Open Country

The skiff - a four-person, coxed rowing boat - was traditionally a common sight in the seas off Scotland's coastal communities. Changes in the populations of these towns and villages, many losing their traditional links with the sea altogether, has meant, though, that the racing of skiffs was becoming less common - until, that is, the advent of the self-build kit skiff.Named the St. Ayles skiff (in honour of the Scottish Fisheries Museum, where the idea was born and which is built on the site of St. Ayles Chapel in Anstruther), the huge popularity of the kit skiff has taken the coastal rowing world by surprise. Communities up and down the coastline have banded together to buy, build and then share their own skiff, with some villages buying more than one and women particularly well-represented in the sport.Helen Mark visits Ullapool for a trip out on Loch Broom in the Ulla with the village's over-forty women's crew, enjoying the calm before attending the opening of the inaugural St. Ayles Skiff World Champions

Helen Mark visits Longshaw Estate in Derbyshire to meet some very special ants...The northern hairy wood ant has an international, near-threatened conservation status with England's two main populations found in the Peak District (including Longshaw) and in the North York Moors. In a cutting edge experiment in communication and conservation, Samuel Ellis, a biologist from the University of York, will be attaching a one millimetre radio receiver to each ant in a bid to understand how the ants communicate and commute between the vast network of nests. 'The way the ants use this network has important implications for how they interact with their environment. And the way information is passed through the network may even have implications for our information and telecommunications networks.' The findings will also influence how the landscape is managed and how the habitat can be improved for the ants.Longshaw Estate is home to more than a thousand nests containing 50 million worker ants. Helen hears from Chris Mi

The profiles of the two Forth bridges, rail and road, are a familiar and much-loved part of the Edinburgh landscape. Spanning the Firth of Forth between North and South Queensferry, the cantilevers of the rail bridge stand as a monument to Victorian ambition and achievement in engineering and building. Learning lessons from the great Tay Bridge disaster of 1879, its architects took bridge building into an entirely new era and the vision and physical toil involved in its construction leave present-day engineers in awe. A recent ten-year renovation programme has left the bridge in line for World Heritage Site status, while, as Helen Mark discovers, its importance to the people who live and work with it day to day goes far beyond its function as a crossing of the firth. Local people tell Helen that it serves as a constant reminder of the men who laboured to build the bridge and who, in many cases, lost their lives in the process.The road bridge was also a ground-breaker when it was opened in 1964, and quickly be

Felicity Evans visits Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. It boasts the largest expanse of chalk grassland in Europe and is home to over two thousand prehistoric sites, including Britain's most iconic pre-historic Stonehenge. Until recently it was thought that Stonehenge was built as an astronomical calendar or observatory but new theories suggest the site was used for ceremonial cremations. Felicity also discusses plans for its future with a new visitor centre and re-direction of a nearby road, reuniting the Stones with the landscape that surrounds it.The last inhabitants of the village of Imber on Salisbury Plain left in the 1940's when the village was requisitioned by the Army. Now it's at the heart of Army training on the Plain and Felicity finds out why. Many of the original cottages are no longer there but the 13th century St Giles Church at Imber has been restored and is open to the public for a few days each year. The Church has a new set of bells and Felicity gets a chance to ring one of them. She also vis

Woodlands are often the setting for fairy stories but also for the creation of a new childhood game, a secret adventure or a new den and are cherished places. Helen Mark heads to Gloucestershire to see how children, large and small, share a love for the forest.In Berkeley she meets children from a 'forest school' where lessons are taken outside and children are taught to use axes and saws, to identify trees and create and build. While the children teach her how to get involved, she hears it's not just the children who've changed through freedom outside the classroom.Near Tetbury she meets James Shrives and his wife Debs who've crammed 1000 trees into an acre of garden space to create their own forest. The dense growth provides a sanctuary and draws in wildlife but will the pride they've taken in the growth make it heartbreaking to thin down the area?Finally she heads to the edge of Bristol where a council-managed forest at Ashton Court provides an escape for city-dwellers. She joins a group of friends to see

