wood of Edinburgh based Wander Women to find out what Imbolc means to her and how she’ll be marking it this weekend.

Earlier this week a film celebrating the globally vital landscape of The Flow Country being recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site was shown in Scotland for the first time. When Fish Begin to Crawl features specially shot footage with archive and new film by Flow Country residents. It also features an award-winning musical score. We’re joined live by its co-creators, composer Jim Sutherland and film maker Morag McKinnon.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, so I'd like to tell you where you'll find more just like it.

0:05.5

I'm Izzy Lee Poulton, an assistant commissioner for BBC Sounds, which means I'm involved in the whole podcast making process.

0:12.0

Whether that's developing fresh formats or facilitating eye-catching artwork, I helped project manage all the details that make our podcast stand out.

0:19.0

At the BBC, we've got access to storytellers

0:22.0

and experts across a huge range of subjects. It could be psychologists, comedians, celebrities or

0:27.7

journalists. No podcasts or day looks the same here. So no matter what you like, check out BBC

0:33.4

Sounds. There's probably another podcast on there that you're absolutely love.

0:38.1

This Scotland Outdoors podcast with Mark Stephen and Rachel Stewart from BBC Radio Scotland.

0:48.3

Hello and thank you very much for choosing to listen to this.

0:50.8

As you know, one of the Scotland outdoors podcasts we do every week is based on a live program we do for BBC Radio Scotland, which is called Out of Doors.

0:59.1

And this week we've been setting intentions, lighting a fire, and generally welcoming the light as we celebrate in bulk.

1:10.2

Hello, good morning and happy M-Balk to you.

1:12.7

I'm Mark Stephen.

1:13.8

Sit on the other side of the fire.

1:15.2

Rachel Stewart.

1:16.0

Good morning.

1:16.6

I can't believe it's the first of February already.

1:19.1

I was at Balmaha, overlooking Loughlomond on Wednesday, and it was an absolutely gorgeous day.

1:25.6

And actually, there was a fair bit of heat in the sun. Really? Yeah. there was a fair bit of heat in the sun

1:27.5

really yeah it was a fair bit of heat in the sun people were taking their jackets off

1:32.1

it's like hold on a minute here a lot of bad song I thought oh this is fantastic it's like the

1:37.4

promise of spring is here you know it's going to it's around the corner I interviewed a nice guy this

...

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