Landward episode 17 2024
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🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00So wondrous wild the whole might seem, the scenery of a fairytale, the view that launched
00:11Scotland on the tourist map. Welcome to Lambert.
00:30A very warm welcome from stunning Loch Catherine in the Trossachs.
00:43I'm following in the footsteps of many artists and writers who came to this very special
00:48location said to be the birthplace of Scottish tourism over 200 years ago.
00:54I'm here to see a new innovation which will give modern visitors the chance to experience
00:59this cultural hotspot. But first, here's what else is coming up.
01:07Shabazz is in hiding. I can hear the drone. I don't know why I'm whispering.
01:13We join survival expert Will Hall for some bushcraft basics.
01:19And Anne meets the Shetland chef Akshay Borges. It's very therapeutic doing this. You know
01:25it connects me to memories back home. Of course, as well as scenery like this, Scotland
01:36is world famous for making whisky from the finest malted barley. We grow over a million
01:43tonnes of it every year. But some distillers are now going against the grain and using
01:48a new crop on the block. Cammie's been to investigate.
02:01This is rye, a grain that has long been used in whisky production in the USA.
02:06But this is the Kingdom of Fife, not the States. And some Scottish distillers have started
02:14to use this grain too. John Drysdale of Balgone Estate is growing
02:23this field of rye specially for a local distillery. It's a new crop to me.
02:31I know absolutely nothing about rye. I would just drive past this and think it's another
02:35field of barley. In terms of growing this stuff, is it just the same as growing barley?
02:39It's a lot cheaper than growing barley. The input side of it is a lot less. It doesn't
02:46need so many fungicides. It needs less nitrogen. And it yields twice as much.
02:52So why don't you just grow everything rye? I'd love to, actually, to be honest. The problem
02:57is there's not a market for it. So the only market we have for rye at the moment is in
03:03Stirling Distillery. And this is a unique crop for them.
03:08This particular type of rye suits the distiller's needs perfectly.
03:14It's a non-foaming variety. We've been working very closely with them to develop this variety.
03:18So by non-foaming, you mean it doesn't froth up when you're distilling, when you're malting
03:22it? I mean, I'm not a distiller, but yes, that
03:23is really the basics of it. I'm not sure your whisky would look very good with it frothing
03:27up when you poured it. A head on a drum wouldn't look right.
03:29A head on a drum would not look right. Would you say this is ready to combine?
03:34I think it's absolutely spot on. I think we're going to be cutting in a minute.
03:37We're going to get a shot in a combine, aren't we?
03:38You're going to get a shot in a combine, as long as you behave.
03:41They're quite expensive bit of kit, so... Let's go, buddy.
03:43Shall we go? Let's go.
03:44OK, let's go.
03:53I'll never pass up the chance for a shot in a combine.
03:57And showing me the ropes today is Alan Fearnley.
04:01With 45 harvests under his belt, he knows what he's doing.
04:08This is quite exciting, I must admit. Nowadays, the combines are a bit different
04:13from when Alan first started. Got it done by GPS, so...
04:17Right, OK, OK. Keeps it light, straight.
04:19Did you say to make sure you don't bash into anything?
04:21Aye, I've just got to turn it at the end. With all his experience, adapting to harvesting
04:28rye hasn't been an issue for Alan.
04:30It's quite easy to handle, yeah. I mean, it's sat in the south for three or four years,
04:34and we've been growing it for... It's not been a problem.
04:39But will it be a problem for me?
04:41Do you think a sheep farmer from Ayrshire could drive a combine?
04:45Oh, I think so. I think so.
04:47Right, let's see. Here we go.
04:50Oh!
04:52Oh!
04:56We're off and running.
04:58At first, a wee bit too slow.
05:01You can go... Just keep it easy a little bit.
05:04Oh, right, a wee bit faster. A wee bit faster.
05:07But we definitely don't want to go too quick.
05:10If you're going too fast, it kind of copes with it, or it puts too much back and it chokes it.
05:15Aye, aye, aye.
05:22Oh, aye, now we're in control here.
05:24And of course it's rear steer.
05:26Aye, aye, I think it's a wee bit of getting used to.
05:30I could do this all day, but I really should see how the rye is used.
05:35Right, thanks, mate. I appreciate that.
05:37Right, come on, cheers.
05:38Cheers, mate.
05:41There are at least three Scottish distilleries making use of rye.
05:45The stuff we've been cutting will be used by Inch Derney,
05:50based just 15 minutes along the road.
05:53Scott Sneddon, the MD, is giving me a tour.
05:57So the lorry that's in now is the last load of this year's campaign.
