The Saint, The Sheep and The Sycamore

Scotland Outdoors

BBC

Nature, Society & Culture, Science

4.7 • 756 Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2026

⏱️ 82 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mark recently visited the Solway Firth to find out more about some invasive species. Nic Coombey from the Solway Firth Partnership at Brighouse Bay, near Kirkcudbright explains how these species are being monitored.

Rachel meets Fran Loots by the River Earn in Comrie to hear how a very special project called Nature Mingle is helping some housebound folk in the Strathearn area of Perthshire.

In this week’s podcast excerpt Mark is joined by Professor Kate Britton to uncover the story behind a remarkable archaeological emergency on Lunan Bay in the northeast.

A new bylaw has been approved for the Cairngorms National Park, coming into force in less than a week. Rachel finds out from Countryside Ranger Will George what this will mean for visitors to the area.

Mark is in the East Lothian village of Aberlady to meet some of its newest residents known as the Aberlady Community Flock. Volunteers and co-founders John Harrison and David Fleetwood share how the sheep came to be there and how they’re bringing the community together.

Curator at Benmore Botanic Gardens, Luke Senior joins Mark and Rachel to share the exciting news that saplings cloned from seeds and cuttings taken from the iconic sycamore gap tree were planted at Benmore Botanic Gardens on Thursday.

Chris Lawlor has built a large social media following with short films capturing his travels and experiences. Ramblers Scotland have appointed him as their president. Rachel finds out how he feels about his new role

Paul English is with Kayleigh McGuinness to hear how a collaboration between the Tron Theatre, Sharmanka Kinetic Gallery and Glasgow City Heritage trust is bringing St Mungo back to life.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:07.0	An early start here. It's time to kick off.
0:10.0	Your day. Morning!
0:11.9	What a line-up.
0:13.3	Oh, thanks very much. We do get some great guests on the show.
0:16.1	The crowd is loving this.
0:18.3	Thanks, guys. Thank you. Too kind.
0:20.2	From morning chaos to match day commentary.
0:23.6	And everything in between.
0:25.0	BBC sounds packed with personality.
0:29.9	The Scotland Outdoors podcast from BBC Radio Scotland.
0:41.3	Hello and thanks very much for choosing to listen to this.
0:44.5	We do a couple of Scotland outdoors podcasts every week,
0:50.3	one of which is miraculously crafted from the live program we do for BBC Radio Scotland,
0:51.6	which is called Out of Doors.
0:56.4	And this week, just about everything, sheep, saints and seaborne invaders.
1:02.3	Out of Doors with Mark Stephen and Rachel Stewart on BBC Radio Scotland.
1:09.9	You know, the leafs out on the honeysuckle.
2:02.5	All sorts of things are in flower. I was driving in the dark yesterday morning. And just along the motorways, etc., there are blackthorn and hawthorn, and they're all in blossom. And it's just, it's like a series of ghostly presences. You know, you kind of sense them rather than see them at that time of the morning. Beautiful time a year, but unreliable. Good morning. I'm Mark Stephen in the car park here in Aberdeen. The other side of the far, Rachel Stewart. Very unreliable. I think this is called a false spring, isn't it? False springs. Springs, spring. I open my curtains on Thursday morning really early because I was heading to Aviemore, and I thought, what is that? That appears to be snow covering my car. Snow, a proper covering of snow. Didn't feel very spring like then, but I mean, really nice today, actually. Is it going to be a good week? I can't remember. I think it's going to be a good week, but a bad weekend, if that makes sense. Here, I can't speak for the rest of Scotland.
2:05.7	It's the start of the school Easter holiday, so it's about to be a bit dodgy.
2:06.4	Of course.
2:08.0	It's a buildy arc now.
	...

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