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PODCAST

Open Country

Countryside magazine featuring the people and wildlife that shape the landscape of the British Isles

science nature

All Episodes

24:02

Somerset Peat: Past, Present and Future

Open Country ·

2016/01/21

Helen Mark uncovers why peat makes the Somerset Levels a special place to visit, not just for the wildlife. Since earliest times humans have exploited this natural resource. Its wetlands once supported Lake Villagers whose secrets lay buried deep beneath the feet of the modern archaeologist keen to uncover what these wetlands preserves for millennia.A mere 50 years ago the extraction of peat was a major industry employing hundreds of people. It was cut for fuel, for horticulture, even animal feed

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24:47

Yorkshire in the Dark

Open Country ·

2016/01/14

Yorkshire looks different in the dark. Helen Mark looks up into the heavens and deep underground for a new understanding of England's biggest county.Off-road cycling in the Dales becomes a lot more thrilling when you strike out into the dark and, armed with an infra-red nghtscope you realise just how busy the forests of the North York Moors National Park are after sunset.Helen will also be discovering how the Brontë sisters filled the long nights in the Haworth Parsonage and mining precious Blue

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24:41

River Tay

Open Country ·

2016/01/07

The Tironesian monks of Lindores Abbey were forcibly removed by Protestant firebrand John Knox in 1559 but they've left an extraordinary legacy for Tayside. The orchards they planted with native French varieties of pear, plum and apple were subdivided as the nearby town of Newburgh took shape. Every autumn the locals set out their stalls and sell purple pyramids of unusual plums and cartloads of the apples that can ripen on the trees beyond Christmas.The monks are also credited with the creation of

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24:20

The Northern Lights at Christmas

Open Country ·

2015/12/17

For a Christmas special Helen Mark visits the snow covered landscape of Swedish Lapland in search of the mythical, and often elusive, Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis. In Sami culture the lights are thought to emanate from the souls of the dead and must be treated with immense respect. Traditionally the Sami remained indoors during a display but today the chance of seeing the Northern Lights brings many visitors to this remote part of Sweden. Helen Mark hears about the mythology which surrounds

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24:25

Lincolnshire Coast Revival

Open Country ·

2015/12/10

On the 5th of December 2013 the Lincolnshire community saw the worst flooding in 60 years. A tidal surge two metres above normal levels flooded coastal nature reserves and Gibraltar Point visitor centre was severely damaged. Two years on and Helen Mark finds a remarkable transformation taking place here and along the coastline with a series of iconic buildings and art installations including a new marine observatory, a cloud watching bar and a new visitor centre built on stilts to protect it from

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24:32

Pendle Hill, Lancashire

Open Country ·

2015/11/26

Why do witches and radical pacifists haunt Pendle Hill, one of Lancashire's best known landmarks? Helen Mark hears about the witch trials of 400 years ago, and the visionary Quaker founder, George Fox - all of whom are indelibly linked to this strikingly whale-backed hill. Producer: Mark Smalley.

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24:45

Prehistoric Gower

Open Country ·

2015/11/20

Writer Iain Sinclair seeks the UK's oldest burial site in a cave along south Gower's windy clifftops. The 'Red Lady of Paviland' was interred in a cave 26,000 years ago, the bones decorated with red ochre. But, as he tells Helen Mark, "she" was in fact a he, buried with jewellery and alongside a mammoth's skull. This was at a time when the Bristol Channel was a tundra landscape. Best known for his psychogeographic journeyings through unloved modern landscapes and wastelands, such as the M25

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24:50

Tollesbury Wick in Essex

Open Country ·

2015/11/18

Helen Mark visits Tollesbury Wick on the Essex coast. Situated on the mouth of Tollesbury Fleet and the Blackwater estuary, a giant sea wall snakes around the coast protecting both village and ancient grazing marshland. Helen meets the Wildlife Trust warden who cares for 650 hectares of unspoilt 'humpy bumpy' marshland and gets a surprise when she finds out what those bumps actually are. She learns about the seafaring history of the place from a descendent of boat builders and discovers how it was

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24:29

Big Chill in Llanthony

Open Country ·

2015/10/29

Twenty years ago The Big Chill festival pioneered the concept of the boutique festival. Helen Mark meets founder Pete Lawrence as he returns to the magical Llanthony Valley where the first festival was staged. Together they explore the history of this unique landscape which has attracted artists and seekers of solitude since the 13th Century. The imposing ruins of Llanthony Priory have been painted by Turner and it is here where Pete first decided to hold an event characterised by music in keeping

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24:29

The Peak District

Open Country ·

2015/09/03

Helen Mark is in the Peak District to meet Mountain Rescue Team who keep visitors safe should they come a cropper when enjoying the rugged countryside.The Peak District is one of the most popular destinations in the world as over half the UK's population lives within an hour of the area. Helen takes to two wheels to discover the network of traffic-free cycle tracks, before meeting the Buxton Mountain Rescue team on one of their exercises. The summer is one of their busiest of times and they

