Open Country

24:28

Walter Scott country

Open Country ·

2026/10/01

Martha Kearney visits Walter Scott country. She traces the writer's footsteps through the Scottish countryside, visiting Abbotsford House near Melrose, where he built his Scottish baronial dream. Scott was the best-selling author of his generation, with Waverley station in Edinburgh named after one of his books. As Martha finds out, his writing explores Scotland’s environmental history, including deforestation, land use changes, and the human-nature relationship. He incorporates ecological themes in

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23:50

Whitwell Bird Ringers

Open Country ·

2026/09/24

Brett Westwood goes to meet ornithologist Jack Baddams and his fellow bird ringers in his home village Whitwell in Derbyshire, to find out how the practice of ringing has been passed down the generations there, and learns about the impact it has on nature conservation more widely.Most people know Jack as the young ornithologist who reports for BBC Springwatch. He’s also a bird ringer, licenced by the British Trust for Ornithology to catch and ring wild birds so we can learn more about their lives

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25:57

Kate Stables and Winchester

Open Country ·

2026/09/17

Musician Kate Stables visits her favourite spots in Winchester to find out more about the area that she used to call home. From St Catherine's Hill you can see across the whole city. It's where Kate flew kites, and celebrated her wedding - and with the help of archaeologist David Ashby she finds out about the iron-age settlement and medieval chapel that once adorned the landscape. Dropping down to the River Itchen, Kate and conservationist Rachel Remnant dip their toes into chalk streams, before

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23:49

Saving the Rare Plants of Eryri

Open Country ·

2026/09/10

Martha Kearney meets the people protecting and restoring rare arctic-alpine plants in Eryri, also know as Snowdonia. Robbie Blackhall-Miles is a conservation horticulturist working for the charity Plantlife. He shows Martha his secret nursery for rare plants where he's been propagating species such as the previously extinct rosy saxifrage, in preparation for reintroducing them to the mountains.Martha and Robbie travel to the valley of Nant Ffrancon where work has been happening in collaboration with

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23:48

Bramble Bank Cricket Match

Open Country ·

2026/09/03

Between the mainland and the Isle of Wight, when the tides are low enough and the days long enough, a sandbank emerges from the Solent. At some point each summer, in most summers since 1984, this exposed bank becomes the venue for an extraordinary event: a cricket match between two sailing club teams from opposite sides of the Solent.Test Match Special commentator Alison Mitchell joins the team setting off from Hamble, near Southampton, to witness this remarkable contest, which can only take place

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24:12

River Pilgrimage

Open Country ·

2026/08/27

Pilgrimages are usually associated with the Middle Ages, when they were at their peak. Banned by Henry VIII in the 16th century, they are now regaining popularity. In this programme, Martha Kearney joins a group of people on a river pilgrimage in Kent. They're spending ten days walking the entire route of the River Medway, from its source in the High Weald in Sussex to the point where it empties into the Thames estuary - seventy miles in all. The aim is partly to highlight the current plight of the

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23:25

Ancient Technology Centre

Open Country ·

2026/08/20

Martha Kearney learns ancient skills like forging a knife, flint knapping and making a fire with flint and steel, alongside local schoolchildren at the Ancient Technology Centre in the Dorset countryside. The centre is a unique collection of archaeologically accurate reconstructions of ancient buildings, used for hands-on outdoor history education. Each building represents a different time period: there’s an Earthouse, a Roman forge, an Iron Age Roundhouse, a Saxon workshop and a Viking Longhouse.

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24:30

Bluebird returns to Coniston

Open Country ·

2026/05/14

When Donald Campbell died on Coniston Water in Cumbria in January 1967, attempting to break his own water speed record it was, to many people, the end of an era. Many would always remember where they were when the images of Bluebird K7, the jet hydroplane he was piloting, crashing and disintegrating on the lake appeared on TV screens and the story broke across the world.In March 2001, after 34 years underwater, Donald Campbell’s ill-fated craft was raised from the deep by wreck-finder and engineer,

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23:40

Wildlife Artists on Massingham Heath

Open Country ·

2026/05/07

Martha Kearney is in Norfolk to walk the heathland that is being returned to its ancient grassland habitat by Olly Birkbeck. The Society of Wildlife Artists is holding a year-long residency documenting the recovery of the land and the flora and fauna. Martha meets sculptor Harriet Mead, field painter of birds Darren Woodhead and painter Kim Atkinson to see how they observe and reflect the natural world.The Society of Wildlife Artists: https://swla.co.uk/Producer: Beth O'Dea

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24:25

Roadside Verges

Open Country ·

2026/04/30

Britain's roadside verges rarely get much attention, but can play host to a whole range of plant and animal species. In this programme Martha Kearney finds out about this overlooked habitat. She meets a community group in East Sussex whose members grow plants at home specially to plant in the verges of their village, and talks to the charity Plantlife about the importance of verges as an environmental habitat. She goes out exploring with artist Nessie Ramm, who focuses on painting the tiny details

