Highland Tails

Title

First
Broadcast

Repeated

Comments

The Beaver

20231102

20250626 (R3)

Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.

There's plenty of evidence to suggest that at one time beavers were distributed widely throughout mainland Scotland. That would seem no great surprise, given the wealth of rivers and lochs in the country, and when you think how much native woodland was present in earlier centuries. But it would seem that by the 12th-century beavers were growing rare in Scotland; a record suggests they were to be found in just one river, though it's impossible to know how reliable that record was. The last time we hear of them is in the 1526 ‘Cronikils of Scotland' where beavers are mentioned as being abundant in the Loch Ness area. At some point after that they're reckoned to have died out.

In 2009, beavers were re-introduced into the Knapdale forest, Argyll, in the west of Scotland. Sixteen beavers from Norway were released during the first year and a further family the next. More than four hundred years after they were pushed to extinction, there are again wild beavers in the country. Now they have been reaffirmed as a native species and afforded protection.

Presenter Kenneth Steven

Producer Mark RIckards

A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 3

An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

[LISTEN NOW]

The Beaver

20231102

Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.

Presenter Kenneth Steven

Producer Mark RIckards

A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 3

An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands

The Bison

20231103

Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.

Kenneth Steven recounts the story of American bison introduced in Victorian times to Scotland by William Stewart.

‘They were enclosed in a paddock with a circumference of five or six miles, but had become completely tame – they were however healthy and with an addition of two calves.' Those buffalo were obviously still there when Queen Victoria and Albert famously came to visit Taymouth Castle in 1842 for she makes mention of them too: ‘We saw part of Loch Tay and drove along the banks of the Tay under fine trees and saw Lord Breadalbane's American buffaloes'.

What we're actually talking about here are American bison, very different from the buffalo that live in Africa and Asia. American bison live only in North America. It may be that early French fur trappers inadvertently coined the name buffalo when they used the French word ‘boeufs' for these huge animals because they resembled giant oxen. Over time ‘boeufs' became ‘buffalo'. Confusing, too, because the word that William Stewart and everyone else at that time would have used to describe them was buffalo.

Presenter Kenneth Steven

Producer Mark Rickards

A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 3

An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands

Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.

They were enclosed in a paddock with a circumference of five or six miles, but had become completely tame - they were however healthy and with an addition of two calves.' Those buffalo were obviously still there when Queen Victoria and Albert famously came to visit Taymouth Castle in 1842 for she makes mention of them too: We saw part of Loch Tay and drove along the banks of the Tay under fine trees and saw Lord Breadalbane's American buffaloes'.

What we're actually talking about here are American bison, very different from the buffalo that live in Africa and Asia. American bison live only in North America. It may be that early French fur trappers inadvertently coined the name buffalo when they used the French word boeufs' for these huge animals because they resembled giant oxen. Over time boeufs' became buffalo'. Confusing, too, because the word that William Stewart and everyone else at that time would have used to describe them was buffalo.

The Bison

20231103

20250627 (R3)

Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.

Kenneth Steven recounts the story of American bison introduced in Victorian times to Scotland by William Stewart.

Presenter Kenneth Steven

Producer Mark Rickards

A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 3

An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.

[LISTEN NOW]

The Reindeer

20231030

20250623 (R3)

Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals into the Highlands of Scotland, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.

A consignment of eight reindeer landed at Clydebank near Glasgow on April 12th in 1952 thanks to a Swedish Sami Mikel Utsi who hailed from a long line of reindeer herders. There were eight reindeer and they were from Mikel Utsi's own family herd in Arctic Sweden. The crossing had taken four days and by all accounts it had been pretty rough. Those first eight beasts spent the next month in quarantine at Edinburgh Zoo and then they completed their journey to Highland Scotland and the area of ground that had been granted for them. There are echoes of the old stories of attempted re-introductions of reindeer: low and wet ground, the prevalence of insects. It took time, but in 1954 Mikel Utsi was given permission for free grazing up to the summits of the northern corries of the Cairngorms: in other words, where they needed to be. Further clusters of reindeer were introduced in 1952, 1954 and 1955.

