Anthrax Island: Gruinard Clearances & Deadly Experiments
Jenny and Annie find stories of Gruinard Island, a small island just off the West Coast of the Scottish. From this one little piece of land, they uncover harrowing and painful stories of the Highland Clearances. They discuss the kelp processing industry on the Western Isles and the impact it had on crofting communities. They learn about an unsympathetic landlord and the strife of tenants. Next, they go into the dark history of Second World War biological weapon testing on the island. They ask how could an island be left with deadly anthrax for decades in the midst of idyllic scenery. Jenny looks into Dark Harvest Commandos who fought for the British Government to decontaminate Gruinard. This episode ties together controversial land management decisions, past and present.
Please be advised this episode discusses government testing of biological weapons on livestock.
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Mermaids of Scotland: Dangers of the Deep Sea
Jenny and Annie explore the everlasting legend of mermaids to celebrate coastlines, seas and lochs. They share incredible mermaid folklore curated by a traditional storyteller from Caithness to learn about the significance of mermaids to Scotland’s culture. Jenny reads poetry inspired by the lands-under-the-sea written by a fisherman’s son from Shetland. Annie examines mermaid artefacts from the Scottish Fisheries Museum and National Museums Scotland.
They also discuss selkies, the mythological half-seal half-human creatures. Kyle returns to sing a couple of verses from the traditional Scots ballad Lady Odivere.
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Eilean Donan Castle: Medieval Misdoers, Legends & Jacobites
Welcome to Eilean Donan Castle, one of the most famous and photographed castles in Scotland, situated on a small island at the meeting point of three lochs. Jenny and Annie look into the origin tales of this incredible and beautiful building and find a surreal story about a prince who can speak to birds.
We read a medieval Scots poem to discover the hard justice of the first Earl of Moray, who harshly punished any criminals who stole from fellow countrymen.
Eilean Donan was also the site of conflict in the ill-fated Jacobite Rising of 1719, which had a disastrous ending for the castle!
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Salmon: Wisdom & the Day of Bride
Jenny and Annie look at the natural lifecycle of the salmon. This episode delves into ancient legends of the salmon of wisdom as well as the romantic Scottish mythology about the Day of Bride, the Celtic festival of spring and how this relates to salmon and serpents. Jenny and Annie get curious about isotopic archaeology that questions how much fish Picts ate. We also uncover a Cromwellian book that teaches us that we need to restrict the amount of salmon we eat, with some intriguing seventeenth-century logic.
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Midnight Poaching on the Tay
Jenny and Annie investigate salmon poaching on the Inner Tay Estuary between Perth and Dundee. They learn about this dark side to poaching, the dangers and shenanigans of catching illicit salmon. Looking at the little industrious town of Newburgh, they visit the fishing stations of Jock’s Hole and Gutter Hole.
Jenny and Annie uncover some underhand river police tactics for catching poachers.
Annie’s grandfather Jimmy tells stories of some late-night poaching antics on the River Nith in Dumfries, in the last of the grandparent interviews.
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Bonus: Butteries, bakers & Bennachie
In this episode, Jenny and Annie eat some delicious Aberdeen rowies, also known as butteries. We look at the origin of this calories dense maritime snack and sing a cheeky wee buttery shanty. We hear about a mischievous oatcake-stealing fairy and Jenny reads from an account of hillwalking on Bennachie, a twelve-mile hike all on a buttery breakfast.
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Fire & Iron: The Smiddy, Blacksmiths & Mythology
Continuing the conversation about rural Scotland, Annie and Jenny speak to Jimmy about his experience of being a blacksmith in 1950. They learn some very peculiar stories of blacksmiths from legends, including encounters with mischievous kelpies, bootlace-tying rhymes and the magic of iron.
A surreal and enticing examination of the role of the village blacksmith.
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Love in the Lowlands
In the third episode interviewing Jean and Jimmy we travel back to the dance halls of the fabulous fifties. Jenny and Annie learn about love, conscription and most importantly turnips. This is an intimate look at love and life in the rural lowlands of Scotland in the 1950’s.
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Winter Solstice Bonus: Clava Cairns & Shetland Tammasmas
In this bonus episode, Jenny and Annie celebrate the winter solstice by looking at some wonderful eccentric traditions past on Shetland.
We discuss the mystery of the Clava Cairns, the ancient monument that inspired the time-traveling romance Outlander.
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Scottish Granny: Poppies & Prisoners
In this exploration of family history, Annie and Jenny speak to Jean: Annie’s granny. It’s a wonderful and touching discussion of Jean’s childhood, family and what life was like growing up in rural Ayr during the Second World War.
