About this episode

Mark interviews Julia Pennycuik about the Midlothian Wildflowers and discusses environmental initiatives in Scotland.

Mark catches up with another of the finalists in BBC Scotland’s Make a Difference Award environmental category. Midlothian Wildflowers started as a small group of people from the Bonnyrigg and Rosewell community carrying out some guerilla gardening. Julia Pennycuik from the group tells Mark how it grew from there and why it’s been nominated for the award. This weekend Grantown on Spey in the Cairngorm National Park becomes Greentown on Spey as an environmental awareness festival is held in the town. Rachel spends some time with one of the groups involved, Wild Tribe Highlands who take children on outdoor adventures in the hope they can build a life-long connection with nature. Culbin Forest on the Moray Firth was one of the locations used recently in Christopher Nolan’s epic film adaptation of The Odyssey. Phil Sime went along to find out that it’s not just a dramatic film location, but also an important home to rare lichens and plants. The recent wildfires in the Cairngorms had a huge impact on the people living in the Glenmore area with initial evacuations and many businesses closed for the duration. The fires also obviously had a huge impact on the flora and fauna, and it will…

People in this episode

Host: Mark

Guest: Julia Pennycuik

Topics covered

• environmental awareness
• community gardening
• wildlife conservation
• outdoor adventures
• impact of wildfires
• local agriculture

Keywords

• Midlothian Wildflowers
• Greentown on Spey
• Cairngorms
• wildfires
• sunflowers
• outdoor adventures
• environmental festival

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Midlothian Wildflowers, Wild Tribe Highlands

Places: Grantown on Spey, Cairngorm National Park, Culbin Forest, Glenmore, East Lothian

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