Episode 22 Landward

Hello and a very warm welcome to Landward, bringing Scotland's

landscape right in your living room. In a moment I will be back on Rum

for the night time bird-watching but first, he was what else is

coming up on the programme. The tricky balance between farmland

and forestry. A we are not against tree-planting but we are against

when it takes over whole farm. go trucking in style. The lovely

would work, the leather seats, the mood lighting, fridge, cooker

running water, telly, DVD. Sarah explores the southern shore

of Loch Ness. This is the fair head lad's Pathan at 500 metres it is

the highest part of the trial. The views from the top make a hike

Over the past few weeks I have been on Rum hearing about plans to

redevelop the island and I have met unique Rum ponies. In the final

part of my series I had the final part of -- I had the privilege to

meet the residents that the Vikings thought were trolls.

Much of the island of Rum was a national nature reserve, managed by

Scottish Natural Heritage. It is home to rare ponies and around 1000

red deer. And also a bird called the Manx shearwater. At sea,

shearwaters are relatively easy to spot. They stayed together in large

groups. But on land they are much trickier to see. For one thing they

nesting burrows, deep in the side of high mountains and the only come

ashore at night so we have become pak courses, filled our rucksacks

with infra-red filming equipment and heading up for a two-hour walk.

The colony on Rum, there are over 100,000 breeding pairs here. It is

probably around one-fifth of the world's population of Manx

shearwaters. It is a very significant colony in terms of its

Apparently the birds have a weird, screeching call, but on still

nights it can be heard throughout As dusk falls we meet Oxford

University researcher Holly. I am going to help her with her research

tonight. We are just heading a bit further up the mountain towards the

next level of rock. What are we planning to do when we get there?

Well, hopefully what we will do his way some chicks that hour -- that

are in our study Burrows, then probably retrieved some GPS

trekkers from the birds that I put on last week. First, another climb.

It is getting pretty dark now so it is time to change from this

camera... To this camera. That is weird looking! At this time of

night the adult birds asked about Tutsi. So we get on with weighing

the chicks. -- the adult birds are out at sea. This is burrow number

one, if you could write down the wait for me. When we wake him

tomorrow we will have an idea of how much the adults have bought

back to night to feed him. Here we go. He is a big fellow. Yes, quite

He is calling a lot because he is hoping that his mum and dad are

going to come back and give him a nice big meal of fish oil and fish

paste. Here we go, he is 425 grams. He is almost as big as his parents

were. About the same weight, actually. He has the -- he has a

couple of hundred grams more to go before he is ready to pledge.

adult birds start pouring back into the colony. We can't see anything

but we can certainly hear them. Things are starting to hot up,

they're coming in, making a real racket. We don't know where they're

coming from or going to, they're If you come up for a here -- if you

come up here for a night, pitch your tent and did not know what

shearwaters sounded like, this would freak you out. What a wild

The birds from the study Burrows where GPS tax. Once the bird has

had its chick, Holly retrieves the tracking device. -- FED it's tick.

Here we go. What are you learned from this? We are basically getting

a fix, a position in latitude and longitude once every five minutes

which it is just enough in a high enough resolution to be able to see

things like foraging behaviour and what we are really interested in is

where these birds are foraging and if they are important flight routes

between here and there foraging locations. The information Hollie

collectors could help protect the birds' habitat in the long term.

After removing the tag the birdies put back into its burrow. And it is

time for me to head for my nest for the night as well.

Well it is to 10am, and after hearing that cacophony of noise and

seeing the beautiful birds close up, it was a wonderful end to what has

been an extraordinary trip to Rum. Now, a two-hour walk back to the

Over the last couple of weeks Sarah has been meeting some of the

innovative food producers from Dun Breese and Galloway and in her

final taste of the region, fish is on the menu -- Dumfries and

If you take fish in tanks, known as aquaculture, and combine it with

Hagrid products, growing vegetables in water, what do you get? Simple.

This centre in Scotland is right here in Anne Moffat. The project is

run by an environmental community and company. The charity runs

allotments for local families and recycling centre under community

orchard as well as the special greenhouse. This is it? Yes, this

is Scotland's first read House of this type. Scotland's first. How

long has it been running for? only started in March and already

within five to six weeks we had the plants coming on and ready to sell

so the plant growing side of this is very fast. The fish take longer

to get double size, to get a plate size. That is turning out to be

more like six months. What is this technique? It is a mixture of

Agriculture and had republics, but can you explain it? You have the

fish growing in the water and you add in the plants growing in water

instead of soil and it is a harmonious system, so waste from

the fish is going to be the plants and giving them their nutrients and

in turn to the plant's are cleansing the water, they are

filtering the water. Now the vegetables are grown pretty much as

you said in Broomfield water. Does it affect the taste? But the tour.

