Seagrass Fairy Circles, Peas and Beans and an Invasion of Gorse
Scotland Outdoors
BBC
4.7 • 756 Ratings
🗓️ 24 January 2026
⏱️ 85 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rachel meets Director Robbie Synge to learn about a new film featuring young people at work and play in the landscapes of the Cairngorms. ‘Tha Sinn an Seo’ (We Are Here), made throughout 2025, explores habitat restoration work of Cairngorms Connect.
The National Trust for Scotland has purchased new land around the Drum Estate, near Banchory, Aberdeenshire to help expand the ancient tree population. Mark takes a wander with Gardens and Designed Landscape Manager, Chris Wardle.
Scientists at Aberdeen University and the James Hutton Institute are examining whether a compound found in part of the potato plant could be used in the cosmetics industry. Near Montrose, Rachel joins Grampian Growers Project Manager Sofia Alexiou and Managing Director Kirsty Spink in a tattie shed.
A stakeholder discussion on the potential reintroduction of lynx is being launched this month. Mark meets Lisa Chilton, CEO of Scotland the Big Picture, in Aviemore to find out how events across Highland and Moray will gather local views.
Rachel chats to Professor Pete Iannetta from the James Hutton Institute who explains what a large part of our diet would have consisted of in days of old.
Mark joins Aberdeen City Council Countryside Ranger Service and volunteers keeping an area of land on the outskirts of Aberdeen free of gorse.
Rare seagrass "fairy circles" have been discovered in the Sound of Barra. Rachel and Mark are joined by Sarah Cunningham of NatureScot to discuss the seagrass doughnuts.
Helen Needham meets interdisciplinary plant Researcher Em Merrin May Armstrong in Glasgow to explore Queer Ecology.
Mother and daughter Mhairi and Maisie Watson volunteer as lifeboat crew for RNLI Anstruther. Mark catches up with the pair to discover what lifeboat training involves.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, The Traitors Uncloaked. |
| 0:12.7 | But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's Saturday bonus episodes, |
| 0:18.2 | The Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Rylan, and comedy specials |
| 0:22.2 | from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffel and Rommashranganathan. |
| 0:26.0 | However, and maybe I'm biased, it's really all about the traitors uncoaked. |
| 0:30.3 | So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | This Scotland Outdoors podcast from BBC Radio Scotland. |
| 0:45.7 | Hello and thanks very much for choosing to listen to this. |
| 0:48.2 | As you know, every week, week handcraft a couple of Scotland outdoors podcasts, |
| 0:52.7 | one of which is actually manufactured from the live |
| 0:55.0 | program we do for BBC Radio Scotland, which is called Out of Doors. And this week we embrace |
| 1:00.0 | the windy and wet weather. Oh, and fit a lot of what others been this week. Oh, dear me, it has rained and it has rained |
| 1:12.2 | if you looked at the weather map, you know, when it goes out in the mornings and things like that, |
| 1:16.8 | is if there's somebody standing in the North Sea, someone about the doggard bank, firing a fire hose |
| 1:21.6 | at the north-east of Scotland, and it has been more or less continuous. Good morning. I'm Mark |
| 1:26.8 | Stephen. Back in the Beechgrove Car Park in Aberdeen, Rachel Stewart. Good morning. Just to say the situation has been so bad here, we've had to move our seating arrangements around. Yes. So that the drips are falling down the back of your neck and not mind. Just this once. I'm not sure it's an improvement to be honest. On the plus side, it feels about 20... There is no plus sign. It feels about 20 degrees warmer than it was last week. I mean, we had a fabulous time at Cairngor Mountain, the ski resort. But oh, it was chilly. Today, not too bad at all. Yeah. It was just fantastic seeing so many people enjoying themselves. Yeah, wasn't it? And determined to enjoy themselves. |
| 2:01.5 | I mean, they were turning up at stupid o'clock in the morning. |
| 2:03.6 | Yeah, I mean, I expected to see the workers there, you know, getting everything ready. But it was the skiers and the snowboarders themselves that were there from, I don't know, 7 o'clock, half by 6 maybe. They were queuing up for the finicular, technically speaking, an hour and a half before it was due to start. |
| 2:18.9 | I wouldn't do that for a concert. |
| 2:20.7 | That's a kind of dedication we like, isn't it? Right, quite. After the show, we received an email from Helen Rennie, she was one of our guests last Saturday, Hilly, and she says, you are a very hardy group, braving the dark and freezing temperatures. I'm not sure hardie's the word I would use to put together the broadcast. |
| 2:34.8 | I enjoyed being part of it, chatting about my daft ski exploits and how much the Karen Gorms means to me. |
... |
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