The Geographer: River Tay (Autumn 2018)

The

Geographer Autumn 2018

The newsletter of

the Royal Scottish Geographical Society

The Power of the Tay

A Profile of Scotland’s Longest River • New Inspiring People Talks Programme • Piccard & Darke: 1,000 Solutions & 1,000km • Cities, Soils & Sediments • Sidlaws, Special Sites & Swimming the Tay • Reedbeds, Roads & Raspberries • Dundee’s Development, Perth’s Possibilities • Forestry, Flooding & Farming • Reader Offer: The Tay - 25 Walks from Source to Sea

“Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.”

Sir John Lubbock, RSGS Livingstone Medallist 1908

plus news, books, and more…

The

Geographer

River Tay

“Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known.” A A Milne, Winnie the Pooh

P

eople have strong connections with rivers way beyond the physiological desire for fresh water. They speak to us of tranquillity and the power and beauty of nature. They remind us of our lives – born as they are on rain-kissed bens, crashing through steep-sided glens like mischievous weans, before meandering gently through their adulthood to end their lives in the sea. But beyond this emotional connection there is a much more tangible link too.

Rivers play host to many of our largest cities and our wildest land, our highest mountains, our agricultural lowlands, our industry and our open estuaries. Their very character changes and adapts as you head coastwards, and the Tay, as Scotland’s longest river, epitomises this more than most.

From the high hills around Crianlarich, drawing from a vast catchment, it is witness to agriculture, fishing and forestry, but also soil erosion, diffuse pollution and recreational pressures. Its power is harnessed by hydro schemes old and new, its banks circumnavigated by roads and developments. Lower downstream, it gives rise to some of our most fertile land, fed by the water and nutrients in sediment.

Open hillsides give way to hamlets, then villages, then towns, before the Tay finally arrives in the first of two cities, Perth. Nearby Scone was the ancient coronation point for the Picts and later Monarchs, chosen for its mystical association with the river’s tidal high point. After Perth it begins to mix with salt water before winding its way below the Sidlaws, past reedbeds and raspberry farms to reach Dundee, with its fast-changing waterfront, and ultimately the sea beyond.

It is this interplay between the geography of the land, people and community which makes it so pertinent for the RSGS, and we have been able to draw on much of the Scottish Government research which SEFARI (Scottish Environment, Food and Agriculture Research Institutes) and its partners deliver, including some of the lesser-known aspects of this beautiful river. From the physical features, the land uses and conflicts, to the historical purposes and modern developments, this is a huge and diverse geographical topic to explore. We hope you have fun doing so.

Mike Robinson, Chief Executive, RSGS Graeme Cook, Director, SEFARI Gateway

RSGS, Lord John Murray House, 15-19 North Port, Perth, PH1 5LU tel: 01738 455050 email: enquiries@rsgs.org

The Heart of Scotland Following a most generous donation in memory of Cameron Ewen, a Member of our Collections Team, a portion has been spent on the purchase of an unusual and beautifully designed map of The Heart of Scotland - Gleneagles, constructed and printed by the Edinburgh map and atlas makers, W & A K Johnston, and published in Glasgow by McCorquodale & Son. We think Cameron would have greatly enjoyed this map.

Published c1925, the map comprises the skilful marketing of the new golfing venture of Gleneagles by the London Midland & Scottish Railway Company, with the newly established King’s and Queen’s Golf Courses and adjacent luxury hotel served by a new attractive railway station. The addition of small vignettes of other famous sites to visit while in Scotland adds to the visitor attraction. Geographically, the site comprised an area of glacial sand and gravel outwash, and its adaptation to a ‘Riviera in the Highlands’ has indeed stood the test of time.

Hare today…

Mountain hare numbers on moorlands in parts of the eastern Highlands in Scotland have declined to less than 1% of their levels in the 1950s, according to a long-term scientific study led by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. It shows that, from 1954 to 1999, the mountain © Fergus Gill hare population on moorland sites fell by nearly 5% every year. This long-term moorland decline is likely to be due to land use changes such as the loss of grouse moors to conifer forests, and is reflective of wider population declines that mountain hares are facing across their range.

However, from 1999 to 2017, the scale of the moorland declines increased dramatically to more than 30% every year, leading to counts in 2017 of less than 1% of levels in 1954. The dominant land use in these sites was intensive grouse moor management. The unregulated practice of hare culling as a form of disease control, ostensibly to benefit red grouse, has become part of the management of many estates since the 1990s. Dr Adam Watson, lead author of the report, said, “Having counted mountain hares across the moors and high tops of the eastern Highlands since 1943, I find the decline in numbers of these beautiful animals both compelling and of great concern.”

www.rsgs.org Charity registered in Scotland no SC015599 The views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of the RSGS. Cover image: The Tay, running through Perth. © Doug Withers Masthead image: V&A Dundee, under construction. © Pirate Boats Ltd

RSGS: a better way to see the world

Lundie Crags, Sidlaws.

news Geographer The

14-1

Autumn 2018

Geography in schools

Film première

We have had a number of meetings and discussions with a wide range of external organisations across the Scottish education arena, and have uncovered a very broad and shared concern from a range of disciplines about particular aspects of current educational provision. Whilst we continue to have specific concerns in relation to Geography, around specialist teaching and multi-level teaching etc, the issues which seem to be shared across sectors relate to the value of the third year of BGE in secondary schools, and the inconsistency in, and lack of, subject choice at National 5.

Following his successful run in last year’s Inspiring People talks programme, we’re delighted to be welcoming back film-maker Alex Bescoby, who will be showing his acclaimed film We Were Kings in partnership with the RSGS and Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA). The one-hour documentary focuses on the descendants of the last King of Burma, who was deposed following the British invasion of Burma in 1885, and follows their journey as they strive to bring the family, past and present, back together.

The SQA exam statistics reveal that in 2018 most of the top 15 subjects in schools saw fewer entries than in previous years at National 5 level. Since 2015, only three subjects have seen increased entries: Maths, PE and Modern Studies. French has fallen by nearly a quarter, and Computing, Geography and Graphic Communication have all fallen by around 15%. History, Art, Physics, Biology and Music are all down by 7-10%.

In the Higher, of the most popular nine subjects, only PE has seen a significant rise (with an 11% increase since 2015).

Geography and Maths have fallen back by over 10% since 2015, but the worst performers have been French (-17%) and Biology (-25%). Advanced Higher Geography numbers have slipped back to 88% of 2015 levels.

We are in discussion with Scottish Government, the universities and a range of educational bodies, and will keep you posted as we continue to push for improvements and assurances.

Horrible Geography of Scotland Thank you to all of you who contributed to our Horrible Geography of Scotland appeal mailing. We have been delighted with the response, and whilst we are still awaiting the outcome of several funding requests to grant-making trusts, we are hopeful that we will be able to take the project forward over the winter. We will keep you posted in future editions of The Geographer.

Horrible Geography of Scotland - great new project for schools

RSGS Appeal Envelope 18H.indd 1

Great RSGS gifts Our limitededition pictures are a great idea for anyone looking for unusual and attractive gifts this winter, and every one sold helps raise money for our charity. Prints of Rob Hain’s colourful The Fair City are proving popular: small prints (600x400cm) are £120 unframed or £220 framed, large prints (1,200x800cm) are £250 unframed or £500 framed. We also have a small number of 1,000-piece jigsaws of the print available at £25 each. And limited-edition signed prints of Nick Hayes’ striking lino-cut The Explorer are available (framed) for only £55. Drop in to the Fair Maid’s House or contact RSGS HQ to buy something special!

04/05/2018 09:40

13th

December

Following the screening, Alex will take part in a Q&A session. This exciting extra event will take place at 7.30pm on Thursday 13th December at the DCA cinema. Tickets (£7 for RSGS Members) will be available to buy directly from DCA.

Extra talk: Gordon Buchanan We are delighted to announce that Gordon Buchanan, the award-winning TV presenter and wildlife cameraman, is giving an extra talk for the RSGS on Thursday 10th January 2019, at Perth Theatre, at which he will be presented with RSGS Honorary Fellowship. Tickets will be available from Perth Theatre box office 10th on www.horsecross.co.uk or 01738 621031.

January 2019 Growing up on the Isle of Mull, Gordon developed a great love of nature, and has since spent over 20 years filming wild and wonderful creatures in remote areas of the planet. He has a reputation for relishing dangerous and tough assignments, and has taken part in challenging expeditions and adventures around the globe, including South America, Asia, Africa, Papua New Guinea, Russia and Alaska, always with a view to raising awareness of the fragility of the world’s endangered species and habitats. Best known for Tribes, Predators & Me, Elephant Families & Me, Gorilla Family & Me, The Bear Family & Me, Life in the Snow, Polar Bear Town and the 2018 documentary Animals with Cameras, he is becoming increasingly well-known for presenting as much as for his filming work.

Scottish Geographical Journal In August we ran an excellent evening event with academics, discussing the Scottish Geographical Journal (SGJ). With over 3,000 papers from 1,400 academics over the last 134 years, it is a treasure trove of geographical thinking. The SGJ is currently circulated to around 2,500 institutions and has a growing impact factor, but we are keen to grow this further.

To coincide with this edition of The Geographer, regular volunteer Kenny Maclean found more than 20 articles on aspects of the Tay, ranging from D L Linton’s Some aspects of the evolution of the rivers Tay and Earn (1940), through G Banks’ Hydro-electric development in the Highlands (1950) and D Wheeler’s The weather diary of Margaret Mackenzie of Delvine (Perthshire): 1780-1805 (1994), to B Illsey’s and J McCarthy’s Community-led planning? The case of Dundee (1998).

All the articles can be viewed online at www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsgj20; RSGS Members have free access.

2 Autumn 2018

news

Two Boys on a Bike for Sight

RSGS talk in St Andrews We have arranged for round-the-world adventurer Sarah Outen to give an extra presentation of her talk, Looping the Planet by Pedal and Paddle, in St Andrews.

Over the course of five years, Sarah cycled across Europe, Asia and North 20th America, and kayaked the North Atlantic November and Pacific Oceans. Recounting tales from her 40,000km adventure, including strange encounters in the desert and the horrors of a mid-ocean rescue, Sarah inspires audiences to be courageous and redefine their own boundaries.

In October, Alex (L) and Merlin (R) will set off on a 10,000km cycle by tandem from Cairo to Cape Town to distribute an innovative new medical device, the Arclight, used to prevent eye disease. Developed by the University of St Andrews, this lightweight and easy-to-use device costs just 1% of traditional equipment and is entirely solar-powered, meeting the needs of low-resource settings. The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness would like to see it implemented across the globe.

The biggest challenge faced by Arclight, however, is how to get it into some of the most medically deprived regions in the world.

Fortunately, this is where the boys come in, as they aim to distribute over 2,000 devices to health workers on their journey, free of charge and with any training that may be required. In preparing for the trip, RSGS Explorers-in-Residence Luke and Hazel Robertson have been a valuable source of advice and insight for the boys. See rsgs.org/two-boys-on-a-bike-for-sight for an RSGS blog article about their adventure.

The talk will take place at 7.30pm on Tuesday 20th November in St Salvator’s Quadrangle, North Street, St Andrews. Tickets (£10 standard, £7 RSGS Members, £4 students) will be available from Eventbrite or on the door.

New RSGS Patron Donor scheme So that we can better appreciate the financial contributions of some of our most generous Members, and encourage more regular giving to support our core work, we are introducing a Patron Donor scheme (replacing the previous Patron Membership scheme). Any individual Member (of any membership type except School) who has donated £100 or more over the past year, or who commits to donating a minimum of £10 per month by Direct Debit, in addition to their membership rate, will be recognised as a Patron Donor.

become a Patron Donor

Patron Donors will receive priority booking or guest invitations to the special events that we run, including public events such as Medal presentations and Geography Day, and private RSGS events such as project launches, drinks receptions, specific Patron Donor events, and opportunities to meet our special guests in more informal settings.

Please consider becoming a Patron Donor and doing more to support our vital work. Simply sign up to make a Direct Debit payment of at least £10 per month or make a one-off payment of £100 (in addition to your membership subscription).

Please get in touch with RSGS HQ on 01738 455050 or enquiries@rsgs.org for details.

Admiralty Charts The After Work Adventure When the stunning weather set in at the end of June this year, our Communications Officer decided to head out on his first ‘After Work Adventure’.

Inspired by the Munro summits sat on Perth’s doorstep, he therefore made a bid to sleep wild atop the 3,421ft Meall nan Tarmachan. And, of course, return in time for work the next morning! On the way, he grabbed the office iPad to capture the unfolding escapades and document the extra-curricular activities.

Watch the video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxvloBanbrA to find out what happened.

Collections Team member Michael Cairns recently recorded the contents of three welcome donations of late 19th- and early 20thcentury Admiralty Charts of Scottish waters. With their salty past evident This is the Clyde in 1883; Queen’s Dock is now the site from brown briny of the Hydro and Armadillo. stains, such sea charts highlight the thrills and perils of surveying and navigating Scotland’s coast and islands, and provide a good source of historic coastal land and seascapes, some now changed or lost.

Buy an inspiring gift that lasts all year.

RSGS Gift Membership makes an excellent Christmas present for friends or family.

                   

news Geographer The

14-3

Autumn 2018

Arctic Alive

Informing action on health

The mission of the CanadaUK Foundation is to foster a greater understanding of Canada in the UK through education. In partnership with the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, the Foundation has created a giant circumpolar floor map called Arctic Alive for use in primary schools throughout the UK. The map focuses on the Arctic, teaching British pupils of the vast Canadian North, while also shedding light on British Arctic exploration.

The Chairman, Chief Executive, and Geographer Royal for Scotland, Professor Charles Withers, recently met with Deputy Chief Medical Officer for Scotland Dr Gregor Smith, and colleagues from Scottish Government and the NHS, to discuss how geographers can work more closely with government and health officials to inform their work around the importance of place and other factors affecting health inequalities. This meeting built upon an earlier meeting between Professor Withers and members of the Scottish Government’s Population Health Directorate. The RSGS Research & Knowledge Exchange Committee is looking to develop these initiatives more formally over the next few months. Anyone who is interested in participating, please contact RSGS HQ.

The RSGS has a copy of this fantastic map, which is available for primary teachers in Scotland to borrow. Contact 01738 455050 or enquiries@rsgs.org for details.

Support our future Mike Robinson, RSGS Chief Executive Over our long history, legacies have been fundamental, providing stability and allowing the RSGS to thrive and prosper. Two of our previous offices and most of our maps and books and artefacts were gifted to us in Wills, and our move to a stable home in Perth was made possible by legacy donations. So it is not unreasonable to state that our future most likely relies on these gifts.

