Open Country

Sally Rodgers from electronic musical duo ‘A Man Called Adam’ takes us to the Headland of Hartlepool to explore the landscape, culture and history which has inspired her music. As part of Wintertide Festival, the artists of the area have created installations, art and music inspired by their fishing heritage. We hear about the songs of the ‘gutter girls’ – women who gutted herring along the East Coast – which ‘A Man Called Adam’ have reworked into electronic soundscapes, to be played along the Wintertide Trail. Sally meets the curators and creatives at work transforming the Headland and learns more about how industry and culture here have been shaped by the features of this coastline. As dusk falls, the Headland is lit up as the Wintertide Festival begins.Produced by Helen LennardThe Gutter Girls project was commissioned and funded for Wintertide Festival by Tees Valley Festivals Volunteering.

At the major Roman site of Vindolanda, just south of Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland, excavations have unearthed artefacts from nearly two thousand years ago. In this programme, archaeologist Rose Ferraby visits the site and asks what we can learn about the people who lived here and the kind of lives they led. She hears about the five thousand pairs of shoes which were left behind by the departing Romans, from marching boots to baby's bootees, with another 30-40,000 more pairs believed to still lie buried on the site - along with several tonnes of pottery, ceramics and animal bones.At Vindolanda's sister site, Magna, archaeological work is being directly affected by climate change. The peat bog on which it sits is drying out, exposing ancient structures to the air. It’s a race against home to find out as much as possible and to preserve the past in the face of the changing climate.Produced by Ruth Sanderson

Dan O’Neill is a wildlife expert and biologist. He’s also the first openly gay wildlife presenter. In this Open Country he’s in London to discover what ‘rewilding’ means for the capital. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, launched the ‘Rewild London Fund’ to help make London a leader in urban rewilding, from restoring rivers to reintroducing species currently absent from the capital. One of them is the beaver and at Paradise Fields in Ealing, just down the road from the busy Greenford tube station, a family of five beavers have just been introduced to their new home by conservationist and vet Dr Sean McCormack. Together they will transform a gritty urban wasteland into a wildlife haven with ecosystem benefits for residents' wellbeing and flood defences. The beavers are just one example of the huge growth in biodiversity in the city. As Dan travels from Ealing in the West to the east of the city at The Paddocks in Tottenham Hale, he discovers that there is also growing diversity in the conservation community. He meets LGQBT conservationist Izzy Knight who shares his passion for everything wild and celebrates the ‘Queer Nature’ festival at Kew, before heading back to Ealing to see whether he can spot those elusive beavers in their new home.Produced by Helen Lennard

The Highland Boundary Fault runs diagonally across Scotland, dividing the Highlands from the Lowlands. In this programme, Helen Mark finds out what impacts this geological feature has had on the landscape around it. She visits Comrie, which at one time had more earth tremors than anywhere else in the UK, earning it the nickname "Shaky Toun". On a tour of the Earthquake House - one of the smallest listed buildings in Europe and the first purpose-built seismological monitoring station in the world - she learns how earthquakes were measured and recorded in the 19th century and how technology has moved on since then.The geology hasn't only affected the landscape, but also the wildlife within it. The Highland Boundary Fault is the frontline in the battle between red and grey squirrels in Scotland. South of the fault, greys have largely ousted the reds - but the area north of the line, with its more rocky and mountainous habitats, is still a haven for native reds. This is partly because of control work carried out by the Scottish Wildlife Trust, who trap and kill grey squirrels north of the line, to try and protect the population of reds. At the Loch of the Lowes nature reserve near Dunkeld Helen joins a red squirrel walk, hoping to catch a glimpse of this endangered species in the trees.Further west at Conic Hill, Helen meets a geologist who explains how the Highland Boundary Fault was formed 400 million years ago and how it still has lasting cultural, agricultural and even linguistic effects today.Produced by Emma Campbell

Anna Jones paddleboards the rocky coastline of Pembrokeshire, listening to the mysterious growling sounds of the sea caves. As the tide rises, water sloshes into holes in the rock and squeezes out puffs of air - or could it, maybe, be a dragon? Paddling in and out of the caves and coves, Anna and local instructor Libby Chivers allow their imaginations to run wild, picturing dragons and sea monsters deep in the darkness. It's easy to get carried away - literally - on an inflatable paddleboard, so Libby shares her top tips for staying safe on the sea. With Stand-Up Paddleboarding becoming ever more popular with water sports amateurs like Anna, rescues are on the rise. Libby shares her story of pulling a panic-stricken girl from the water and explains how lifeguards helped thirty paddleboarders back to the shore in a single day on one Welsh beach.Swept up by the atmosphere of the sea caves, Anna dries off and heads into Fishguard to learn more about the town's legends and folklore. Amid mysterious tales of pirates, smugglers and mermaids, there's the real-life story of the last invasion of Britain - when French soldiers landed at Fishguard in 1797. Local historian Edward Perkins shares the amazing story of Welsh heroine Jemima Nicholas, who fended them off armed only with a pitchfork.Presented and produced by Anna Jones

Ross Davidson, Lake District photographer questioning social-media-driven tourism. Alan Hinkes, celebrated mountaineer stressing preparation and kit. Phil Kirby, mountain rescue chair explaining operational pressure and funding. Penny Kirby, long-term resident and volunteer recounting rescue realities. They discuss rising call-outs, visitor preparedness, navigation and kit, training and volunteer strain, and the impact of Instagram on remote landscapes.

