Spring Birds, Granny Pines and an Electric Boat
Scotland Outdoors
BBC
4.7 • 756 Ratings
🗓️ 25 April 2026
⏱️ 84 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We hear more from Mark’s time with forager Mark Williams. They met up at Wigtown Bay on a rather wet and blustery day and headed along the coast to look for sea radish.
Rachel meets up with Rosie Beetschen from Cairngorms Connect and Ross Watson from Forestry Land Scotland to hear all about some of the oldest and most interesting trees, Granny Pines. They take a wander in Glenmore to find a rather impressive specimen.
About four years ago, fisherman Hans Unkles took the engine out of his boat, Lorna Jane, and replaced it with an electric motor and batteries. Mark caught up with Hans in Fraserburgh to hear how successful his electric boat has been and whether any other fisherman have been persuaded to copy him.
Every week, poet and musician Bobby Motherwell visits RSPB Lochwinnoch to volunteer. He was also poet in residence at the reserve and has written a book all about his time there. Rachel met up with him in one of the hides and heard some of his tales and poems.
The Ledge in Inverness is the Highland's largest climbing gym and a National Bouldering and Performance Centre which has been built on the foundations of community, inclusivity and positivity. Phil Sime headed along to hear all about the different activities on offer and push himself out of his comfort zone with a shot at climbing.
Recently the RSPB issued new advice around feeding wild birds. The charity wants people to: Feed seasonally. Feed safely. We’re joined live by Ross Hunter from RSPB Scotland to hear what that means practically.
Plus a tribute to the late George Skinner, Aberdeenshire Farmer and font of agricultural knowledge. We dip into the archive to share his knowledge on neeps.
And in this week’s Scotland Outdoors podcast, Rachel hears the story of Ioana Ticu, an experienced mountaineer who found herself in a situation where she had to call Mountain Rescue at the summit of Ben More. We hear an excerpt of her story.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.4 | I'm Dilley Carter and I love organising. |
| 0:11.6 | In my brand new podcast, sort your life out, unpacked, celebrity guests join me to unbox three revealing items from their home. |
| 0:18.7 | Oh, wow. I wasn't expecting this. |
| 0:21.6 | Along the way, |
| 0:22.5 | I'll be giving you practical hacks |
| 0:23.9 | to help you declutter your life as well. |
| 0:26.2 | This is the tough love I need. |
| 0:27.4 | Don't hold back. |
| 0:28.5 | I'm definitely tucking you with me back to my house. |
| 0:31.6 | Sort your life out, unpacked. |
| 0:33.5 | Watch on EyePlayer, listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.7 | This Scotland Outdoors podcast from BBC Radio Scotland. |
| 0:45.8 | Hello and thanks very much for choosing to listen to this. |
| 0:48.6 | Every week we lovingly craft two versions of the Scotland Outdoors podcast, |
| 0:53.9 | one of which is built from the live programme we do for BBC Radio Scotland, |
| 0:57.5 | which is called Out of Doors. |
| 0:59.1 | And this week, delightful spring birds. |
| 1:01.8 | And we say goodbye to an old friend. |
| 1:09.0 | We only live about five, six miles from the coast and a straight line, and yesterday there was Haar. |
| 1:14.6 | It came in off the sea, so very misty, very, very low visibility. |
| 1:20.0 | And I'd gone slightly inland on an errand and I was coming back and just at the cusp point between coming out of the sunshine and back into the har. There was a ploughed park and the sun was hit in the ploughed park and all the steam was rising off it. Just in a whole series of spirals and it was hardly any wind. The sun was shining through. It was really, really beautiful. Good morning. A bit grey here this morning, right enough. I'm Mark Stevens standing in the car park. The other side of the fire, Rachel Stewart. Good morning, there's still time for it to improve. I love watching... I love your positivity. I was actually looking at my whirligig out with the kitchen window, looking at the moisture disappearing yesterday. Same kind of thing. I like watching that. It's really nice and it turned into such a gorgeous day yesterday. |
... |
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