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23:38

Welsh Incident in Criccieth

Open Country ·

2026/04/23

Jon Gower is in Criccieth in Gwynedd, to explore the area’s connection to Robert Graves’s 1929 poem, Welsh Incident. Robert Graves wrote the poem after inspiration struck on his train travels in the area with his father, after a Welsh policeman aboard told them a story of having recently seeing a mermaid from the sea caves of Criccieth. Jon Gower, a writer and poet himself, heads to the source to learn more, hearing about how the poem resonates with current local residents like the clerk of

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24:08

Deer Stalking in Essex

Open Country ·

2026/04/16

Britain’s deer population has surged to around two million. These iconic animals are well-loved, but their growing numbers are putting real pressure on the countryside - stripping young hedges and woodlands, damaging crops, preventing natural restoration and harming other native wildlife. To control the population, hundreds of thousands of deer are shot each year. Critics argue hunting in the name of conservation is inhumane, and a short-term fix. Others baulk at eating ‘Bambi’. Supporters argue

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23:56

Carrifran Wildwood

Open Country ·

2026/04/09

Martha Kearney visits one of the UK’s earliest environmental restoration projects. Southern Scotland was once covered in broadleaf woodland, rich scrub, heath and bog. That was before sheep, humans and conifers took hold. Now a group of visionary volunteers are restoring that landscape in what they call the ‘wild heart of southern Scotland’.Set in a 1600 acre glacial valley in lowland Scotland, Carrifran Wildwood is the first tranche of a wider restoration area which aims to wheel back six thousand

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24:22

In Celebration of the Daffodil

Open Country ·

2026/04/02

Thriplow Daffodil Weekend in Cambridgeshire started as a way of raising money for a church roof in 1968. Nearly sixty years later, it is thriving. More than 40,000 bulbs are planted each year to create the incredible displays and a small village of just 250 residents welcomes more than 10,000 visitors over the weekend. Martha Kearney joins them to discover what’s involved, meeting the organiser Paul Earnshaw and ‘daffodil Tom’ who spends his winter planting the bulbs.Daffodils are ubiquitous in

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23:27

Restoring Wallasea's Wild Coast

Open Country ·

2026/03/26

Martha Kearney visits Wallasea Island in Essex, the largest manmade coastal nature reserve in Europe. It was created from the 3 million tonnes of London clay that were excavated in the digging out of the Elizabeth Line. The RSPB project used soil from the Crossrail scheme to raise the land, and flood almost 170 hectares of arable land to create saltmarsh, mudflats and lagoons. This was to mitigate for land loss as sea levels rise and it’s the only place that has raised land in order to bring the

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24:10

Stroudwater's missing mile

Open Country ·

2026/03/19

The Stroudwater canal in Gloucestershire was built in the 1770s. It brought coal to the mills along the Stroud valleys, which had become an important centre for the manufacture of woollen cloth, but the arrival of the railways in the mid 19th century led to the canal's decline and eventual abandonment. A mile-long section of it was filled in when the M5 motorway was built in the 1960s, cutting the canal off from the rest of the inland waterways network. Now ambitious multi-million plans are underway

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23:40

The Rock Houses of Staffordshire

Open Country ·

2026/03/12

Martha Kearney visits the unique cave dwellings at Kinver Edge that were lived in until the 1960s. Cosy cottages were built into the soft red sandstone with windows and doors and families lived in them for generations. Martha looks around a cottage which has been restored as it was when it was lived in and hears about the family that lived there. She also finds out about the heathland restoration project which is bringing rare wildlife back to this valuable sandscape. And she meets Brett Westwood to

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24:43

Hedgerow havens

Open Country ·

2026/03/05

Hedges are such a traditional part of the British landscape that most of us don't give them a second thought. They're usually associated with the enclosures of the 17th-19th centuries, when the medieval farming system gave way to enclosed fields surrounded by hedges - designed to keep sheep in and people out. But, as Martha Kearney finds out, many hedges are far older than that - going back thousands of years in some cases. In this programme, Martha explores the history and future of the hedge. She

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23:47

Savernake Forest

Open Country ·

2026/03/02

It's an ancient hunting ground with thousands of 'veteran' trees. Henry VIII visited often as it was the seat of the Seymour Family at nearby Wolfhall. Martha visits the forest to learn about its past as well as how ecologist Andy Harris and forester Nikki Morgans manage this special site and aim to 'future proof' it protecting the ancient trees and wildlife for the next thousand years. Historian Graham Bathe helps her measure one of the thousand year old trees and Emma Heard who produces the

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23:34

The Mourne Mountain Fires

Open Country ·

2026/02/20

The Mourne Mountains in County Down are home to Northern Ireland’s highest and most dramatic peaks - a landscape often shrouded in cloud and rain. Yet in recent years thousands of fires have broken out across the range, the majority believed to have been started deliberately. Dry weather and hotter summers linked to climate change have made conditions even more hazardous, alongside the degradation of peat bogs and increased soil erosion.Martha Kearney visits County Down to hear how local people have

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