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00:02I'm stepping back in time as this ancient fortress weathers the storm.
00:08Welcome to Lambert.
00:30This time I've come to Doon Castle near Stirling.
00:34This magnificent medieval fortress has stood tall for hundreds of years,
00:39but now is under attack again as our climate changes.
00:43More on that later, but first, guess what else is coming up.
00:48Oh wow, what an amazing space.
00:51Shabazz discovers how dry-stained diking inspired this incredible art.
00:58I'll cut this open so we can have a wee look inside.
01:01Rosie digs up some vibrant veg.
01:04Look at that, it's like a candy cane.
01:07And Cammy shows off his roping skills.
01:13How do you believe it?
01:18First up, the traditional image of a Highland estate is one of hunting, shooting and fishing.
01:24But these days, some new owners are putting the focus on restoration rather than recreation.
01:31Arlene's on an estate now, meeting people, trying to make some money from rewilding.
01:38This is Dorbach, a former shooting estate covering 15,000 acres of the Cairngorms National Park.
01:47It was sold earlier this year to a company buying up large swathes of land across the country.
01:54Founded just four years ago, Exeter-based Oxygen Conservation has bought 12 estates across the UK, including five in Scotland.
02:06Excited about the project at Dorbach is Chris Winter.
02:09Over the hill, you can see Abernethy Forest, owned by the RSPB.
02:13You can imagine them connecting up from the Dorbach estate all the way and kind of joined up forest.
02:18He's Director of Natural Capital with Oxygen Conservation.
02:22They're one of several so-called green lairds buying up land with the goal of rewilding for profit.
02:30How do you make money from conservation?
02:33So what we do is we raise private sector money.
02:36We invest in the restoration of nature and then deliver environmental and social impact first
02:41and profit as a result of what we do, not the purpose.
02:43And a key part of how we make money and how we make profit is through the sale of high
02:49-quality, impactful carbon credits.
02:52What does that actually mean? What is it?
02:54What we do is we restore nature.
02:56We measure how much carbon is removed from the atmosphere through the restoration of nature
03:00and sell that to organisations who are looking to reduce and offset their impact on the climate.
03:08Selling carbon credits has become big business in the last five years.
03:14Some think it's a quick fix for major companies looking to cancel out carbon emissions.
03:22Whatever you think, work has already begun here at Dorbach, restoring degraded peatland and planting trees.
03:31The trees are a wonderful solution to climate change.
03:34They take carbon out of the atmosphere and they store it in the trunks as they grow.
03:38And then alongside that, they are creating native woodlands which provide homes for biodiversity.
03:43They're storing water, they're reducing flood risk.
03:46There is no better tool than restoring nature.
03:48But growing more trees means you want fewer deer grazing them.
03:54Today, Doris Kirk is counting the herds on the estate with the help of a drone.
04:00Doris, is it safe to approach?
04:01It is indeed, yes.
04:03That is some beast you have there.
04:05It is, yes.
04:06It's amazing.
04:07So you can see here on the left hand side, I can see thermal imagery.
04:11So it's a little bit of a grey and white landscape, but those black spots there just on the horizon,
04:17they're actually warm bodies.
04:19Today, we've been able to visually confirm that they're deer by using, on the right hand side here, the visual
04:24camera.
04:26Why is it important to have this data?
04:28It's important for us to make data-driven decisions when it comes to herbivore management.
04:34So when traditional survey methods are in place, what happens is folks will count deer in a small area and
04:42extrapolate that number to the acreage that they have.
04:44This enables us to survey the whole estate so we can get a better bird's eye view of every individual
04:49deer that's on the estate at that time.
04:51Knowing how many deer they're dealing with lets them decide if numbers need to be reduced by culling.
04:58But making these landscape scale changes can be at odds with other estates.
05:03For Chris, it's a necessary part of their work.
05:07It's a difficult thing to be, you know, a conservation company that's killing animals.
05:11It's not a comfortable place, but the reality of land management, particularly in Scotland, is deer need to be managed
05:18for our nature recovery.
05:19But that's going to be controversial and people are going to view things differently.
05:23We'll always take the time to listen and talk to people, but ultimately we're going to disagree on things and
05:28it's challenging.
05:30Whether you think the rewilding work at Doorback is an investment in nature in the face of climate change or
05:37simple greenwashing, Chris is in no doubt his company has a future here.
05:43We're facing big challenges and we see this as a real exciting growth industry, like this is going to help
05:49tackle society's big challenges and that is going to create new jobs, new innovation and new sources of income to
05:55these rural environments, which is really going to, I mean, set Scotland apart in the world as a real hub
06:00of innovation.
