Episode 7 Landward

Hello and a very warm welcome to Landward, where we travel all over

Scotland to bring the best stories from the countryside right to you.

This week, I will be indulging my love of tweed

and meeting the folk who are taking traditional estate tweeds

and spinning them with a 21st-century twist.

Also on the programme, we meet the people who bought their own island.

Sarah and her son Robbie are on the hunt for wildlife.

I can see it now.

And the food van hits Aberdeen, where Nick and I

will be serving up wild garlic and nettles.

Nick Nairn at the back can't even give it away, look.

-People are refusing.

-Pasta?

-No, thank you, mate.

As regular Landward viewers will be aware, I like a bit of tweed.

It's been the fabric of the Scottish countryside for generations

and here in Aberfeldy, it has been at the heart of the community

for hundreds of years.

In the 19th century, it became fashionable for Scottish

sporting estates to commission their own tweed,

an estate tweed worn by everyone from the gillie to the laird.

The mill here has been part of that tradition for 150 years.

I'm meeting owner Michael Gates-Fleming, who knows his stuff.

-Michael, nice to meet you. How are you?

-Hello, morning.

-Good morning.

Now, this is an absolutely incredible room here.

How many tweeds do you have in here?

Well, we've held in stock about 80 different patterns and then

we have a number of estate tweeds that we also hold here as well.

Your company is known for estate tweeds,

but it has become a very popular fabric to use these days.

Are you involved in weaving modern tweeds as well?

Absolutely, and traditionally some of the older tweeds

were muddy greens and dirty browns

and it's actually become very much more exciting

over the past few years.

New colours have been introduced

that have never been seen before in the mill before in its life.

As the fashion side of it has blossomed, you know,

it's not just those people that are wearing it out on the hill.

Now people are wearing it in town, which they weren't years ago.

But it's not just about bright colours.

I'm heading into town to check out some other new spins

on the old fabric.

This outfitter here has been making country clothing for men

and women since 1801, but the current owners are doing so

with a slightly more contemporary feel.

Artist Ryan Hannigan has brought his talents

to this traditional business,

marrying classic tweeds with bold designs.

What are you actually doing here?

We are inking up to put this into linings and trims alongside

the tweed stuff that we design.

So this is a bike woodcut that I did a long time ago,

but it's one of the ones that keeps coming back and people like it.

This is just a simple lining fabric that, you know, would be used

on the backs of waistcoats, that type of thing.

But the transference of it is really good.

So it's just a matter of laying that down...

-Sticking a bit of card on top.

-Yeah, these are like...

It just keeps the back of the fabric clean, as well.

-As simple as that?

-Simple as that.

And then the grand reveal.

That's beautiful, isn't it?

That gold and red works very well together.

Yeah, I mean, what we were taken with when we started was...

Look how sharp the line is.

You sort of think you're going to get bleeding with the cloth,

but the print came up so well.

And, you know, you get the new instances of...

You never get it perfect - it's never machine done, so...

With hand printing, you get a lovely sense of the block

but also the humanity.

Ryan's wife Debbie then uses the prints alongside tweed

in a range of products and they are not the only people doing this.

All over Scotland, designers are broadening the market

for this remarkable fabric.

Who are your customers?

This is quite surprising, but we have young people coming in,

teenagers buying the same bag as their granny buys.

What we've realised is that it is a product lasts for ever.

It seems that we have people coming in with jackets

that are 30 years old and they look brand-new,

so it's doing us out of a job, probably, eventually, but it just...

The quality is there and nobody can dispute that.

Ryan and Deborah may be putting a 21st-century spin on tweed

but of course, it has always been associated with the landed gentry.

And who owns Scotland is pretty high

on the political agenda at the moment.

A new Land Reform Bill is going to be introduced to

the Scottish Parliament pretty soon.

The government aims to increase community ownership of land

and Euan has been looking into the pros and cons.

Ownership of Scotland's hills, glens, moors

and beaches has been fought over for centuries.

These days, it's thought half of our privately owned land

is in the hands of just 432 people, families or trusts.

The Scottish government want to change that.

Their target is to have one million acres

under community control by 2020

and they're promising £10 million a year towards achieving it.

Whilst you might think the current owners would be unwilling to give up

their land without a fight, it's not always the case.

Sometimes, landowners and communities can work together

to bring about change, like here at Findhorn.