If you would like to trisomy you're very welcome. The vegetables are

delicious. -- If you would like to taste some you are very welcome. We

are growing chilli peppers, cucumbers, herbs, strawberries,

strawberries for Christmas. I am determined to grow bananas. If I

can do that I will be happy. Watch this space. Yes! So no bananas as

yet but these fish are ready to eat. The originate from Africa, just

like this chef. We are going to do some of the

. -- we are going to do some of the fish you have just seen with the

It looks you become very colourful. -- it looks delicious, very

colourful. Quite matey. But delicate, nice. Yes, it doesn't

have the muddy flavours you would have expected from the wild fish.

Very subtle, very nice, thank you very much. No problem. Can I have

Still to come we travel on the new South Loch Ness trail. His 20

eight-mile trail has so much to offer in terms of history, wildlife

and adventure -- 28 mile trail. are on board the ultimate in

trucking luxury. When we had will rebuild it was for our anniversary

edition so we decided to go to town. -- when we had the lorry built.

There is an ongoing debate at the moment about the future shape of

our landscape. The government plans to increase the amount of land used

for forestry but there are fears this will impact on our ability to

produce enough food to meet future We humans are greedy creatures. We

demand a lot from the land. We want to use it to grow food, to produce

energy, for recreation and to build So what is the land for? Well, but

is a question that anybody who is involved in Rural Affairs has to

wrestle with all the time. Is it for food production? Is it for

forestry? Carbon capture, wildlife, or even leisure? And with just one

small planet how can you possibly balance all these usually competing

At the moment around 17% of our land is devoted to forestry. The

Scottish government wants that to rise to 25% by the last half of the

century. As a country we have a great opportunity to tackle climate

change by inclusive -- by increasing Forestry cover and the

sector employs tens of thousands of people in the rural economy so it

is very important sector to Scotland. There is the environment

will, employment and economic benefit at the same time. According

to the United Nations food organisation by the year 2050 pre-

production will need to increase by 70%. Annual meat production alone

needs to increase by 200 million tonnes. But across the country hill

farms that were used to produce lamb are now being considered was

trees. -- are now being planted with trees. It is something the

National sheep Association is not happy about. Their development

officer took me to see a farm or the Borders that had been swallowed

up by Plantation. Up until recently this was a productive sheep Hill

Farm, 1,300 acres and it was carrying about 800 euros. -- ewes.

Then it was planted up? Tokely planted up. I used to seeing this?

It is common in this area and across Scotland. We are using some

of -- we are losing some of the most productive sheep hill farms.

This is ideal ground for trees to be planted on and that is the

problem we have. The good ground for growing the trees is almost --

is also some of the most productive ground for the sheep. The Scottish

government wants 10,000 hectares of forestry to be planted every year.

Forest Enterprise Scotland, the timber producing win of the

Forestry Commission, aims to plant 1000 hectares. The other 9,000 is

expected to come from private businesses who can apply for grants

to plant a bug. The average -- to plant to the. The average is 37%,

in Scotland it is 17% and we have a lot of land in Scotland, so how can

we have an integrated land use policy? We need to produce food.

Our farmers could -- play a leading role in doing that and forestry is

also important and we want more to tackle climate change because

forestry acts as a carbon sink. They are not mutually exclusive,

food production and forestry. what we would like to see happening

is a mix. We're not against tree- planting but we are against it when

it takes River Hull farms are what we see would be if there was a way

of having a better incentives of the De Vos farm was sold then a

proportion of it was only allowed to be planted, which would then

leave a stable sheep enterprise and productive sheep enterprise to work

I am surprised by the sheer scale of this plantation. As you can see,

it extends all the way up to the rich and beyond. -- Reg.

We're encouraging local authorities to have local Forestry strategies.

Local people been consulted is the best way to insula a balance.

If you want to take part in the discussion the Government have set

up a specialist group looking precisely at the issue. The

woodland expansion advisory group are currently consulting to find

the best way of achieving government targets. You have until

the end of January to get your views to them. Details of how you

If you have a comment about the programme or a story to share with

us please e-mail the address on screen. The weather here at Culzean

Castle is surprisingly warm for this time of year. What is the

A very wet and windy weekend in store. There is an amber warning

from the Met Office for Severe it deals across the country. -- gales.

To start tomorrow morning, wet and windy across the North. But the

strongest winds will be found in the borders and Lothians. We could

see branches taken down and tiles off roofs, things like that. A

yellow warning from the Met Office for rain also. Heavy and persistent

at times, difficult driving conditions. Dry air with sunshine

in the north-east and temperatures might even reach 14 Celsius but it

will still be very windy. Climbing, the wind speeds say it all. All

from a south-westerly direction. Very difficult to even stand up let

alone walk or climb the hills and Munro's. Rough or very rough seas

with moderate visibility. In the east, we could see storm-force nine

from a south-westerly direction. Moderate of his ability. Rain will

continue falling on Sunday evening. Some of the showers will turn

wintry across the north-west Highlands. Higher road routes will

be affected. This pressure is moving towards Scandinavia and

producing the conditions. Into next week, the general theme, unsettled.