Please consider supporting us in the future with a charitable legacy. As a small charity our needs are relatively modest, so legacies can make even more of a difference.

please consider leaving a legacy to RSGS

The Long Swim In September, RSGS Fellow and Inspiring People speaker Lewis Pugh completed his challenge to swim the length of the English Channel, from Land’s End in Cornwall to Dover in Kent. The 48-year-old endurance swimmer, environmental campaigner and UN Patron of the Oceans finished the 560km gruelling swim in 49 days, having swum ten to 20km every day. He said he was looking forward to “a really good sleep” after only getting three to four hours each day on the support boat. Environment Secretary Michael Gove described him as a “modern-day hero” and a “brilliant champion for marine conservation zones.”

Rail networking At the end of August we were pleased to host Alex Hynes, Managing Director of the ScotRail Alliance, and Phil Matthews, Chair of Transform Scotland, for a special evening looking at current and future potential improvements to the Scottish rail network. Attended by interested business bodies and other representatives mostly from Perth and Inverness, it was a chance to hear first-hand about the huge current investment going on in Scotland’s railways, and to talk about how this could be further improved, and especially the need to recognise Perth as a central hub for the whole Scottish rail network. Improving journey times from Edinburgh to Perth and Dundee also benefits journeys to the whole of the north of Scotland, and there was a real enthusiasm to see these journey times greatly improved.

RSGS records to the fore!

RSGS Collections Team volunteers welcomed a group visit from the Scottish Records Association in June. The group toured the Fair Maid’s House with volunteer Anne McKillop, who put over brilliantly the importance of geography in comprehending and dealing with some of the huge issues threatening our planet.

Mr Pugh’s campaign, The Long Swim, aims to raise awareness The visitors then viewed a special selection of collections items, of the threat to the UK’s coastal waters from climate change, which Andrew Cook, Jo Woolf and Margaret Wilkes spoke about. over-fishing and plastic pollution. “What has really shocked me is These included a manuscript plan of the proposed Forth and I’ve seen a few dolphins, a few birds, lots of jellyfish, but virtually nothing else – the oceans around the United Kingdom are so badly Clyde canal from c1761, the Society’s first Visitor Book with its over-fished. We have this one opportunity now to protect the waters mind-boggling array of world-famous signatories, three volumes containing late 19th-century photographs of RSGS’s Officers and around the UK. If we don’t do that there simply won’t be any fish Council Members, and unique items relating to Polar Regions and left for our generation. Forget about future generations if we don’t to the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India. take action right now.”

Ordering is easy. Email or phone today!

Simply contact us on enquiries@rsgs.org or 01738 455050.

Please order by 30th November if possible.

                   

4 Autumn 2018

news

Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS), in partnership with Canada’s national Indigenous organizations, has created a ground-breaking four-volume atlas that shares the experiences, perspectives, and histories of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. It’s an ambitious and unprecedented project inspired by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action.

Exploring themes of language, demographics, economy, environment and culture, with in-depth coverage of treaties and residential schools, these are stories of Canada’s Indigenous Peoples, told in detailed maps and rich narratives. The RCGS and its partners have also developed a suite of complementary resources for schools. The hope is that this project will help build multicultural understanding, encourage dialogue and foster mutual respect between all Canadians.

Not OK coral There is very little good news around climate change this autumn, with the release in August of Dr Ruth Mottram’s paper on the massive deterioration of Greenland’s ice sheet. And in midSeptember, UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced that “climate change is moving faster than we are” and called on world leaders to accelerate action, claiming that “far too few have acted with the vision the science demands.”

In what looks like another hottest year on record globally, the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (a summary of the past few years’ corroborated scientific evidence) makes it clear that keeping global temperature rise to below 1.5°C is both infinitely more desirable than letting it creep to 2°C, and only likely if urgent action is taken to reduce CO2 emissions, and measures are taken to remove CO2 from the atmosphere globally – even though no-one has yet worked out how to do this at scale. It indicates that we are likely to exceed a 1.5°C increase by 2030 at current emissions rates, which will have a devastating effect on various ecosystems. According to their report, 90% of coral reefs, for example, are likely to be destroyed or severely damaged if we reach a 1.5°C increase. At 2°C this is likely to increase this damage to 99% or more. Next year, the Scottish Government will announce a new climate target, and has promised to take account of the 1.5°C maximum threshold.

Special event at Carlowrie Castle On Wednesday 24th October an event 24h at Carlowrie Castle, a private hotel October and function space near Edinburgh, will celebrate a previous owner, and former RSGS Vice-President and Fellow, Isobel Wylie Hutchison. RSGS Members are invited for the afternoon to hear talks from experts on Isobel’s early diaries and copious archives, and to view designs and products inspired by her rich travel stories. Please contact RSGS HQ for further details.

RSGS Writer-in-Residence Jo Woolf has been researching Isobel’s life. “As she followed her heart across the lands of the Arctic in the 1920s and 30s, Isobel Wylie Hutchison took only a botanist’s collecting case and her own irrepressible, joyful curiosity; she recorded her encounters through evocative poetry and prose, and in a wealth of photographs and paintings.”

RSGS Chief Executive Mike Robinson recently detailed his thoughts on Scotland’s new Climate Change Bill via the current affairs magazine, Holyrood. His article questioned whether the new Bill was bold, broad or brave enough for Scotland to maintain its position as a world-leader in tackling human-induced global warming. Visit www.holyrood.com/articles/comment/scotland’s-newclimate-bill-opportunity-missed to read the article.

Running repairs

Granville Stapylton

We were recently sorry to discover that one of the main windows in our visitor centre had been smashed overnight.

These types of incident cost time and money to sort out, in this case causing an unanticipated spend of several hundred pounds to replace the window and other affected materials.

We are delighted to have received from Gregory Eccleston, an RSGS Member in Australia, a copy of his lavishly illustrated and beautifully presented new book. This major study is based on the journals of the pioneer land surveyor Granville Stapylton when he accompanied Major Thomas Mitchell on the ‘Australia Felix’ expedition in 1836 across parts of New South Wales and what is now Victoria.

Stapylton’s journals clarify when and where several natural history discoveries were made, including that of some now extinct species, and describe several first contacts with the indigenous people.

It has reinforced our desire to find someone ‘handy’ who could occasionally help us out when small incidents and accidents do happen. It would not be an onerous role, and would most likely be equivalent to about a day a month. If you are proficient with a screwdriver and think you could help us by offering some basic DIY support, please contact Linda in the office on 01738 455050.

The book is available in the Explorers’ Room of the Fair Maid’s House for visitors to peruse, or contact RSGS HQ for details of how to buy a copy.

news Geographer The

14-5

Autumn 2018

Polly Higgins FRSGS, Shackleton Medallist Barrister and campaigner Polly Higgins has received the 2018 Shackleton Medal. Professor Charles Withers, the Geographer Royal for Scotland, made the presentation after Ms Higgins’ lecture to environmental law students in the Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law & Governance in September.

For more than a decade, Ms Higgins has been leading a global campaign to right a wrong that she believes threatens societies across the planet – the lack of criminal law protecting the Earth.

Perhaps it was inevitable that she would develop such an ingrained love of the natural world, growing up as she did on the shores of Loch Lomond, but during her career as a barrister she began to recognise that something significant was missing. As she said in a recent interview, “What frustrated me was that nobody was actually creating the laws to protect the Earth. As a practising lawyer, a barrister in court, my natural predisposition is to find the law that’s required; and when I couldn’t find it, I came to recognise that it has to be created.”

She has since spearheaded the global campaign to win recognition for the principle of ecocide, as a fifth ‘international crime against peace’, to help take proper legal account of environmental destruction.

The Great Horizon Our Writer-in-Residence’s beautiful book The Great Horizon has sold really well, but some hardback copies are still available. We have had some wonderful feedback for the book, so please bear it in mind if you know people who are looking for gifts over the next few weeks and months!

ScotRail Alliance makes history At the beginning of August, for the first time, all trains that travelled between Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Queen Street via Falkirk High were electric. ScotRail introduced the first of its brand-new Hitachi class 385 trains on this route, but they will be rolled-out to other routes across the Central Belt. ScotRail Alliance Managing Director Alex Hynes said, “Delivering a fully electric service on our flagship Edinburgh to Glasgow route is another major milestone for Scotland’s railway. A fully electric service means smoother journeys, more seats, and better services for our customers – and a greener railway. It’s all part of our plan to build the best railway Scotland has ever had.”

Climate events at the RSGS

come to the exhibition and the talk

At the beginning of October the Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, Roseanna Cunningham MSP, will launch the Scottish Government’s climate week from RSGS HQ, by opening our latest exhibition – climate images from around the world taken by photographer Ashley Cooper.

The Cabinet Secretary will also announce the launch of the pilot of the Climate Literacy Qualification we have been developing with the University of Stirling and a host of other partners and business bodies, which is aimed at lifting the understanding of climate solutions and helping current business and organisational leaders implement change.

On Tuesday 30th October, at the close of the exhibition, Ashley will give a public talk at RSGS HQ to describe his journey around the world over more than a decade, capturing his fabulous images and speaking with the people affected.

Tickets (£7 RSGS Members, £10 standard) are available from enquiries@rsgs.org or 01738 455050.

Scotland’s first ‘vertical farm’ At the James Hutton Institute in Dundee, in a two-storey white building around the back, is a futuristic experiment to create the most precise, time-efficient and waste-free method of growing. The plant of choice just now is basil, a high-value herb which can be grown in just 20 days, after researchers reduced the growing time needed by about half, by adjusting the light, temperature, humidity, CO2 and irrigation technique.

This form of artificial, ‘vertical farming’ could result in less reliance on the seasons to determine how and when something is grown, but it remains expensive to artificially simulate the environment.

The cost of weather Meat, vegetable and dairy prices are set to rise “at least” 5% in the coming months because of the UK’s extreme weather this year, research suggests. The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said 2018’s big freeze and heatwave would cost consumers about £7 extra per month. It follows price warnings from farmers’ representatives about peas, lettuces and potatoes.

Wholesale prices of other vegetables have already soared by up to 80% since the start of the year. But CEBR explained that these increases can take up to 18 months to have an effect on shoppers: “while the worst of the recent heat may have passed, the cost to consumers looks set to climb.” National Farmers’ Union president Minette Batters said the shelves for feeding livestock were “effectively bare” and that dairy farmers were having to rely on silage meant for winter use.

Tiso We are grateful to Tiso for their help in designing and printing our wonderful new Inspiring People talks programme. This is the third year they have supported us in this task, and we are sure you will agree they have made a beautiful job of it. We are very proud to partner with Tiso, and any Outdoor Experience cardholder can still get a £2 discount on entry to the talks as part of our agreement.

6 Autumn 2018

The Tay Professor Robert Duck, Emeritus Professor of Environmental Geoscience, University of Dundee, and Chair of the Tay Estuary Forum

“No other river in the world has got scenery more fine, Only I am told the beautiful Rhine.”

disaster, are designed to withstand more than a repeat of the 1814 water level.

Eulogised inimitably by William McGonagall, sketched by JMW Turner, famed for its salmon, immortalised as the site of the world’s most infamous railway disaster; the Tay is a ‘magnificent beast’. Scotland’s longest river flows into one of the cleanest and least developed major estuaries in Europe by way of a catchment area of around 5,000km2 that reaches a peak altitude of 1,214m on Ben Lawers. The Tay’s trunk stream rises as a trickle on the rain-fed slopes of Ben Lui but the river is not known as such until it emerges from Loch Tay at Kenmore. Its easterly flow traverses a major crustal fracture, the Highland Boundary Fault, with over two-thirds of the drainage basin developed on deformed Precambrian crystalline metamorphic rocks of the Grampian Highlands. To the south of this south-west to north-east trending fault, the basin is developed principally on Devonian-age sedimentary and igneous formations of the Midland Valley. The drainage of many major tributaries – including the Rivers Tummel, Isla, Almond and Earn – along with over 70 freshwater lochs, complete the aquatic mosaic. These range from massive, ice-scoured bodies like Lochs Ericht, Rannoch and Tay, to tiny, shallow kettle lochans. Loch Tay’s numerous fringing crannog islets, used as temporary or permanent habitation sites from the late Bronze Age until the 17th century, belie the fact that it plunges to a depth of 161m, around 55m below sea level. Pleistocene glacial deposits of varying thickness overlie the bedrock, forming upland moorland in the northern and western parts of the catchment interspersed with fertile straths which dominate to the south of the Highland Line.

Over the past 250 years, the building of extensive agricultural flood embankments has changed the lower reaches of the Tay and Tummel from naturally wandering multi-channel rivers to intensively controlled single-channel systems, with old channels now cut off from the main river. This anthropogenic ‘straight-jacketing’ permits more rapid transfer of water downstream.

So, where does the river end and the estuary begin? To some, the limit of salt-water intrusion marks the boundary – that is at Newburgh – but a more conventional definition is the tidal limit. The two are not coincident since influent marine waters on the flood tide, though diluted by the Tay’s large freshwater flow, push freshwaters back up-river to the point of equilibrium level. The tidal limit is at Scone, the ancient crowning place of Scottish kings on the eponymous stone; here the estuary proper begins but to many it is still known as ‘the river’, a source of some confusion. In 1813, the Reverend John Fleming, then minister of the tiny parish of Flisk on the south side of the estuary downstream from Newburgh, made a set of simple but pioneering observations in the navigation channel. Fleming quite simply collected water samples at differing water depths and stages of the tide. He evaporated these to dryness and weighed the saline residues, from which he was able to identify the presence of less dense, relatively fresh water overlying relatively dense, saline water, and to make wider Observations on the Junction of the Fresh Water of Rivers with the Salt Water of the Sea. Thus the Tay Estuary was the site of the first published recognition of estuarine salinity stratification and Fleming’s observations, crude by today’s standards, were the forerunner to the now familiar estuarine classification into ‘salt wedge’, ‘partially mixed’ and ‘well mixed’ types.

On reaching Perth, the Tay becomes Britain’s foremost river in terms of discharge – as many residents will recall to their cost. In January 1993 the Great Tay Flood, which devastated parts of the city as water rose to almost 6.5m above sea level, delivered a peak discharge of 2,269m3 per second.

