The Winter Solstice, Darkness and Three Wise Men
Mark Stephen and Euan McIlwraith with stories from the great outdoors.
Mark visits the Lecht Ski Centre to find out about funding they have been awarded to help promote the centre as a year-round attraction and hear about their hopes for this year鈥檚 season.
In this week鈥檚 Scotland Outdoors podcast, Mark speaks to forager and herbalist Monica Wilde, who recently completed a year of eating only food that she had found in the wild. She tells him how she coped without visiting a shop for a whole year.
A lone hawthorn guarding the Scottish coastline at Kippford has been crowned the Woodland Trust's UK Tree of the Year. Euan delves into the folklore connected with this hardy tree.
Mark is in Tomintoul finding out about the Tomintoul and Glenlivet Cairngorms Dark Sky Park. He hears how the community has got behind the project and the potential for attracting tourists from far and wide.
We chat live to storyteller and herbalist Amanda Edmiston about the significance of the winter solstice throughout history and how it still plays a part in our lives today.
And as we are at the darkest part of the year, Pennie Stuart, heads out for a walk in the dark, to tell us about her feelings of darkness and how the experience of being outdoors in the dark differs from the daylight.
Once again Euan is teasing us with a mystery bird. This one has a rather haunting call.
And Mark tells a modern-day Christmas tale of three not so wise men, who find themselves out of their depth on a journey through the English Channel.