Several hundred reindeer were born in Highland Scotland between 1953 and 1979, that year when Mikel Utsi passed away. Wild reindeer were again living freely in the country that had been theirs centuries before. And the herder who'd brought them here, whose dream had come true, he was able to bring people out into what might just have been another piece of his childhood landscape and tell them of the ways and the stories of the Sami.

Presenter Kenneth Steven

Producer Mark Rickards

A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 3

An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.

[LISTEN NOW]

The Sea Eagle

20231031

Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.

At one time sea eagles are likely to have been revered in Scotland. The Tomb of the Eagles, a Neolithic burial site in Orkney, is testament to that, as are the carved Pictish stones depicting what's hard not to believe have to be sea eagles. For all that, they most certainly became a hated species in more recent centuries, after the Clearances in the Highlands when the era of the Victorian hunting estate had been ushered in.

When they were reintroduced, Rum was the location chosen by the then Nature Conservancy Council for the release of the first sea eagles in 1975. It's somehow an island made for eagles, and set in a wider wildscape designed for them every bit as much. Across the water from Scotland, Norway had and has a very healthy population of the birds. So it was eaglets were collected at 6-8 weeks of age from nests in Norway: over the next 10 years a total of 82 eaglets (39 males and 43 females) were brought to Scotland.

Presenter Kenneth Steven

Producer Mark Rickards

A Whistledown Scotland Production for BBC Radio 3

An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands

The Sea Eagle

20231031

20250624 (R3)

Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.

Presenter Kenneth Steven

Producer Mark Rickards

A Whistledown Scotland Production for BBC Radio 3

An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

[LISTEN NOW]

The Wallabies

20231101

Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.

Kenneth Steven explores his visit to an island in the largest of freshwater lakes, Loch Lomond.

There was nothing; possibly the soft murmur of birdsong, but precious little more than that. I walked on until I must have been about the middle of the island and then I stopped again, looked around me. And all at once, to my amazement and my great joy, were exactly what I had come to find, and the last thing in the world you would ever imagine: wallabies. There were perhaps half a dozen with me in the glade, and they were watching me. They were standing upright and probably they'd have come up to the height of my thighs: somehow akin to giant rabbits; furry-faced and doe-eyed. And as I stood there watching them one or two bounced about between the growing patches of sunlight. And now I knew at last I had proved the story true after all: there were indeed wallabies on the island of Inchconnachan on Loch Lomond.

Presenter Kenneth Steven

Producer Mark Rickards

A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 3

An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands

Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.

The Wallabies

20231101

20250625 (R3)

Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.

Kenneth Steven explores his visit to an island in the largest of freshwater lakes, Loch Lomond.

Presenter Kenneth Steven

Producer Mark Rickards

A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 3

An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.

[LISTEN NOW]

