Episode 1 Landward

Hello, and a very warm welcome to a brand-new series of Landward.

This week, I'm on the windswept slopes of Cairngorm

where I'll be looking back at the winter we've just had,

and finding out about the development of skiing in Scotland.

But first, here's what else is coming up on the programme.

Euan is on the trail of one of Scotland's most elusive animals.

Here's some tracks here, Euan. Two individuals by the look of it,

running along this track.

We have a Landward exclusive -

sharing a controversial new publication

comparing the economic benefit of forestry against farming.

And we try to persuade the Edinburgh public to fall back in love

with one of our greatest foods.

Just be very honest and take your time.

-That's really good, isn't it?

-Yeah?

-Yeah, lovely.

You want to finish it off?

No, it's all right, I'll finish this on the way down the road!

But first, what a winter we've had - wet and windy.

For once, they've had it much worse down south,

with many areas underwater for months.

For many of us, this winter has been striking

because of the lack of snow.

The ground has stayed soft and very wet,

which could cause major problems as we really get into lambing.

Here on Cairngorm there's lots of snow,

meaning there's been a pretty good season.

In fact, some of the centres over in the west are reporting

the best snow for 20 years.

But with budget deals offering guaranteed holidays

to the best snow conditions on the Continent,

what does it take to compete in the snow business today?

Running a ski centre in Scotland is a risky business.

I've been finding out about some of the early pioneers.

Back in 1892, a mountaineer called William Wilson Naismith

headed up the Kilsyth Hills,

strapped a pair of ash boards to his feet,

and, armed with a wooden pole, launched himself downwards.

And that was the birth of skiing in Scotland.

From those early beginnings, skiing in Scotland has now grown

into an industry worth £29 million a year.

Back in the early days, there were no tows,

no cafes and no padded clothing.

All those pioneering skiers needed was to be able to get to the snow.

The first ski destination in Scotland was Ben Lawers,

on the northern shore of Loch Tay.

In the 1930s, there was no infrastructure,

just a mountain and some snow.

It would be 20 years before skiing became big business.

By the 1950s, skiing was growing in popularity.

People were becoming more mobile and wanted to ski further afield.

Then, in 1955, the first fixed ski tow was built right here at Glencoe.

NEWSREEL: Nowadays, they go up the easy way -

the chairlift takes away all their backbreaking climb up.

I'm taking a ride on the modern chairlift with Alan Baillie,

now head of the ski patrol here at Glencoe.

He's been skiing in Scotland for 50 years.

Nearly all people in those days, myself included,

we took to skiing from climbing, so we were either rock climbers

or hill walkers, and, well, this was another aspect of going to the hills.

The equipment obviously in those days and the type of skiing

you would do, I would imagine being pretty different from today.

Pretty different from today.

In those days, we were skiing on wee, narrow planks of wood, which...

It was completely different, lacing boots.

And of course some of the clothing was pretty antique.

With access into the hills becoming easier,

the skiing movement really took off in the '60s and '70s

when chairlift companies opened up all across the country,

and more than 100 ski clubs were formed.

Ed Rattray was one of the first members of the Aberdeen Ski Club.

The Aberdeen Ski Club, we bought hundreds of pairs of ex-Army skis,

matched them up, and so forth, and the bus service was wonderful.

20,000 people skiing on the Scottish mountains each weekend.

It became an industry.

As more and more people flocked to the newly created ski centres,

it became clear that there was money to be made in the snow business.

NEWSREEL: A unique holiday centre in the Highlands of Scotland,

offering year-round facilities - that's the claim made for Aviemore.

30 years later, there was a new kid on the block

that gave the industry a further boost.

A big change is of course snowboarding.

And in actual fact, for some... For a while there,

I would have said that snowboarders kept the skiing going here.

Snowboarders are slightly mad and they seem to be prepared

to put up with conditions that more sensible skiers

would call it a day.

This season looks like it'll stretch well into April and even beyond.

Provisional figures for the season indicate

the five Scottish ski centres are on track to equal

last year's figure of 291,000 skiing days.

With each skier estimated to spend £100,

the industry looks to have a healthy future.

As long as it continues to snow.

When you consider it's just over 100 years

since William Wilson Naismith strapped those wooden boards

and hurled himself down the Kilsyth Hills,

Scottish skiing has come a long way.