James Herriot's books about life as a country vet in the 1970s sold 60 million copies worldwide. Later many of the stories were made into feature films and a very popular TV series, 'All Creatures Great and Small'. Herriot's real name was James 'Alf' Wight, and he was known as 'Alf' by local people. He practiced as a vet in Thirsk, a small market town just a few miles from the North York Moors, as did his son, Jim Wight. Felicity Evans visits 'Herriot Country' to meet Jim Wight and talk about his father, the changes there have been in veterinary practice since the 1940s and the legacy 'James Herriot' left both the town and the local farming community.Jim Wight takes Felicity to the old surgery in 23, Kirkgate, Thirsk where Alf served the local community as a vet, initially working with Donald Sinclair, who became Siegfried Farnon in the books. Jim lived here until he was ten and later when he followed his father into the practice, it was also his place of work. Now it's 'The World of James Herriot Museum', wh

Felicity Evans introduces Open Country from the Teifi Valley in West Wales and finds that the River Teifi once supported the growth of the 19th century woollen industry and sustains traditional coracle making today. In search of the elusive lamprey she discovers a diversity of wildlife found in the river.At Cenarth Falls she meets Peter Davis, the last coracle maker in the village, and talks about the traditional hand crafting process of this ancient vessel. Peter holds one of only twelve licences on the Teifi River which allows him to fish five days a week from a coracle where his favourite catch is sea trout. She also pops into the National Coracle Centre to talk to owner, Martin Fowler and see his collection of coracles from around the world. Here she discovers that coracles were used at Cenarth to encourage sheep in and out of the river so that their fleeces could be washed before shearing.In the 19th century there were fifty-two water-powered mills making Welsh flannel, woven blankets and nursing shawls.

Helen Mark takes a day at the seaside to visit the romance of piers. They have been hailed as great examples of Victorian architecture but the cost of maintenance and repair from weather damage or fire can run into millions. She visits Weston-super-Mare in Somerset where the now hi-tech restored Grand Pier overlooks the damaged remains of Birnbeck. Actors Timothy West and Prunella Scales join her in Clevedon to visit the 'pier of the year' which was once only a vote away from demolition. It was described by Sir John Betjeman as 'delicate as a Japanese print in the mist' but it may have a fragile future. They welcome the paddle steamer Waverley as it docks - revisiting memories of Timothy's childhood holidays.Produced in Bristol by Anne-Marie Bullock.

The image of a keeper leading a pony off a heather-clad hill, a deer carcass slung across its back, may sound like something from a Landseer painting, but in 21st century Scotland, Highland ponies - or garrons - are still a valued part of the deer stalking business.Helen Mark visits the Reay Forest estate in Sutherland to find out what ponies can offer which even the toughest off-road vehicle cannot. Garrons were a fixture of most estates until the 1970s, when in many places they were deemed to be part of the past. Some estates, though, kept garrons for use in the most inaccessible corners of their land, and they are now being adopted for the first time by some estates which have come to see the value of these hardy creatures. Helen hears how the garron is part of the Highland landscape not just for sentimental reasons, creating continuity with the past, but for sound economic and practical purposes too.Produced by Moira Hickey.

Jules Hudson goes to Cannock Chase in Staffordshire to find out about its military past. A major training camp during the First World War, he visits a mock-up of part of the Western Front that was built in order to familiarise troops with the concept of trench warfare, before they were sent to France and Flanders. Now covered in scrub, county archaeologists will begin clearing the site, a model of Messines Ridge, this summer. This is in preparation for the centenary commemorations next year that mark the beginning of the First World War.Cannock Chase as a whole can be seen as a landscape of commemoration. Besides the mock-up of the Trenches, the area is home to cemeteries for Commonwealth and German soldiers who died in the UK during both world wars, including the crews of the Zeppelins shot down over Britain during the First World War. Jules also visits a memorial to the Katyn Massacre on the Chase, which commemorates the 22,000 Polish soldiers who were shot by the Soviets on Stalin's orders in 1940.Producer