Episodes

Title	First Broadcast	Repeated	Comments
The Beaver	20231102	20250626 (R3)	Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay. There's plenty of evidence to suggest that at one time beavers were distributed widely throughout mainland Scotland. That would seem no great surprise, given the wealth of rivers and lochs in the country, and when you think how much native woodland was present in earlier centuries. But it would seem that by the 12th-century beavers were growing rare in Scotland; a record suggests they were to be found in just one river, though it's impossible to know how reliable that record was. The last time we hear of them is in the 1526 ‘Cronikils of Scotland' where beavers are mentioned as being abundant in the Loch Ness area. At some point after that they're reckoned to have died out. In 2009, beavers were re-introduced into the Knapdale forest, Argyll, in the west of Scotland. Sixteen beavers from Norway were released during the first year and a further family the next. More than four hundred years after they were pushed to extinction, there are again wild beavers in the country. Now they have been reaffirmed as a native species and afforded protection. Presenter Kenneth Steven Producer Mark RIckards A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 3 An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond. [LISTEN NOW]
The Beaver	20231102		Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay. There's plenty of evidence to suggest that at one time beavers were distributed widely throughout mainland Scotland. That would seem no great surprise, given the wealth of rivers and lochs in the country, and when you think how much native woodland was present in earlier centuries. But it would seem that by the 12th-century beavers were growing rare in Scotland; a record suggests they were to be found in just one river, though it's impossible to know how reliable that record was. The last time we hear of them is in the 1526 ‘Cronikils of Scotland' where beavers are mentioned as being abundant in the Loch Ness area. At some point after that they're reckoned to have died out. In 2009, beavers were re-introduced into the Knapdale forest, Argyll, in the west of Scotland. Sixteen beavers from Norway were released during the first year and a further family the next. More than four hundred years after they were pushed to extinction, there are again wild beavers in the country. Now they have been reaffirmed as a native species and afforded protection. Presenter Kenneth Steven Producer Mark RIckards A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 3 An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands
The Bison	20231103		Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay. Kenneth Steven recounts the story of American bison introduced in Victorian times to Scotland by William Stewart. ‘They were enclosed in a paddock with a circumference of five or six miles, but had become completely tame – they were however healthy and with an addition of two calves.' Those buffalo were obviously still there when Queen Victoria and Albert famously came to visit Taymouth Castle in 1842 for she makes mention of them too: ‘We saw part of Loch Tay and drove along the banks of the Tay under fine trees and saw Lord Breadalbane's American buffaloes'. What we're actually talking about here are American bison, very different from the buffalo that live in Africa and Asia. American bison live only in North America. It may be that early French fur trappers inadvertently coined the name buffalo when they used the French word ‘boeufs' for these huge animals because they resembled giant oxen. Over time ‘boeufs' became ‘buffalo'. Confusing, too, because the word that William Stewart and everyone else at that time would have used to describe them was buffalo. Presenter Kenneth Steven Producer Mark Rickards A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 3 An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay. They were enclosed in a paddock with a circumference of five or six miles, but had become completely tame - they were however healthy and with an addition of two calves.' Those buffalo were obviously still there when Queen Victoria and Albert famously came to visit Taymouth Castle in 1842 for she makes mention of them too: We saw part of Loch Tay and drove along the banks of the Tay under fine trees and saw Lord Breadalbane's American buffaloes'. What we're actually talking about here are American bison, very different from the buffalo that live in Africa and Asia. American bison live only in North America. It may be that early French fur trappers inadvertently coined the name buffalo when they used the French word boeufs' for these huge animals because they resembled giant oxen. Over time boeufs' became buffalo'. Confusing, too, because the word that William Stewart and everyone else at that time would have used to describe them was buffalo.
The Bison	20231103	20250627 (R3)	Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay. Kenneth Steven recounts the story of American bison introduced in Victorian times to Scotland by William Stewart. ‘They were enclosed in a paddock with a circumference of five or six miles, but had become completely tame – they were however healthy and with an addition of two calves.' Those buffalo were obviously still there when Queen Victoria and Albert famously came to visit Taymouth Castle in 1842 for she makes mention of them too: ‘We saw part of Loch Tay and drove along the banks of the Tay under fine trees and saw Lord Breadalbane's American buffaloes'. What we're actually talking about here are American bison, very different from the buffalo that live in Africa and Asia. American bison live only in North America. It may be that early French fur trappers inadvertently coined the name buffalo when they used the French word ‘boeufs' for these huge animals because they resembled giant oxen. Over time ‘boeufs' became ‘buffalo'. Confusing, too, because the word that William Stewart and everyone else at that time would have used to describe them was buffalo. Presenter Kenneth Steven Producer Mark Rickards A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 3 An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond. Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay. [LISTEN NOW]
