The March of the Frogs, Heavy Lifting Stones and Boat Building

Scotland Outdoors

BBC

Nature, Society & Culture, Science

4.7 • 709 Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2025

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Many landowners across Scotland are engaging with large scale restoration projects. One such project, spanning 80 thousand acres, is Wildland, in the Scottish Highlands. They have a 200 year vision to help the land heal, grow and thrive, and Rachel is there to find out more about the project, and perhaps even spot some of birds of prey who are thriving in this landscape.

HippFest, a silent film and live music festival based in Bo’Ness, is back this March, and one of the filmmakers, Moira Salt, has developed a silent film focusing on Scotland’s canals. Mark met up with her alongside the Forth and Clyde Canal to find out what exactly inspires her about these waterways.

Bridgend Farmhouse is a community owned organisation in Edinburgh, focusing on a creating a sustainable and welcoming space for learning, eating and exercise. Helen Needham met with John Knox, who is Chair of the Board at Bridgend, to find out more about the philosophy behind the organisation.

For villages on the West Coast of Scotland, boats and sailing are often part of the traditional way of life. However, in Plockton, the local high school is playing a key role in keeping this tradition alive, through teaching the heritage craft of boat building. Mark went along and spoke to some of the students about what learning this craft meant to them.

Frogs and toads have begun to emerge all across Scotland, coming out of hibernation and entering the breeding season. But how can we tell which is which, and how can we get involved in their conservation? We speak to Nature.Scot Reserve Officer Danny Bean about how we can keep an eye out for our native amphibians.

The Braemar Highland Games Centre is home to one of the world’s most famous lifting stones – the Inver Stone. Mark visited to hear the history behind the stone, where the traditions of lifting stones first began.

In an excerpt from this week’s podcast, Rachel is joined by Julie Wilson Nimmo and Greg Hemphill, to find out about how their love of wild swimming began, and how that has grown through their BBC TV Series Jules and Greg’s Wild Swim

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.
0:44.6	Hello and As ever, thank you very much for choosing to listen to this.
0:48.6	As you probably know, we do a couple of Scotland outdoors podcasts every week and one of them is built on the live
0:54.2	programme we do for BBC Radio Scotland
0:56.2	which is called Out of Doors.
0:57.8	And this week an eclectic mix
0:59.5	as always everything from frogs to poetry.
1:03.6	Out of Doors with Mark Stephen
1:05.4	and Rachel Stewart from BBC Radio Scotland.
1:13.1	Not only is it light this morning,
1:15.8	but the sun is actually touching the spire across there,
1:18.5	the tops of the trees and the chimney pots across the road.
1:21.8	This is new and exciting development, I'm telling you.
1:25.0	Good morning, I'm Mark Steven, sitting the other side of the fire.
	...

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