Putting what is a UK record in perspective, it is about 14 times greater than the long-term average discharge for the river. But in February 1814 the highest ever water level was recorded in the city, about 0.5m higher than in 1993, as chiselled into the Devonian sandstone blocks of the right bank abutment of Smeaton’s Bridge. This was the result of ice floes that had formed over the river system becoming jammed in the bridge’s arches, thus acting as a dam impeding water flow. An event unheard of today in Perth, it was for that very reason – the almost annual occurrence of winter ice floes further downstream – that the first Tay Railway Bridge was not built close to Mugdrum Island off Newburgh where, as well as being a hindrance to shipping, it would have retarded the passage of ice. The last significant ice floes on the Tay Estuary were in the late 1970s and early 1980s, an indication at least of a warming climate. Perth’s flood defences, engineered as a consequence of the 1993

The Tay basin has one of the largest concentrations of hydroelectric developments in Scotland. It all began with the Duke of Atholl who in 1908 commissioned the first scheme (to power Blair Castle and its estate) utilising waters from the Banvie Burn. Decommissioned in 1951, when the National Grid was created, it is now up and running again having been revitalised in 2015 to serve Blair Atholl and winning the accolade of a Green Tourism Gold Award. The major phase of dam and power station construction in Highland Perthshire was, however, from the late 1940s until the early 1960s. The effect on the landscape was profound. Huge mass concrete and buttress dams ‘defaced’ the countryside. New water masses such as Lochs Faskally, Errochty and Lednock were created. Many other lochs had their water levels raised, for instance Loch Lyon by over 21m. Nearby, Loch Giorra has been long forgotten as damming created a merger and acquisition by neighbouring Loch an Daimh. Loch Tummel was more than doubled in length when the Clunie Dam raised its level by 5m. Many visitors do not appreciate that its famous ‘Queen’s View’ is not as Victoria saw it in 1866! Today the concrete monstrosities, as they were described in angry letters to the press, have become part of the landscape.

Censured by many at the time of construction, just as wind turbines are today, they have now evolved to become integral elements of the scenic splendour of Highland Perthshire.

Hydro-electric developments have thus modified the hydrology of the Tay system greatly. Furthermore, the various dams and reservoirs act as traps to sediment in transit through the river network. Recent modelling using mineral magnetic fingerprinting suggests that by far the greatest contribution to the bed sediment of the estuary (78 +/- 10%) is from the North Sea. The mighty Tay delivers 18 +/- 10% of

The

Geographer14-7

Autumn 2018

the bed materials, with the River Earn, its most downstream right bank tributary, a further 4 +/- 10%. This scenario of infilling of the Tay Estuary by dominantly marine-derived sands is consistent with many other temperate estuaries accompanying post-glacial sea level rise.

In the early part of the 19th century the channel in the upper reaches of the estuary was not conducive to effective or safe navigation to and from Perth. In 1834 Robert Stevenson and Sons commenced improvements to remove ‘fords’ that stretched across the bed between Perth and Newburgh, by a massive programme of steam dredging and harrowing.

Boulders weighing over 50 tonnes were extracted with powerful cranes. When the works ended in 1842 the channel had been broadened and deepened to such an extent that, not only could vessels of vastly increased tonnage make

passage, they could do so more speedily as the tidal current flows accelerated, with high water at Perth 50 minutes earlier than previously. The Tay Estuary had become the maritime HS2 of its day – and we still reap the benefits of these works even though shipping movements have changed greatly through the years.

The ongoing regeneration of the Dundee waterfront, with the V&A jewel in its crown, is an enormous, forward-looking development that is propelling the city and its ‘river’ to international acclaim. Challenges, however, remain; not least threats from diffuse pollution and soil erosion in the catchment, flooding and coastal erosion due to relative sea level rise, and how we adapt to climate change. The long history of shared knowledge and research on the Tay system will thus be vital foundations for a sustainable tomorrow.

“On reaching Perth, the Tay becomes Britain’s foremost river in terms of discharge.”

© Lorne Gill

8 Autumn 2018

Tay Reedbeds Simon Busuttil, Regional Reserves Manager, RSPB East Scotland

The Firth of Tay is one of the largest estuaries in eastern Scotland, stretching approximately 20km eastwards from the confluence of the Rivers Tay and Earn to the Tay Rail Bridge in the east. At its widest this untamed estuary is approximately 2.5km across. Inter-tidal sand and mud flats extend seawards out to the main channel of the estuary, supporting large numbers of wintering geese, migratory waterfowl, waders and common seals. The whole area lying between the two large cities of Perth and Dundee has a feeling of space and wildness.

On the landward side of these mud and sandflats are small areas of saltmarsh and, more surprisingly perhaps, huge reedbeds which at 410ha are the largest in Scotland and the largest continuous area of reed in the UK. Although the reedbeds are tidal (being flooded on the spring tides), the narrow form of the estuary and the large amounts of freshwater from the Earn and Tay mean that salt water influence does not penetrate to the west end, even at spring tides. As a consequence, much of the tidal water in the estuary is freshwater or mildly brackish.

Viewed from Newburgh on the south side of the Tay estuary or from the Edinburgh-to-Perth coastal train, the reedbeds look like an impressive natural refuge among otherwise prime agricultural land. And yet, the reedbeds were planted by French prisoners during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800s and have been managed and exploited by man off and on ever since.

Reed from the Tay has been harvested for thatch and agricultural uses, such as bedding for livestock. During WWII, when wood pulp was scarce, it was used locally for making paper. Commercial reed cutting for use as roofing thatch, using large amphibious harvesters from Denmark, started in 1973 and at peak harvest (140ha cut in 1977-78) was by far the largest commercial reed-harvesting operation in the UK. Cutting continued until the early 2000s, when cheaper imports from East Europe became widely available, threatening to end commercial reed cutting at the Tay. This interaction with man had, and continues to have, a significant impact on birds. Cutting reed in late winter removes the previous season’s growth, preventing the build-up of a thatch of old dead reed, and leaves an area open until the following

year’s growing season. These cut areas are the equivalent of open glades within a wood and are crucial as feeding areas.

The structural contrast between the uncut and cut areas provides an edge where many breeding birds prefer. Even when the reed has grown back, these areas are noticeably different to uncut areas – the removal of previous growth and subsequent lack of dead reed on the ground allows birds and other wildlife that feed on insects to access the damp ground, where there is much insect life, more readily. As a result, the reeds are alive with bearded tits, reed buntings and water rails and, during the summer months, warblers. Marsh harriers benefit from the abundance of small birds.

To save the future of this important habitat, RSPB Scotland got involved in 2004, creating a reserve to ensure management continued. This is now on a smaller and more intricate scale, creating more of the valuable edge to benefit the reedbed’s birds whilst maintaining the buffering that the reedbed provides to the seawalls, helping protect the agricultural hinterland. About 35ha are managed each year, and monitoring shows that all the key bird species are doing better than ever. The population of bearded tits fluctuates and is extremely difficult to monitor but it may be as high as 250 pairs, which makes it potentially the largest population in Britain. The reedbeds are also the Scottish stronghold for breeding marsh harriers.

However, changing market conditions provide a challenge.

The traditional market for thatch no longer guarantees the revenue to invest in new cutting equipment, and potential new markets such as briquetting for solid fuel are yet to do so. RSPB Scotland would like to see new commercial uses for reed on the scale that these beds require.

As the climate within the UK changes, some species are expanding their ranges; this could bring new bird species such as little egret, spoonbill and avocet to the Tay. At the same time, climate change and the likely associated rise in sea levels and increase in storm surges are significant potential threats to the area and its wildlife. RSPB Scotland will monitor this and work with others towards finding a long-term sustainable solution for managing the potential impacts of climate change on the Tay and surrounding countryside.

“The reeds are alive with bearded tits, reed buntings and water rails and, during the summer months, warblers.”

RSPB Scotland’s management of the reedbeds, to provide homes for nature, is only possible through a long-term partnership involving some of the local land-owners, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the Tay Ringing Group. © Lorne Gill

The

Geographer14-9

Autumn 2018

The return of beavers to the River Tay catchment Dr Charles Warren, School of Geography & Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews

No one knows – or is telling – exactly how they got there, but beavers are thriving in the River Tay catchment. Whether by escaping from a private collection and/or by illegal release, the first animals probably started swimming wild in the late 1990s, blissfully ignorant of the fact that they had no licence to be there. Their unauthorized presence represented a major headache for officialdom. This was because an intense debate had been going on for years about the rights and wrongs of returning Eurasian beavers to Scotland some 500 years after they were driven to extinction. This eventually culminated in an official five-year trial reintroduction in Knapdale Forest in Argyll, starting in 2009 with 11 Norwegian beavers.

The aim of this £2 million experiment was to monitor the health, growth and environmental © Lorne Gill | SNH impacts of this small trial population with a view, potentially, to larger-scale reintroductions in other Scottish catchments. The idea was to proceed in an incremental, lawful fashion, so the discovery that, somehow, a clandestine population of beavers had already established themselves in the Tay catchment presented Scottish Ministers with a tricky dilemma. To condone an unlicensed release would flout wildlife law, so capturing and removing them was the legally proper response. On the other hand, with the Knapdale trial underway and the possibility of wider releases in a few years’ time, it hardly appeared sensible to remove a thriving, expanding population of beavers from an area into which they might shortly be officially released anyway.

deliberation, the further crucial decision was taken to classify beavers as a protected species under the EU Habitats Directive. Since then, the Tay beavers have been officially legitimate, free to expand their range naturally. The Knapdale population is also due to be expanded. De facto, therefore, the long-discussed reintroduction of beavers to the wild has already happened, albeit in unorthodox fashion.

Beavers are championed as ‘ecosystem engineers’, their dams creating ponds and wetlands which enhance water quality, enhance biodiversity and contribute a range of ecosystem services such as attenuating flood peaks and creating potential for wildlife tourism. It is also argued that we have a moral responsibility to bring back species which our forebears wiped out. On the other hand, precisely because of their civil engineering prowess, beavers can cause a range of problems, particularly for farming and forestry, damaging crops and trees, and flooding farmland by burrowing into flood defence banks and damming drainage ditches. Given that modifying environments is what beavers are renowned for, it is inevitable that when they colonise new areas there will be a mix of these positive and negative consequences – with associated ‘winners’ and ‘losers’.

“Beavers are championed as ‘ecosystem engineers’.”

Most conservationists wanted this unplanned experiment to be allowed to continue, whereas the farmers coping with the impacts of beavers on their land were generally hostile towards these ‘illegal immigrants’. However, even amongst those supporting beaver reintroduction, there were contrasting opinions about whether these unauthorised, unscreened wild beavers of unknown origin should be welcomed or removed. While the fate of the Tay beavers was debated, their numbers grew, reaching 150 by 2012 and probably increasing at tens of animals per year subsequently.

They are now established from Lochearnhead, Kenmore and Kinloch Rannoch in the west to Forfar in the east.

An attempt in 2011-12 to trap and remove them encountered far greater numbers than expected and faced vocal public opposition. The Scottish Government then decided in 2012 to tolerate and monitor the population through to the end of the official Knapdale trial period. In 2016, after extensive

More broadly, reintroductions are a high-profile and controversial aspect of rewilding. While some bird species have been successfully returned to Scotland, beavers are the first officially-supported mammal reintroduction, and the (accidental) Tay population is by far the largest. In most other European countries, beavers were reintroduced long ago or have recolonised naturally following their nearextinction in the late 19th century. The total Eurasian beaver population, mainly in northern and eastern Europe, has now reached about 1.04 million. European experience and scientific evidence indicate that, in most settings, the ecological, hydrological and economic benefits outweigh the negative impacts, but in some regions beaver populations have proved problematic, necessitating active management and control. No doubt an established, widespread Scottish population would cause some ongoing problems and costs.

But most assessments conclude that this is a risk worth taking in pursuit of the many positives of restoring beavers to Scotland. The true ramifications of an expanding beaver population remain to be seen. But whatever their origins and whatever their impacts, the Tay beavers have made history, giving us a window onto Scotland’s vanished past and its probable future.

10 Autumn 2018

Managing a changing Tay Dr Laura Booth, Project Officer, Tay Estuary Forum

The River Tay links communities all the way from the southwestern Scottish Highlands, from its source at Beinn Laoigh, flowing over 160km to its estuarine reaches which begin near Perth, before meeting the North Sea between the harbour towns of Broughty Ferry and Tayport on Scotland’s east coast. The Tay has the largest freshwater discharge of any river in the UK and supports a vast array of freshwater and estuarine habitats and species. It is most noted perhaps for hosting internationally important populations of salmon, but also for Iron Age settlements, whisky distillation, and even extreme sports as thrillseekers raft sections of white water in its upper reaches. The Tay’s influence extends far outwards from the channel itself as it winds its way east, providing sediment for adjacent rich agricultural land and helping to shape a hugely dynamic coastline as it meets the sea.

wildlife watching tours such as Pirate Boats Ltd operating out of Broughty Ferry. The priority is for responsible wildlife watching to be promoted, to educate the public and to protect the natural attractions which people flock to see.

Alongside its high natural capital, the region is undergoing significant and rapid social changes and economic development, with large-scale offshore wind development in the Tay offshore zone. Cruise ships are now an increasingly regular sight in the Tay, offering connections to Norway, the Faroe Isles, the Baltic Cities and Iceland. With construction of Dundee’s V&A as part of a wider £1 billion waterfront regeneration, Dundee is putting itself on the map for local and international visitors alike, supported by a thriving higher educational setting generating new ideas and innovation in the city and its environs.

“Current environmental and economic demands are well-balanced in the Tay Estuary.”

The Tay Estuary is recognised as one of the least developed and least polluted estuaries in Europe and can be regarded as a benchmark for sustainability. The demands placed upon the river and estuary to support wildlife, leisure and tourism may seem to contrast with those of the human population, but this impression underestimates the capability of the natural environment to accommodate the effects of human habitation and development, when carried out holistically. Overall, current environmental and economic demands are well-balanced in the Tay Estuary, sustaining high levels of amenity and water quality.

Maintaining this balance, however, requires careful management and an integrated approach to draw together the myriad of initiatives aiming to promote the region’s cultural importance, its geodiversity, the cleanliness of its beaches and accessibility for the local (and visiting) population to the coast and marine environment. Where overlapping activities may be aligned in support of each other, or where governance gaps may be filled, a non-statutory Local Coastal Partnership, the Tay Estuary Forum (TEF), has successfully, for over 20 years, sought to uphold sustainable management of the Tay Estuary and adjacent coastline, forging links between sectors and encouraging research into understanding physical processes, societal changes and finding solutions to arising issues.

With these changes come inevitable societal and environmental challenges, not least those exacerbated by climate change.

The TEF will continue to highlight the work of its partner research institutes, such as the Universities of Dundee, Abertay and St Andrews and the James Hutton Institute, to find innovative solutions for the future, in combating adverse effects of flooding, erosion and changing crop patterns. Future management of the region will be founded on a solid base of shared knowledge and relationships that the TEF has cultivated over the past two decades and will take forward as part of a future vehicle for marine planning.

FURTHER READING TEF Management Plan 2009-2014 (sites.dundee.ac.uk/tef/wpcontent/uploads/sites/9/2014/04/TEF-Management-Plan.pdf)

The TEF is hosted by the University of Dundee, comprising a Steering Group of local authorities, universities, environmental organisations, landowners, ports and utility companies. The TEF has operated on a neutral, voluntary basis, allowing issues to be addressed in a spirit of collaboration.

It has had to remain flexible over the years, due to funding pressures against a moving backdrop of policy and governance. It is currently undergoing its most significant period of change as Scotland prioritises formal marine planning, with imminent creation of a Marine Planning Partnership (MPP) for the Tay Region, as part of a wider South East Scottish Marine Region, likely to take shape in the coming years, under direction of Marine Scotland.