Looking at the map we can see another area of low pressure

towards Iceland. That will bring rain. Dry at the start of the week

but heavy rain will push in later on. Temperatures around 10 or 11

Celsius. Tuesday, the weather front continues moving west to east.

Difficult to pinpoint where the heaviest of the game will be but

the map says it all. A wet day. The wind will stay strong. Wednesday,

when his remaining strong and feeling cold that despite the

Horses come in all shapes and sizes. They have a variety of temperaments.

Transporting them is not easy but one firm has developed a specialism

in equine transport. We went on the Erik de la Llanwrtyd are Scotland's

premier horse transport firm. -- Eric Gillie Ltd. This is the latest

addition to their fleet. 420 brake horsepower and a price tag of

�280,000. It is the film's pride and joy.

This is my pride and joy. My home away from home. For rich, cooker,

microwave, television, king-sized bed. -- fridge. We bought it for

the 30 per anniversary of the business. We decided to go to town.

-- 35th anniversary. Today Michael is delivering seven

horses from Kelso to Aberdeen docks where they will be loaded on to the

north wing ferry. He is now ready to hit the road. The final

destination for the horses as an Orkney stud farm.

This is a weekly to fortnightly run. To Shetland and vice versa, coming

down. We have to be fairly prompt so we're not holding up the ferry.

If we get to a situation where we are struggling to make the ferry

then we have a stable facility in Aberdeen where we can offload the

horses. Usually the next day, the next crossing, they are put on. But

it is not often that we are late. We always attempt to plan ahead so

that we can beat the traffic but every day brings different

circumstances. Michael arrives at the docks in

plenty of time. The horses are transferred into specially designed

livestock containers before being loaded safely on board. With

another cargo was safely delivered he can head back to Kelso. The

horses are soon on their way to their new home. Next week, we will

join the team at the Doncaster of sales. Will there be any horses

This autumn a brand new trail opened giving unrivalled access to

the peaceful, undiscovered south shore of Loch Ness. It gives a new

perspective on an ADR which has long been a firm favourite of fans

of the outdoors. On an eight -- on an ADR. This is a fascinating place

spanning a huge period of our history. Spectacular works of

nature and tales of dark deeds and magic. One of Scotland's most

popular tourist attractions but most visitors only sea loch Ness

from the north shore. This new 28 mile trek hopes to change all that

and give people a chance to see a completely different side of Loch

Ness. The route starts at just outside Fort Augustus and travels

all the way to the outskirts of Inverness. It is a mixture of newly

built paths and well-worn routes. There are still some surviving

examples of engineering prowess like this magnificent bridge.

A dedicated team have been at the heart of the project since its

inception two year as a goal. It held appeal for the simplicity

and the fact it linked up existing trails. And it brings benefits to

the south side. Finally, in the long term, and I stress that, we

can link-up with a north side -- the north side and create a 360

degree trail. The trail is never far from the

show and there is a wealth of history along the way. -- never far

from the shore. An intriguing example is hidden behind these

trees. This house was originally a hunting lodge for noble gentleman

then home to a famous English mystic, astrologer, and magician,

once described as the most influential cultist of all time.

Alastair Crowley. In the 1970s it was sold to another equally

eccentric individual, led Zeppelin legend Jimmy Page. Further along

the route is a spectacular waterfall. The trail follows a very

steep when the road. It is appropriately known as the

corkscrew. -- steep, winding road. Dominating the views are these

massive cracks. The sight of an Iron Age fort. High up on the

Hell's the route takes on a very different character. -- higher up

on the hill. This is the fair Here's flat -- this is the fair

haired lad spa. The trail has been designed for walkers and cyclists.

But there is another option. Andy Cameron of runs this riding school.

-- can be Cameron. She is a keen horse rider and one of the team it

-- one of the team responsible for this trail.

I love to do my riding you. There is less infrastructure and that is

The village of doors is six miles from the end of the it. -- the

village of Taurus. -- Dores. This 28 mile trail as so much to offer.

History, wildlife, adventure. There are plans to link it with the north

side meaning that the possibilities I cannot wait to be able to do a

complete look of Loch Ness. It will become a must do root in Scotland.

Just time to tell you what is coming on next week's programme.

Scotland's ski centres gear up for what they hope will be a bumper

winter. And 40 years on the end of the steel rope - the life of a

rescue helicopter winchman. I am never scared. We're