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From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Open Country travels the UK in search of the stories, the people and the wildlife that make our countryside such a vibrant place. Each week we visit a new area to hear how local people are growing the crops, protecting the environment, maintaining the traditions and cooking the food that makes their corner of rural Britain unique.
Email: open.country@bbc.co.uk
Postal address: Open Country,
91热爆 Radio 4, Birmingham, B5 7QQ.
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More about Helen Mark |
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Girnigoe and Sinclair Castles
Helen Mark heads for the northern-most part of mainland Britain, to Caithness, in north-eastern Scotland. Bounded by the Pentland Firth to the north and the North Sea to the east, and divided from its neighbour Sutherland by the Ord, a 1000 steep feet of granite ridge, Caithness has developed a strong identity and culture of its own.
This beautiful part of Scotland remains unknown even to many Scots, as Helen hears from Elliot Rudie. The son of a Norwegian, Elliot has a particular interest in the area's Norse roots, and explains how Vikings came to settle there, attracted by the fertile farmland on offer in Caithness. They have left a clearly visible imprint on today's landscape in the form of Nordic place names, like Wick, Papigoe and Saxigoe.
Next on to Dunnet Bay, close to Dunnet Head, the most northerly point of mainland Britain. Here, the primula scotica, or Scottish primrose, a tiny pink flower which flourishes only in northern Scotland and on the Orkney Islands, has been transplanted from its usual forest habitat to nearby sand dunes. Will Menzies, one of the volunteers who helped with the delicate operation, shows Helen the very first signs of new growth and explains how work to improve the forest had temporarily put the primula in danger. Mary Legg, a wildlife ranger with the Highland Council, is also giving nature a helping hand - Helen watches her wade into the chilly waters of St John's Pool, near Dunnet, to secure a raft designed to protect nesting terns and oyster catchers from predatory otters and foxes.
Ian Sinclair says he has never forgiven his father for leaving Thurso and moving to England, leaving his son with Scottish blood but an English birthplace and accent. Inspired by his own son's questions about the family background, Ian moved to Caithness, the historic seat of the Sinclairs, and became the clan archivist, setting up the Sinclair Study Centre in a lighthouse at Noss Head. A short walk across country brings Helen to the remains of the castles of Sinclair and Girnigoe, which desperately need help to withstand the elements. Ian gives Helen a guided tour of the castles he fell in love with and explains the continuing struggle to keep them standing.
The strong ties between Caithness and the sea are nowhere more clearly expressed than in the writings of Neil Gunn, born in 1891 in Dunbeath and a prolific author, whose work includes The Grey Coast, Highland River and The Silver Darlings. Nan Bethune of the Dunbeath Heritage Centre explains to Helen the importance in Gunn's work on the local Viking heritage and the local landscape and how, having left the village as a young teenager, he imbued his work with a huge sense of nostalgia for a world gone for ever. Nan's husband George, whose family was close to the Gunns, recalls the times when he, as a young child, was taken herring fishing because he was thought to bring luck to the boat and increase her catch.
The programme's last look at the sea is from a local beach near John o'Groats, famous for its wealth of seashells. Paul Castle, a wildlife ranger, takes Helen beach combing, looking for the Groatie Buckie, the local lucky shell, and finding more than they expected. One of the finds inspired this week's competition question.
This week's competition: what is the common - and rather gruesome - name for the soft, spongy coral - not unlike packing material - often found washed up on Britain's shorelines?
Submit your entry by emailing open.country@bbc.co.uk
Last week's winner is Clive Barton of Guildford, who correctly said that the inventor of the self-hardening tool steel is Robert Mushet.
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