Here, the community are on the cusp of purchasing more than 2,000 acres

of land which have been part of the Novar Estate since 1767.

That includes this beautiful stretch of the bay.

-Donald.

-Euan.

-How are you?

Donald Watson and Jo Harris helped run the campaign to buy

the land and were surprised by the owner's response.

We were a bit scared to approach them in the beginning.

We didn't know what the reception was going to be.

-Yeah, we didn't know.

-I don't think any of these buyouts

in the rest of Scotland have been quite as amicable as ours.

They were a willing seller.

Yeah, they have dropped the price because it's the village buying.

They've supported us.

£500,000 of government money helped buy the land.

It means more control for the community over what is done

to the area - something they didn't have before.

Things would happen in the village which we had no notice of.

Bits of ground would suddenly be sold.

With the village now owning this ground, nothing can happen

unless the village agree to it.

For starters, they plan to move the play park nearer the beach

and they will be asking local people what else

they want to do with the land.

The Findhorn experience shows that with a willing seller

and a keen community, land reform can be easily achieved.

Now the Scottish government want to push things a step further.

The law allows communities to register an interest

in land before it is even on the market.

Then, if the landowner decides to sell up,

it's the community that are given the first chance to buy it.

But the Scottish government want to strengthen the law

to allow ministers and public bodies to force a landowner

to sell if they are seen as a barrier to social and economic development.

And that is creating some tensions.

This is probably your typical image of a landowner -

a laird who lives in a vast house

and spends most of his day hunting and fishing on his big estate.

But today, this can be the reality for estates.

For estates like Alvie and Dalraddy near Aviemore,

hunting, shooting and fishing have been largely replaced

by forestry, farming and tourism.

These 13,000-acre estates have been

in laird Jamie Williamson's family since 1927.

And he sounds a note of caution about the new proposals.

What do you feel about government plans

to double community land ownership by 2020?

I have some concerns.

If the landowner maybe has sold out or gone bankrupt or hasn't

the money to invest, I'm quite happy that a community

takes it over and they are given a help.

However, a community is very often people living in an area

who don't necessarily have the expertise or training to run

what I would say is a rural business, and this can be a problem.

How would you feel if the community round here said,

-"We want to buy your land?"

-What I am doing in planting trees,

I won't see the benefit of it - my son or grandson will.

So there is a huge incentive

if you can pass it on from father to son to invest in the long term.

If there is so much threat of expropriation of your assets,

then there is a big disincentive to actually

keep investing back in this country.

You can see why land reform is such a controversial issue.

You feel inspired by the people of Findhorn who want their area to

thrive, but as Jamie points out, there are plenty of estate owners

who really care about the future of their land and the local economy.

Later in the programme, we visit an island which was bought

by its community more than a decade ago

to see how they are managing to make it work.

Not far from the Alvie And Dalraddy Estate,

Sarah is at Milton Loch in the Cairngorms National Park.

It is home to an amazing array of wildlife.

But just how many species are there?

Helping to find out are Sarah and her son Robbie.

As a family, we try

and make the most of Scotland's great outdoors as much as we can.

So when I heard that Cairngorms Nature Festival were running

a BioBlitz, I took my youngest son, Robbie, along.

Robbie and I are here to help BioBlitz Milton Loch

near Boat of Garten and for the next three hours,

we're going to try and find as many species as we can, aren't we?

-Yeah.

-Have you got the box?

-Yeah.

-OK, I've got the book.

-Shall we get busy?

-Yeah.

And here we are again. Ladies and gentlemen...

A BioBlitz isn't a competition, but it is a challenge.

It's a kind of biological recording party to hunt down as many

different types of flora and fauna as you can in a set time period.

Each family has got a leaflet...

It's not all about fun.

At the end of the search, the results are collated to give

a bigger picture of the variety of species in the area.

OK? Have a nice morning.

How many worms can you see?

Our first stop is the dipping pond and one of the experts on hand

to help us identify what we find is naturalist Nick Baker.

You've got a net, you've got a pot,

you've got a tray and you've got oodles of enthusiasm.

You don't need anything else.

Just get some water in your tray first and that means that any

little creatures you get in your net, you can just turn

straight into your tray and you'll be able to see them immediately.

What sorts of things can we expect to find?

