Dale catches up with rural affairs correspondent, Katharine Hay, as she continues making her way up the Great Glen on her walking tour of Scotland.
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TravelTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's video bulletin for this Wednesday.
00:04My name is Dale Miller.
00:05I'm deputy editor of the Scotsman, and I'm joined by our rural affairs correspondent,
00:10Catherine Hay, who is out and about in the country.
00:13Catherine, I'm looking forward to talking to you about that in a sec.
00:18Front page of today's paper, just to discuss firstly.
00:22Fantastic photo, leading the front page on the Red Arrows,
00:26who traveled up to RAF Lossiemouth.
00:29They are training there.
00:31They're also doing a two-hour display over the next couple of days,
00:35and then they will travel back on Friday, passing through parts of the country.
00:39If you want to know where you might be able to catch a glimpse of them,
00:41there's a story on the Scotsman website that you can check out.
00:46Also, it was hard not to lead on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
00:51His commitment around defence spending will be lifted to 2.5%,
00:55and he's aiming for 3% of GDP.
00:58He's denied that the defence spending is being dictated by Donald Trump,
01:02but it's curious that he is announcing it ahead of the meeting with Trump on Thursday.
01:08So it would be naive, I think, to suggest that the two weren't at least partially connected.
01:15Catherine, I want to talk to you firstly just about where you are.
01:19You've restarted Hay's Way to complete the full circuit on foot around Scotland.
01:23Where are you coming to us from?
01:26So I'm just completing, just about to finish off the Great Glen Way,
01:30which is one of Scotland's very popular routes.
01:34It takes you from Fort William on the west coast up to Inverness.
01:39It's about 73 miles.
01:41So I've been doing it in quite slow time,
01:44just because obviously when I'm working and walking,
01:47I'm stopping off in places and making the most of whatever services are open at this time of year.
01:54It's been a little bit challenging in that sense, just because it's still low season.
01:58A lot of places like shops and cafes and places to stay aren't actually open.
02:04But yeah, I've got the tent, so that's all good.
02:07And a couple of hostels have opened their doors, which has been lucky.
02:11And I'm actually currently speaking to you.
02:12I've balanced my computer in a tree because it's still very wet around here.
02:17So any of the benches outside you can see they're soaked.
02:21So, yeah, just making the most of the surroundings and using it in a creative way.
02:26What better way to use nature than as a natural tripod?
02:29So, Catherine, it's raining out my window here in Fife, but it looks nice up there.
02:35Just talk us through practically what it's like walking through Scotland late February, early March.
02:42The weather's been mild, but it must be slightly different to some of it.
02:47Yeah, well, I mean, obviously when I'm walking, it's really, really important.
02:50Like any outdoors, people will tell you that you've got to check the weather forecast ahead.
02:54So I'm always really, really on that, making sure that I'm double checking just to see that there aren't storms.
03:00I'm not going to be unsafe.
03:03I was recommended when I was in the Outer Hebrides, I was recommended XCweather and YR.no.
03:08Those are two weather websites which I've noticed that farmers and fishermen and ferry operators will use because they tend to be a little bit more accurate.
03:17There are two places in Scotland I've noticed on this entire walk for the last 10, 11 months where the weather changes so fast that you just can't even,
03:27you know, you can't even walk anywhere with a shelter before you get absolutely drenched.
03:31And that is the Ayrshire Coast and where I am now, which is sort of, well, along the Great Glen, in the kind of glen basically between Fort William and Inverness.
03:42I think it's probably just because of the landscape. I'm not sure, I'm not a weather expert, but the weather just changes so quickly.
03:47So, yes, you can see beautiful sunshine just now and I'm making the most of it.
03:52But yeah, it does change in the blink of an eye, which has been a little bit challenging.
03:56But to be honest, Dale, I've got so used to walking in the rain that actually I'm even starting to enjoy it now.
04:02Well, we'd better get motoring on this video in case the downpour comes in the next couple of minutes.
04:08I want to talk to you about a couple of stories as well that you've picked up.
04:12One is on a feral goat herd, but there's suggestions a significant part of the population will be culled or there's plans to cull them.
04:23And this has upset some of the local community.
04:26Yeah, so it's a really difficult one, this one, because we're dealing with a company, Oxygen Conservation,
04:31well, getting information from them.
04:33And they've been in the area since, well, they bought two farms in Dumfries and Galloway, which are part of the Langham Moor in 2023.