From the snow-covered tops of the Highlands

to Euan in the Lowlands of Dumfries & Galloway.

This is Eskdalemuir, an area of Dumfries and Galloway

that sits to the north-east of Lockerbie.

The area that I'm driving through at the moment

was once an upland sheep farm.

And it's now part of 50,000 acres of commercial forestry.

The area is also subject to the specially commissioned report

that has been exclusively revealed to Landward.

The study analyses how much forestry is worth to the rural economy

compared specifically to sheep farming.

The research was prepared by an independent consultant

working for Scotland's Rural College, but it was commissioned by ConFor,

the body which represents the timber industry.

So I want to find out for myself what the findings mean -

just how does forestry compare to farming?

This report suggests that both rural Scotland and Scotland's farmers

could benefit by turning away from sheep and towards forestry.

In Eskdalemuir, the research suggests that

farming puts £3.5 million into the local economy,

compared to the £7 million spent by forestry.

And that before subsidies, sheep farming loses over £400,000,

while forestry generates a profit of just over £3 million.

Stuart Goodall is the Chief Executive of ConFor.

The report they commissioned only looks at Eskdalemuir,

so do these figures apply to Scotland more widely?

It's not something you could simply replicate everywhere,

but what it does say is that that margin is so great that surely it

must be a viable option for a farmer in many parts of Scotland to look

at integrating forestry into their farm as an economic opportunity.

What about jobs?

If you look at the forest we're in just now,

we've got a 1,000-hectare forest which is being harvested

in different sections at a time, replanted,

and the managers here are saying that they can support

about eight, ten, possibly twelve full-time jobs

on an ongoing basis.

That's an awful lot more than it would be

if it was under sheep farming.

They're higher-paid jobs,

and what the report says is that those jobs

are putting twice as much money into the local economy

than a farming job would.

Which has got to be good for local people, as well.

But that's not something John Tullie agrees with.

He farms near Hawick in the Borders with his son, Andrew.

All around them, farms have been planted up.

If you look at the map here, obviously the existing forestry,

long-standing Craik Forest and Eskdalemuir -

large blocks of forestry that were planted back in the '60s.

The highlighted stuff that I filled in recently

are farms that have gone in the last few years.

So these are farms that are actually now in forestry?

-They're now in forestry.

-Wow, that's quite a lot, isn't it?

Yeah, and that's what's happening. We're getting blanket forestry.

It does nothing for the local community.

One of the arguments is that it's actually going to be the same number

of jobs, it will just be forestry jobs as opposed to sheep jobs.

Yes, but they're not local jobs.

Forestry crews move all over the country.

There was a crew cutting trees down up here who came from Aberdeenshire.

So, it's not... There are very few local jobs -

people that are actually living in the community,

forming part of the community, spending their money locally.

You get a community spirit when everybody's got the same interests,

a common feeling, we're losing a lot of that.

Come on. Come on, girls, come on.

'Nigel Miller is president of the National Farmers Union of Scotland.

'He is also a sheep farmer.'

The figures, to me, just don't add up.

They seem to be very extreme and maybe slightly taken out of context.

The reality is that farms are the base of the community,

they continually drive money into, I suppose, small villages.

They also give employment every day of the year,

and that's pretty important if we want to actually see a lively

or a living countryside.

Yeah, but the figures, you look at the figures,

why should we stick with sheep farming when forestry,

potentially, could be a major contributor to the Scottish economy?

I think forestry does contribute to the Scottish economy,

and I think we would recognise there is going to be planting

to make sure that that cycle goes on.

We've got some pretty big processing plants,

but in reality it's a small player compared to agriculture.

Agriculture is the base of our biggest manufacturing industry -

food and drink.

And we have big targets there to increase, by billions,

-our reach in world markets.

-How do you square the two?

You're saying that food and drink is a really important part

of the Scottish economy, the figures suggesting that forestry

could be a potentially massive part of the Scottish economy,

do we have enough space for both of them to coexist?

Well, I think in many ways these aspirations,

you know, are a car crash, the reality is we can't have both.

If we are really interested in being a food producer,

we've actually got to try and look at realistic forestry targets.

I've lived in and worked in Scotland's traditional farming area

all my life, and I know how important farming is for our food supply

and our communities.