A bright future Otters and freshwater pearl mussels are two positive indicators of an improving status of Tay water quality, both making a successful return to the banks and beds of the estuary in recent years. Healthy seal and dolphin populations at the mouth of the Tay Estuary regularly delight visitors, made accessible by

Images © Pirate Boats Ltd

The

11 Geographer14-

Autumn 2018

The Tay Cities Deal: for a smarter, fairer region David Littlejohn, Head of Planning and Development, Perth & Kinross Council

In recent years the principle of functional economic geographies has become common parlance amongst planning and economic development practitioners and in government.

It recognises the ‘real’ geography in which sub-national economies operate and within which most businesses trade and most people travel to work.

Dundee’s urban beach will open shortly. City deal funding will take the project to the next level, including a new marina to be opened in Dundee’s Camperdown Dock; expansion of the river jetty network to Arbroath, Tayport and St Andrews; and a new cycle route between Perth and Dundee. One of the most interesting projects is a new heritage centre downstream from Perth that will interpret the unique cultural and economic heritage of the lower Tay, from salmon fishing to reed cultivation.

There’s even an idea that some of the old salmon bothies can be converted to backpacker accommodation. All of these projects will benefit communities along the river.

“Much has already been achieved in advance of the Tay Cities Deal.”

Angus, Dundee and Perth & Kinross were previously grouped into Tayside Region, and indeed some services such as health are still delivered at this level. However, the functional economic geography also includes North-East Fife with strong economic connections with Dundee in particular. So, when local authorities were considering submitting bids for city deals, it made sense in terms of economic activity to coalesce a single submission around the geography of what has now come to be known as the Tay Cities Region – recognising the area’s uniqueness in having two cities a mere 20 or so miles apart.

The Tay Cities Region of 500,000 people and 15,500 businesses extends over some of Scotland’s most spectacularly beautiful urban and rural landscapes. And yet this beauty masks some hidden and not so hidden inequalities that need to be addressed if the region is to achieve its full potential for the benefit of all those who live here. The facts are stark. The region’s productivity is lower and unemployment is higher than the Scottish average, and Dundee itself has been identified as one of the UK’s most economically and socially distressed cities (Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2016). Essentially, the region needs more people working in better paid jobs, and more businesses developing and selling higher value products and services.

These challenges are not unique; however, this region has the potential to address them by carefully linking economic need to opportunity. Opportunities such as the V&A Museum of Design; the world-leading research in drug discovery and medical technologies at the University of Dundee; Perth’s cultural renaissance; the continuing success of the region’s food and drink industry; and the iconic River Tay itself.

To help deliver Tay Adventure, a strong partnership has been formed between the four local authorities, the Tay Landscape Partnership, the Tay and Earn Trust, Perth College UHI, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Tayport and St Andrews Harbour Trusts, and Scottish Enterprise. The commitment and ambition is there in spades, and the Tay Cities Deal will hopefully provide the funding to allow the various projects to proceed more quickly than they otherwise might. And of course, the sooner the projects can be delivered, the quicker jobs and training opportunities can be provided.

The great news is there’s no need to wait to discover, or rediscover, the River Tay. It’s already possible to walk or cycle along many stretches of the river between Highland Perthshire and Dundee and, if that seems a little too energetic, there are a range of daily boats trips to and from Perth!

The Tay Cities Deal has brought together the public, private and voluntary sectors across this vast geography to focus on, and agree, what needs to be done to deliver economic success in a sustainable, inclusive way. One often hears that places are on the cusp of achieving great success, and here, right now the evidence is strong.

2020 has been designated by the Scottish Government as the Year of Scotland’s Coasts and Waters, and one of the most ambitious projects in the Tay Cities Deal is Tay Adventure. The project aim is to promote the natural and cultural assets of the Tay and its estuary for the benefit of sustainable tourism, and also to encourage more people across the region to rediscover their river. Essentially the project will focus on improving marine tourism infrastructure, linking communities by new cycle ways, interpreting heritage, providing new visitor accommodation and, really importantly, providing training and jobs.

Much has already been achieved in advance of the Tay Cities Deal: pontoons have already been installed to enable boat trips between Perth city centre and Broughty Ferry, via wonderful Elcho Castle; and

Perth from Moncrieff Hill. © Lorne Gill

12 Autumn 2018

The city’s new room Georgina Rolfe, MSc Student, University of Aberdeen

One of the largest regeneration schemes underway in the UK is transforming the north bank of the Tay. Comprising a multitude of projects along the Dundee waterfront, the best known project is probably V&A Dundee, the new ‘living room of the city’. Yet such large-scale redevelopments raise the question, a new living room for whom? Such ‘post-industrial’ regeneration often brings gentrification, where expensive new developments exclude established communities. My MA dissertation project investigated whether Dundee is following this familiar pattern.

In terms of physical infrastructure, the answer would appear to be that it is not doing so. Much of the Tay-side development is on land originally reclaimed from the river for the expansion of Dundee’s dock infrastructure. New roads were built in the 1970s, as part of a previous urban redevelopment plan, but little else. In the creation of Dundee’s new room, therefore, it is hard to find evidence for the displacement of communities or businesses.

Moreover, developers have been asked to commit to paying a living wage and to employ local people as far as reasonable.

Waterfront Masterplan seeks to improve connectivity through the refurbished train station, new civic space, and the alignment of roads. The streets connecting the redeveloped area with the city centre are being used to encourage community engagement, as with the V&A Dundee Community Garden, and civic pride, such as the celebration of Dundee’s international contributions in Slessor Gardens.

Dundee’s Tay-side redevelopment is ongoing: the Waterfront Masterplan has 12 more years before completion.

Nevertheless, this preliminary research suggests that it is well placed to avoid the pitfalls of gentrification. This could make Dundee an exemplar of spatially, socially and culturally inclusive regeneration.

It would indeed provide Dundonians with a new living room, one with the finest views in the city.

“Much of the Tay-side development is on land originally reclaimed from the river.”

There is, of course, more to gentrification than infrastructure. It can often take the form of social and cultural exclusion where new, often more expensive, amenities can price out and alienate local people. The final stage of the redevelopment Masterplan involves developing a leisure marina and cruise ship terminal, and it is easy to imagine how such developments could do this. However, Dundee City Council appears to have learned from experience elsewhere. For example, Dundee’s Cultural Strategy 2015-2025 seeks “regeneration through culture... to release and reveal the innate creativity of individuals and communities – a power they can harness to help live better, fairer, happier lives,”. Indeed, the most prominent theme to emerge from documentary sources concerning Dundee’s waterfront regeneration was inclusivity.

My fieldwork uncovered evidence that efforts are being made to translate such words into action.

Maintaining, for instance, an awareness of the legacy of exclusionary urban planning, which resulted in local communities being excluded from the opportunities that redevelopment can bring, V&A Dundee engaged proactively in the city, rather than Wakeboarding at Foxlake, Dundee Waterfront. assuming that local communities would come to them.

The museum will have a picnic area into which visitors can bring their own food, and one of the only fully accessible wet rooms in the city centre. More broadly, in order to minimise the adverse impacts on City Quay, the only residential community in the central waterfront zone, a community council has been established to enable local residents to review all planning applications in the area.

So far, therefore, redevelopment along the Tay’s north bank in Dundee appears to have been sensitive to the dangers of gentrification. The main themes emerging from this research were connectivity, inclusivity and opportunity. The

The

13 Geographer14-

Autumn 2018

Dundee Waterfront Mike Galloway, Executive Director of City Development, Dundee City Council

Dundee’s history is closely interlinked with its location on the north shore of the Firth of Tay. The city was important from the earliest of times and it gained its Charter in 1191 as one of King David I’s new towns created to encourage trade and civilise the Scottish countryside.

The site was strategically positioned, controlling the entry into the heart of Scotland, and was consequently the victim of numerous sieges and sackings. By the medieval period, however, Dundee was second only to Edinburgh in terms of commercial prosperity. Most early trade was by sea, and Dundee was ideally located on shipping routes to and from the Baltic and North European ports due to it being closer than Edinburgh by two days sailing.

Although the earliest harbour is thought to have been to the east of the Castle Rock (adjacent to the existing Gellatly Street / Seagate junction), the port had moved westwards by the 16th century to a point close to the current High Street at Whitehall Crescent. From here the harbour developed during the 17th and 18th centuries, but still remained modest in scale. There were only a few buildings on the adjacent peninsula which protruded into the estuary (from the site of the existing railway station) towards St Nicholas Craig (at modern-day Discovery Point).

the heart of the city centre. As a result, the historic central dock complex was in-filled in the 1960s to accommodate the necessary ramps and road system. The Olympia Leisure Centre and Tayside House were then built in the 1970s as the only completed elements of an intended multi-level, modernist, civic and commercial centre. The resultant effect was the loss of the harbour and the severance of the waterfront from the city.

I arrived in Dundee as the Council’s Director of Planning and Transportation in 1997 and immediately decided to look at potential options for reintegrating the waterfront with the city centre. I wanted to think 30 years ahead with a Masterplan which aimed to realise the exceptional opportunity provided by the waterfront, and to prepare a shared vision for the area that could not only create a distinctive identity and sense of place, but also provide a robust framework for investment and decision making. The attraction of the V&A Museum to the area was only possible due to the confidence provided by the Masterplan.

The Masterplan achieves a fine balance between new buildings and open space; it is right that sizeable new public spaces have been incorporated into the area, but these will only function properly if they are framed and enclosed by quality new buildings of appropriate scale and height with active ground floor frontages.

There is also a healthy balance between hard and soft landscaping in these spaces so that they can accommodate a variety of different uses.

“The Masterplan achieves a fine balance between new buildings and open space.”

In 1793 Dundee’s first commercial flax mills were built. By the 1830s, when flax gave way to jute, Dundee changed from a trading port to the world centre for the jute processing industry, and the city rapidly expanded. Due to this trade being dependent on sea and rail transport, the result was the total transformation of its historic waterfront and harbour which, until then, had been tidal and inadequate for major shipping.

Thomas Telford was appointed to improve the harbour facilities, and he built the King William IV Dock and the West Graving Dock on the site of the old tidal harbour between 1812 and 1825, plus a new tidal harbour to the south. The development of the docks then continued for the next 100 years, with Earl Grey Dock formed from the Graving Dock, and Victoria and Camperdown Docks added to the east. Gradually the city was moving further and further away from the waterfront.

The railways followed soon after, with the West Station, Goods Station and Tay Bridge Station all built to the west of the harbour. To the west of St Nicholas Craig, the estuary was in-filled to create a Goods Yard with the rail tracks lining the new shore and their retaining wall forming the Esplanade.

By the end of the 19th century, the first signs of industrial decline were apparent and the docks were no longer being so heavily used. In 1911 the City Architect (James Thompson) prepared designs for a massive new civic centre on the site of the central waterfront, but the World Wars meant that these ambitious proposals were never implemented.

In the 20th century, the most significant factor which determined Dundee’s relationship with its waterfront was the siting of the northern landfall of the Tay Road Bridge. Although the engineer, Ove Arup, actually preferred a site further east at Stannergate in order that the bridge could join directly into the Kingsway, the city chose to land the bridge right into

The whole Dundee Waterfront Project still has far to go, but with the main infrastructure complete including the new street network and open spaces, and with the two key public buildings (V&A Museum and Rail Station) opening this year, the city is rediscovering her waterfront and hopefully this is one that will last the test of time.

14 Autumn 2018

Our Tay day Fiona Calvin

Last autumn driving across the Friarton Bridge, I wondered if it was possible to swim to Dundee, 35 kilometres distant. The furthest I had swum was three kilometres! Rosie Baxendine, my swimming buddy, shared my mad enthusiasm for the project; she had been wild swimming for two years, a year more than me. We both love the buzz from wild swimming; it allows you to be part of a world that is essentially alien to us. In the water you feel that stillness that is hard to achieve in life. There are swims that will stay with us for a long time, not for the distance or situation, but for the tranquillity.

watching the seals, the river and the tides interact.

We planned to keep to the middle of the channel to get the best catch from the tide. Once we entered the water, we soon realised that the wind direction and strength made it impossible for us to sight on anything ahead in the choppy conditions. The estuary widens to five kilometres; making headway in a straight line was vital.

We battled on, hoping for an improvement in conditions and slightly concerned at our lack of progress. Eventually we decided that we had to seek shelter in the lee of the shore. The swell eased, but being close to the shore brought its own issues; rounding Flisk Point there were four-foot standing waves. It was vital we kept in the mainstream of the tide as opposed to the countless eddies that would have brought us to a standstill.

The kayakers were invaluable in helping us pick the right course.

We learned to swim in the flotsam lines where the fast-moving water hit the slow. It made for difficult and physical swimming, but faster.

“We both love the buzz from wild swimming; it allows you to be part of a world that is essentially alien to us.”

May saw our first swim in the River Tay, brimming with wildflowers. We were hooked by the beauty, vastness and history of the Tay. Reading about the notorious tides associated with the estuary, we timed another swim to coincide with the first hour of an incoming tide. It was a sobering encounter; we made 600 metres in an hour of sprint swimming! Strangely, we didn’t feel deflated, but committed to a swim from Friarton to the Tay Road Bridge. Well-meaning friends tried to suggest less daunting options. We realised we would never manage to complete our adventure in one swim. We never set out to be the first or fastest; that had already been done by local swimmers. What we were achieving was much more personal.

Over the coming weeks we swam sections of the Tay with our kayakers. We were ‘enlightened’ by the Tay: its epic mud banks; its ability to terrify and exhilarate one moment, calm and gentle the next; and its cold water, as I was plucked from one swim with hypothermia.

We had planned for August, but we were in danger of running out of daytime. Friday 13th July looked perfect! After all, what could possibly go wrong! The weather looked excellent for the morning swim but windier for the afternoon. We were on!

Our alarm went off at 1:30 and the day that had obsessed us for months was finally here. We crept down to the river in the early morning darkness, with the roar of traffic from the looming Friarton Bridge above, and waded into the Tay. The first few strokes were magical, with the darkness enveloping us and the river a mirror stretching out in front.

We made brilliant progress, swimming down the middle of the river to get the best of the tide flow, the dawn spreading across the easterly sky. We were joined by a curious seal as well as a couple of ospreys. Soon we were passing the Earn tributary, and just after four and a half hours and 17km we were at our bivvy spot. It had been a perfect swim.

We dried out our wetsuits, lit a fire from driftwood and, refuelled with hot drinks and food cooked over the campfire, we slept wrapped up in sleeping bags. It was a wonderful few hours

In the distance we could see the iconic Tay Rail Bridge. As we neared the bridge, conditions eased and we could appreciate the incredible skies and cloud formations above us, providing a perfect backdrop to our location. Suddenly it felt like we were going to make it and we could enjoy the last leg of the swim to the Road Bridge, with Dundee and the V&A building jutting into the Tay on one side, and the splendid Victorian mansions of Newport-on-Tay on the other.

