Scottish Field

Comedian Ed Byrne joins the Scottish Field podcast for a chat this week.

A TV household name, Ed has been seen on pretty much every TV programme in the UK including Mock The Week, Top Gear, Have I Got News For You, The Graham Norton Show, Live At The Apollo, The One Show and The Great British Bake Off.

He's returning to Scotland next month with his show If I'm Honest..., where he takes a long hard look at himself and tries to decide if he has any traits that are worth passing on to his children.

Ed, who's one of the UK’s finest observational comics, tells us why he's delighted to be back on the road with his biggest tour to date.

If you're a fan of Ed, you may well have seen him at the festival in Edinburgh in 2019 when he debuted this show, but, thanks to the pandemic, it's been on hold for a long time.

He will be in Stirling at the Macrobert Arts Centre on February 26, then in March, he'll be in Perth on the 9th, Motherwell 10th, Dunfermline 11th, Aberdeen 12th and Inverness 13th.

You can find out more about his tour and where to get tickets from his website, which is www.edbyrne.com

We also tell you about our February 2022 edition, in which we dangle from Scotland’s sea cliffs with rock climbing enthusiast Guy Robertson, and meet one of the hardest working women on Tiree, local crofter Rhoda Meek, who has taken on Airbnb.

We chat with Perthshire’s Michael Yellowlees, who, with his four-legged friend Luna, completed a 5000-mile trek across Canada, and ask if the real Macbeth would please stand up. Having been made out to be a villainous, tyrannical king, there was much more to Macbeth than meets the eye.

All this and much more is in the latest Scottish Field, priced £4.75. To find out more about how to subscribe, just visit www.scottishfield.co.uk/subscriptions

Scottish Field's podcast returns for its first episode of 2022 - and we're rambling on!

This week, we're joined by actor Iain Robertson, who played Lex in cult Glasgow gang film, Small Faces, played Gash in Rab C. Nesbitt, and is currently Stevie O'Hara in River City.

Last year, you may have seen two episodes of Iain Robertson Rambles, in which he tackled the West Highland Way.

Now, the show has returned with a new six part series, this time tackling two long distance walks.

First off, Iain takes on the daunting 215 mile challenge of the Southern Upland Way. Trekking Scotland from the west coast to the east he sets off from Portpatrick.

Later in the series he takes on an extended version of the Speyside Way, from source to sea and tacking on a stretch of the Moray Coast Trail.

We join Iain as he rambles his way through some of the most incredible scenery Scotland has to offer.

He treats us to his unique and irreverent perspective and shares the sights and hidden gems he discovers, including remote and charming bothies and some diversions off the beaten track.

You can find Iain Robertson Rambles on BBC Scotland and BBC iPlayer HERE.

We also tell you about our February 2022 edition, in which we dangle from Scotland’s sea cliffs with rock climbing enthusiast Guy Robertson, and meet one of the hardest working women on Tiree, local crofter Rhoda Meek, who has taken on Airbnb.

We chat with Perthshire’s Michael Yellowlees, who, with his four-legged friend Luna, completed a 5000-mile trek across Canada, and ask if the real Macbeth would please stand up. Having been made out to be a villainous, tyrannical king, there was much more to Macbeth than meets the eye.

All this and much more is in the latest Scottish Field, priced £4.75. To find out more about how to subscribe, just visit www.scottishfield.co.uk/subscriptions

Scottish Field meets the Scots composer who has worked one of this year's big Christmas TV specials, in our latest podcast.

This week our guest is Blair Mowat. Blair, originally from Edinburgh, spoke with Scottish Field from his home in Los Angeles about his career so far, being nominated for a BAFTA award, and working on The Amazing Mr Blunden for Sky, the music for which was recorded in Glasgow.

Sky's new adaptation of 1970s classic The Amazing Mr Blunden is a yuletide ghost story with a time-travel twist, adapted by League of Gentlemen and Sherlock star Mark Gatiss, with music from Blair, who has worked on a host of other programmes, including Doctor Who, its spin off Class, and documentaries by David Attenborough, and another on a fellow Scot, Andrew Carnegie.