The Reindeer	20231030	20250623 (R3)	Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals into the Highlands of Scotland, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay. A consignment of eight reindeer landed at Clydebank near Glasgow on April 12th in 1952 thanks to a Swedish Sami Mikel Utsi who hailed from a long line of reindeer herders. There were eight reindeer and they were from Mikel Utsi's own family herd in Arctic Sweden. The crossing had taken four days and by all accounts it had been pretty rough. Those first eight beasts spent the next month in quarantine at Edinburgh Zoo and then they completed their journey to Highland Scotland and the area of ground that had been granted for them. There are echoes of the old stories of attempted re-introductions of reindeer: low and wet ground, the prevalence of insects. It took time, but in 1954 Mikel Utsi was given permission for free grazing up to the summits of the northern corries of the Cairngorms: in other words, where they needed to be. Further clusters of reindeer were introduced in 1952, 1954 and 1955. Several hundred reindeer were born in Highland Scotland between 1953 and 1979, that year when Mikel Utsi passed away. Wild reindeer were again living freely in the country that had been theirs centuries before. And the herder who'd brought them here, whose dream had come true, he was able to bring people out into what might just have been another piece of his childhood landscape and tell them of the ways and the stories of the Sami. Presenter Kenneth Steven Producer Mark Rickards A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 3 An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond. Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay. [LISTEN NOW]
The Sea Eagle	20231031		Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay. At one time sea eagles are likely to have been revered in Scotland. The Tomb of the Eagles, a Neolithic burial site in Orkney, is testament to that, as are the carved Pictish stones depicting what's hard not to believe have to be sea eagles. For all that, they most certainly became a hated species in more recent centuries, after the Clearances in the Highlands when the era of the Victorian hunting estate had been ushered in. When they were reintroduced, Rum was the location chosen by the then Nature Conservancy Council for the release of the first sea eagles in 1975. It's somehow an island made for eagles, and set in a wider wildscape designed for them every bit as much. Across the water from Scotland, Norway had and has a very healthy population of the birds. So it was eaglets were collected at 6-8 weeks of age from nests in Norway: over the next 10 years a total of 82 eaglets (39 males and 43 females) were brought to Scotland. Presenter Kenneth Steven Producer Mark Rickards A Whistledown Scotland Production for BBC Radio 3 An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands
The Sea Eagle	20231031	20250624 (R3)	Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay. At one time sea eagles are likely to have been revered in Scotland. The Tomb of the Eagles, a Neolithic burial site in Orkney, is testament to that, as are the carved Pictish stones depicting what's hard not to believe have to be sea eagles. For all that, they most certainly became a hated species in more recent centuries, after the Clearances in the Highlands when the era of the Victorian hunting estate had been ushered in. When they were reintroduced, Rum was the location chosen by the then Nature Conservancy Council for the release of the first sea eagles in 1975. It's somehow an island made for eagles, and set in a wider wildscape designed for them every bit as much. Across the water from Scotland, Norway had and has a very healthy population of the birds. So it was eaglets were collected at 6-8 weeks of age from nests in Norway: over the next 10 years a total of 82 eaglets (39 males and 43 females) were brought to Scotland. Presenter Kenneth Steven Producer Mark Rickards A Whistledown Scotland Production for BBC Radio 3 An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond. [LISTEN NOW]
The Wallabies	20231101		Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay. Kenneth Steven explores his visit to an island in the largest of freshwater lakes, Loch Lomond. There was nothing; possibly the soft murmur of birdsong, but precious little more than that. I walked on until I must have been about the middle of the island and then I stopped again, looked around me. And all at once, to my amazement and my great joy, were exactly what I had come to find, and the last thing in the world you would ever imagine: wallabies. There were perhaps half a dozen with me in the glade, and they were watching me. They were standing upright and probably they'd have come up to the height of my thighs: somehow akin to giant rabbits; furry-faced and doe-eyed. And as I stood there watching them one or two bounced about between the growing patches of sunlight. And now I knew at last I had proved the story true after all: there were indeed wallabies on the island of Inchconnachan on Loch Lomond. Presenter Kenneth Steven Producer Mark Rickards A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 3 An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.
The Wallabies	20231101	20250625 (R3)	Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay. Kenneth Steven explores his visit to an island in the largest of freshwater lakes, Loch Lomond. There was nothing; possibly the soft murmur of birdsong, but precious little more than that. I walked on until I must have been about the middle of the island and then I stopped again, looked around me. And all at once, to my amazement and my great joy, were exactly what I had come to find, and the last thing in the world you would ever imagine: wallabies. There were perhaps half a dozen with me in the glade, and they were watching me. They were standing upright and probably they'd have come up to the height of my thighs: somehow akin to giant rabbits; furry-faced and doe-eyed. And as I stood there watching them one or two bounced about between the growing patches of sunlight. And now I knew at last I had proved the story true after all: there were indeed wallabies on the island of Inchconnachan on Loch Lomond. Presenter Kenneth Steven Producer Mark Rickards A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 3 An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond. Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay. [LISTEN NOW]