Rivers, Fossils and Hot Air Balloons

Scotland Outdoors

BBC

Nature, Society & Culture, Science

4.7 • 709 Ratings

🗓️ 23 August 2025

⏱️ 85 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mark is back with Heritage Engagement Manager Ingrid Shearer on the banks of the River Clyde to discuss one of Scotland’s first access rights success stories, the case of Harvie’s Dyke.

Also on the Clyde, Helen Needham takes a wander with author Louise Welsh and architect Jude Barber, who are asking for recognition of the legal personhood status of the river.

Helen and Mark are joined by Chris Romer-Lee who co-founded Swimmable Cities to discuss how we can swim in our urban waterways once more and the benefits of cleaning up our rivers for both people and nature.

It’s the 25th edition of the Strathaven Hot Air Balloon Festival this weekend and Mark heads along to find out what it takes to bring 25 hot air balloons together for a show and how they are recovered after they float away with the wind. Festival Secretary Les Hoggan confides that the secret lies in whisky.

In an excerpt of the midweek podcast, Helen catches up with Robert Macfarlane at the Edinburgh Festival to talk about the ‘aliveness’ of rivers.

How can nature influence more responsible AI systems? Mark finds out when he visits the exhibition Tipping Point: Artists Responses to AI in Edinburgh with Gavin Leuzzi, Lead, Fellowships at Edinburgh University’s Bridging Responsible AI Divides.

Ghillie and Manager Iain MacMaster has worked at Finavon Castle Water Estate for 10 years and he knows the land inside out. He takes Mark for a walk of the South Esk River and explains the changes in weather patterns he has been experiencing.

Helen learns about the legacy of Scottish geologist Hugh Miller who grew up in Cromarty. She joins Bob Davidson and Sidney Johnston of the Friends of Hugh Miller Society to go fossil hunting on the beach at Cromarty.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism.
0:09.0	In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero?
0:16.0	Simply doing your job, being a decent human being.
0:20.0	A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by
0:23.1	their own light and that light is to be recognised by others. The long history of heroism with me,
0:28.6	Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:32.6	This Scotland Outdoors podcast from BBC Radio Scotland.
0:44.9	Hello and thank you very much for choosing to listen to this.
0:46.6	I'm Mark Stephen. She's Helen Needham.
0:50.6	As you know, we do a couple of Scotland Outdoors podcasts every week,
0:54.2	one of which is built from the live programme we do for BBC Radio Scotland,
0:55.7	which is called Out of Doors.
0:58.3	And this week, a river runs through it.
1:04.2	As you know, we're never off the heat of the road.
1:06.8	We're constantly driving across Scotland one direction or another.
1:13.0	And the trees at the moment, an awful lot of trees are turning colour, it's way way early i don't think it's autumn i genuinely think it's drought damage and you can see cracks
1:18.7	going up the bark and things like that they're not happy it has been ages since we're a decent
1:23.5	splash of rain good morning keep me the company morning, the other side of the fire.
1:25.3	Helen Needham. Well, funnily enough, the other day I was just driving along the road and I saw a whole stand of beach trees that had turned already. It's quite a shock, actually. Yeah, it is. Yeah. And leaves are coming off things. You know, when there is a bit of a breeze and what have you, it's kind of drifting down onto the grass. It's just way too early.
1:26.0	Yeah, yeah.
1:27.2	Bring us some rain.
2:01.7	I was thinking I might do a rain dance this weekend. Crack on, don't let me stop you. Now, I'm wondering, Mark, would you describe yourself as a rivers, locks or sea person? Probably a sea person, to be honest. Well, I'm definitely a river person, so I'm very pleased that we've got a river theme running throughout the program this morning. We're going to be discussing an open petition to
	...

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