Felicity Evans visits the Minack Theatre at Porthcurno, in the far west of Cornwall. Built into the rocky cliffs overlooking the sea, the theatre was planned, built and financed by one determined woman - Rowena Cade. Local storyteller Mark Harandon has researched and re-created the character of Billy Rawlings, Cade's gardener, who worked for her for 40 years and helped to build the theatre. Mark, as Billy, leads Felicity around the theatre telling stories collected from the family and people who knew him, and reminiscing about how the theatre was built.Felicity explores the coast further, visiting the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum, an area which was the hub of international cable communications from 1870-1970. In WWII secret tunnels were dug by Cornish miners to house an underground building and the entire telegraph operations. These bomb proof/gas proof tunnels provided 14 secure cables out of the UK to its allies.Going east along the coast path from Porthcurno, near the village of Treen, stands The Logan Rock

What is phenology? Felicity Evans visits Fenland Cambridgeshire to learn about an influential but largely unacknowledged Victorian vicar - the Reverend Leonard Jenyns - who made a lasting contribution to science.Jenyns is certainly not as well known as Charles Darwin, even though he passed up the chance of sailing on HMS Beagle as the ship's naturalist. In fact, Jenyns never set foot outside the UK, yet his contribution to science was enormous. Felicity hears how phenology has become a key aspect of observing climate change, noting the first and last days of the seasons.She finds out how much Fenland Cambridgeshire has been dried out since Jenyns' day, and the ways in which this rural vicar bore witness to the habitat destruction and species extinction in his own parish in the mid-Victorian period.Producer: Mark Smalley.

Helen Mark visits Lyme Regis, along Dorset's Jurassic coast, to explore the Undercliffs, a fascinating jungle-like terrain that's been created by 200 years of landslips, and is still evolving today.She learns that the exceptional rainfall of the last twelve months has increased the geological instability of this area that lies to the west of Lyme Regis, through which passes the South West Coast Path.Helen meets geologists, naturalists, and the wildlife artist Elaine Franks, all of whom are passionate about the striking quality of the Undercliffs - a six mile stretch of land that's the nearest to jungle conditions that can be found in Britain.Producer: Mark Smalley.

Graham Sutherland talked of Pembrokeshire as the place where 'I began to learn painting'. In this week's Open Country, Felicity Evans follows in his footsteps, discovering the landscapes that inspired his work. The abstract shapes and colours of his art are revealed through conversations with a self confessed 'Sutherland Groupie' also known as art historian Sally Moss and geologist and writer Dr Brian John. Felicity also meets with Susie and Nicky Philipps of Picton Castle who recall Sutherland's visits to their ancestral home and local artist Sarah Jane Brown who shares her own artistic view of 'Sutherland's' land. Presented by Felicity Evans Produced by Nicola Humphries.

The Dumfries and Galloway 10th annual Wild Spring Festival takes place this month and Helen Mark is there to find out what's on offer in south west Scotland as the days lengthen.Helen rides on horseback around the Craigengillan Estate, Dalmellington, to hear how Mark Gibson has involved the local community in his restoration of the 3000 acre estate. Craigengillan falls within the United Nations designated UNESCO Biosphere for Galloway and Southern Ayrshire, which celebrates the area's combination of special landscapes and wildlife areas, rich cultural heritage and communities that care about their environment and culture.The Biosphere also contains the UK's only Dark Sky Park in Galloway Forest, and Helen meets observatory manager Robert Ince to enjoy the night sky."Food Town" Castle Douglas is also playing a part in the Wild Spring Festival and Helen Mark finds out from Wilma Finlay and Clint Burgess about the local, seasonal produce on offer in the region, and talks to Mark Williams about his wild food fora