As we neared the finish, our kayaker shouted there was a strong eddy that was in danger of carrying us through the bridge, and we needed to swim across it to the shore just under the bridge.

Our epic swim of another four hours and 17km ended with a final struggle and sprint swim for the slippery rocks beneath the huge monolith that is the Tay Road Bridge. We had had the adventure of our lives.

Photos by Adam Baxendine and Simon Calvin.

FURTHER READING Scottish Canoe Touring: An SCA Canoe and Kayak Guide (Scottish Canoe Association, May 2005)

The

15 Geographer14-

Autumn 2018

Secretive Sidlaws Grant Hutchison (oikofuge.com)

Even the true extent of the Sidlaw Hills seems to be a little mysterious. The Ordnance Survey reserves that name for the long and fairly coherent ridge lying north of Dundee, while the rather more disorganized high ground lying to its south and west is labelled as the Braes of the Carse. But many authors use the name ‘Sidlaws’ to designate both groups of hills – the entire extent of the high ground running roughly from Perth to Forfar, overlooking the Firth of Tay to the south and Strathmore to the north. Farther east, beyond the A90, the Sidlaws fade away into a broad fan of minor eminences – Dunnichen Hill and Fothringham Hill, Carrot Hill and Laws Hill – and a whole selection of lumps and bumps in the farmland beyond.

The subsidence of the Tay valley left these hills with steep southward faces and gentle slopes to the north. The most dramatic scarp confronts motorists travelling north across the Friarton Bridge at Perth, where the cliffs of Kinnoull Hill are topped by a Rhinelandstyle folly built by Thomas Hay, 9th Earl of Kinnoull. But there is steep ground elsewhere, too, most prominently below Black Hill above the B953, and at Lundie Craigs. And the unwary walker can descend into difficult ground in the steep-sided dens that dissect these southern slopes at places like Glen of Rait, Pitroddie Den, and even in the narrow slot between Dunsinane Hill and Black Hill.

In contrast, to the north, the land slopes easily into the rolling farmland of Strathmore, Glen Ogilvie and the Denoon Glen.

out to be nettle-filled slots between field margins, or the abandoned driveways of mansion houses, now rendered almost impassable by invasive rhododendron or cherry laurel. And there are long paths making useful connections, for instance between Kinpurney Hill and Craigowl, or Tullybaccart and Newtyle, that have gone entirely unnoticed by the Ordnance Survey. And finally, there is the awkwardness of access. The Sidlaws are moated around with farmland in the Carse of Gowrie and Strathmore, and it requires a certain amount of patient exploration, with due care to avoid disturbing crops and livestock, to find a way up into some of the more remote corners.

“The subsidence of the Tay valley left these hills with steep southward faces and gentle slopes to the north.”

Despite the fact that the citizens of Dundee and Perth have the Sidlaws very much on their doorstep, the hills seem to be seldom visited outside of a few favoured areas, notably Kinnoull and Deuchny Hills near Perth, and Balkello Hill and Tullybaccart behind Dundee.

In part, this may be because the Sidlaws lack a guide-book to tempt walkers farther afield – a publisher told me recently that the Sidlaws were simply too minor an area to merit such a thing. And in part it may be because the path network is poorly mapped. Tracks shown prominently on the map sometimes turn

But the effort is worth it. Just a few miles from the road, one can walk on open moorland for an hour or two without seeing another person. The headwaters of the Haining Burn, behind Auchterhouse Hill, feel a long way from anywhere, as does the rolling ground that makes up the eastern end of the Braes of the Carse. One seldom walks far in this country without sighting a deer, hearing a buzzard, or happening on a flotilla of wildfowl in an unnamed lochan. There are rarer encounters, too – a red kite on Labothie Hill, a pair of whooper swans on Redmyre Loch, a huge fox earth gouged out of the lonely northern slopes of Craigowl. There are many forestry tracks to wander along, but also glorious open deciduous woodland, most notably on Glencarse Hill.

And there is a human landscape to explore, extending back over thousands of years of land use. The prehistoric fort on Dunsinane Hill is probably the best known, because of its erroneous association with Macbeth, but there are many more Iron Age ramparts to discover, from Evelick to Auchterhouse. The remains of the lowland broch at Little Dunsinane are no more than a symmetrical lump, but the circular floor plan of another is still visible on the summit of Laws Hill, set amid a clutter of other, more recently abandoned buildings. The old tower on Kinpurney Hill is a well-known landmark, served by a path from Newtyle, but the Mackenzie Meridian, on nearby Keillor Hill, is much less frequently visited. Like the Kinpurney tower, it was built during the 18th century

by James Stuart-Mackenzie, Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland, as an aid to his astronomical observations. On top of Labothie Hill, next to a prehistoric cairn, sits an anti-aircraft pillbox built during the Second World War to protect the Douglas Wood Chain Home Radar Station. The station itself, below the hill, has now been repurposed to accommodate Scout meetings, but the foundations of one of its masts can still be found, hidden among the trees on the summit of nearby Gallow Hill.

In fact, the Sidlaws are full of surprises, if you’re willing to veer off the beaten track and see where your feet take you.

16 Autumn 2018

Hill farming and water quality Professor Davy McCracken, Head of Hill & Mountain Research Centre, SRUC: Scotland’s Rural College

SRUC’s 2,200ha Kirkton and Auchtertyre research and demonstration farms, near Crianlarich, are typical of most hills farms across Scotland. We have 70ha of good quality inbye grassland, around 150ha of land that was previously more productive but has now reverted to large amounts of bracken and rush coverage, and around 1,700ha of less productive grassy moorland. We are atypical in also having 300ha of woodland on the farms, but more of that later.

Water quality in the uplands of Scotland is generally very good, but hill farmers still need to respect Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition regulations to ensure this status is maintained. On inbye grasslands, this involves applying fertiliser at appropriate times and away from watercourses, to reduce the chances of the fertiliser being washed into rivers. At Kirkton and Auchtertyre we have also fenced off the water margins in our fields under an agrienvironment scheme. Although primarily aimed at increasing plant and insect biodiversity in the ungrazed margins, these also help prevent any of the relatively low amount of fertiliser we apply reaching the burns.

of the River Tay. However, 20 years ago we planted over 200ha of montane woodland at high altitude (350m to 550m) within an 800ha Highland glen. Our original intent was to establish more shelter for livestock in that glen. But although the trees are there, they are growing very slowly and have not yet reached a size whereby we could allow livestock, or deer, into the woodland without damaging it.

Nevertheless, the ground vegetation has really benefitted from 20 years of reduced grazing pressure, with heather, bilberry and tall grassland now carpeting the floor of the glen and contributing markedly to the ‘natural’ restoration of the peatland within the wooded area mentioned earlier. I have put ‘natural’ within inverted commas deliberately, because keeping livestock, and especially deer, out of the woodland involves a lot of active management on our part!

“We are very interested to know whether the scale of woodland planting has made any detectable difference to water retention capacity.”

Scotland contains around two million hectares of peatland, the vast majority of which is located in the true uplands and in land of upland character closer to sea-level across the Highlands and Islands. Unfortunately, over 60% of these peatlands are degraded in some way, meaning that greenhouse gases are being emitted to the atmosphere and soil particles are being washed into watercourses. The latter not only discolours water but can also cause siltation and hence damage to the infrastructure associated with public and private drinking water supplies.

At Kirkton and Auchtertyre, we’ve restored 100ha of peatland occurring at 350m altitude by removing grazing pressure from livestock and deer over the last 20 years, and thereby allowing the degraded peat hags to revegetate ‘naturally’. More recently, we’ve restored a further 100ha at between 500m and 700m altitude through working closely with the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park and Scottish Natural Heritage’s Peatland Action programme. The 200ha that we have restored will have markedly reduced soil run-off each year via the many burns on the hill.

We receive an average of three metres of rain per year which equates to around 66 million cubic metres of water falling across the farms each year. Historically, the vast majority simply fell onto the land and rushed down the hills straight into the headwaters

The wooded part of the glen is now markedly wetter underfoot compared to before planting 20 years ago. And it is certainly much wetter underfoot than the neighbouring glen which has continued to be grazed during that time. We are very interested to know whether the scale of woodland planting has made any detectable difference to water retention capacity between the two glens. At the time of writing, we are in the process of deploying realtime, automatic water depth sensors at the outfall of each of these two glens, with the intent of measuring whether there is any detectable time lag in the rise of these burns after heavy rainfall events.

It will clearly be important that hill farmers continue to take steps to maintain the already high water quality in upland areas into the future. But with increases in extreme rainfall events occurring through climate change, wider society in the lowlands of Scotland will also be looking to hill farmers – and other upland land managers – to manage large parts of their land to help mitigate the impacts of flooding further downstream. We are happy to be playing a small part in considering how best such measures can be integrated into hill farming.

The

17 Geographer14-

Autumn 2018

Water quality, public and animal health research Dr Beth Wells, Moredun Research Institute; Claire Paton, PhD Student, University of Stirling

A microscopic parasite called Cryptosporidium parvum can be found everywhere in the environment. The parasite is well documented as a major cause of gastroenteritis in young farm livestock, particularly calves, which are considered to be the main reservoirs of the parasite. With no vaccine or cure available, C parvum can cause serious disease and production losses in infected animals, where symptoms include profuse watery diarrhoea, loss of appetite, weight loss, abdominal pain, fever and sometimes death.

C parvum is also a zoonotic pathogen (normally exists in animals but can infect humans) and is responsible for around 50% of human cases of cryptosporidiosis in the UK. Water plays an important role in the transmission of Cryptosporidium to humans, as the oocysts (the infective, environmental stage of the parasite) are very tough, survive well in ambient temperatures and damp environments, and are resistant to routine chemical water treatments.

In addition, livestock pasture frequently surrounds catchment areas collecting water ultimately destined for human consumption. This causes problems for the water industry and the public, as the majority of large-scale outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis worldwide have been due to the consumption of contaminated water. With an increasing frequency of cryptosporidiosis outbreaks in the UK, legislation was introduced to ensure routine sampling of all public water supplies, the frequency of which depends on Cryptosporidium risk. This was calculated using risk assessments and weightings for parameters that affect Cryptosporidium levels in individual water catchments. One of the highest weightings was given to the presence of young livestock in the catchment, particularly if livestock have direct access to the watercourse.

Cryptosporidium transfer, as well as exploring more general influences of rainfall and topography on parasite movement from host to watercourse.

After establishing the base levels of Cryptosporidium in resident livestock and wildlife, as well as environmental water, the research will be extended to dry and wet weather sampling periods, followed by oocyst migration studies for both glens. Quantifying relative differences in oocyst abundance during different seasons will provide some idea of the impacts different factors may have on oocyst transfer and viability. This project will also involve the application of innovative research tools, including tagging and tracking individual oocysts to study movement along watercourses, and constructing a mathematical model outlining different risk factors and their influences on Cryptosporidium transfer.

“The glens provide an ideal site for comparing the effects of land management on Cryptosporidium transfer.”

Much of the research to date has focused on the parasite itself and how it interacts with the host animal to cause disease. However, there is an urgent requirement for more information in how the parasite is transferred in the environment from the faecal pat, where it is deposited, to water courses. This is a complex area involving investigating how the oocysts behave in different vegetation, soil types and climatic conditions. In light of this, a highly inter-disciplinary PhD research project involving Scottish Water, the Moredun Research Institute, SRUC and the University of Stirling has been set up to try and answer these questions.

To this end, primary field sites at Auchtertyre and Kirkton Glens have been selected at Crianlarich, where the River Fillan feeds ultimately into the Tay catchment basin via the River Dochart. The twin glens of Auchtertyre and Kirkton have several features which make them ideal for comparison.

They exhibit similar elevation, topography and soil type, and historically featured similar vegetation and land use.

However, whilst Auchtertyre Glen has been continuously grazed for centuries, neighbouring Kirkton Glen has been rested for 19 years as part of SRUC’s Hill Sheep and Native Woodland project, and is being gradually reclaimed by woodland scrub and native trees. Thus the glens provide an ideal site for comparing the effects of land management on

As this catchment feeds into the larger Tay catchment, where livestock production is important but the catchment also supplies us with drinking water, the findings of this project will ultimately be applied to continue to improve water quality as well as livestock health and welfare.

The River Fillan, into which both catchments drain.

Water sampling in Kirkton Glen

18 Autumn 2018

A decade of change Mike Robinson, Chief Executive, RSGS “Our role is ultimately to increase the profile of and regard for geographical education and understanding in Scotland.”

In many ways I find it hard to believe that I have been in post here at the RSGS for ten years. I have been fortunate to oversee a period of significant change in the RSGS, most obviously in our move from Glasgow to Perth, securing the funding to create a beautiful and vibrant visitor centre, and injecting vigour and modern purpose into every aspect of our work. I want to thank you (our Members, supporters and networks) for your support during what has been a period of such dynamic transformation.

It is perhaps testament to the variety of the role and to the critical relevance of geography, that I cannot think of any period during my tenure when we have not been busy. In this decade, I have had the great joy and privilege of watching my children grow from wee boys to young men, and at the same time, to witness the RSGS grow in confidence, ambition and stature. For a small charity, we get a lot done, and continually punch well above our weight, and it is gratifying to see how much people are beginning to value and recognise our work. Whether it is the quality of our public talks and events, intelligence of our magazine, friendliness of our staff and volunteers, or innovation of our projects, we are clearly making an impact. And we would like to think we are making a difference – for geography, for sustainability, for Scotland.

More than anything, it is the profile, ambition and credibility of our work which has seen the greatest change. This is perhaps best epitomised by the introduction and progress of The Geographer magazine, which has developed a strong reputation with a wide range of audiences – as an independent, intelligent, informative source of geographical insight. It has also featured articles from some remarkable global and national figures, and drawn together expertise on an incredible array of topics. In addition, we have successfully built bridges between sectors, by providing perspectives from across business, academia, public and government bodies, NGOs and the wider geographical community. As a result, the RSGS has become recognised as a respected adviser and trusted commentator on a wide range of current issues, and we are increasingly sought out to contribute to national policy and to convene meetings and discussions.

In the last ten years, we have also streamlined the governance structures and constitution, fought for Geography and Earth sciences in schools and employed two excellent education officers, and rebranded and developed our media and social media profiles. We have hosted some of the great names in modern geography in over 1,000 talks, appointed our first ever explorers-in-residence and a very talented writer-in-residence, and built an operational team of exceptional staff and volunteers. In the process, we have established a diverse and lively network of contacts and have fostered relationships with a wide range of partner organisations at home and abroad. We just need, as ever, to generate more income.

Our role is ultimately to increase the profile of and regard for geographical education and understanding in Scotland, and through that to encourage better decision making. It is also to increase Scotland’s standing in informing and resolving geographical issues globally, and to share Scotland’s expertise with the world at the same time as helping to disseminate and learn from the best global examples here at home. And by doing all of this, we hope we are playing our small part in inspiring a better, more geographically literate world.