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24:32

The Glenfinnan Gathering

Open Country ·

2015/08/27

The Glenfinnan Gathering is an annual Highland games event that takes place on the shores of Loch Shiel, on the west coast of Scotland, in the shadow of the Jacobite Monument every August. It has now been running for over 50 years and commemorates the raising the standard by Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745.The Gathering features traditional Highland games events: hammer throwing, caber tossing, traditional dancing and piped bands. It's a chance for people from the local area to compete with their

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24:29

Cornish Alps

Open Country ·

2015/08/20

From a ferry, Helen sees the sharp, conical peaks that dominate the coastline, known locally as the Cornish Alps. The skipper, John Wood, explains how they were formed from the spoils of the clay industry.Helen takes a closer look at one of the largest of the spoil heaps near St Austell, known as the Sky Tip, and talks to primary school teacher Ann Teague and local landlord Andrew Dean about why they think it is such an important landmark. They explain how they see beauty in the scarred industrial

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24:58

Jersey Shores

Open Country ·

2015/08/13

Jersey doubles in size when the tide goes out. Helen Mark discovers what the retreating waters reveal, from the evidence of our Neanderthal ancestors to the extraordinary marine life of the island's reefs.At La Rocque three local guides take her across miles of treacherous shifting sands to Seymour Tower, built to defend Jersey against the French but used by the German occupiers. On the north coast she meets Dusty, the first red-billed chough to be born in the wild in Jersey for a hundred years and

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24:26

Thomas Hardy's Dorset

Open Country ·

2015/08/06

Thomas Hardy is one of England's most enduring writers. 175 years after his birth a new film of 'Far From the Madding Crowd' has recently been released and like the original version from 1967 it features scenes shot in the beautiful Dorset countryside. For Hardy the heathland, forests and rivers which surrounded his birthplace at Higher Bockhampton near Dorchester were more than a backdrop. Landscape in Hardy's novel is central to the narrative and it is his vivid descriptions of the stunning

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24:34

Rathlin Island

Open Country ·

2015/07/30

Helen Mark visits Rathlin Island situated just off the North Coast of Antrim.Despite having a population of just over a hundred people, Rathlin Island is a thriving community. Its rugged landscape is home to a population of farmers and fishers, and supports thousands of sea birds.Each year around thirty thousand tourists flock to the island and Helen discovers what its like to live there during the busy summer months, and once the tourists have left and the island is quiet once more in the winter

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24:33

The North Antrim Coast

Open Country ·

2015/07/23

Helen Mark takes to the seas to explore the North Antrim Coastline, taking in Giant's Causeway and Carrick-a-Rede from the water.She meets Robin Ruddock who teaches people to kayak along this coast and is joined by experts from Ulster Wildlife who tell her about the Living Seas project and the richness and diversity of marine life found in the waters off the North Antrim Coast.Presenter: Helen Mark Producer: martin Poyntz-Roberts.

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24:28

Ospreys in Cumbria

Open Country ·

2015/07/22

Caz Graham goes in search of Cumbria's regular visiting ospreys at a selection of locations in the Lake District.Once extinct in England, Ospreys are now thriving in the UK. Breeding pairs are well established in Scotland and for several years they have become regular visitors to the Lake District.Caz travels to Foulshaw Moss, a nature reserve on the side of the busy A590, just south of Kendal, where a nesting pair have made their home and are raising three chicks. Whilst there she encounters a host

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24:43

Celebrating Golowan in Cornwall

Open Country ·

2015/07/09

Golowan is the Cornish tradition of lighting Midsummer Bonfires. This ancient tradition which hopes to prolong the summer sun for a good harvest was revived by The Old Cornish Society. Helen Mark meets some of their members to learn how they hope to keep the unique identity of this place alive and well. On Bodmin Moor and Kit Hill there are reminders of man's habitation going back 5000 years. The fires they light on Bodmin Moor each year hark back to pre-historic times and scattered around the moor

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24:37

The Lengthsman with Antony Gormley

Open Country ·

2015/07/02

The Landmark Trust exists to save endangered important buildings and to enable people to inhabit them. For their 50th anniversary they invited one of our most celebrated artists Sir Antony Gormley to create a sculpture at 5 iconic locations across the country. The centre point of these 5 pieces is The Lengthsmans Cottage in Lowsonford which sits on the side of the Stratford-Upon-Avon canal in Warwickshire. Each work of art has been composed in direct response to the landscape which surrounds them

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24:35

The ancient sport of hound trailing in Cumbria

Open Country ·

2015/05/14

Helen Mark visits Cumbria to watch the exciting and ancient sport of hound trailing. At the May Day races, she meets owners Wendy and Russell Dawson who treat their dogs like royalty. Cared for like athletes, they eat chicken and rabbit, and are bathed before a race. They are trained from pups to follow a scent, but it's a gamble if any will have the instincts of a champion. Helen walks the trail, which is scented with aniseed and paraffin, and meets owner Margaret Baxter who explains why this

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334 results

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