06:02Managing the land for profit isn't new and in that sense, Chris's company is no different to what came before.
06:10Hunting, shooting and fishing, rewilding and all points in between.
06:15The debate on how we manage Scotland's land will continue as long as there's people to manage it.
06:28We are all aware of the impacts of climate change, extreme weather events and increased flooding.
06:34And many of our heritage sites are impacted too, like this, the mighty Dune Castle.
06:41Over its turbulent history, it's faced many threats, but I've come here to find out how it's been protected for
06:47the future.
06:49And leading that charge is Jessica Honeyset.
06:53Hi, Jessica.
06:54Welcome to Dune Castle.
06:56Thank you very much indeed.
06:57Jessica is a surveyor with Historic Environment Scotland, the public body who look after more than 300 of the country's
07:05built heritage sites.
07:07So tell me about this mighty place.
07:10Well, it was mostly built in the mid 14th century by the Dukes of Albany.
07:13It's essentially a roofed ruin, which means it has the appearance of a ruin, but it's got a roof on
07:19it and it's got important interiors from the 19th century as well.
07:22I would imagine that over the years, a place like this would have invaders and marauders climbing up the walls.
07:27But the challenge is these days.
07:29Yeah, we've got different challenges now.
07:31Because it was preserved as a ruin, it doesn't have some of the protective features and details that it would
07:36have had in the past.
07:37And with the changing climate, with the increased rainfall, we're having to work a little bit harder to look after
07:42it.
07:44And the gatehouse tower is bearing the brunt of all that rain.
07:49Now this looks like a fair climb, is it?
07:51You might be a bit breathless when you get to the top.
07:54And at nearly 30 metres tall, Jessica's not kidding.
07:59On average, Scotland has 20% more winter rainfall than we had in the 1960s.
08:06And at the top of the tower, you can see for miles, a team of stonemasons are dealing with the
08:12impact of that wetter weather.
08:18The stonemasons are raking out the mortar that's decayed through exposure to the weather.
08:22We have to do that over the whole of the castle, so it's quite a big job we've got on
08:26our hands.
08:27This castle has been around for a long time.
08:30How is it different now from what it's been in the past?
08:33With increasing rainfall, we find that the masonry stays saturated for longer.
08:39That can cause vegetation to grow, which causes the stones to become dislodged.
08:43And when it's saturated and we have freezing weather, that causes expansion within the joints that can cause the masonry
08:50to become dislodged and decay as well.
08:53We've always had robust weather in Scotland, but it does seem as if we have increasing rainfall,
08:58and so we're getting more extreme weather events, more frequent wetting and drying cycles.
09:02We are seeing similarities in these issues across the country.
09:07But it can be fixed.
09:10Restoration work on the castle's kitchen tower is already complete.
09:15This was an area that was in quite poor condition, and we've been rebuilding the masonry,
09:21and re-bedding all the stones at high level, and detailing it so that it sheds the water a little
09:25bit better.
09:27It's been here for hundreds of years, and it's still standing, and I guess that's testament to the people who
09:32built it in the first place.
09:33Yeah, it is. I mean, it's a really robust building.
09:36And even without all the protective features that it would have originally had, it's still standing, and it still will
09:42be for a long time.
09:44That's the good news.
09:46But the race is on to protect Scotland's other historic buildings that millions visit every year.
09:53Mary Davis is Historic Environment Scotland's climate change policy manager.
09:58She can tell me how they're dealing with the problem across the country.
10:03We've been doing a lot of work over the last few years to quantify those issues and address them.
10:11So that's particularly in relation to the high level masonry like you've been looking at today,
10:16and ensuring that they are better prepared for these changes that we've been experiencing and are going to continue to
10:26experience.
10:31These are a real gift to us, these sites. They have stood the test of time.
10:37But it's also a really important part of people's identity and Scotland's identity and our sense of place.
10:47So we want to make sure that we preserve that and conserve that so that we can pass it down
10:52to future generations.
11:04Now, Rosie's back, continuing her culinary search for the best of home-grown ingredients.
11:11And who better to show her how to cook them than the farmers themselves?
11:16Are we allowed to dive in? Yes. Let's go for it.
11:20Last time, I dined on sizzling steak in the borders.
11:24Nice. Stunning.
11:26Today, I'm heading to Scotland's North East to take the vegetarian option.
11:32Hello, hello. Hello. Fiona.
11:34Nice to meet you. How are you?