You can find out more about Blair and his work at www.blairmowat.co.uk.

To find out more about how to subscribe, to Scottish Field, just visit www.scottishfield.co.uk/subscriptions

Scottish Field would cycle 500 miles, and we would cycle 500 more... just to be the podcast that brings something new and exciting to your door!

The 31st Scottish Field podcast sees us meet two members of the Adventure Syndicate.

This week our guests are Alice Lemkes and Philippa Battye, who tell us about their cycling adventure to recreate the 1936 cycling and Hostelling holiday of Mary Harvie.

As part of their 90th anniversary celebrations and in support of Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022, Hostelling Scotland have teamed up with the Adventure Syndicate, a group of female adventurers and storytellers who promote mental and physical wellbeing through their outdoor endeavours, to recreate an epic 500-mile cycle and youth hostelling adventure.

The original two-week, two wheeled holiday was carried out by 17-year-old hosteller Mary Harvie, from Shotts in North Lanarkshire, with her two older sisters, Ella and Jean, in 1936. This epic journey, that began in Glasgow and saw the women explore the North West Highlands, Skye, Highland Perthshire, and Stirlingshire, was documented in Mary’s diary.

Now, their route has been partly followed - and partly improvised on - in the 21st century by a trio of cyclists from The Adventure SYndicate, Lee Craigie, Alice Lemkes, and Phillipa Battye from the Adventure Syndicate set out from Glasgow Youth Hostel on their own seven-day, 500-mile, on and off-road cycle adventure, an appreciation of the Harvie sisters’ incredible cycling trip.

You can find out more about The Adventure Syndicate at www.theadventuresyndicate.com, and for more details about Hostelling Scotland, their website is www.hostellingscotland.org.uk.

To find out more about how to subscribe to Scottish Field, just visit www.scottishfield.co.uk/subscriptions

The Scottish Field podcast this wees chats with an author who had a five-star review in our own pages.

This week our guest is John Gerard Fagan. Readers of Scottish Field may recognise his name, as he was the author of the book Fish Town, which received a five-star review in our October edition.

Fish Town, which was released through Guts Publishing, tells John's story, having been workinh in factories and call centres or unemployed. Approaching 30 and disillusioned with life in Glasgow, he sold everything heI had and left for a new life in a remote fishing village in Japan. He knew nothing of the language or the strange new land that he would call home for the next seven years. Fish Town is an eye-opening true story that paints the reality of living in Japan as an outsider.

This debut memoir, written entirely on his phone, reads like a book of poetry or perhaps a long text message, and captures the experience of a Scottish man living in Japan - with humor, wit and honesty. 

John appears this Sunday on the Big Scottish Book Club, reading a short extract from the book, as host Damian Barr chats with guests including former Scots Makar Jackie Kay, and the one and only Miriam Margolyes. 

At the end of the episode, John read a short extract from his book, and now, in this week's Scottish Field podcast, he tells us how the whole book came about, how he enjoyed reading his book in front of Harry Potter and Blackadder star Miriam, and much more.

You can buy the latest issue of Scottish Field, priced £4.75. To find out more about how to subscribe, just visit www.scottishfield.co.uk/subscriptions

This week we're talking chocolate on the Scottish Field podcast.

We meet Pure Heavenly founder, Stephen Conway, was inspired to launch the brand for his daughters, who are both dairy and gluten intolerant. He's created a bar that's got less than 1% sugar, and no dairy, gluten, soy or palm oil - and is made in Arbroath

We discuss our December issue, which highlights the best of the best in Scotland, whether food, drink, places to stay, and incredible items to purchase.

Our Christmas issue, which is packed full of festive gift ideas - for him, for her, for your pets, and everyone else.

We also mark 150 years since Henry Morgan Stanley found the missing Dr David Livingstone in Africa, and speak with Grant MacKenzie, interim director of the the David Livingstone Birthplace Museum, which re-opened in July this year after a lengthy £9.1 million revamp.

All this and much more is in the latest Scottish Field, priced £4.75. 

