At the end of the road across the Black Isle, not very far north of Inverness, at the mouth of the firth, sits the town of Cromarty. It’s a small community with a big tourist draw, overlooking the natural beauty of mountains and water. It also sits at an interesting point of crossover between the city, only forty minutes drive away, agriculture on the Black Isle and beyond, and heavy industry hosted in the firth and in the energy park across the water from the town. From the beaches in Cromarty, you can see dolphins, oil rigs, and wind turbines under construction.

It’s a heady mix, and has drawn tourists, new residents, artists, and writers.

We dig into the history and present of Cromarty. What is the context of this place, and what is it like to live there now? As Matt prepared to find out first hand, we spoke to Ingrid Rochford, who has lived there for much of her life, and now runs Ingrid’s House, a Scandinavian design shop in the centre of the town.

She has just launched her Christmas range, which is worth a look online no matter where you are at www.ingridshouse.co.uk

As The Castle Hunter, from his base in Edinburgh, David C. Weinczok has visited over 400 castles, all over Scotland, sometimes even pushing his way through brambles, thistles and midges, just to reach a small pile of stones that was once a castle.

With David as a guide, you begin to see through the majestic, insta filtered view of Scotland’s famous castles, lone sentries on hilltops, or marooned on lonely islands. These are fantastic images, obviously, and they adorn every website extolling the virtues of Scotland (including this one). But there’s something not quite right about that hyper-exoticised view. And the truth that lies behind it is more interesting, if less immediately accessible than a great shot of Eilean Donan with Hefe on max.

“One myth to bust straight away is the idea of the solitary tower standing defiant against the landscape. The reality is that almost every castle was one part of a larger network, without which the castle could not have been built in the first place,” says David

In the podcast, Pete and Matt talk about Ardvreck, a castle they have visited but not understood, before David gives the wider context of castles in this part of the world.

You can read more about David C. Weinczok, at his website, on Twitter and Instagram, and by buying his book, The History Behind Game of Thrones - The North Remembers.

The best surf season at Thurso is in the Winter. Iona and Finn talk of the delight of getting into the sea, steaming because the water at 6 degrees is warmer than the air, and paddling out past chunks of ice that have broken off from the rivers that flow into the sea and floated out into the waves.

Mysterious structures are dotted throughout the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Standing proud by the side of roads, with car parks for visitors and information boards, or just a tumble of stones under the bracken somewhere off the beaten path, are the remains of round stone buildings built in the iron age, some of them still several storeys high. These are brochs.

Their exact function, and how they were built still isn’t known. Some of them were investigated, rebuilt, or plundered by the first wave of amateur archaeologists in the 19th Century. Many now make a good picnic spot.

Pete and Matt spoke to Ken and Iain from the Caithness Broch Project to understand more about what these brochs are, and to find out what the difference is between a broch and a cairn.

The Caithness Broch Project is a grass roots charity aiming to promote and preserve existing archaeological sites in Caithness, create an Archaeological Trail around the area, and to build a replica of an Iron Age Broch using authentic building techniques from the time.

Lynn and Sandra never intended to become farmers in the Cairngorms. They spent a couple of years deciding where and how they would realise their dream of finding their small bit of land to raise a couple of chickens. Perhaps five acres would do it.

In 2016, they found themselves owner-occupiers at Lynbreck, a sprawling 150 acre croft in the Cairngorms national park. Pete and Matt talked to Lynn to find out about her story, and dug into the history of crofting in the Highlands and Islands, and its troubling history in the Clearances.

Scotland, maintains Calum Maclean, is one of the best places in the world to go wild swimming. Its lochs, waterfalls, and coastline present a huge range places to swim or submerge yourself in cold water.

And the cold water has a magic of its own, and can be transformative, as the many advocates of its restorative powers will attest.

Matt and Pete discuss their own experiences of swimming in Scotland, and talk to Calum about what they should be doing better, and how he manages to crack the ice on a mountain loch and throw himself in.

Pete and Matt introduce the FarNorth Podcast and provide a little taste of what's to come in Season 1. Subscribe to the FarNorth Podcast wherever podcasts are found by going to https://farnorth.scot/podcast