Well - and this is the beauty of pond dipping - you just don't know,

it just depends on the pond and all its little characteristics.

Get all that goo out your net. Put your hand under there like that.

You hold the net, I'll do that.

It rekindles the inner ten-year-old,

which is vitally important in this exercise.

But also, you find some of the most amazing creatures.

What do you think you've got there?

That's a very, very interesting insect, that.

I can see it now!

That is a caseless caddisfly.

You going to tick that one? Yep. There we go.

There we are, brilliant.

-No, it's eight legs.

-It's got eight eyes, too.

From the pond to the hide. Now we are looking for birds.

It's been very good.

We've had something like 25, 26 species altogether.

-The blackcap has just landed there.

-He's spotted something. Oh, there.

Robbie, look. Do you want to have a look with the binoculars on?

Can you see it?

That's wonderful. Oh, that's wonderful.

Mmm. Birds don't really seem to be Robbie's thing.

Perhaps bugs will fire his imagination.

Wowee, look at that one! Can you see that? Robbie.

Can I put it in my pack?

-Found under a log.

-So, what are you going to do with it now?

At the end, I'm going to let him go. I want to keep him as a pet, though.

Three hours later and it's time to catch up with Nick to see

what everyone has found.

-Isn't it great?

-Have you been surprised

-by what has turned up today?

-Yeah, there's loads of stuff.

It just goes to show, if you just bother to look carefully

and close to stuff... And there's so much stuff.

We've got somewhere... Where's the newt guy?

Daniel has found this fantastic newt.

He was a bit surprised because he wasn't entirely sure what it was.

He sort of knew, you knew in your heart what it was.

But it's the fact you found a newt outside of the pond,

and that's what I love about this is that you really...

You get the chance to share your finds with people

and you get a chance to record your finds

and they go into a database, which is actually very useful.

-We've had a blast today.

-Has everyone had a good time?

-ALL:

-Yes!

A spectacular success.

The BioBlitz recorded over 170 different species around the loch.

Like all the other kids there, Robbie enjoyed it too.

We cover a lot of ground as we travel round Scotland

and as we go, we like to stop

and ask the folk on the street what is the best thing about their patch.

Earlier on, I visited the old mill

and now I want to find out what is the best thing about Aberfeldy.

It's a good area to have horses.

Lots of lovely places to go and ride.

The Birks. The Birks Of Aberfeldy and the waterfalls.

If you want a good night out, The Fountain. That's a good place.

-Yeah, we recommend The Fountain.

-It's the wonderful people, isn't it?

The area is beautiful.

You must have seen it, you've been wandering about all day.

The Birks Cinema now, that's really great for folk

and the kids as well.

Honestly don't know. It's just Aberfeldy to me.

Some of the best fishing around in Scotland.

I accept it for what it is and just get on with life!

Well, for me, the best thing about Aberfeldy is actually two things.

First up, this magnificent bridge, built by General Wade back in 1733,

described by him as one of his greatest achievements.

And this.

Maybe not quite so magnificent,

but this is the road's first major bridge made of plastic.

It thinks both sides of Aberfeldy Golf Course.

Earlier in the programme,

Euan investigated the merits of community land ownership.

For many years,

the small island of Gigha in Argyll was in private ownership

but back in 2002, with the help of a £4 million loan,

residents took matters into their own hands and bought the island.

Euan describes how they have been getting on.

10.20am on Gigha and the ferry makes its third arrival of the day.

It's a vital link to the mainland for the 160 residents

of the 3,500-acre island.

Come on, then. Come on, son.

Up in the hills,

retired farmer Kenny Robison is enjoying the fresh air.

He has lived here for 33 years

and remembers life under the old laird system.

We had four landlords in 12 years

and every one of them had a different agenda.

The whole island was their investment rather than

the community and the people.

We were just decorations, sort of thing.

Before the buyout, the housing was in a terrible state.

90% of it was in serious disrepair.

Nobody was really interested in doing anything about it.

If you had asked everybody on the island,

"Did you see your future on Gigha?"

I think the majority of them would have said no,

it was that bad.

Our preferred option would have been a good landlord,

but they weren't there.

They just weren't there.

So the islanders decided to give it a go themselves.

They set up a trust and raised the £4 million purchase price

through funds and grants from the Scottish Land Fund

and other public bodies.

£1 million had to be repaid within the first year, which they did

through fundraising and the sale of this prime property.