The 28th Scottish Field podcast is just murder to listen to…

This week, we tell you about a fantastic crime writing competition which you could enter – and win £1000 with Glencairn Crystal.

For the past two years, the world’s favourite whisky glass – The  Glencairn Glass – has featured as headline sponsor of the prestigious  McIlvanney and Bloody Scotland Debut crime-writing prizes, celebrating  the finest in Scottish crime writing talent.

The Glencairn Glass is building on this creative collaboration by  launching its very own crime short story competition, in partnership  with Scottish Field.

The Glencairn Glass is looking to celebrate up-and-coming literary  talent through this exclusive competition, which is open for entries  until December 31, inviting all budding crime writers to build their  stories around the theme: ‘A Crystal-Clear Crime’ in no more than 2000  words.

The judging panel for the inaugural competition will comprise Deborah  Masson, 2020 winner of the Bloody Scotland Debut Crime Novel of the  Year with her book ‘Hold Your Tongue’, Peter Ranscombe, Scottish Field’s  drinks columnist and author of the historical thriller ‘Hare’, as well  as Glencairn’s marketing director Gordon Brown, who has written eight  crime novels with his latest, ‘Thirty-One Bones’, written under the  pseudonym Morgan Cry. Gordon is also one of the founding directors of  the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival.

All short story entries must be uploaded at www.whiskyglass.com/crime-short-story-competition with the competition closing at midnight on the Friday December 31 2021.

Our current issue also features Scotland’s national drink, as chief sub editor Rosie Morton and web editor Kenny Smith discuss the Scottish Field whisky challenge.

This week's Scottish Field podcast marks an important moment in history.

One hundred and fifty years to the day since Henry Morgan Stanley found the missing Dr David Livingstone in Africa, and reputedly greeted him with the words 'Dr Livingston, I presume?', we commemorate the life of the great Scottish explorer.

From his humble beginnings in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, we speak with Grant MacKenzie, interim director of the the David Livingstone Birthplace Museum, which re-opened in July this year after a lengthy £9.1 million revamp.

Grant talks us through the highlights of Livingstone's life, and puts his life in context, revealing how he fought against the slave trade.

Scottish Field's Kenny Smith and Rosie Morton also discuss our latest edition, our Christmas issue, which is packed full of festive gift ideas.

The December issue of Scottish Field will be appearing in shops any day now, and this week we preview one of the features in it.

We look at Dr David Livingstone, the famous Scots explorer. This month marks 150 years since four of the most famous words ever uttered between two people are reputed to have been said - 'Dr Livingstone, I presume?'

It was on November 10, 1871, when Scots explorer Livingstone, who had been missing in the deepest depths of Africa for six years, met New York Herald journalist Henry Morton Stanley who, according to legend, greeted the Scotsman with the now legendary phrase.

You can read this feature, and much more, in the latest Scottish Field, priced £4.75. To find out more about how to subscribe, just visit www.scottishfield.co.uk/subscriptions

We also have a chat with Damian Barr, host of the Big Scottish Book Club, currently airing at 10pm on BBC Scotland on Sundays. Each week, he is joined by three guests to discuss their work, in themed episodes.

The show is a must-watch for bibliophiles, and here, we speak with Damian, who was our first guest back on episode one of the podcast talking about BBC Scotland's Shelf Isolation series.

Halloween is on the way - we're going to be getting in the mood for the spooky season in our latest podcast.

In our podcast today, we're heading to Kilduff Farm in East Lothian.

Kilduff farm is located in East Lothian, in between Haddington and North Berwick and home to our guest today, Lucy Calder, as well as her husband Russell, and their three children, Maisie, Louisa  and Charlie.

Literally thousands of pumpkins are grown at Kilduff Farm each year, and Lucy tells us about the process - and the fact that there's much more to this fruit than just carving it for October 31. You can find out more at www.kilduff.co.uk

Don't forget, you can still buy the latest Scottish Field, our November green-themed issue, priced £4.75, which is still in shops. To find out more about how to subscribe, just visit www.scottishfield.co.uk/subscriptions