The last ten years have been a mammoth exercise in building the foundations of a modern, thriving, vital Society, with geography at its heart, and rooted here in Perth, in the geographical heart of Scotland. Over the next few years we need to build on these great foundations and to increase donations and memberships, converting the enormous good will we have generated over the last decade into committed support. Most of what we have delivered we have done with very scarce resources, and our finances remain limited. Imagine what we could achieve with more money!

The

19 Geographer14-

Autumn 2018

20 Autumn 2018

River Tay Kenneth Maclean FRSGS, RSGS Collections Team

The River Tay rises on the slopes of Ben Lui (1,130m). Initially, it is known as the Rivers Cononish, Fillan, and Dochart, before flowing into Loch Tay at the Falls of Dochart at Killin. Only on exiting Loch Tay at Kenmore is it dubbed the Tay. Thereafter, it progresses through Strathtay and Strathmore to Perth, historically the lowest bridging point, before sharply turning eastwards, impeded in places by sandbanks and mudflats, to Dundee and the Firth of Tay. Overall, the Tay system has played a fundamental social, economic and environmental role.

especially noted for soft fruits, whose seasonal growth has been extended thanks to a profusion of polytunnels and a significant labour input from young migrant workers.

Water power was a key factor in Perthshire’s Industrial Revolution, based on textile industries which developed on the banks of the Tay, Ericht and Almond. Proximity to rapids and cataracts, such as the deeply incised Linn of Campsie on the Tay, helped promote from the 1780s the growth of many mills, villages such as Stanley and Luncarty, and the town of Blairgowrie.

Deindustrialisation, however, resulted in relict landscapes of unused or derelict mills, some of which have since been converted to housing, such as at Stanley and Keathbank. The development of hydro-electricity, especially since the 1940s with the building of the Tummel-Garry and Breadalbane schemes, has also been a significant force for economic and social development.

“Overall, the Tay system has played a fundamental social, economic and environmental role.”

The Tay valley has functioned as a major link between Highland and Lowland Scotland. Evidence of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers is revealed by their stone and bone scatters. Bronze Age dugout canoes unearthed at Perth and Carpow testify to the river’s early navigable role. Roman forts at Carpow and Bertha, and the legionary fortress of Inchtuthil, are strategically-located reminders of attempted imperial control. From medieval times, the Tay and its estuary served as a commercial routeway, with the granting of Royal Burgh status to Perth and Dundee, and their consequent growth as significant, though rival, ports.

Road networks, radiating from the main centres and oriented for the most part via the valleys, have developed from allweather Roman constructions to Wade and Caulfeild’s 18th-century military roads to the ongoing widening of the A9 and the proposed Cross Tay Link Road. Likewise, from the 1840s, main railways and their feeder branch lines were engineered to follow the Tay and Garry northwards to Drumochter Pass. Though lines were pruned during the Beeching era, rail continues to be popular, but its single line sections are long overdue enhancement.

However, the Tay system also functioned as an obstacle, only overcome at historical crossing points by fords, ferries and bridges. Examples include the Wade Bridge at Aberfeldy (1733), Thomas Telford’s Bridge at Dunkeld (1809), John Smeaton’s Bridge at Perth (1771), and following the 1879 disaster there was William Henry Barlow’s Tay Rail Bridge (1887).

Along the Tay valley and its margins, land use is varied; a response to contrasts in relief, geology, soil type, altitude, climate and management. North of the Highland Boundary Fault, land is generally mountainous and managed for sheep, deer and forestry.

Lowland areas, underlain by softer, younger sedimentary rocks and more fertile soils, grow a variety of arable crops, including wheat, Wade Bridge, Aberfeldy. oilseed rape and seed potatoes. Lower still, the post-glacial alluvial clays underlying the Carse of Gowrie, badly drained and waterlogged before 18th-century improvements, host crops and orchards, and are

Among the main opponents of hydro-power were tourist, landed and fishing interests. Salmon fishing on the Tay system, including the export of Salmo salar, has a long history. From the 1780s, a lucrative pioneering trade of salmon packed in ice served the London luxury market. Today the Tay is recognised as one of Europe’s best salmon rivers, drawing anglers from around the globe. Overfishing, however, has meant a reduction in catches, and a catch-and-release policy now operates.

People relate to such a river’s distinctive personality and specific places in their own ways. For some, it has centred on the river’s scenic setting, as in the seasonally-changing colours of the variegated woodland around Dunkeld. Others look for the thrill of white water canoeing through the rapids at Grandtully, or mountain biking on Deuchny Hill. And for the more sedate, there are casual walks beside Perth’s historic Inches, or around Loch Faskally, or along the Braan to the Hermitage waterfall and its leaping salmon. All told, these are reminders of the past and present interaction of people with the River Tay and its tributaries.

The

21 Geographer14-

Autumn 2018

The Tay catchment: a forestry perspective Professor Chris Quine, Head of Centre for Ecosystems, Society and Biosecurity, Forest Research

The Tay catchment comprises a substantial area of Scotland with a very diverse range of climates and geology. Approximately 18% of it is covered in woodland and forests, surprisingly close to the typical land cover of Scotland. The forests are diverse and span some of the widest contrasts achievable in Scotland – from the sand dune forests of Tentsmuir (stretching the definition of the Tay catchment right to the mouth of the estuary) to the mountain forests of Highland Perthshire – and some valued remnants of the Caledonian pine forest such as the Black Wood of Rannoch, an important Special Area of Conservation. One of the oldest known trees in Britain, the Fortingall Yew (estimated to be 2,000-3,000 years old), is present in Glen Lyon.

The region has a rich heritage of plant collecting and forest history, with the first example of a planted forest in Scotland (Drummond Hill by Sir Duncan Campbell in the 17th century), and the enduring legacy of David Douglas and Archibald Menzies, the famous plant explorers, visible for example in the Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga © Lorne Gill menziesii) trees of the Hermitage.

The banks of the river at Dunkeld provided the first location where hybridisation between European and Japanese larch was observed, providing a species hybrid used extensively in diversification of upland conifer forests.

“The forests of the Tay exemplify the full gamut of sustainable forest management.”

Forests of the Tay (such as Allean, Faskally and Craigvinean) demonstrate the excellent growing conditions for many introduced species. These legacies have been celebrated in recent years through the tag for Perthshire of ‘Big Tree Country’.

Many foresters responsible for the successful afforestation of the uplands learnt their craft at the forester training school at Faskally, set in the model forest established in the 19th century.

These new forests have provided important habitat for some much-loved woodland species, including the red squirrel and the capercaillie (where Drummond forest provided the setting for its reintroduction following extinction in the 19th century).

Taken as a whole, the forests of the Tay exemplify the full gamut of sustainable forest management, from forests managed very much with timber production in mind, to those with multiple objectives, and those dedicated to specific non-market benefits including nature conservation, recreation, slope stabilisation and flood mitigation.

The catchment is one of 14 priority catchments targeted by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) for restoration and protection. The much-publicised issues of flooding and diffuse pollution, particularly in the lower reaches of the catchment, have driven the need for action to mitigate these and other impacts on the water environment associated with land use and management. Woodland expansion has a part to play by reducing and delaying flood waters, limiting pollution loading and retaining diffuse pollutants. Opportunity mapping conducted

by Forest Research, in conjunction with Forestry Commission Scotland and SEPA, suggested there was considerable potential for woodland creation; whilst much of the catchment is subject to constraints (38% excluded from consideration plus a further 44% where sensitivities will impact scale and character of planting), nevertheless up to 2,851km2 of land was identified where some

degree of flood mitigation might be achieved, and 284km2 (6% of catchment) where a contribution might be made to alleviating both flood risk and pollution pressure.

The contribution of existing forests to flood regulation is also important and has recently been valued at £184 million for the Tay catchment on the basis of mean flood protection costs. The maintenance of this regulatory service is crucially dependent upon the appropriate management and continuing health of the forests. The forests of the Tay, along with many across Scotland as a whole, are threatened by a range of introduced pests and pathogens – most notably in recent years, the arrival of ash dieback and the widespread mortality of larch due to Phytophthora ramorum. Many more threats exist overseas (the UK Plant Health Risk Register lists more than 900 undesirable organisms) and may arrive through a variety of trade pathways and possibly also by unwitting introductions by movement of plants and soil by visitors. Some of these threats, such as the bacteria Xylella fastidiosa, can affect a very broad host range, spanning not just forest species but many important horticultural and agricultural crops. The recently established Plant Health Centre (PHC, www.planthealthcentre.scot), funded by the Scottish Government, is providing expertise to consider and counter such multi-sectoral threats which in worst case scenarios could impact whole catchments such as the Tay. The PHC combines expertise from leading Scottish research institutes (SEFARI and beyond) and links knowledge and understanding from the forestry, natural environment, agriculture, and horticulture sectors. It is to be hoped it can contribute to maintaining healthy habitats and cropping systems in the Tay and beyond.

Prof Chris Quine is a long-standing RSGS member who works for Forest Research and is sector lead for forestry within the Plant Health Centre.

FURTHER READING Broadmeadow S, Thomas H, Shah N, Nisbet T (2013) Opportunity mapping for woodland creation to improve water quality and reduce flood risk in the River Tay catchment (scotland. forestry.gov.uk/images/corporate/pdf/Tay_OM_Report_June13.pdf)

22 Autumn 2018

Erosion, transport and deposition of sediments in the Tay system Professor John McManus, School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of St Andrews The River Tay rises on the slopes of Ben Lui on the Argyll border where the average annual precipitation is estimated to reach over 2.5m. Gathering additional waters from many tributary streams, it flows seaward through the 6,000km2 of catchment where over 70 lochs slow the currents depending on the loch basin volumes. The rivers drain landscapes on steep-sloped, wild highland terrains formed on metamorphic rocks, often but not always forested, to narrow flat-floored valley bottoms lined with sands and gravels deposited during the last glaciation. Beyond the Highland Boundary Fault south of Dunkeld the broad low reaches of Old Red Sandstone country in Strathmore and Strathearn give way to the Sidlaw volcanics around Perth. Narrow estuarine marshes bordering the head of the estuary pass into wide reedbeds protected by wide, sandy and muddy tidal flats as far as Dundee.

Flowing water has the ability to carry sediments along the bed, buoyed up in the turbulent waters together with a range of natural and waste chemical products. For more than a century, national and local government agencies have collected information on the flow variations and the levels of diffuse pollution entering the waters throughout the Tay basin, to which have been added a sequences of studies of individual stream basins by University of Dundee research students since the early 1960s.

The rainfall driving the river flows is mainly derived from irregularly timed cyclonic atmospheric conditions which bring about 20 periods of rainfall each year. These normally give rise to ground cover with snow in most of the upland areas in the five months from November until March. As the year advances, the progressive melting of the snow enhances the resultant stream flows, giving peak discharges in the higher catchments in February. At Ballathie (the lowermost gauge on the Tay), peak monthly mean daily discharges from its 4,576.5km2 catchment in the period 1947-57 always exceeded 300m3 per second in February whilst annual minimum flows always fell below 8.5m3 per second. After the opening of the Faskally Dam at Pitlochry in 1957, the peak flows never exceeded 300m3 per second nor fell below 8.5m3 per second, providing valuable but not total flood protection to Perth. The only stream discharging directly into the Tay estuary, the Earn carries mean daily flows of 21.5m3 per

second and peak measured flows of 311.3m3 per second.

Direct records of sediment transport by the rivers are derived from deployment of traps placed periodically on the stream bed and by filtration of water from samplers suspended within the water column. These provide two means of estimating the loads involved, either measured directly as indicated or indirectly by calculating the stresses exerted by the waters using selections from a range of more than 30 techniques. Evaporating 250ml aliquots of the waters reveals the solute loads.

By summing the three loads at the lowest gauging station in each sub-catchment it is calculated that in an average year (1974-75) a total of 1.72x106 tons of load entered the Tay estuary from the land. In a similar year (1977-78) 1.9x105 tons entered the Forth estuary. Approximately 11% of the loads reached the estuaries.

The first ten years of the Harmonized Monitoring Programme (1975-83), organised by the University of Exeter, UNESCO and others, produced data sets from 33 gauged rivers in Eastern Scotland allowing the recognition of no less than six catchment groupings. These suggested that soil losses are least in the Southern Uplands, are marginally greater in the Moray Firth and the north-east Grampians, with much greater losses in the Forth and Tay-based central Grampian Highlands. Two associations emerged. One, with low rainfall, showed low rates of sediment yield (4-20t per km2 per year) and the other recorded much greater losses (20-200t per km2 per year). These figures lie within the ranges derived from intensive sampling studies on nine of the rivers concerned.

Once the river reaches the estuary it comes under the influence of the rising and falling saline tidal waters of the North Sea. The most landward site at which the two water bodies meet is at Scone. Similar meeting points in several European countries have, as at Scone, been marked as having special powers, identifying them as suitable sites at which kings should be crowned. For centuries, therefore, this marked Scone as being a magical place. To seaward the waters and sediments develop very different patterns of movement, accumulating under changed environmental controls.

“The rivers drain landscapes on steepsloped, wild highland terrains formed on metamorphic rocks.�

The

23 Geographer14-

Autumn 2018

How vegetation shapes the landscape we see Dr Kenneth Loades, Environmental and Biochemical Sciences, The James Hutton Institute

It’s easy to forget, for example when you look at the mighty trees at the Hermitage in Dunkeld, that there is a lot of tree below the surface that you can’t see; the roots belowground are doing a lot more than may be obvious. Roots are not just important for providing water and nutrients to vegetation; they are in themselves natural capital, supporting a variety of ecosystem services from carbon sequestration to flood control. One service that can be easily overlooked is increasing soil stability and reducing the risk of soil erosion.

“There are stark lessons from history warning us not to forget the importance of plant roots in stabilising and reinforcing soil.”

It can be difficult to imagine how much root exists below the surface, often only exposed when a tree has been blown down in high winds; however, if you walk beside the Tay north of Perth you can see where riverbank erosion has exposed the complex architecture of the plants’ root systems. Digging even deeper, the structures hidden within the root itself are equally fascinating and complex. Plant roots comprise a myriad of structures that can change as a result of the environment that they are growing in, and this influences their mechanical properties such as strength and stiffness, all of which help hold the soil together. Internal changes in these structures have the potential to influence the landscape we see. How much they compromise, or even benefit mechanically, from abiotic, environmentally driven changes is something we are still trying to understand.

There are stark lessons from history warning us not to forget the importance of plant roots in stabilising and reinforcing soil.

One example is the Dust Bowl of the 1930s on the Great Plains of America, a result of the removal of vegetation. Previously, deeprooted grasses covered the area, but agricultural intensification converted the land for wheat and other commodity crops, eliminating the deep roots of the grass. Drought followed by strong winds eroded the fertile topsoil away, causing ‘black blizzards’ with soil in the hundreds of millions of tonnes being eroded each year.