But I also have a degree in forestry,

and the benefits of increased planting are undeniable.

For me, it's a real dilemma,

and just one of the issues we'll be exploring in this series.

Now, remember Landward is your show,

and we'd like to hear about the people, the places and the topics

that you want to see on the programme. Send your ideas to...

And now you can also go online

to get the Landward five-day weather forecast at...

And now I'm off to Edinburgh to give Nick a hand.

Across the series, we'll be sourcing the finest Scottish food

from producers across the country.

And cooking up their best offerings in our new Landward street food van.

I'll be Nick's not-so-glamorous assistant.

We'll also be giving passers-by here in Edinburgh

a taste of what we make.

And if there's one Scottish product that really needs to be championed,

it's lamb. Because the rest of the UK eats 70% more than we do.

And ours is great.

Lambing season is in full swing for many farmers right now.

Most of the lambs born this spring will be sold for meat

in autumn this year.

But traditional breeds like blackface lamb take longer to mature -

their meat is still succulent when they're a year old.

Today, we'll be preparing chops from last year's crop of blackie lambs.

The lambs were reared by the McFadyen family in Perthshire.

Some of these sheep are going to market tomorrow.

What are you looking for?

Well, we'll go through them all, handle them all,

make sure that they've enough cover on them, enough flesh on them.

Nae point in selling things that have just got bones on them.

They've got to have enough flesh.

Nice and slow. Whoa.

So, George, sheep are the most intelligent four-legged creatures

-on the planet, or not? Discuss.

-Discuss?

Right, sheep have a lot of wit and intelligence.

They just use it against you, Nick, that's the trouble.

Right.

I am a huge fan of the eating qualities of blackface lamb.

Do you have any reason why blackface sheep taste so good?

They're a wee bit older,

so they've taken more time to absorb all the natural flavours

that they've grown over in the past six or seven months on the hills,

where they've got a wide diversification of natural pasture -

a nibble of heather, a wee bite of strange herbs.

But to get them finished and to get the flavour that we like,

we've got to feed them hard in the last couple of months.

So the ones that are ready for market get a wee spray.

Just a wee spray. Oh, it's a good lamb there.

Even with hands like that, I can hardly get over...

I just like to feel them over their loin, which is where the chops are.

-That's a good lamb there.

-This one?

-This one, aye.

When you put your hand on them,

you'll feel if they're not ready, their backbone will come up.

Now, your butcher's kindly given me a couple of saddles

and I'm going to take them into the heart of Edinburgh,

onto Princes Street, and let the passers-by taste them.

-What sort of reaction do you think I'm going to get?

-I don't think they'll know what's hit them.

They'll not have tasted anything as good as that.

Traditionally, we don't eat much lamb,

as it is seen as being more expensive than chicken or pork,

and it has a reputation for being a wee bit fatty.

You've got these lovely little lamb chops.

They're almost like little lollipops.

What better way to challenge those perceptions

than letting the people of Edinburgh taste Nick's lamb chops?

OK, so, little bit of olive oil, bit of salt and pepper,

some thyme and some garlic, onto a hot grill

and we're just going to cook these until they're crispy on the outside.

We'll keep them a little bit pink on the inside.

-I think lamb needs to be left a little pink. A leg of lamb can have...

-It smells great.

-Oh, fantastic.

-..a long, slow cooking, yeah.

There we go.

A lovely bit of juicy fat in there.

They smell so good. Really fantastic.

Now, the resting time for these is about three or four minutes.

We cook them for three or four minutes, we rest them for three or four minutes.

Let's see if we're not the only ones that love a bit of lamb.

-Let's show them what they've been missing.

-Absolutely.

-Can I interest you in some lamb chops?

-No, thank you.

-I don't eat meat, thank you.

-You don't eat meat? OK.

Give it a go, and...

-Could I interest you in some lamb chops?

-No, it's OK.

-No?

Exceptional.

-Can I interest you in some lamb chops?

-No.

So, it would appear that lamb's not very popular.

Just be very honest and take your time.

-I love lamb chops.

-Fire in. Have a wee taste of these boys.

Yeah.

-What do you think of that?

-Mmm, very nice.

-Do you like?

-Beautiful.

-That's really good, isn't it?

-Yeah?

-Yeah, that's lovely.