After that, top of the to-do list was getting Gigha back

to its former glory.

Mags McSporran is the current chair of the trust that runs the island.

The island has been brought a long, long way since the buyout.

Population has reversed.

We were a round about the 90, now round about the 160-mark.

What has gone on to develop income has been the wind turbines.

Wind means pennies from heaven for us.

It's gone towards the refurbishment of properties.

Those properties have gone on to enable people

to create their own employment or be employed on the island.

Lunchtime and the village shop is a popular pit stop,

fuelling islanders, visitors and vehicles.

-Is that you?

-Yep.

2.20, please.

The shop had been closed for almost a year

until island resident Joe Teale decided to bring it back to life.

-Thanks very much.

-Cheers.

Not only that, Joe's even done his bit

to boost the population.

At the time of the community buyout, there was a real boost.

There has been a bit of a baby boom

and I hope I have helped contribute towards that.

Since the buyout,

nine other small businesses have started up on Gigha.

-Nice to see you back again.

-Yes, yes. How are you?

Tourists are a crucial part of the island economy and the hotel,

which had been in poor condition and closed half the year,

has been spruced up.

The bar is open every night now

and there are plans to open the hotel all year round.

The trust gets the income from the lease.

The island was bought for something in the order of 4 million.

The work that has gone on

and the projects that have been established...

The island and its various assets are now worth

in the order of in excess of 7 million.

Against that is a debt of around £2.7 million,

some of which is secured against the newest wind turbine

and some of which Mags thinks can be serviced out of income.

But not everyone shares her optimism.

We've been there, we've done it and now...

There's not a great change yet.

We'll just need to try and see if it's going to work.

On a dairy farm in the north of the island, Emma Dennis

and her sister Jane Clements are hard at it in the milking shed.

Jane has been the chair of the trust

and she voices thoughts a number of islanders share.

I want to see Gigha succeed.

Obviously everybody does that's living here,

but it's really difficult. Gigha itself will not make money.

It's a rich man's game, owning an island,

and I'm afraid we don't have money. People are worried.

For the government wanting to make big changes in land reform

all over the place, think twice, because it is hard work and serious.

We need people with money to keep estates going.

The trust are being proactive about the debt.

Nine housing plots have been identified

and the first will go on the market this month.

But the debate among the people of Gigha about the cost of owning

their own island is food for thought as the Scottish Parliament

considers land reform.

Over the last year,

we have taken the food van to Glasgow, Dundee and Inverness.

This time, we're heading to the sophisticated north-east to see

if we can tempt the taste buds of the good people of Aberdeen.

Over to you, Nick.

But first of all, we need some ingredients, and that is why we have

come here to Dunnottar Woods just outside of Stonehaven

to do a bit of foraging.

-And Dougie has got a basket.

-I certainly have. Shall we?

-Very nice basket, yeah.

-'Yes, thanks, Nick.'

Late spring is a great time for getting out

into the countryside to see what seasonal delicacies you can find.

In a native woodland like this,

with the permission of the landowner, of course, you can find

lots of shade-loving plants that also make great eating.

This is the stuff we are looking for -

-wild garlic, also known as ramsons.

-Uh-huh.

And in terms of picking this stuff,

can we just grab it from this path? There's tonnes of it.

No, you want to stay away from the edges of paths because dog owners

take the dogs out and dogs tend to relieve themselves

at the edge of paths. So you want to go into virgin territory

in the middle so we get nice, uncontaminated wild garlic.

And we're just going to take the leaves

and we're not going to dig it out, because that is very antisocial.

So, what are actually going to make with this?

We are going to make a pesto because pestos are normally green herbs

and garlic and this...you've got the garlic and the green herbs.

This is the perfect time of year, when it is young and tender.

You actually need quite a lot because when you puree it down

to make a paste or a pesto, it really goes away to nothing.

-Oh, it's amazingly strong, isn't it?

-Yeah, really.

-Goodness me.

And you might see some of them with...

Just over there, look, flowers, little white flowers.

Flowers have actually got more flavour.

-OK, shall we take some flowers?

-Yeah, take some flowers over there.

We also need one more ingredient.

Nettles.

Just the tips of the nettles.

Young nettles - very, very delicious.

Use them in a salad, or it's a very good soup. Nettle soup, very famous.