Solar panels and sheep may not be the first things that spring to mind when you think of a monastery but at Stanbrook Abbey you'll find these alongside a woodchip boiler and a roof covered in sedum grass to insulate the building and attract local wildlife.The sisters at Stanbrook Abbey (and the sheep) live very much in harmony with their North Yorkshire Moors National Park surroundings. The community of sisters embraced their new, high tech, high spec, eco-friendly home after leaving their more traditional, gothic style 20-acre site in Worcestershire in 2009. Having lived there for 171 years, this was not an easy decision to make but the need to down-size and provide a more practical style of accommodation for the future lead them to this setting in Yorkshire, a place with a strong Cistercian heritage, where in their own words they '...seek to become 'lovers of the place', working in harmony with the National Park ethos to conserve and enhance the natural beauty and cultural heritage of this landscape'.Helen

In a year when Derry-Londonderry takes centre stage as the UK City of Culture, Helen Mark steps out into the city's back garden to explore the hidden gems of the Inishowen Peninsula. Located at the northernmost tip of Ireland where it meets with the Atlantic Ocean, and with Lough Foyle to the east and Lough Swilly to the west, Inishowen is rich in history, heritage and landscape, with more than its fair share of undiscovered delights. Helen Mark begins her journey at the Glenevin Waterfall with American, Doris Russo. Now in her 90s, Doris first visited Donegal almost 20 years ago when she fell in love with the area and bought Glen House with its adjoining land and beautiful, yet inaccessible, waterfall. Helen hears how Doris took it upon herself to clear the brambles and undergrowth that blocked the route to the waterfall and so began a project that would take years to reach fruition with the help of the local community and volunteers. There are very few people in the area now without a friend or relative who

Tiny Johnsons Island sits in contrast to the hustle and bustle of Brentford and West London surrounding it. At the confluence of the Rivers Thames and Brent and the Grand Union Canal, the area was important historically for the barges that had carried goods from Birmingham. Nearby boat yards continue to repair and renovate vessels of all types while shiny new developments overlook the island - a mixture of old and new alongside one another. Helen Mark meets the community of artists who work on Johnsons Island and discovers how its nature and surroundings inspire them. A small gallery has been set up to exhibit their work but also to honour the late local character and 'naive artist' Barry Jones - an accomplished jazz musician who sold art works for beer money. The island is shared by one of the boatyards, complete with wet dock, chickens, bees and allotments. Yet many don't know of the island's existence, let alone its history. Helen explores the secrets of Johnsons Island. Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Felicity Evans visits the Black Isle to hear how residents are collecting memories of the landscape, before they are forgotten forever. The Killearnan Memories Group meets to share their knowledge of this part of the Eastern Highlands in order to preserve it for future generations. Members of the group have grown up on the Black Isle and have memories and stories about the physical landscape which they are using to create a written archive. This movement has been inspired by a project run by Cait McCullagh from Archaeology for Communities in the Highlands (ARCH), in which Black Isle residents gathered together to remember buildings, sites and other aspects of their heritage, using old maps and photographs as inspiration. Produced by Beatrice Fenton.

Cley Marshes was purchased in 1926 making it the first Wildlife Trust reserve in the country. It's a fascinating place with inspiring international connections including a special link with the Middle East. In December and January overwintering birds fill the air and the reed beds of Cley but it's not just our winged friends that migrate here. A group of artists drawn from Germany, the US and all around the UK settled in Cley 30 years ago. Inspired by the light and the landscapes the collective known as 'Made in Cley' are regularly drawn to the marshes to create their art, but Cley's power to inspire doesn't stop there. In an act of global solidarity, Nature Iraq made a donation to Norfolk Wildlife Trust to support their work on England's North Norfolk coast. As renowned birder Richard Porter explains, they did this as a gesture of thanks for the help they have received from colleagues in the UK. The links with the Middle East are also close to the heart of Richard Aspinall as his brother, Simon Aspinall was