06:01So we'll unload it into our smelt silos,
06:04and then from there we'll start the process of milling it,
06:07and then after milling it, then we'll mash it.
06:10Rye, even the non-foaming variety,
06:13is still quite a tricky grain for distillers to work with.
06:18So if rye's so difficult, why go rye over traditional barley?
06:21The flavour that we get out of processing the rye grain is wonderful,
06:25and it's so different to what we get from producing a normal spirit.
06:29OK, so you think it's a better flavour over the barley?
06:32I would say it's a different flavour, and we're not only saying a better flavour,
06:35but a more complex and different flavour.
06:37I think you might need to prove that to me.
06:39OK, come on, I'd like to taste some.
06:42This whisky isn't purely made from rye.
06:46Barley is also used in the mix.
06:49We've taken the concept of a rye whisky,
06:51which people associate it with being quite spicy,
06:54and we've done it a contemporary Scottish twist,
06:57and what that means is we've used malted barley and malted rye,
07:00so what that does is it brings down that harshness.
07:07It's a nice whisky.
07:09It's a nice whisky.
07:10Nice whisky.
07:11I don't know why in my head, I don't know what I was thinking,
07:14where I was going to be like, oh no, it's not quite a single malt I'm used to,
07:17but it's a beautiful whisky, for sure.
07:20Cheers to you.
07:21And, if it catches on, it could offer more Scottish farmers
07:25an easy-growing, high-yielding crop to grow.
07:29That sounds good to me.
07:39OK, what is the one fact you know about Loch Catrin?
07:45Shout it out.
07:50Many Scots will tell you it's the main source of Glasgow's water supply.
07:58Or maybe that it's home to the Sir Walter Scott steamship.
08:03They're both true, but there's much more than that.
08:09Not least, that this place is said to be where Scottish tourism started.
08:17James Fraser is the CEO of the charity that runs all the activities on the loch,
08:22and he knows what he's talking about.
08:25James Fraser is the CEO of the charity that runs all the activities on the loch,
08:31and he knows its history well.
08:36So why is this place known as the birthplace of Scottish tourism?
08:40Simply because Lady Drummond of Perth, who owned the land around here,
08:44built two wicker huts in the late 1700s, or glamping quads as you know them today,
08:49and they were for writers, artists and poets to come and be inspired
08:53by the magnificent landscape of the Trossachs,
08:55and looking out over Loch Catrin from a crag just above Trossachs Pier.
09:00So what kind of things were they doing when they got here?
09:03Presumably painting and writing and all that kind of stuff.
09:06Indeed, and some of the earliest ones were Dorothy and Millie Wordsworth,
09:09and sitting up at the huts was Coleridge,
09:13and he was shouting hail Scotland and invited them up for tea and coffee,
09:17and then you had Keats and so on, the final one being Sir Walter Scott,
09:21who wrote the famous Lady of the Lake, and it was published in 1810.
09:25It was a blockbuster of its day, on stage in Broadway London,
09:28and it led to Scotland being discovered as a tourist destination.
09:34Within six months, 500 coaches and carriages of tourists
09:38had arrived to take in the views of Loch Catrin,
09:42and since then, they just keep coming.
09:51And now, visitors have a different way to take in the scenery,
09:55a new viewing tower and special walkways leading up to it.
10:00This boardwalk's been put in to protect the Spangden Mosque,
10:03because this is a SSSSI, and also a special area of conservation,
10:07so it would be very sensitive, everything had to come in by helicopter
10:10or be carried in on your shoulders,
10:12so no machines were allowed near here at all,
10:15for this part, or the path, or the tower indeed.
10:18But it's not just the flora and fauna that makes this spot special.
10:23For centuries, it's been a well-used lookout point,
10:27including for one infamous Jacobite outlaw.
10:31But wasn't this the stronghold of Rob Roy MacGregor and his family?
10:35It was. Rob Roy MacGregor, he lived two-thirds of the way up the loch,
10:39but this is where Roderick Dew, one of the contemporary clan chiefs,
10:42would sit here with his clansmen, and it was called Roderick Dew Watchtower,
10:45because this is where they would look down the glen, down the truss of the glen.
10:48Now, there wouldn't be so many trees there then,
10:50but they were there to keep an eye out for redcoats,
10:53and then to give advance warning to Rob and his clansmen,
10:57so they would get signals up the loch,
10:59and then they would disappear into the hills so that they weren't captured,
11:02and they would disappear into the mist,
11:04and they were known as Children of the Mist because of that.
11:09There's no mist today to spoil our view.
