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The Kirkwall Ba', Dark Skies and Festive Tractors

Mark Stephen and Rachel Stewart with stories from the great outdoors.

Laura Guthrie visits Arbroath Abbey where a new version of an ancient building, a scriptorium, is helping connect the Abbey site with modern day Arbroath.

From scriptorium to cinasium. Rachel visits the building at Crail airfield which was a cross between a gym and a cinema, and has been home to sound installation bringing back life to the site.

The team head out on a dark sky walk with Jim Wood of Mountain Skies, Braemar. Jim tells them what to look out for in the winter sky and some tips on stargazing. They head up Creag Choinnich, but does the weather improve enough for them to catch a glimpse of the Geminid meteor shower?

Orcadian fiddler Graham Rorie recently told our Travelling Folk colleagues about his family’s involvement in the Kirkwall Ba’. The Ba’ is a mass ball game played up and down the streets of Kirkwall on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. We hear Graham’s Christmas Day memories of his Dad’s involvement, and chat live to two current Ba’ players, an Uppie and a Doonie, about what the game involves and what it’s like to take part in.

Rachel is feeling festive in Aberdeenshire as she watches the Inverurie Christmas tractor run. Dozens of tractors take part bedecked in festive lights including Santa and his red-nosed John Deere.

1 hour, 31 minutes

Last on

Sat 23 Dec 2023 06:30

Broadcast

  • Sat 23 Dec 2023 06:30

Landward

Landward

Scotland's farming and countryside programme