So what makes a plant root so good? Roots explore soils Root hairs binding soil to the root surface. releasing exudates, influencing the soil microbial community, changing soil physical structure, and allowing mutually beneficial symbiosis (two different species living together) amongst other things. The internal structures of some plants have been found to influence whether they are primarily strong in tension or bending resistance, the latter found in maize to be affected by the cortex thickness. Monocot root systems, like those of grass, have typically a large number of fibrous-like shallow roots which perform well at stabilising surface soils, whereas tree roots are less dense in surface soils but can penetrate the soils deeper. Globally the average rooting depth of trees is just under seven metres, with herbaceous plants and crops reaching an average depth of around two metres.

Delving deeper into the internal structures of different species, or architectural root type, may give an idea of how each root type may perform different roles in the soil.

Soil stabilisation by plant roots is more than just their ability to hold the soil together physically as an element. Soil is stronger and more resilient when it is dry, and trees can extract a lot of water from the soil and release it back to the atmosphere through transpiration, which can therefore contribute significantly to stabilisation. Trees also have the ability to capture rain on their leaves (interception) which can reduce the amount reaching the soil surface, aiding soil stabilisation; effectively the tree acts like a big umbrella. Over the course of a year, conifer trees use 55-80% and broadleaved trees use 40-60% of annual rainfall through both transpiration and interception.

Despite all these mechanisms, even the abundant vegetation overlooking the River Tay at Dunkeld cannot always stop erosion or a landslide occurring; this can have an impact on our environment and us. In 2004 a single landslide was estimated to have cost ~£150,000 when it blocked the A9. From a railways perspective, a total of 271 landslides were reported between 2012 and 2014. Land has not always been managed with an awareness of all the services provided by the environment.

Concrete has historically been used to stabilise ground adjacent to key transport corridors; however, due to its impermeability, it can significantly increase flooding. With increasing awareness that trees and other vegetation have the potential to provide more benefits to the environment, research is growing in optimising and understanding the soil/root system further.

Utilising new imaging tools and understanding what constitutes a good root for stabilising soil, we can start to provide better predictions of soil stabilisation and reduce the use of concrete or hard engineering in minimising landslide risks. Greater knowledge of the mechanical properties of roots of different species will allow bespoke management plans for our landscapes. This is the future: with a changing climate having the potential to change plant communities, understanding the complexity of root and soil interactions is critical, the great Dust Bowl demonstrating the huge costs associated with not managing roots in our soils.

Contrasting maize root structures: (left) showing oval holes, aerenchyma, to aid oxygen transport in response to flooding; (right) showing the central stele surrounded by cortical tissue, with small lateral roots away from the main root axis.

24 Autumn 2018

Perth: playing to its natural strengths Mike Robinson, Chief Executive, RSGS

Perth is a beautiful place. It has a quality of environment and landscape that few cities in Europe can match: Kinnoull Hill, the River Tay, two Inches, and its place at the centre of Big Tree Country. Although this beautiful environment is evident, it is often (in my experience) taken for granted, and Perth itself is more widely misconstrued.

People outside Perth regularly refer to it as a place they’ve ‘driven round’, or as ‘a bit quiet’ or ‘well-todo’, and in one of the more ridiculous statements I’ve heard, ‘not really part of Scotland’. Even some of our Inspiring People speakers have mistaken it for Perth, Australia. Perth is, ironically, one of the only parts of Scotland that has always been in what people would commonly historically refer to as Scotland. But all of this suggests a place that is not well understood.

new homes, and the roads to go with it, but it is not exactly clear for whom, and why? Is it to raise more money in council tax? Is it to accommodate projected growth from migration from the west coast and elsewhere? Or is there a perceived need for a larger population to increase the critical mass of people to support the local economy? And where will they work, if they are not retired? Will they commute to work and to play, or will Perth provide enough to keep them more locally? And as with so many beautiful spaces, will this undermine the quality which makes Perth so special in the first place?

“What makes Perth special should also be what guides us going forwards.”

Perth is fairly self-contained and perhaps doesn’t sense a need to shout about itself, which is certainly typical of the local character.

This market town, which has grown out of a crossing point and trade centre, and has acted as the seat of royals in Scotland and a coronation point for Pictish and Scottish monarchs, dating back at least as far as the 8th century, has lost sight of its own history and could certainly do more to tell its own story and develop its sense of place. However, what is perhaps more pertinent, as a newly (re)crowned city, is its sense of itself now and what it wishes to become, and here, I believe, it is missing a trick.

Perth is surely one of the greenest and healthiest cities in the UK, but it needs to do more to build on this if it wishes to capitalise on this natural strength. It has a wide array of high quality cafés and independent retailers, but with the very nature of retail changing, these can only ever be one part of the future of the city centre. Like many towns and cities, it is over-reliant on the car.

(It is disappointing how many Scottish towns think the solution to all their woes is a bigger car park!) Connectivity has always been a crucial part of Perth’s national position, but this needs to extend beyond road traffic. Yet it has let its rail link to Edinburgh dwindle. There is a strong sense that it doesn’t do enough to keep and attract younger people. And Perth has plenty of green space, but could do more to celebrate its environment – its trees, parks, river, even its high recycling rates. How can it incorporate this more into its thinking?

The biggest current local priority project is the building of 7,000

There is much to be resolved. For me, though, what makes Perth special should also be what guides us going forwards.

Being the smallest of the seven cities, there is a real opportunity for Perth to lead and showcase sustainable solutions, in part because of its scale. Could Perth build a more robust transport infrastructure which retains and future-proofs its place at the heart of Scotland’s communications networks? Can it ensure it is the best place to grow up and make a start in life, not through foam parties, but through offering the best education and apprenticeships, leisure facilities and sustainable, affordable housing? Can it reduce its car dependency and create more safe places to cycle, walk and play, and in the process improve its air quality and further enhance its environment?

Perth could do much more to build on its vibrant, healthy, active side, which already exists, though more at 8 o’clock on a Saturday morning than at 8 o’clock on a Saturday night.

This would help create an identity that everyone could rally behind, including its various employers – renewable energy companies, public transport providers, government environmental organisations, waste and land managers, and NGOs. All of these aspirations play to Perth’s natural strength – its quality of life, driven by the quality of its environment, making it one of the healthiest places in Scotland to work, live and grow up. It is in Perth’s DNA, and as urbanisation and global environmental pressures grow, this will only become increasingly more unique. Scotland aspires to lead the world in its concern for the environment, and Perth could aspire to lead in Scotland. That is where I believe Perth’s future lies: the most sustainable small city in Europe, naturally.

The

25 Geographer14-

Autumn 2018

A Geospatial Commission for the UK Bruce Gittings FRSGS, Senior Lecturer in Geographical Information, University of Edinburgh, and Chair of the Association for Geographic Information in Scotland When the UK Government pumps £80 million into a lesserknown area of geography we should take note. The first inkling of this investment was a paragraph deeply buried within the Conservative Party Manifesto in May 2017 – it is certainly unusual that spending money on geography should appear as part of a political platform! This was followed by the announcement of a few details by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his Budget of November 2017. This funding was to create a new quango to support geographical data.

This Geospatial Commission is beginning to take shape and acted in May to extend the range of data which will be freely accessible from Ordnance Survey, the UK National Mapping Agency.

Driven by technologies such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS), the Global Positioning System (GPS), and web-based data sharing, with innovations including open street maps, Google maps, and Ordnance Survey’s definitive high-resolution MasterMap database for the UK, geospatial data is now crucial to our everyday lives.

Over the last 20 years, the use of geographical information to allow better decisions by government, a more informed citizenry, and as the basis of our sat-navs and smartphones, has quietly been increasing. Now everything from web searches for a nearby pizza shop, the arrival time of an Uber taxi, the efficiency of refuse collection, to crime pattern analysis and retail logistics are all underpinned by geographical information – in simple terms the digital data which comprises modern map databases.

we are already ahead of the curve in data sharing, the Commission is liaising closely with the Scottish Government and agencies such as the Registers of Scotland. Agencies responsible for the environment, health, business, transport and security were notably missing from the list, but these will undoubtedly be added as the role of the Commission develops. The Commission is already gathering projects which allow it to fulfil its remit, namely: • improve access to, links between, and quality of geospatial data; • look at making more geospatial data available for free and without restriction; • set regulation and policy in relation to geospatial data created by the public sector; • hold individual bodies to account for delivery against the geospatial strategy; • provide strategic oversight and direction across public bodies which operate in this area.

“Geospatial data is now crucial to our everyday lives.”

To the surprise of industrywatchers, the Government has been alerted to these opportunities. It has also realised the costs of doing nothing. The Conservative Manifesto envisaged a new body which would set standards to digitise the planning process and help create a comprehensive digital map of land ownership in Britain. These aims were very much focused on boosting the building industry by identifying potential development land and reducing the perceived planning burdens. Secondary aims hoped to bring benefits for the digital economy. Thinking had developed and the focus changed by the Chancellor’s announcement, and envisaged a ‘geospatial strategy’ drawing together several government agencies, namely HM Land Registry, the Ordnance Survey, the British Geological Survey, the Valuation Office Agency, the UK Hydrographic Office and the Coal Authority.

This was an interesting list; some operate across the UK, some just within England and Wales. In Scotland, where

The UK is seen as a world leader in digital innovation, and reducing the costs of geographical information could bring considerable growth to a valuable industry.

Government spends millions on this data and has realised better data sharing will bring economic benefits worth £11 billion annually. Sometimes giving away for free that which the government has collected in our name can bring bigger returns through economic growth – or at least that’s the theory.

How should we judge the success of the Geospatial Commission, which is currently funded for only two years? First and foremost more data, richer data and better data, leading to better decisions from government and economic growth. But the Commission also needs to show it is open to new ideas, is somewhat radical and engages beyond government, with established business, incubators for new start-ups and the third sector, to ensure that not only the traditional economy and ‘big business’ succeed, but also that individuals, jobs and culture benefit.

Are we likely to see Ordnance Survey’s gold-standard MasterMap given away for free? Probably not; someone has to pay for its collection, update and maintenance. However, it can certainly be argued that costs can be reduced by removing the internal market for data which currently exists within government. Where this leaves Ordnance Survey and other agencies which are dependent on data sales to cover their costs remains to be seen. At the end of the day, the Government will wish to ensure that it puts less money into the system, not more.

26 Autumn 2018

Historical hydropower generation Dr Robert Boyd, Lecturer, Perth College UHI; Alasdair Bachell, PhD Student, Perth College UHI

In the midst of a long, hot, dry summer the topic potential for refurbishing of historical hydro sites for power generation may seem a little incongruous, yet the historical sites that generated power are numerous throughout Scotland. In a recent survey, East Coast Renewables, a consortium including Perth & Kinross, Aberdeenshire, Angus and Fife Councils, commissioned a report to investigate these sites in the north-east of Scotland with a view to evaluating the potential for power generation and economic viability. Supported by the Community And Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES), the study revealed over 800 sites of interest across the region. When analysed, a sizeable number showed potential for further investigation and some could fit the bill for refurbishment and electrical power generation.

In Tayside, initially over 100 sites were found in varying states of repair. When reviewed further, a number were estimated to have a potential installed capacity of up to 100kW. These sites could provide power for local communities, enhance the local economy through stimulation of local business and, in some cases, may have an added value of enhancing tourism.

“These sites could provide power for local communities.”

Projects such as the EU-funded Renewable Energy Sources Transforming Our Region (RESTOR) – Hydro have shown an appetite for this form of renewable energy generation across Europe. RESTOR’s objectives include “demonstrating the attractiveness of small hydropower as a local investment vehicle, bringing revenue to local communities and contributing to energy independence, while preserving our historical heritage and environment.”

The wealth of results from the initial investigation led to the development of a larger study. A doctoral project funded by the European Structural and Investment Fund (ESIF) and hosted at the Centre for Mountain Studies, Perth College UHI, has started to look at the location and potential power generation of historical sites across the Highlands and Islands region. As part of this research, discussions with stakeholders, including government and non-government bodies, hydropower consultants and community project funding organisations such as Local Energy Scotland, have shown support and enthusiasm for the project.

and the application process which can be lengthy and involved.

CARES provides comprehensive guidelines and support, but projects can founder during the long and often challenging process in the development of community-led projects.

Many catchment areas have been mapped, captured and exploited. Sites with de nouveau schemes are being installed or at least earmarked in the rush to lodge projects before the Feed-in Tariff disappears in April 2019. However, there may be scope to look at older sites where clearly, in the past, people have utilised this existing resource. Evidence of water wheels, weirs, lades and mills is widespread, and shows that under the right circumstances there are sites that could generate power.

Historical hydropower generation may not be looked at purely in terms of kW generated against payback period, but also in the context of legacy for the health and sustainability of local communities, and the simple fact that it may seem fit that power generation could be secured and maintained for their future resilience. Should the economic and political climate change and the opportunities for localised renewable energy be reappraised, though the Scottish Government policy remains committed to local energy sustainability, many sites may be reassessed and indeed found to be fit for purpose.

The Tay and its tributaries have seen a large number of hydropower generating sites.

The UHI study is still in its early stages but the initial results are encouraging. A wide range of sites with the potential to generate power of several hundred kW, associated with community benefits, have been found across the region. There are also benefits that may derive from increased tourism in specific developed sites, in the use of local labour, the development of new skills and regeneration of the local economy.

There are a number of constraints that must be taken into consideration before a potential site is developed.

These factors include physical characteristics, land ownership, environmental impact, financial realities, community resilience,

Just a sample of the sites found in Tayside with historical hydro activity.

The

27 Geographer14-

Autumn 2018

Restoring Scotland’s rivers Dr Stephen Addy, Environmental and Biochemical Sciences, The James Hutton Institute

River restoration has become a high profile aspect of river management. It can be defined as the re-establishment of natural physical processes, features and habitats of rivers including wet areas, banks and floodplains. In reality, this doesn’t mean returning rivers to a wilderness state as this is a near impossible task, but allowing rivers some freedom to adjust naturally and provide characteristic ecosystem services. In Scotland, about 20% of the river network is considered to be highly modified as defined under the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The WFD is a major driver for river restoration in Scotland, but others include biodiversity and conservation goals, improving fish habitat and mitigating flood risk.

River restoration can be seen as a real-life experiment that tests our ability to make decisions that will create desirable responses.

Science is needed to inform where and how best to restore, and for monitoring projects ideally before and after action is taken for long periods (five years or longer).

Responses to river restoration are complex and specific to a given river reach and its wider catchment, meaning that outcomes will always be uncertain to a degree.

Nevertheless, monitoring helps us to understand the range of physical and ecological responses.

course of a century. The decision by the Duke of Atholl in 1903 to abandon flood embankments helped to restore the river’s wandering character.

“River restoration can be seen as a real-life experiment that tests our ability to make decisions.”