04:41And from their records, they said that there were 20 goats, around 20 feral goats, when they first did a survey two years ago.
04:49They're now saying that there are 140 and they want to reduce those numbers back down to this number that they had in their original survey, which was 20.
04:57So, yeah, it's quite a drastic cull in that sense.
05:00I guess they're not removing all of them, but it has stirred quite a lot of conflict in the local community.
05:06I was actually down in Langham last May, June time, spoke to people in the area about the feral goats, how they're treasured, how they're loved,
05:13how people, you know, and visitors and locals alike just love seeing them.
05:17I have to admit, I didn't really know much about them before I went there.
05:20And I was quite mesmerised by them, they just sort of, yeah, had little horns poking up over the heather moors.
05:28But yeah, it's not just the sort of emotion that's causing conflict, it's about the animals.
05:34It's also the biodiversity and the environment side as well, because Oxygen Conservation claim that these goats are damaging trees and the fauna around,
05:44flora and fauna around on the heather moorland.
05:47And they're just absolutely convinced that the grazing pressure is too much.
05:51Whereas the Terrace Valley Nature Reserve, the community, the Langham Initiative,
05:56so they're the largest community buyout of an area of land in the southwest of Scotland.
06:01They also are in part of this moor.
06:03And they were telling me last year that they think the grazing, because feral goats, the way they graze, it's mob grazing.
06:10So it sort of moves around and it causes a mosaic in the landscape.
06:14And they say that that's good for the local biodiversity.
06:17So there's conflict on all sorts of factors for this particular story.
06:23And yeah, I can obviously completely understand the emotional side from people.
06:27And yeah, it seems to be there's a bit of conflict as well with what's being said, who's involved, who's been consulted.
06:35So we're going to keep an eye on what's happening there.
06:37And we'll just follow up with Oxygen Conservation to just see when exactly that call is going to happen.
06:44And keep on top of how many goats will remain, hopefully.
06:49Again, from when I was down there, I mean, I think I saw about 20 just in one standing alone.
06:54Just they were coming to sort of graze around me when I was doing a piece of camera actually at the time.
07:01So yeah, they are quite interesting to see.
07:06And Catherine, you're reporting on something else, a 500,000 pound residency that's tied to a major lunar event.
07:15We're talking about this during the week where all the planets in the solar system align.
07:20And there's actually an opportunity to see them soon after sunset here in Scotland.
07:25For those wanting to know, Thursday in particular, a good day.
07:27But this is another lunar event or a nighttime event, effectively.
07:33And it's to do with popular standing stones.
07:36But there's an opportunity to be involved at the heart of it.
07:40Yeah, so it's a beautiful spot up there where the Calanish standing stones are on Lois.
07:46And this residency has come just at a time where in 2025 is going to be a year where we have something called a major lunar standstill.
07:57And it's what happens when the northernmost and southernmost moon rise and moon set furthest apart.
08:07So it does create quite a spectacular sort of setting when you're looking at these standing stones, which the Calanish standing stones predate England's Stonehenge.
08:17And yeah, the residency just seems it's open to all sorts of different professions.
08:23Be an artist, be a storyteller, you can be an astrophysicist, you can be just a researcher.
08:29And it covers all of your living expenses and travel.
08:34And the idea is to go there and create a sort of legacy piece for one of Scotland's sort of not only famous, but celebrated and spiritual monuments that dates back about 5000 years.
08:49So it seems like a very special opportunity for somebody who's fascinated by this kind of neolithic site and also astrology as well, astronomy.
09:01And yeah, so it's the Calanish community who are hosting.
09:06So you can just I think the deadline to apply is the 17th of March.
09:11But yeah, I can say that having walked in the Outer Hebrides, that it's a very spectacular spot and it's two and a half week.
09:22Two and a half week residency will hopefully allow somebody to get a really good understanding and a really good feel of the place to create something really special for Calanish stones.
09:32We should highlight, Catherine, that I know there's plans in place around that lunar event to restrict public access so the site doesn't get overwhelmed at that particular moment.
09:41Our heritage correspondent Alison Kempsey has written about that and you can read that story as well as details of the residency at scotsman.com.
09:51Catherine, thank you for taking time out to come to us from your little part of Scotland at the moment.
09:58You can read everything that we've spoken about at the website.
10:01Please follow us on all our social channels and pick up a copy of the paper tomorrow.
10:05We will have all the build up ahead of the big meeting between Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer in the US on Thursday.
10:13Thanks.