At Carbeth, just north of Glasgow, there are around 170 simple wooden huts tucked into an area of woodland. Basic and off-grid, they are part of Scotland's hutting tradition. Carbeth is the biggest hutting site in the country, with a history that goes back to the end of the First World War, when the landowner gave permission for people to camp and later to build simple dwellings, as interest in nature and the great outdoors grew. Since then, hutting has gone through peaks and troughs of popularity. Interest waned with the arrival of package holidays in the 1960s and 70s, but the 21st century has seen a revival. It's now hugely popular again, with a long waiting list for huts.In this programme Helen Mark visits Carbeth to meet some of the hutters and find out what the attraction is. She talks to a couple whose families have had huts on the site for generations, and who first met there as teenagers. She also learns about the recent growth in hutting, thanks partly to a change in Scottish planning law which has made it easier to build huts, after the"1000 Huts" campaign by the charity Reforesting Scotland. She visits a pilot site in Fife, where twelve new huts are now under construction. Helen also visits the site of the legendary Craigallian fire - a camp fire which was kept burning in the 1920s and 30s on the edge of Craigallian Loch near Carbeth. It was a magnet for early pioneers of the outdoors movement, who would sit around it discussing politics and sharing information about how best to survive in the wild. It became a stopping-off point for walkers and mountaineers exploring the Highlands. Helen meets a man whose father was one of the "fire-sitters", and who set up the monument which now commemorates those pioneering days.Producer: Emma Campbell

Carolyn Quinn has family links to Felixstowe, a place she’s visited frequently over the years, enjoying walks along the Edwardian seafront, soaking up its old world charm. For Open Country she returns to take a closer look at this Suffolk town, including how it’s been shaped by the enormous presence of Felixstowe Port, the largest container port in the UK. She begins her journey with David Gledhill at Felixstowe Museum who gives a quick overview of the richly historic area. From there she walks round the corner to Landguard Nature Reserve, overlooked by the port’s enormous cranes. Ranger, Leonie Washington, shows her the reserve's internationally important habitat of vegetated shingle. It supports species like the incredibly rare Stinking Goosefoot and provides habitat for ground-nesting birds like the ringed plover. Next, Carolyn pops on a hard-hat and enters the Port itself, where Paul Davey shares some facts and figures about this bewilderingly huge place. Then it’s onto the Wildlife Trust’s Trimley Marshes reserve. It was created to replace habitat destroyed when the Port expanded around 30 years ago. Carolyn asks Andrew Excell whether this wetland habitat makes up for the lost mudflats. And finally, the seaside holiday scene: Billy Butlin opened an amusement park here in 1931 and later sub-let it to showman and entrepreneur, Charlie Manning, who renamed it Manning's Amusements. Charlie's grandsons, Charlie Jr and Jonny, still run it but have also established Beach Street, where traders operate out of - what else - repurposed shipping containers. Carolyn meets Jonny and his mother, Sarah, who shares memories of the early days.Note: The parody of the shipping forecast was written by Les Barker and included on the album ‘Guide Cats for the Blind’ created by Clive Lever.Producer: Karen Gregor

Paul Evans explores the rich folklore and natural history of St Melangell church near Llangynog in Powys for a new piece of nature writing. Paul is one of our finest nature writers and in this episode of Open Country he talks us through his creative process, which he describes as "a kind of imaginative hunter-gathering”. Inspired by the ancient yew trees that grow in the churchyard, he listens to their stories, such as the science behind their great age and the legend of Saint Melangell, a nun who fled here from Ireland to avoid an arranged marriage. She protected a hare which was being chased by hounds from a royal hunting party, and was gifted the surrounding Pennant valley by the Prince of Powys who was impressed by her bravery. Here she founded a religious community and became known as the patron saint of hares. Immortal yews, magical hares and the mystic Melangell, there is so much rich material for Paul's next piece of writing, a short essay which he reads at the end of the programme. Interviewees: Reverend Christine Browne, Priest Guardian of St. Melangell's Church; Professor Jane Cartwright of the University of Wales Trinity St David; Dr. Emma Gilmartin of the Woodland Trust; Lottie Glover of Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust.Produced by Karen Gregor

As a child, Mary McKeown played hide and seek amongst the Beaghmore Stone Circles in her native County Tyrone. It's a mysterious, mystical site with seven circles, ten rows of stones and twelve cairns, all seemingly carefully aligned. They were found by turf cutters in the 1930s, excavated in the 1960s and carbon dated back to the early Bronze Age. There are many theories about what they were used for - perhaps a burial site, a place for harvest ceremonies, or some sort of lunar or solar calendar.The belief that the stones were connected to celestial events prompted Mary, now working as a tourism officer, to bid for Dark Sky status for Davagh Forest, a short distance away. It's one of the few areas in Northern Ireland unaffected by light pollution. In Irish, 'davagh' means cauldron – the site sits in a natural bowl in the forest protecting it from artificial light from surrounding towns and villages. Davagh became the world's 77th Dark Sky park and the first in Northern Ireland. Mary and her colleagues were also successful in getting funding to build an observatory. Resident astronomer, Barry Lynn, operates a telescope through a retractable roof and projects images of the skies on screens around the park. He says he was first attracted to the area by his interest in archaeoastronomy, the study of how past cultures viewed the skies. He says its fascinating to think that centuries ago, people watched the same moon, sun and stars as we do today. Back at the Beaghmore Stones, Helen is persuaded to join Mary for a barefoot walk inside the circles. Some believe that the 'energy' of the landscape promotes a sense of mental well being. Helen remains unconvinced about this, but enjoys recapturing childhood memories. Produced by Kathleen Carragher