Out of Doors

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Factual: Science & Nature

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Out of Doors: Arbroath Signal Tower, Fossils and Capercaillie

Arbroath Signal Tower, Fossils and Capercaillie

BBC Radio Scotland - Out of Doors, Arbroath Signal Tower, Fossils and Capercaillie

Mark Stephen and Euan McIlwraith with stories from the great outdoors.

Mark visits the Aberchalder and Glengarry Estate in the Great Glen and hears from stalker Steven MacKenzie about the issues they are having with wild boar.  

Euan is in the Cairngorms National Park finding out about capercaillie.  He hears about the challenges they face and gets to see an interesting new tool being used in the Abernethy Forest to help improve the capercaillie’s habitat.

The Clava Cairns near Inverness are Bronze Age burial chambers that are about 4,000 years old.  Mark gets a tour and hears more about their fascinating history.
	
The Arbroath Signal Tower is now home to a museum, but it was built in 1813 to communicate with the lighthouse keepers on the Bell Rock lighthouse 11 miles off the coast.  It also accommodated the families of the keepers.  Mark takes a look round the exhibitions and hears about its past.  Plus, the tower garden is going to be given a makeover by the local community.  Mark meets those behind the project and hears about their plans. 

Earlier this week it was announced that a fossil of a huge flying reptile known as pterosaur from the Jurassic period had been discovered on Skye.  We chat live to Professor Steve Brusatte, a palaeontologist from the University of Edinburgh, who led the Skye field trip about the significance of this discovery and what makes Skye such a great place for finding such fossils. 

Our midweek Scotland Outdoors podcast this week featured a programme Mark made a few years ago with Robert and Anne Cholawo who live on the tiny island of Soay off the coast of Skye.  We hear about some of the challenges of living in such a remote location. 

And Euan has another mystery bird for us.  Can you guess this week’s?

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