I don't have any gloves but apparently, if you grasp

the top firmly, squeeze it and just push it out, it doesn't sting.

-Do you want to show me?

-No.

-OK.

Show them who's boss.

-Be firm.

-OK.

-Very good. Did it sting you?

-Not in the slightest, no.

-I'll give it a go. There we go.

-HE MOUTHS

-Ai-ya!

-Ouch.

-You've spent too long in the kitchen, you need to get out more.

Are you looking forward to being back in the food van?

I can't wait. You know what? It's one of the highlights of my week.

Yeah, mine too, Doug.

Being barked at by you, it's great(!)

So, here we have the fruits of our foraging, the wild garlic

and the nettles. We are going to make a Scottish pesto using cobnuts.

-Cobnuts, explain. What are they?

-Well, they are mainly...

It's a sort of variety of a hazelnut from a cobtree,

now grown in Fife. And these are fae Fife.

Can I have a wee...?

You can indeed, they're very nice. Pestos normally have pine nuts.

We have cobnuts, so they're Scottish.

Pesto, you'd have Parmesan. We've got Dunlop from Ayrshire.

Have a wee taste of that as well.

You've already had several wee tastes of that,

-you know exactly what it tastes like.

-Fantastic.

And instead of olive oil, we've got rapeseed oil.

Scottish, from this part of the world.

-And you're not going to cook the nettles.

-No.

You can now touch it no bother.

Stingers don't appear to be there any more.

-Maybe when they die... I've no idea.

-I don't know.

We're going to make a pesto, so we're going to have to

chuck in some of these cobnuts into the bottom in there.

-We've got some of the wild garlic.

-Washed and spun dry.

-Yeah.

Some of the nettles in here, and you tell me these aren't going to sting.

And we've got rapeseed oil, just enough, really,

to get the whole thing moving.

And in with the blender.

HE IMITATES THE BLENDER

-You can smell the garlic.

-Oh, really smell the garlic.

It smells fantastic.

However, it's not quite finished yet

because I'm going to add a little bit more oil, OK,

and some of this fabulous grated Dunlop cheese.

Could you season that with a bit of salt?

-And then in with the pepper.

-Mm-hm.

Now, let's have a taste of this.

This is the finished Scottish pesto.

Oh, man, that's amazing. When you put cheddar in there...

-Oh, man, that just opens right out, doesn't it?

-It's very good.

In fact, it might sound a little odd,

but I think that tastes incredibly green.

It's very much a taste of spring.

All that is left to do is mix in some macaroni and plate it up.

And then we can take it out.

We'll garnish it with some of the little flowers.

-I'm sure they'll love it. They'll absolutely love it.

-Let's go for it.

Lead on, my friend.

-So, you go first, shall we?

-OK.

-I want you to tell me what you think it is.

-What is that?

-It's some herbs, but I'm wasn't sure which.

-Pasta and herbs.

-Broccoli?

-Any idea what the herbs are?

-Green ones.

-Are you getting garlic at all?

-It's strong garlic.

-I love wild garlic.

-Do you?

And I would know they use it for champon.

-For champons?

-Yes.

-Do you like it?

-Oh, aye.

-Tasty.

-It's actually all right, aye.

Wow.

Ladies, ladies, ladies. No, no, no.

Nick Nairn at the back can't even give it away, look.

-People are refusing.

-Pasta?

-No, thank you, mate.

Look at me, I'm a better salesman than you.

-"I'm not eating that. That's got nettles in it."

-Yeah.

-I eat a lot of pesto.

-Do you?

-And is that different from the pesto you normally have?

-Yeah.

-It's very fresh.

-Glorious, mate.

-Garlic?

There's certainly a lot of garlic in there, yeah. Definitely.

-I can't kiss a woman, though.

-You can't kiss a woman?

-Doug...

-Yes?

What kind of reaction did you get to the Scottish macaroni

-and Scottish pesto?

-Generally, very, very fine indeed.

People were loving it.

Most people were kind of just getting that garlic hit

-straight away.

-Most of the people I asked absolutely loved it.

But I think the win-win with this

is that the stuff that we forage is free.

It's on your doorstep and it's an absolutely fantastic thing.

A pesto... A natural pesto of Scotland.

Fantastic and delicious.

-In the meantime, from Nick...

-That's me.

..and from me, that's your company, bye for now.