Bog Myrtle & Peat

Orwell wrote about The Moon Under Water, “the perfect pub” which he imagined at length in an essay for the Evening Standard in 1946. He lays it on thick in that essay, which is the sum of a hundred personal predilections, described with the wisdom and knowledge of a pub connoisseur. By dialling up certain… Continue reading

The Scottish Government has moved to ban snaring, and the decision drifts across the landscape like a bad smell. There was no clear conservation case to be made during the consultation, largely because that specific point is probably impossible to prove. We can’t say “if you ban snares, curlews will decline” – because curlew decline… Continue reading

There are plenty of unsettling angles to ponder in Henry Williamson’s short story Zoë. The narrative follows Captain Horton-Wickham’s rescue of an otter kit which is orphaned when its mother is shot by a cruel and unfeeling fisherman. Reared by a cat from the local pub, the tiny otter is named Zoë – and it… Continue reading

Norwich cathedral was cold as barn in December. I shivered in the aisles and gathered my coats around me. Every time the doors opened to admit new visitors, a bitter Scandinavian wind rushed in to gutter the candles and pull at the straw in the nativity scene. I found the things I went to see;… Continue reading

As a farmer of beef cattle and a noisy advocate for the best of British, I am not so proud and principled to conceal the fact that I have sometimes enjoyed food from the faster end of the spectrum. You may occasionally find me in the drive-thru queue of MacDonald’s in Dumfries, bawling my order… Continue reading

Once the various demonstration projects had ground to a halt, Langholm moor was offered for sale. Acting on behalf of the local community, an action group offered to buy part of the hill, and the proposal came at a timely moment for the Southern Uplands. Successive waves of government policy have driven far-reaching change across… Continue reading

When windfarms first arrived in the hills, developers were slopping with cash. The industry was heavily subsidised by the government, and no price was too high for the new kids in town. Acknowledging that not everybody welcomed the idea of turbines, money was used to paper over the cracks of local dissent. Community consent was… Continue reading

I went to see about buying a new truck in the hills above Tavistock. It’s otter country there, and deep, dividing streams cut between the trees like the tread of an offroad tyre. Did you know that the words otter and water have the same anglo-saxon root? So the River Otter is an acknowledgement to… Continue reading

Take a tough, thrifty hill ewe and run it with a big, productive leicester tup. The resulting crossbred lambs are called mules, and they represent the best of both worlds. They’re sensible and canny like their mothers, but they’re also big and productive enough to work with more commercial breeds. The word “mule” carries connotations… Continue reading

Years ago, I was apprenticed to a wildfowler who spent most of his waking life on the Solway. A relief milker by trade, his morning’s work would often be finished by 5am, and he’d collect me from home on his way to the shore. I followed him through the darkness, and my footprints were overlaid… Continue reading