11:35Good to meet you. These look incredible. Don't they do?
11:37It's gorgeous.
11:39I'm catching up with fourth generation farmer Fiona Smith in her veg patch near Lawrencekirk.
11:45Fiona loves growing these vegetables, but she thinks her customers should get the chance to pick them.
11:54Fiona, why did you want to start this pick your own veg thing in the first place?
11:59So, Dad and I were out one day lifting tatties by hand, as we do with the earlies, and I
12:03just thought, God, we had so much fun doing this as kids.
12:06And there's so much variety of what we grow on the farm. I thought there's different picking methods, different growing
12:11methods, and it would be really, really cool to showcase that to the public.
12:17Not everything is pick your own. Fiona sells veg in the farm shop in Cathay, and she's going to treat
12:23me to one of her recipes today.
12:28This looks beautiful. What have we got here?
12:30So we're in the beetroot patch just now. We've got our three different types of beetroot. We've got our golden,
12:34our stripy, and our red beetroot.
12:36So we're going to pick some for the dish we're making today.
12:38Okay.
12:39This is the golden beetroot.
12:41Beautiful.
12:42And then we've got some red over here. So I'll grab a couple of them.
12:46And what about this one?
12:48This one, this is our stripy beetroot. I'll cut this open so we can have a wee look inside.
12:55Look at that! They look amazing, don't they? They look amazing, don't they? Yes, so vibrant.
12:59What are we actually making today?
13:00We're going to be roasting up some of this beetroot and some of our rainbow carrots, and we're going to
13:05be serving that over a bed of whipped ricotta with some crispy kale.
13:08Oh, that sounds good.
13:09And then we're going to do some beetroot hummus, which is really, really vibrant, with some rainbow carrot crudities.
13:15Sign me up. That sounds good.
13:17Right, that's us. We're going to get some carrots.
13:25Carrots collected, it's back to the farmhouse to get chopping.
13:30Ready to prepare a seasonal party platter.
13:35What is the joy of cooking with local produce for you?
13:39I think food can be prepared really, really simply if you've got the best ingredients.
13:45And that doesn't necessarily mean that they have to be expensive.
13:48It doesn't necessarily mean they have to be indulgent.
13:50But we know that these carrots have been grown on the small scale, with love, without chemicals.
13:55And I think you'll really be able to taste the difference.
13:58I suppose, you know, a lot of people find it difficult to know where to find cheap or affordable local
14:05produce.
14:06For sure. And I think there has been a bit of a perception for a while that farm shops are
14:09expensive.
14:10And I don't think that that is necessarily the case.
14:14Fiona drizzles the chopped veg with olive oil, brushes on some honey and sprinkles them with sea salt.
14:21Then they go into the oven to roast.
14:24Right, Rosie, if you could chop up the kale for me, that would be brilliant.
14:27I'm going to quiz up this beetroot and this is also a mix of chickpeas, olive oil and sea salt.
14:34We're going to make a beetroot hummus to have with our crudités.
14:37Beautiful. I am nervous for you with the colour and your gorgeous top.
14:41You're not alone.
14:47The kale will go into the oven with some olive oil and salt.
14:53Fiona's top survives unscathed and we plate up.
14:57Whoa.
14:59I cannot wait.
15:01The beetroot hummus is served with the rainbow carrots,
15:05while the roast carrots and beetroot are layered onto whipped ricotta.
15:09It's topped with ribbons of courgette and another drizzle of honey.
15:14Last but not least, it's garnished with my kale, now delightfully crispy.
15:21And that's us done.
15:22It's beautiful.
15:23So colourful.
15:24Are we allowed to dive in?
15:25Yes.
15:26Let's do it.
15:26Let's.
15:27There you go.
15:29I'm going to grab some bread.
15:30I'm just going to go straight for the veg.
15:32Good on you.
15:35Mmm.
15:36Mmm.
15:38That is so good.
15:42It's sweet, it's earthy, salty.
15:46Fresh.
15:46Mmm.
15:47Thank you so much for sharing this with us.
15:49You're absolutely so welcome.
15:51Thanks for all your help.
15:52Mmm.
15:52I'm coming to your house for the next party.
15:55Meats back on the menu next time, when I venture into the Perthshire hills for some venison.
16:06To Ayrshire now, and back to Cammy's farm.
16:10Earlier this year, he became the proud owner of a herd of cattle.
16:14Now he's very keen to show off his best animal.
16:24This is Wilson, a young pedigree shorthorn bull.
16:28He was the first calf born on the farm.
