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John Craven visits the Falls of Foyers in Scotland, one of the places, the great poet Robert Burns visited on his 600 mile long tour of the Highlands. It was here that Burns penned the lines ‘Still thro’ the gap the struggling river toils. And still, below, the horrid cauldron boils’.Ìý Pauline Mackay from Glasgow University’s project ‘Editing Burns for the 21st Century’ guides John through the life of this ‘heaven taught ploughman’; from his humble beginnings as a farmer in Ayrshire to the elite literary circles of Edinburgh.Ìý ÌýJohn and Pauline mark Burns night with the traditional meal of haggis, neeps and tatties, presented with bag pipes and Burns’ verse ‘Address to a Haggis’.

Ellie Harrison heads to St Cyrus beach, a diverse nature reserve on the Aberdeenshire coast.Ìý It lies just north of Montrose, which was another stopping point on Burns’ tour of his native country.Ìý St Cyrus was a childhood haunt of world-renowned landscape photographer Colin Prior and still holds inspiration for him today.Ìý Ellie meets Colin at sunrise for a masterclass on capturing that perfect moment in time.Ìý She learns how Colin uses photographs to convey the transient, ever-changing nature of Scotland’s scenery, as Burns did with verse.Ìý Later on, Colin and Ellie are joined by modern-day poets Beth, Nikki and Lindsay. Colin inspires them, and Ellie, to take photographs which will give them a new perspective on the landscape, and also encourages them to create some poignant contemporary poetry.

The Falls of Foyers flow into the murky depths of Loch Ness, famous for its elusive legendary creature, the Loch Ness monster.ÌýÌý John joins local ranger Katy Martin on the hunt for another secretive animal of the Great Glen; the red squirrel. ÌýÌýAlthough the squirrels remain hidden, Katy can find plenty of chewed pine cones, indicating their abundance in the area.ÌýÌý Thanks to the local pine martens, which have an appetite for chubby city-fed grey squirrels, the threat of invasion by rogue greys, and the deadly squirrel pox virus they carry, is kept at bay.

This week on Countryfile, Adam Henson visits a farm in Derbyshire where they’re fighting tough times in the dairy industry by converting an incredible 35 tons of cow muck into electricity and cash every day. Traditionally bull calves born in dairy herds have very short lives, but on his visit to this farm Adam discovers that they rear their bull calves on a diet that contains bread to produce top quality rose veal and beef.

John continues in Burns’ footsteps as he travels to Highland Perthshire. As well as writing, Burns made it his mission to collect music to wed his words to. He visited this area to share verse and tunes with fiddler Niel Gow.Ìý John meets musician Pete Clark, who also draws inspiration from the Perthshire landscape, like Burns did before him.ÌýBut Burns visited this landscape for another reason. 100 years before he came here, this magnificent landscape was the site of the bloody battle of Killiecrankie. ÌýHistorian Tony Pollard shows John the site where the first Jacobite battle took place. It was a conflict that changed the course of Scottish history, sparking the Jacobite risings.

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Each year around 280,000 people get ill from eating raw or undercooked chicken. It’s all down to a bacteria called campylobacter and despite efforts from the poultry industry to get on top of the problem, a recent survey showed it’s still rife in chickens found on supermarket shelves. Three years ago the Food Standards Agency promised Countryfile it was tackling the issue. They even set a target to more than halve the number of most highly contaminated birds. As we near the deadline Tom investigates why that target looks unlikely to be met, and sees some of the new ways chicken producers are trying to eradicate the bug.

Ellie is in the Cairngorms National Park.ÌýÌý She is also following in the footsteps of Robert Burns, but this time from the vantage point of a sure-footed Highland Pony.Ìý Lorraine Duncan from the Newtonmore Riding Centre takes Ellie on a pony trek, so that she can experience this rugged terrain and this hardy beast for herself.ÌýBurns made his Highland tour on horse and cart, pulled by his trusty pony Jenny – who just might have been a Highland pony.Ìý Ellie takes the reins to learn how it is done. Ruaridh Ormiston shows her the ropes, and takes her on a spin through a hair-raising obstacle course.