We learn about rationing, everyday life on a dairy farm, Ayr Gaiety Theatre, and prisoners of war working on nearby farms and their attempts at escape.
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Tales from a Scottish Grandpa
The first of a five-part series from a Scottish grandparent’s living room. Annie and Jenny speak to Annie’s grandfather, Jimmy, about his childhood during the second world war. This sets them off to uncover weird and wonderful rationing tales, where they discover a most peculiar egg collector.
Jimmy tells us about his joy in growing up close to the natural world, and we delve into the language of Juniper.
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Witchcraft & Witch-hunters
This episode looks at witchcraft and witch-purging in early modern Scotland. We hear the extraordinary confessions of Isobel Gowdie and learn about her initiation into sorcery and her incantations.
Jenny and Annie look at the curious profession of witch-pricking, learning about two famous prickers: John Kincaid and crossdressing Christian Caldwell.
A very surreal and magical episode for Halloween/Samhain!
Warning: This episode contains descriptions of torture.
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Scottish Zoo: Unicorn, Wildcat, Puffin & Deer
This podcast explores the Scottish Zoo of our mythologies, glens, and islands. It begins by wondering why the unicorn is Scotland’s national animal.
Annie and Jenny discover mysterious wildcat of the Highland hills and explore Gaelic legends of the Cat Sìth.
Then they look at the wonders of the puffin and the various hardships puffins experienced on the abandoned island of St Kilda.
Finally, they look at the realities of managing land with such high numbers of deer and think about the significance of deer and stags to Scottish culture.
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Tomnahurich: the Fairy Hill of Inverness
Jenny and Annie go away with the fairies to explore the mythology of Tomnahurich Cemetery in Inverness. This episode looks at folk legends of giants, fairy parties and fiddlers lost in the night.
It also examines the curious relationship of Tomnahurich hill and Oliver Cromwell’s control of Scotland during the 17th Century.
We go into detail on the life of Alexander Mackenzie, a Highland Historian who was involved in the Highland Land League and whose gravestone is missing from Tomnahurich Cemetery.
This weird and wonderful episode weaves in and out of imaginative folklore and the genuine history of the Fairy Hill of Inverness, Tomnahurich.
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Rain, Plowtery, Dreich
Jenny and Annie stay inside on a dreichy day to talk about the environmental and cultural significance of rain. They discover the mythology and superstition of rain for fishermen of Shetland and try to make sense of the black rain prophecies of the Brahan Seer.
They look at the geography of Scotland to understand why this place gets such an impressive amount of rain and discuss the wonders of the Celtic Rainforest.
They think about how this wet climate shapes nature, beliefs and people.
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Theatre in Victorian Inverness
This episode brings a guest host, Sara Boussaikouk, who talks to us about Victorian theatres in Inverness. We read archival documents which describe the venues and performers of the Northern Scottish theatre scene.
We dip our toes into romanticisation of the Scottish Highlands through the Sir Walter Scott effect. This episode also looks into the life of a powerhouse of Scottish Theatre: actress and theatre manager Jessie Fraser.
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Radical War 1820
Jenny and Annie have a look at a group of artisan weavers who inspired a strike of sixty thousand people in Glasgow and the industrial central belt.
This episode looks at the “Radical War” of 1820 and examines the causes of this civil uprising and the bloody aftermath.
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Covesea Part 2: A Wizard, a Smuggler & a Wedding
In the second of a two-part adventure at Covesea caves we look at the rumours of the Wizard of Gordonstoun who was said to have sold his soul for sacred knowledge.
This episode discovers that Covesea caves were used by smugglers; who feed into a covert Jacobite network.
We learn about Scottish Indigenous Travellers who passed through Covesea and think about the magic of stories in the caves.
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Covesea Caves Part 1: Bronze Age Mortuary
In the first of a two-part exploration of Covesea caves, Jenny and Annie crawl into the Bronze Age to ponder why these caves were used for the curation of human bodies. Why different people over different eras used the caves as a place of decapitation?
We look at Pictish carvings on the walls and admire the special ambience of the caves throughout time.
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Loch Ness Part 2: Science & Innovation
In this second episode on Loch Ness we look at the landscape through the lenses of both science and mythology. We consider innovation on Loch Ness; from ancient crannogs to a 1950’s water speed record attempts.
We think about how tourism and technology combined to see a sudden surge in Nessie sightings, and muse about international Nessie comparisons.
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