Corbetts, Snowdrops and a Talkative Raven
Scotland Outdoors
BBC
4.7 • 756 Ratings
🗓️ 14 March 2026
⏱️ 84 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | Hello, I've just nipped in before your BBC podcast starts to tell you all about |
| 0:09.4 | You're Dead to Me. We're the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Also from the BBC |
| 0:13.9 | and presented by me, Greg Jenner. I should have told you that at the beginning. Sorry. |
| 0:17.9 | Anyway, like many other BBC podcasts, such as Desert Island Discs, Evil Genius, or In Our Time, your dead to me is available first on BBC Sounds, |
| 0:26.3 | a whole month earlier than anywhere else, in fact. So if you can't wait another day to hear |
| 0:31.2 | the very latest in history and loads of other good stuff, then listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:37.1 | This Scotland Outdoors podcast from BBC Radio Scotland. |
| 0:46.7 | Hello and thanks very much for choosing to listen to this. |
| 0:49.5 | Each week, hail rain or shine, we lovingly craft two Scotland outdoors podcasts, one of which is actually |
| 0:57.1 | created from the live programme we do for BBC Radio Scotland, which is called Out of Doors. |
| 1:01.6 | And this week, the best mystery sound we've had in a very long time. |
| 1:07.4 | I was driving through Dumfess and Galloway yesterday. |
| 1:14.2 | And lovely sunny day, beautiful. |
| 1:16.2 | And it's... The land itself is sort of pillowed. |
| 1:18.3 | There's lots hummocks and shapes and things like that |
| 1:20.3 | and little hollows and dells and things |
| 1:22.3 | and really lovely dry stone dikes. |
| 1:24.2 | And I came around a corner on the road. |
| 1:26.0 | And in this hollow, which was surrounded by gorse in bloom |
| 1:29.3 | so bright yellow flowers there were two roadier bucks and they just kind of pogoed across this hollow |
| 1:35.7 | in the sunlight beautiful stuck in my head even still good morning to you i'm mark stephen sitting |
... |
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