11:13The tower was partly funded by a Scottish Government rural tourism fund
11:19and was quite a challenge to build because of the sensitive site it sits on.
11:26But what a result.
11:31Now, that truly is beautiful, isn't it? Amazing!
11:35It certainly is. You're looking right up the throat of the loch,
11:38right up to Glenguilfe, and in the foreground you've got Ellons Isle,
11:41which was part of the core plot of Lady of the Lake.
11:44And knowing all the stories and the history as well,
11:46I guess that makes this place even more special.
11:48It does. I mean, we're obviously in the heart of the National Park,
11:51but it's joining cultural heritage with natural heritage,
11:54and this is really the hub of the cultural heritage stories of Scotland.
11:58It's one of the big icons, or it should be one of the big icons,
12:01given the deep history, and this is where Scottish tourism began.
12:12Now, when I think about Shetland, one of the first things that springs to mind
12:15is the amazing food on offer.
12:18So it's no wonder it attracts many people in search of a culinary adventure.
12:23And very few have travelled as far as the chef Anne's off to meet.
12:3115 years ago, Akshay Borges flipped a coin,
12:36tails would take him to England, heads to a chefing job in Shetland.
12:41I think it's clear how the coin fell.
12:44And since then, Akshay has made the island home,
12:48and over the next two programmes, he's going to give me a taste of his Shetland.
12:54Isn't it just wonderful? It's no wonder people love it here.
12:59And the sands of meal on the island of Burra
13:02are the perfect place for an outdoor feast.
13:06Akshay, hello, nice to meet you. Oh, hi, nice meeting you.
13:09Especially if you have an award-winning chef to make it.
13:14And Akshay couldn't be much further from his birthplace,
13:18one of India's biggest cities.
13:21My family are from Goa, but I was born and brought up in Mumbai,
13:26and as you might have heard, Mumbai is a crazy city, really busy.
13:31And I came to Edinburgh to do my university.
13:35After finishing his studies,
13:37Akshay came across a kitchen job in a faraway place he'd never heard of.
13:42Moving to Shetland was like a big decision.
13:45I didn't know anyone, no family up here,
13:48but I flipped a coin once and said heads, and I moved up to Shetland.
13:53And from then on, I worked in a small hotel,
13:56working with local produce, boats coming in,
13:59working with local farmers,
14:01learn everything, how to do everything from scratch over these 15 years.
14:06Came and never left? Yeah, or it didn't let me leave.
14:11People in Shetland have, you know, made me feel like family up here.
14:17Akshay's fallen in love with Shetland's food, as well as its people,
14:22and today he's cooking me a meal inspired by the seafood here,
14:26with a touch of India thrown in.
14:30So I'll be making a simple Goan fish curry.
14:33It's one of my mum's recipes,
14:35and this is some of the fish that lands in Shetland.
14:39I've got some monkfish,
14:41some smoked haddock to give that smokiness to the curry.
14:44Traditionally we didn't use smoked fish,
14:46but because we are in Shetland and they do amazing smoked haddocks.
14:50Some salmon and some ling.
14:52A real fusion then of Indian cooking and bringing in Shetland produce.
14:57Yeah, I think that's what's helped me, you know,
15:00one of the things being on such an island,
15:03like food I think breaks down so many barriers.
15:06You might not speak the same language,
15:08but having a good bowl of food to share,
15:10you can like talk about so many things,
15:12and food has helped me a lot in this way.
15:15Well, they do say the way to people's hearts is through their stomachs.
15:19Yeah, definitely.
15:20And I'll love you forever.
15:24First, the base of any good curry, the spices.
15:28It's very therapeutic as well, you know, doing this,
15:31having the aromas come in, the smells, the taste.
15:34Especially when I'm doing things from scratch,
15:36you know, it connects me to the memories back home.
15:40Onion, garlic and tomato are heated in oil and butter
15:44before adding the spices.
15:46So we'll let this cook for a few minutes
15:48as you can see it's gone, you know, translucent, it's got soft.
15:52We'll add our coconut milk.
15:56And then the fish,
15:58leaving it to cook for 10 minutes.
16:01But what to have with it?
16:04I have a special treat for you.
16:06I'll be making you some Shetland bannocks.
16:09Almost like a scone, like a savoury.
16:11Yeah.
16:12But I shouldn't have worn black today.
16:16Wardrobe.
16:18Added to the flour are baking powder,
16:21cream of tartar and buttermilk.
16:23The mixture is then kneaded and cooked on a griddle
16:27for a few minutes.
16:29When they're ready, so is the curry.
