Turriff Show to celebrate food and drink

Scotland’s biggest two-day agricultural event, the Turriff Show, is introducing a new food and drink pavilion for 2019. In its 155th year, the show (4-5 August) is expanding its food and drink offering with over 50 stalls featuring some of the best produce from growers and makers throughout Aberdeenshire and beyond. Exhibitors include artisan yogurt…

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Killer instinct can make the raven hard to love

Intelligent, loyal and fun-loving, the raven also has a dark, dangerous and deadly side that has won it few friends. Watch a pair of ravens on a windy day, sky diving with all the majesty and skill of the Red Arrows, and it is hard not to fall totally under their spell. In sunlight, the…

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Opening Scotland’s gardens to the general public

Discover two remarkable gardens under the Scotland’s Gardens Scheme  this Sunday – and help a great cause. Braevallich Farm, by Loch Awe, Argyll, is opening this Sunday for charity under Scotland’s Garden Scheme. The scheme benefits over 250 charities each year, many are small, local and close to the hearts of the garden owners. The…

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Nothing to grouse about when saving rare species

Exemplary countryside management at the Glenlivet Estate means declining species, such as the black grouse, are thriving. As dawn crept into my room in Tomintoul, a blackbird proclaimed it was time to rise even if the ice lacing the window indicated that winter still had a grip. Tomintoul is the highest village in the Highlands…

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Working on the land is all in a day’s work

An increasing number of women are making their mark by successfully taking on roles in the countryside that were traditionally occupied by men. Scottish Field highlighted just some of them in a feature in 2014. ALI GORDON, 47, SHEPHERDESS, ST ABB’S HEAD, BERWICKSHIRE I came from a farming background myself; my parents bought the farm…

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Paying tribute to Scotland’s fairs and shows

Archie Hume of A Hume Country Clothing pays tribute to Scotland’s country shows and fairs. Scottish summertime doesn’t come with many guarantees, certainly not any that relate to the weather. As the joke goes ‘I love summer in Scotland. Last year it was on a Wednesday.’ To top it off, the things you can rely…

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Distiller’s amazing charity gesture – in perpetuity

A Scots family distiller has announced that it will be donating £1 per bottle for all on-going sales to Motor Neurone Disease, in perpetuity. Arbikie Distillery, which is based on Scotland’s scenic east coast by Lunan Bay is owned and run by the Stirling brothers, who named their award-winning AK’s Gin after their father, Alex…

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From table tennis to rabbit farming to ultramarathon

If I were to tell you a story about a man who was a professional table tennis player but gave it all up and moved to a remote Scottish island to become a rabbit farmer; who was then inspired to start running by watching TV, battled cancer and became one of the world’s most successful…

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Great stories from all over Scotland return in Landward

The great outdoors comes to your living room, with the new series of Landward next week. Landward returns for a new series, celebrating Scotland’s countryside and wildlife, its food and drink sectors and investigating the stories behind the headlines in the rural economy. Presenters Dougie Vipond, Arlene Stuart, Euan McIlwraith and Anne Lundon will travel…

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Is the badger really public enemy number one?

Attacked on all sides, and the victim of government-sponsored culls as well as unimaginable brutality at the hands of criminal gangs, the badger faces a difficult future. It’s a sunny afternoon in a bramble thicket deep in Perthshire woodland. A robin appears and cocks his head in our direction, turning over the newly disturbed leaf…

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