The Oldest Munro Bagger, A Secret Bunker and Bikes Galore

About this episode

Calum Maclean explores cycling events and environmental art while interviewing various guests about their passions and achievements.

Calum Maclean meets Kerry MacPhee and Beth Legg of Bike Trossachs at the Gravelfoyle event in Aberfoyle, where the gravel bike racing season started with a race called the Gravelfoyle 10. The Nevis Range mountain bike season has just kicked off and the Mountain Bike Uplift is open. Mark meets John Sutherland to find out how the gondola works. Helen Needham joins artist Jane Frere as she puts the finishing touches to her latest exhibition The Ark, which is showing at The Barn in Banchory. At the centre of the exhibition is a giant pastel of a tree of life containing drawings of over 170 species facing extinction. In this week’s podcast excerpt, Mark meets Harry Fleming, owner of a cold war bunker on the Aberdeenshire coast. Mark hears the story of the bunker from the 1950s to the present day. Mark and Calum are joined by vintage cycling enthusiast Scott Simpson, who runs the Vintage Cycling Scotland Facebook group and repairs and refurbishes older models to get them out on the road once more. In 2022, Nick Gardner from Aultbea completed all of Scotland’s 282 Munros. When he set off he was 80 and he was 82 when he finished. A new film about Nick’s achievement has recently been…

People in this episode

Hosts: Calum Maclean, Mark

Guests: Kerry MacPhee, Beth Legg, John Sutherland, Helen Needham, Jane Frere, Harry Fleming, Scott Simpson, Jay Golian

Topics covered

• mountain biking
• art exhibition
• cycling history
• environmental conservation
• personal achievement

Keywords

• mountain biking
• gravel bike racing
• art exhibition
• Munro bagging
• cold war bunker

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Bike Trossachs

Books & works: The Ark

Places: Aultbea, Aberfoyle, Aberdeenshire, Fort William

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