16:33Just as well as it's a bit nippier now than when we started.
16:41So you can take your bannock,
16:43dip it in the curry.
16:45Oh wow, that's delicious.
16:48So mild as well, but so flavoursome.
16:51And I love how passionate you are about using local produce
16:55and keeping your own traditional way of cooking as well.
16:58I think that's what matters because I'm in between both now.
17:02And it is absolutely delicious, I have to say.
17:06Really good.
17:08And next time, Anne joins Akshay in Lerwick
17:12when he takes some more Shetland flavours
17:15and gives them his eastern twist.
17:23Now, you might not always have a portable stove with you
17:26when you want to rustle up a feast in the wild.
17:28But someone who would never get caught out
17:31is adventurer and filmmaker Will Hall.
17:34Over the next few programmes,
17:36the experienced survival instructor
17:38will be giving us a masterclass in bushcraft.
17:42Today, I'm out at one of my favourite woodlands
17:45in order to reconnect with nature
17:46and to practise some of the skills
17:48that our ancestors would have found so important.
17:53This time, he's creating fire in the forest.
17:56He has permission and he's doing it the safe way,
18:00as we all should.
18:04There are loads of different ways to light fires,
18:06whether it's a chemical reaction or through solar,
18:09but by far, the most challenging
18:11and my favourite is through friction.
18:14So today, we're going to use a bow drill
18:16to light a fire from scratch
18:18using resources that we can find in any Scottish woodland.
18:23I'm going to need to collect some birch bark
18:25in order to step the flame up from an ember
18:28once it's got hot enough.
18:30This is a silver birch tree,
18:32which lots of people will recognise
18:34because of its papery bark.
18:35And it's that bark that is so important for fire lighting
18:38because it is packed with a flammable material
18:41called betulin.
18:42So what I'm going to do is take a couple of small pieces
18:44just from the outside edge of the tree
18:46to take back to our bow drill.
18:55As well as my silver birch bark,
18:57I've also got some kindling and some dried grass,
18:59which I've collected earlier.
19:00Okay, so we've got the tinder nice and dry
19:04and off the ground,
19:05so it's not collecting any of that moisture.
19:07We're going to try and line up our spindle
19:09onto the base plate
19:10and then start a nice slow rhythm.
19:16As we start to get a little bit warmer,
19:19we can go a bit faster.
19:22And eventually, we'll start seeing a bit of smoke.
19:29This is good.
19:32This is good.
19:35So now this is an ember that's sat inside of here.
19:41And it'll stay hot for a long time.
19:43But what we want to try and do here
19:45is step it up into an actual flame.
19:47So we're going to keep supplying some oxygen.
19:54This is going to go now.
19:57And that is the birch bark starting to catch as well.
20:01Oh, dear me, my eyes are streaming.
20:10Recently, Scotland's had a real problem with wildfires.
20:13That's because its woods are full of pine
20:15that are really rich in resin.
20:18It's also covered in peat,
20:20which is a flammable soil.
20:22It's also covered in peat,
20:24which is a flammable soil.
20:26And so today, I've made sure
20:27that I've got fire permission for the area
20:29and that I'm not building it on any soil
20:31that can hold and retain that heat afterwards.
20:34I've also been helped by the fact
20:36that the air is just so damp today
20:38and the ground is wet.
20:39So it's going to be really challenging
20:41to maintain this fire for very long.
20:45For me, it's remarkable to think
20:47that our ancestors would have relied
20:50so heavily on fire as a means of preserving food
20:54and staving off the darkness
20:56and the predators in Scotland.
20:58And it's one of those skills
20:59that we've just forgotten about.
21:01We don't know how to do it anymore.
21:02We don't need to either.
21:04But that's why, for me,
21:05it's so special to be able to go out into the woods
21:07and to practice these skills
21:09that are so deep-rooted in us as humans.
21:15You can find all the rules and responsibilities
21:18around lighting fires
21:19in the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.
21:25And the heat is also on for Shabazz.
21:27He's in Angus,
21:29finding out how the latest technology
21:31is being used to give us an insight
21:33into the lives of our most secretive creatures.
21:36But he's the one being tracked right now.
21:44I'm in Glen Croson,
21:45trying not to be noticed.
21:49I think I've found a spot.
21:52I'm being hunted from the air.
21:55I can hear the drone.
21:57I don't know why I'm whispering.
22:00But there's no hiding place.
22:04I think the game might be up.
22:06Yeah, I've been truly rumbled.
22:09And the man with his eye on me is Ben Harrell.
22:12His drone is so sensitive,
22:14it can pick up the heat signature of a bird's egg.