16:32It's nearly there.
16:34Ah, boom.
16:36That's the game.
16:39Seven months later, we are both about to have a new experience.
16:44Here's a phrase I never thought I would say.
16:47I'm taking a calf to a show.
16:51Step one of the process is to get the hotter on him.
16:54And as you might imagine, I've not done quite as many practice sessions as I should have done.
16:59Thankfully, Ian's here to help.
17:01My neighbour, Ian Johnson, is highly experienced in the show ring.
17:05His stepdaughter keeps her calf, William, on my farm, and Ian will be showing him tomorrow.
17:13Let's go.
17:15Is that what should we do?
17:18Mm-hmm.
17:20That's that.
17:30Oh, man.
17:32What a guy.
17:32Can you believe it?
17:34Did I just let him go now?
17:35Aye, aye, aye.
17:38Wilson, that was amazing.
17:40That's actually about the first time I've ever actually got it on.
17:43There we go.
17:45Er, yeah.
17:46Just call me Kevin Costner.
17:48Thought I'd seen him from Yellowstone, weren't it?
17:51Or Laurel and Hardy.
17:52I knew I'd have had 100.
17:59So, the show we're going to is Stars of the Future.
18:02There's going to be over 400 other young stock there, so there's some stiff competition.
18:07Maybe no more stiffer competition than William over there.
18:10And he's already got a reserve overall champion ribbon this season, so he knows what he's about.
18:16Seeing why is the competition so good for these young calves.
18:19It's great practice for them.
18:20Gets them out and about.
18:22Rounds round the rink, two, three times round the rink, and they're fine for next year, for all the summer
18:25shows next year.
18:26And what's your hopes for William there?
18:28Well, you never know.
18:29Sometimes you're first, sometimes you're last.
18:31But just whatever the judge is looking for.
18:41I'm not 100% sure why I'm doing this, but Ian told me to do it, so there must be
18:45a reason.
18:46I'm just trying to watch what that girl's doing.
18:508 o'clock in the morning at the Agricultural Centre in Stirling.
18:55The cattle are getting their final brush up.
18:58And so am I.
19:02We've been in and registered Wilson, and unfortunately him and William are going to be in different classes.
19:09So Ian, what's the judge going to be looking for in the rink?
19:11The judge will look for a nice clean animal, a wee bit of shape, a nice top end, and walks
19:16well.
19:19We're in next.
19:21General feelings, I'm actually feeling pretty good, quite excited actually.
19:28Judge Stuart Currie is the man we're trying to impress.
19:43We've done this at a parade round now, we're about to get a one-on-one inspection from the judge.
19:50I just hope he stands still.
19:52Wilson I mean, not the judge.
19:55First tip into the story.
19:56Yes it is, aye, I take it's not yours.
20:00Wilson's better behaved than me, but it doesn't do him any favours with the judge.
20:05And we place seventh.
20:12Well, no ribbons today, but honestly what a buzz.
20:15Great fun, and we're almost not up in a day.
20:18A bull called Strathendrick Wingman takes first place in the class.
20:23But Ian and William do even better, winning the Junior Male Champion,
20:28and the Reserve Overall Junior Championship.
20:32Good buzz?
20:33Buzz buzz, some buzz there.
20:34So how do you think Wilson did?
20:36Well behaved Will, and you showed him very well Cammy.
20:38Did it come out alright?
20:39Yes, alright.
20:40Good man, there we go, there we go, on to the next one.
20:48To be a farmer, you have to be multi-skilled.
20:51Turning your hand to many different things.
20:54Shabazz is meeting a man now who's using his agricultural experience
20:59and turning that into a more artistic venture.
21:08For centuries, most of the Scottish countryside has been enclosed with dykes.
21:14Stone monuments to the folk who artfully pieced them together.
21:21But I've come to meet a man who's using those skills to create much more than field boundaries.
21:30James Parker is based at Tesis Estate by Levin in Fife.
21:36Hi James, nice to meet you.
21:38Hi Shabazz, lovely.
21:39Lovely autumn day, but a bit brisk today isn't it?
21:40It certainly is, yeah.
21:41I've heard you like to build things with stone, so how did you get into that?
21:45I grew up in the south-west of Scotland, in Galloway, and my father was a farmer,
21:50and one of my earliest memories was of helping my father repair gaps in dry stone walls as a child.
21:55As I grew up, I'd be trusted to rebuild walls round about the farm, and it basically just evolved from
22:02there.
22:02And this is one of your projects here. Tell me about this. It's absolutely beautiful. What is it?
