Scottish Rural Leadership Programme

At the recent Rural Leaders in Conversation event in the northeast, our podcast host, Jane Craigie, caught up with Rural Leader Donald Boyd.

Donald discusses his 15 years of involvement with Huntly Development Trust (HDT) and the investments it has made, and is making, to ensure the long-term sustainability of the market town, including the purchase of Greenmyres and the erection of a community wind turbine.

The 63 acre rural site, which is owned and run by the community, has been transformed into a recreational and biodiversity destination and is open to the public for walking, cycling and camping with the Ecobothy available for private hire for events, parties and workshops.

Tune in to hear more about what the future plans of HDT are, and the scale of the investments they have made to date.

A lovely, open conversation between Sarah Cruickshank, and host, Jane Craigie about Sarah's role managing fly fishing and holiday accomodation on the River Deveron.

Sarah talks about working with her father, his passion for fishing leading to Deveronside Fishings and ownership of seven miles of double bank fishing. Sarah also talks about rural tourism, fish stocks and the future of fishing and the river Deveron. 

In our latest podcast, we caught up with Rural Leaders from both sides of the Atlantic at the Highland Show, including our guest speaker Rawley Hicks, who is at the sharp end of agricultural machinery innovation. Tune in to find out what's currently top of mind for these Rural Leaders. 

Catherine Drummond Herdman has the most fascinating story. Her home, Megginch Castle, situated between Perth and Dundee, has been in the family since 1660. Borne of generations of plantspeople, it's not at all surprising to hear Catherine's deep relationship with plants, the soil and her heritage. In this very warm and wonderful conversation, Catherine talks about her cancer diagnosis and recovery, the healing and purpose that plants brought her, and her tea and apple growing passions. Catherine has an orchard of over1,400 trees representing over 800 varieties of apples - part of the National Apple Collection. She also has a bloodhound - Ella - a huge and glorious creature that Catherine works with to track down lost dogs. Listening to Catherine is a joyful, hopeful and wonderful experience, one that we hope you will enjoy.

Julia has over 25 years in economic development and currently leads on a wide portfolio of national rural programmes for Scottish Enterprise. These include the Rural Leadership Programme, Agritourism Monitor Farm and many other programmes to support rural leaders to develop themselves, their businesses and their communities. These programmes engage with a wide range of rural sectors including agriculture, tourism, food and drink, energy, horticulture and rural services and involve supporting rural businesses the length and breadth of Scotland. 

James Barr has just completed the Rural Leadership Programme and is a man with many talents. Up until recently, he has worked for Cuthbertson in Lanarkshire, designers and manufacturers of winter maintenance. Operating since 1936, the company has remained true to its roots of supporting Scottish rural businesses.

James is also involved in the family dairy farm and trained at university as a lawyer – something he will be putting to good use with his new job with SSE.

Tune in to this short 15-minute podcast and find out more about James and his leadership journey so far. 

Alix Ritchie is a Perthshire farmer and passionate advocate for the rural community, who was recently appointed as the very first Programme Director for Farmstrong Scotland - a new peer-to-peer wellbeing programme. 

She has developed an understanding of agriculture, education and skills development through working with SAYFC, RHET and most recently QMS as Health & Education Manager. She is also a board member of the Women in Agriculture network.

In our podcast this month, she shares her story since completing the Scottish Rural Leadership Programme, and why wellbeing is such an important topic for agriculture, and rural areas. 

The most recent Rural Leaders' In Conversation event was hosted by Fergus and Alison Younger at Old Leckie Farm. Close to 30 people gathered to hear about the family farming and diversified business, its enterprises comprising of sheep, cattle and laying hens.
 
The Youngers sell meat and eggs direct, have a holiday let and run farm tours with food from their kitchen table.
 
The podcast is a recording of the conversations captured on the farm walk, it is open, honest and full of wisdom. 

Alana has a Bachelor of Communications – Public Relations and is the Communications Manager (Press and Media) for Food Standards Scotland, the public sector food body for Scotland.
 
An Aussie-lass with Scottish family roots, she decided to move to Aberdeenshire after spending time working on the Rural Youth Project and with the team at Jane Craigie Marketing.
 
When not at work, she spends her mornings, afternoons, and weekends as a professional gate opener, relief milker, and bucket filler on her husband’s organic dairy farm.
 
She is a Trustee of the Royal Highland Education Trust, a member of the Project Board for Inclusive Farm and part of the management committee for Women in Ag Scotland.
 
In this short podcast, we find out more about her transition from Australia to Scotland – be prepared to smile throughout. 

Our podcast this month comes live from the Royal Highland Show, where we caught up with Julian Pace and Julia Latto about the history of the Scottish Rural Leadership Programme and its positive impact on rural communities, as well as speaking to six Rural Leaders to find out about their journey.

Our thanks go to Ben Mardall, Donald Paterson, Caroline Hamilton, David Allison, Clare Dickson and Kevin Lesser for joining us.