-Definitely lamb.

-Are you a vegetarian?

-I'm sorry.

-What about you?

-Yeah.

-You're a vegetarian, too?

-Yeah, sorry.

I shouldn't ask you questions with your mouth full, should I?

I've got one as well, they're delicious.

Do you want to finish it off?

It's all right, I'll finish this on the way down the road!

Nick, I've got rid of all mine.

I've still got two left,

I seem to have found every vegetarian in Edinburgh.

It's quite incredible, cos some of the people I said, "Would you like a lamb chop?"

They were going, "Oh, no, not lamb!"

It's amazing that a lot of people in Scotland

are just not into it at all.

'Well, it seems some of the Edinburgh public are going to need

'a little more persuasion to eat more Scotch lamb.'

'And we'll be celebrating more of Scotland's best producers

'across the series.'

Next week, I'll be cooking ceviche scallops -

that's raw scallops cured with lime juice, chilli and coriander.

-Raw?

-Raw.

-I look forward to that. I think.

Now, from Edinburgh, we're off to Glenmore Forest in the Cairngorms

where Euan is looking for pine martens.

Once common in woods across the UK, pine martens were driven

almost to extinction after being trapped and shot by gamekeepers.

Today, pine martens are protected by the full force of the law

and numbers are slowly increasing.

Here at the Glenmore Forest Park near Aviemore,

the population is thriving.

I'm meeting Kenny Kortland, who's in charge of a Forestry Commission

project to study the behaviour of pine martens,

with the long-term aim of reintroducing them to England.

Pine martens, what happened?

Well, a couple of hundred years ago,

the forests in Scotland had largely disappeared

and there was a lot of illegal persecution,

so their population shrank back to a wee fragment on the West Coast.

And you're tagging them at the moment, why?

Well, we want to learn about how to manage the forest to help them,

we want to learn more about where they rear their young

and where they sleep, because we don't understand that very well.

We have to protect them from forestry operations.

-But they are here?

-Definitely here, there's probably at least 20 animals in this forest.

'And it's not long before we spot signs that the martens are nearby.'

Here's some tracks. You can see they've been along this track.

These are pine marten tracks?

Yeah, these are marten tracks. Two individuals, by the look of it,

-running along this track, and they commute along these tracks really frequently.

-So they're quite big?

They're pretty big, yeah. Like a slender domestic cat.

Just trotting along the track here?

Absolutely, yeah - it's easier to walk along,

just like the way we use tracks.

-You've got some traps out here?

-Yeah, we've got ten traps in the forests

and we're trying to catch them, so we'll go and check one out.

'To help the pine marten population thrive,

'Kenny and his team need to know more about them.

'But first we have to catch them using a series of cage traps

'set into areas that they are likely to run through.'

-It's pretty well camouflaged, isn't it?

-Yeah, absolutely,

-we cover the traps with moss.

-So, the moment of truth.

Yeah, we've got an animal in there, so that's great.

'Many people go their whole lives without seeing a pine marten,

'but today is my lucky day.'

Is this a dangerous operation?

It's not dangerous, but it's a wee bit tricky.

And there we have a pine marten.

We've got to get the animal from this cage trap into this sack, Euan,

and that's the tricky bit. You can see she's...

It looks like a female, because of the size.

She's pulled in all this material to make a wee bed.

-You've got to have a licence to do this, haven't you?

-Absolutely.

You can help us, but you can't hold the animal.

So the idea is to put this on the end here.

'The Forestry Commission are hoping to tag ten pine martens

'as part of the project, but putting a collar on a predator like this

'is a tricky business.'

That's perfect.

'One mistake with teeth as sharp as these

'could result in a very nasty bite.'

So the idea now is just to get her into the corner,

so just gently feel for...

what's the front end and what's the back.

-So you're going to tag it today?

-Yes, going to tag it right now.

This is the tricky bit.

Just gently hold her.

There we go.

Yeah.

Wow.

The colour of that. It's beautiful, isn't it?

-It looks remarkably unfazed.

-Yeah.

That's the good thing about working with martens,

is that once you get hold of them,

and I'm not really holding her tightly,

I'm just preventing her from moving her head round and biting me,

they're quite calm.

And I can feel her heart rate slowing down now.

So is this quite new technology, then?