22:17So when it comes to hide-and-seek,
22:19he's got a serious advantage.
22:21Tell me I at least made it challenging for you.
22:23No, I've found a lot smaller things.
22:25It's not really people you're looking for normally, though, is it?
22:28No, we typically do mammal surveys,
22:30so deer's a big part of the business.
22:32But we've found all sorts of things,
22:35and even incidentally, things as small as,
22:38well, bumblebee was the smallest detection.
22:40Ben's drone has thermal imaging,
22:43allowing him to spot heat sources in the forest.
22:46Things you wouldn't see with the normal camera.
22:49I'm not sure how you would spot anything from there, but...
22:53Yeah, so you can see the heat source there.
22:55Oh, yeah, right.
22:56Definitely something, so then you can zoom in.
22:58It's a red hind with a calf in the windblow there.
23:02So even from a ground point of view,
23:04you could never see into that crop because of the forest.
23:07Maybe 150, 200 metres, we can get a very clear image from that.
23:12We then mark that recording.
23:15That's how we conduct a sort of formal survey.
23:18We'll just structure it in a way that we're searching each area on a grid.
23:22And the information Ben collects gives landowners and managers
23:26a detailed picture of the wildlife on their patch,
23:30and it's very easy to spot some more deer.
23:33If you're able to zoom into them,
23:35you can see very detailed they go against the fence line,
23:37which would have been otherwise pretty difficult.
23:40Definitely, the thermal on the drone
23:42is definitely the game-changer for wildlife purposes.
23:45When that technology really became more affordable
23:48and the unit size got smaller and you could put it on a drone such as that,
23:52it meant you could start applying it to counting deer, counting bird's nests,
23:56finding some of the rarer species that we've worked on.
23:59Including this year's most famous runaway, Honshu the monkey.
24:04But Recording Scotland's native species is Ben's bread and butter,
24:09and today he's working on an estate for Forestry and Land Scotland.
24:14Before we do any forestry operations,
24:17we kind of need to know what wildlife's on the site
24:20and if there's any protected nests, dens, drays, that kind of thing.
24:24Forester Gareth Ventress still does traditional field surveys on foot
24:29and also uses camera traps,
24:31but Ben's drone is invaluable when it comes to areas where that's not possible.
24:38The thermal drone is just helping us improve our efficacy
24:41and get a bit more detail potentially
24:44and help us survey sites that we just physically can't get in,
24:47either due to safety or there's just no access.
24:51I mean, you've seen some of the windblow sites today.
24:55And Ben's work often captures the unexpected.
24:59Not far from here, he took these pictures of a wildcat teaching her kitten how to hunt.
25:06And has given Gareth a new perspective on his workplace and the wildlife within it.
25:12One of the most fascinating things is watching the way they move through the forest
25:16and the windblow using the trees and not the grass,
25:18sort of keep themselves up in the air, so that's been really interesting, yeah.
25:22And while this is Ben's job, he gets a massive kick out of seeing
25:26and recording elusive creatures like this.
25:31And this female appeared and it was actually only a few minutes after
25:36when she'd caught a vole that the kitten came out.
25:39So that was the first time we'd sort of successfully found the cats using the thermal imagery.
25:45I observed her for about half an hour and she did four hunts, four voles
25:53and was successful in one of them.
25:54So even that data was quite interesting about success rates.
25:58And on his travels across Europe, he's had many memorable encounters.
26:04We've been to Germany, one of the things that stood out there this year was
26:08it was very cold, it was minus 15 and it was like a bonfire from the thermal signature.
26:14The wild boar all piled into a big pile, you know, into a big ball almost to keep warm.
26:19So, you know, you're always seeing interesting things.
26:23You're working in all these amazing locations, working with different species
26:27and you're always learning something about it because you're seeing them in a natural state.
26:31So you're constantly learning and that's what keeps me going.
26:41And that brings us to the end of this programme.
26:44If you'd like to watch it again or catch up with any of our previous episodes
26:48go to the BBC iPlayer and search for Landward.
26:51Now, here's what's coming up next time.
26:55Rosie visits the carbon negative nursery.
26:58Between now and 2050, we have to grow an additional one trillion trees.
27:03So you can adapt your cross to suit your farm too.
27:07Cami meets the Shetland Cheviot.
27:10And I try a bit of woodworking.
27:13I'm botching at the moment.
27:17So please join us for that and much, much more.
27:20In the meantime, from all the Lambert teams around the country
27:23and from me here at beautiful Loch Catrin
27:26thank you so much for your company. Bye for now.
27:50.