22:07This is a ducat, currently home to about 30 doves.
22:13I can actually hear the doves inside.
22:15You can. They sound quite contented, don't they? I bet it's quite cosy in there today.
22:19It's completely built out of dry stone, so no mortar at all, and people often take interest in the arts.
22:27And that's just completely self-supported?
22:29That's right, yeah. These are known as wazurs, which are shaped with a hammer and chisel,
22:35and this is the keystone in the middle which holds the structure up.
22:38I'd love to see some of your other work. Can we go take a look?
22:41Of course you can. I'd love to show you some.
22:42Brilliant.
22:46But it's not just dykes and ducats.
22:50Just up the road, James has a place where he creates even more intricate stone structures.
22:58Oh, wow. What an amazing space.
23:05Tell me about these pieces.
23:07Well, we've just come from the ducat where I've shown you some dry stone work,
23:11and these are pieces also built out of dry stone, so they're constructed out of different colours of slate,
23:17using the same fundamentals that I learned from my father as a child.
23:23They're absolutely stunning pieces.
23:24And this one looks like it's a bit work in progress. Is it almost done?
23:28Yeah, it is a work in progress. It's got a way to go yet.
23:31When it's finished, it will actually be an amphora.
23:35It'll come up to about eight centimetres, turn it in and then back out at the top.
23:40Any chance I can give you a hand?
23:41Of course you can, yeah. Many hands make light work.
23:44James finds a slot for the slate.
23:48Marks it.
23:52And then hammers his line.
23:56The finished piece then finds its place.
24:00I have to admit you've made that look far too easy.
24:04My turn.
24:05And I'm getting an idea of how long each of these pieces takes.
24:10Weeks, if not months, of meticulous work.
24:13Yep.
24:14I'm worried now, after all that work, one wrong move and it's just all over.
24:17Yeah, that's the story of my life.
24:21Definitely don't have the speed and agility of James.
24:24I think this might take me a few months.
24:28Let's see.
24:30So, just kind of placing it like that.
24:32Perfect.
24:33Worth a fortune now.
24:34It's a very skilled yet creative process.
24:37How did you get started in it?
24:38My father passed away when I was a teenager and therefore farming was kind of taking out the equation.
24:43I actually milked cows for other people and between the milkings I would go out and repair drystone walls.
24:48And I was driving home from work one night and I could see people taking the slates off a roof,
24:53replacing it with corrugated steel.
24:56And I stopped and asked the farmer if I could have the slates.
24:59And I actually made a sculpture, I guess I didn't think of it as a sculpture at the time, from
25:05my grandmother.
25:05People kept knocking at our door and asking about it.
25:07And I thought, hang on a minute, there might be a future in this.
25:10So what is it you like about working with slates so much?
25:13I think it appeals to my mathematical mind, I guess.
25:17I like creating order out of disorder.
25:25As the orders grew, so did James' confidence to use other mediums.
25:30He now regularly works in glass, stainless steel and bronze, his forms always drawn from nature.
25:40His sculptures land up in grand homes and gardens all over the world.
25:47So these are some of my other works, Shabazz.
25:49This is a whelk shell, inspired by the whelks that we used to find on the beach down in Galloway
25:55at St Maidens.
25:56And again, like the slate, precise layers, the mathematical side of things really appeals to me with logarithmic spirals.
26:05And here we have a pine cone, and it incorporates three spirals.
26:10We've got spirals going this way, spirals going this way, and also spirals formed by the scales themselves.
26:18And would you call yourself a creative or an artist? How would you describe yourself?
26:21That's dangerous territory. It's a funny thing because I think whether somebody's an artist or not, really, it's in the
26:28eye of the beholder.
26:29And a little bit of Scotland in every piece.
26:31Absolutely, that's a nice thought, isn't it?
26:41That brings us to the end of this programme.
26:44If you'd like to watch it again or catch up with some of our previous episodes, go to the BBC
26:49iPlayer and search for Lambord.
26:51Here's what's coming up next time.
26:54Weather presenter Christopher Blanchett forecasts the future for snow.
26:59There will probably be winters by the 2080s or so where I would see none at all.
27:06We are in the borders as the cows head out to winter pasture.
27:11And we discover the magic of mushrooms.
27:14There's a whole hidden world waiting to be seen.
27:17Please join us for that and much, much more if you can.
27:21In the meantime, from all the Lambord teams around the country and especially from me here at Dune Castle,
27:26thank you so much for your company.
27:28Bye for now.
27:45Bye for now.
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