Yes, it's the latest generation of GPS tags, so the tag can...

We've got them set to work for eight months,

and they take a fix every hour, so we get a vast amount of data.

And we'll know exactly where she lives

and what sort of habitat she is using.

And what's the long-term aim for this?

The long-term aim is, animals might be taken to England,

and there's certainly plenty of habitat down there for them.

So they were widespread in England at one point?

Absolutely, and then they were persecuted a few centuries ago

and became extinct in England.

And the work we are doing here could help them in England

if they wanted to reintroduce them,

because they'll probably want to track the animals,

if they release any, so this is kind of

a forerunner to that, potentially.

-Quite exciting potential, isn't it?

-Absolutely, yes.

The collar may look big, but research has shown

that the pine martens adapt quickly to the extra weight.

The data it collects should reveal fascinating details

about how the pine martens survive and how they hunt their prey,

mostly small animals like squirrels and nice.

This has been really amazing.

They're beautiful animals at the best of times,

but right up close, it is just awesome.

Beautiful wee eyes, and those teeth, just an incredible animal.

And hopefully, we'll come back in the autumn and recatch it,

and learn some valuable data to help it survive

and possibly even make it down to England.

So, very gently...

We're going to put her back in the wild.

OK, my dear.

And there she goes.

Earlier in the programme,

I found out about the development of skiing in Scotland,

and I'm now off to meet someone who was involved in setting up

Glencoe, Cairngorm and Nevis Range ski centres.

She's also a climber, an author, a canoeist,

and in the truest sense of the word, an adventurer.

Now in her eighties, Myrtle Simpson, who was born in Hampshire,

lives in the shadow of the Cairngorms.

One of the pioneers of Scottish skiing,

she eventually became chair of the Scottish National Ski Council.

As a young woman, she started work as a radiographer

at the Belford Hospital in Fort William.

She didn't have much money to live,

so she camped at the foot of Ben Nevis.

People in Fort William, they thought I was pretty odd.

Radiographers didn't get much cash, so anyway, I camped.

Had a good tent, and a Primus,

and I'd get up early and wash my face in the hospital

before the patients came along, and it was just magic.

Myrtle then set herself up as a mountain guide on Ben Nevis,

but soon, she aspired to higher peaks,

and travelled to Peru, where she made some notable first ascents.

Oh, we climbed the highest peak.

That's the Huascaran. 22,000 feet.

We saw the sun on the summit. Magic, magic hill, and thought,

"Well, we've got a week left. Let's give it a go."

So we just went for it, just the three of us, carrying our own stuff.

When she returned from Peru,

Myrtle married her fellow climber Hugh.

Their next destination, the Arctic.

And then I found I was pregnant.

Baby, last thing I wanted,

but it never occurred to me that I wouldn't go too.

-So we took the young baby with us.

-What age?

He was six weeks.

What were people saying about you taking a six-week-old baby

-to the Arctic?

-Well, the Lapps thought it perfectly natural.

What about here, though? Did anyone make comments about it?

Yes, a lot of people said why didn't I leave the baby at home,

but I thought I didn't want to do that.

How did you balance family life with your spirit of adventure?

Well, we always took the kids.

I mean, one of the problems was the equipment.

None of the shops sold equipment.

I had to make their anoraks and things like that.

Kids just love the outdoors.

It's been an outdoor life all the way,

from skiing across Greenland to expeditions to China.

In later life, she spent more time at home, acting as a consultant

to some of Scotland's growing number of ski centres.

A lot of people would look at your life

and the stories you have from it

and say that it's remarkable and pioneering.

How do you react to those kind of...

Oh, I don't think people really think that. They think...

"Nutter." You know. "That's a nutcase."

I love to go to somewhere new, and whenever I go,

I like to know where I am.

We have to have a sense of place, and if you've got that,

you want to go and push over the boundaries and look over the horizon.

A remarkable woman, and one of the people we have to thank

for the vibrant mountain sports industry we have in Scotland.

On next week's programme,

could scallop ranching become as successful as salmon farming?

And is it time to stop

the controversial culling of mountain hares?

Please join us next week

at the slightly later time of 7:30 on BBC 2 Scotland.

In the meantime, from all of us here in the hills,

let's hope the snow sticks around.

Thanks for your company. Bye for now.