Despite the progress made, restoration is often constrained due to societal concerns. For example, sometimes a river’s natural course is restored but outer bends are reinforced over concerns of erosion. Whilst a carte blanche approach to restoration is not appropriate everywhere, such mitigation measures can be costly, ineffective and may reduce the success of a project.

Another challenge is addressing severely degraded channels in urban areas and farmland. In Scotland, the River Restoration Compensation Scheme introduced by SEPA in 2017 for loss of land during construction and following restoration should bolster restoration in farmland.

A realistic view of where and how much restoration is carried out in these areas is needed however, and effort should be focused on restoring rivers where community and landowner support are favourable.

The recent European REFORM assessment has shown that Demonstrating the benefits river restoration can generally of river restoration is key to benefit ecology and ecosystem achieving the vision of bringing services. However, the responses The lower Rottal Burn in Angus one year after its meandering course was restored. back the natural character of are dependent on the nature Scotland’s degraded rivers. of the restoration and our ability to detect changes. The lack The responses recorded so far on the Rottal Burn in Angus of monitoring of projects worldwide is a well-known issue. In following its restoration in 2012 provide a good case example.

Scotland, ongoing post-restoration monitoring of the Allt Lorgy Early monitoring of the macroinvertebrate community indicates (Highland) and Eddleston Water catchment (Borders) should help a greater diversity of species, reflecting an improvement in the to fill gaps in our understanding. Improvements in monitoring range of habitat available. A monetary evaluation predicted that have been aided by the development of new tools such as over the next 25 years, the restoration would create a good return Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) based photography. Realistically on investment, including an estimated £198,000 from salmon however, comprehensive monitoring is not possible everywhere, so production and £83,000 from flood mitigation. These positive alternatives are needed. For example, citizen science approaches gains show that well-planned restoration can produce a range of such as the MoRPh tool can track changes in river shape and benefits for both nature and society. habitat.

Recently, projects that are notable in scale have been undertaken in Scotland. For example, through the EU LIFE-funded Pearls in Peril project, croys and flood embankments were removed from the River Dee in Aberdeenshire in 2015. In 2017, on the upper River Nairn (Highland), several kilometres of river were restored to its original dynamic character to improve stability and habitat. The high energy and availability of sediment in these cases means there is great potential for letting the river do the remainder of the restoration work. Wherever possible, this ‘assisted self-recovery approach’ is preferable as it is less costly in the long term and allows rivers to create their own appropriate forms and habitat for a given setting.

Changes of management can also help restore rivers. With close co-operation between Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Scottish and Southern Energy, and the Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board, the rewetting of 13km of the River Garry in 2017 will hopefully improve its ecological status and the wider Tay catchment. This example shows the importance of partnership communication and planning to carry out actions that are mutually acceptable. Small changes in land management can also be effective. Again in the Tay catchment, this was unintentionally demonstrated on the lower River Tummel over the

An artificial embankment on the upper River Dee in Aberdeenshire before it was partially removed (left) and a year afterwards (right).

FURTHER READING Holmes N, Raven P (2014) Rivers (Oxford, British Wildlife Publishing Ltd) Perfect C, Addy S, Gilvear DJ (2013) The Scottish Rivers Handbook: a guide to the physical character of Scotland’s rivers (www.crew.ac.uk/publications) The River Restoration Centre (www.therrc.co.uk)

28 Autumn 2018

TayBerry Seedling Dr Roy Neilson, Ecological Sciences, The James Hutton Institute

A rich history and cultural connection exists between Dundee and local agriculture; in particular, soft fruit production that was captured in the well-known epithet of the city, ‘Jam, Jute and Journalism’. The association between jam making and Dundee goes back to the 18th century, when a Spanish ship with a cargo of Seville oranges took refuge from a storm in Dundee harbour. The cargo was purchased by a local grocer who found the oranges too bitter to eat; however, his wife created what is recognised as Dundee Orange Marmalade by cooking the oranges with sugar.

With a favourable climate and fertile soils for fruit growing, and an associated processing industry, the Tay area and especially Dundee became synonymous with jam making.

Whilst the Tay catchment has arguably some of the most fertile soils in Scotland supporting a range of crops, including berries, that underpins the regional (and national) economy, access to a healthy nutritious meal is not available to all members of society. Since 2009 across the UK there has been a staggering increase of more than 4,500% in the use of food banks (Trussell Trust, 2017). In Dundee nearly 10,000 three-day emergency food supplies were provided where 30% of children live in poverty, and this is a reflection that, after Glasgow, Dundee has the highest incidence of city areas considered as the 20% most deprived in Scotland (Scottish Government Index of Multiple Deprivation).

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has identified that urban agriculture can positively contribute to food poverty. Whilst the UN focus was initially on developing countries, it is now recognised that in developed countries urban agriculture can also have a positive societal role, providing not only food security but also improved mental and physical health, education and personal empowerment through social cohesion, ie a feeling of place or community.

Approximately 45% of adults in England eat fewer than three portions of fruit and vegetables daily, and in areas of Scotland this figure is lower. As berries are recognised as healthy and nutritious, for example containing high levels of antioxidants, fibre and vitamins, our vision is to make fruit available to all irrespective of their social standing or circumstance. Furthermore, we wanted to develop a participatory city-scale project of growing soft fruit that raised levels of physical activity and increased green space known to have a positive impact on mental health.

Our aim is therefore to encourage community growing of soft fruit across Dundee. Recently, funding was obtained from Innovate UK for a project entitled TayBerry Seedling to engage a broad spectrum of communities across Dundee to explore whether there was a desire to have community access to soft fruit and, if so, how this could be

best delivered to meet their needs. Integrating design thinking processes with agri-food to deliver a socially conscious city-scale project is novel and consistent with Dundee having UNESCO City of Design status. The project was delivered by the James Hutton Institute and the design agency We Are Snook, in association with Dundee City Council, medical professionals, academics, community champions and social enterprises.

Participatory workshops, semi-structured and ad-hoc interviews with more than 120 people from 20 organisations clearly demonstrated that there was a genuine interest in eating and community growing of soft fruit. Nostalgia and pride associated with the cultural links between Dundee and fruit growing were drivers for many people to be keen to be involved in community growing of soft fruit, as was developing a sense of community. Identified barriers to community growing included a perceived lack of knowledge and self-confidence, and a lack of connectedness between resources and existing established community groups.

There is a clear momentum within Dundee for community growing of food and specifically soft fruit. Clear opportunities exist for community growers to establish a local supply chain for surplus produce. Finally, as modern society typically isolates and fragments people, community growing of food can establish a sense of place for many, provide opportunities for new learning, bring people both young and old together, and provide a support network for many.

“We wanted to develop a participatory city-scale project of growing soft fruit that raised levels of physical activity and increased green space.”

The

29 Geographer14-

Autumn 2018

Research along the ‘Highland Highway’ Rod Lovie and Leonie Schulz, PhD Students, Centre for Mountain Studies, Perth College UHI

The A9 has a unique place in Scotland’s psyche: 273 miles long and linking Thurso in the far north to Falkirk in the Central Belt, it connects Scotland together emotionally as well as spatially.

The route of the A9 between Perth and Inverness was originally droving tracks to take cattle to market. However, it was as a military road, connecting British garrisons during the Jacobite uprisings of the 18th century, that it saw its first major upgrade.

Subsequent ‘parliamentary’ improvements in the 19th century were required to support the tourism boom created by Queen Victoria’s interest in all things Highland. Later, the 1970s discovery of oil off the north coast of Scotland created the political will to carry out infrastructure improvements between Inverness and the Central Belt. The road was realigned to bypass towns, and 30 miles of dual carriageway was created.

In 2011 the Scottish Government announced plans to upgrade the A9 between Perth and Inverness to dual carriageway. A first new dual carriageway was opened to traffic in 2017 and further sections will gradually be added. The whole dualling project is intended to be completed by 2025 and has been described by Transport Scotland as “one of the biggest infrastructure projects undertaken in Scotland’s history.”

The Centre for Mountain Studies at Perth College UHI is currently supporting two PhD research studies relating to the A9 dualling. The first is concerned with landscape perceptions of communities; the second is investigating tourism/recreation trends and their potential environmental impacts on sensitive ecosystems.

Including landscape perceptions in the planning process Landscape can be seen as being made up of ‘space’ and ‘place’.

Space is the measurable, physical aspects of a landscape, while place is an emotional construct reliant on cultural meanings and narratives. To fully understand a landscape requires both the knowledge of objective experts and the meanings and values of those who emotionally connect with that landscape. In this sense, landscape can be an opportunity to bridge some of the gaps between experts and inhabitants which are often highlighted by the planning process. hile roads physically connect here and there, they also W emotionally connect ‘our place’ and what we consider to be ‘their place’, the other place. Changes to road connectivity can be the precursor to additional development, but can also challenge the emotional boundaries we have created which allow us to differentiate our place from other places.

From Perthshire’s big tree country, through Killiecrankie’s battlefield, to the iconic mountain landscapes of Landseer’s Monarch of the Glen, the A9 dualling project has a variety of planning issues to overcome. This research will work with communities to elicit their emotional landscape values and attempt to spatially map these. It will adopt methods of analysing and presenting the information which are useful for planners. Therefore, this research seeks to create a process which complements the existing methods of visual landscape assessment used in planning, but rather than physical landscape characteristics it will focus on perceptions of the landscape.

Balancing socio-economic and environmental changes According to a survey conducted by Jump Research and published by VisitScotland, 74% of visitors to Perthshire are attracted by the region’s landscape and scenery, compared to the national average of 50%. The combination of more predictable travel times and increased accessibility of the dualled A9 might increase visitor numbers to Perthshire, including the Tay catchment area and the Cairngorms National Park. Consequently, this area might require an enhanced visitor infrastructure in the future. On the one hand, this will likely result in socioeconomic benefits for rural communities; however, many of the popular tourism/recreation sites are close to or within areas of high conservation value and are sensitive to disturbance and fragmentation.

This PhD study will focus on the A9 corridor within the Cairngorms National Park. Approximately 60 miles of the A9 lie within the UK’s biggest national park and pass several designated conservation sites. These include conservation sites of national importance (NNR, SSSI), of European importance (SAC, SPA) and of global importance (Ramsar). The conflicts and opportunities between tourism/recreation and other land uses, such as agriculture and forestry, will be considered.

The potential zones of conflicts between the different land uses in terms of geographical overlaps will be identified using GIS and stakeholder interviews. Later stages of the project will investigate how to achieve a balance between increased visitor numbers and conservation of sensitive sites along the A9 corridor.

“The A9 dualling project has a variety of planning issues to overcome.”

30 Autumn 2018

Building traditions along the Tay Gavin J Lindsay, Research & Engagement Officer, Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust

Scotland’s longest river passes through a deep, rich and varied historic landscape abounding with sites of cultural significance and distinct vernacular building traditions.

The historic environment shapes the lives of those living in the catchment of the River Tay, contributing socially to a sense of place and shared community as well as economically as a commercial, residential and tourist asset. Maintaining the historic fabric that frames the Tay and preserving the specialist skills needed to sustain its use in the 21st century are two of the biggest challenges facing this unique resource today. Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust (PKHT) is a local charity that is working hard to address these challenges through helping to improve the condition and use of historic buildings whilst protecting, enhancing and promoting traditional building skills.

“Changes in construction materials and techniques have resulted in a serious decline in the skills used.”

Regenerating the historic city of Perth through conservation Following the return of city status in 2012, PKHT has been encouraging the regeneration of Perth’s historic buildings through the Perth City Heritage Fund (PCHF), a scheme funded by the Scottish Government regeneration strategy for cities through Historic Environment Scotland. PCHF’s aim is to foster economic regeneration by grant-assisting owners of historic buildings within the Perth Central and Kinnoull Conservation Areas with the costs of high quality repairs to their homes using traditional materials and best conservation practice.

Repairs to historic tenements, a building type that forms a large part of Perth’s urban geography, have been particularly successful. PCHF has also enabled owners to bring empty shops back into use, improving the city centre streetscape, and enhancing the economic vibrancy of the city.

Supporting the sector through Traditional Building Skills Training

The continued use of traditional materials such as stone, slate, and lime mortar in the repair and maintenance of historic buildings is vital not only to the long-term preservation of their fabric but also to the character of historic areas like Tayside. Changes in construction materials and techniques since the end of World War I have resulted in a serious decline in the skills used to construct and maintain historic structures, with a significant skills shortage being identified through an audit of Scottish traditional building skills in 2009.

PKHT has been Trainees rebuilding the boundary wall at Megginch Castle. working in © George Logan | PKHT partnership with the Fife and Tayside Traditional Building Forum (the regional branch of the Scottish Traditional Building Forum) to address the skills shortage by promoting traditional skills to young people at an annual roadshow, offering secondary school pupils opportunities to try their hands at traditional crafts such as roof slating, stone masonry, specialist joinery, and craft painting and decorating under the guidance of local professionals.

River records Ishbel Mackinnon, Archivist, Culture Perth and Kinross The records in Perth & Kinross Archive offer a glimpse of how the River Tay has supported our past domestic, work and leisure pursuits. Perth’s development as a wealthy medieval burgh was due in a large part to its location at the highest navigable point of the Tay. Reflecting this, the archives of Perth Burgh and Perth Harbour Commissioners contain a great deal of information about fishing rights, disputes, trading and the development of the harbour from the 7th century to the present day.

“The records of a wide range of rural riverdependent businesses are also deposited in the archive.”

During the 18th and 19th centuries several surveys were commissioned to determine the course and depth of the river along its navigable course from Stormontfield to the North Sea, with the aim of identifying safe navigation routes and opportunities for commercial development.

Collections of estate archives and business records provide details on management of the fisheries. For example, the papers of the Richardson Family of Pitfour contain information about the acquisition of many of the Tay’s most lucrative fishing tacks by John Richardson & Co, a company which by the late 18th century had become one of Scotland’s most innovative and successful fish curing and trading businesses.

Anglers in procession from Kenmore to Loch Tay for the traditional opening of the salmon season in 1935.

The collections also reflect the development of recreational fishing on the Tay. For example, the records of P D Malloch, Shooting and Fishing Agents, include the management of fishing rights 1902-1930, and Perth Fishing Club 1883-1910. The records of a wide range of rural river-dependent businesses are also deposited in the archive. It is through study of these historic records that we begin to more fully appreciate the role the River Tay has played over time. To understand the history of this mighty waterway is to understand a vital part of the history of Perth & Kinross. See www.culturepk.org.uk/archive-local-familyhistory for more information.

The

31 Geographer14-

Autumn 2018

Explore the Tay Shirley Paterson, Tay Landscape Partnership Scheme Manager

Between 2014 and 2018 the Tay Landscape Partnership (TayLP) celebrated the built, cultural and natural heritage of the inner Tay Estuary. With over 82,000 people engaged and 1,100 volunteers, the TayLP has reconnected locals, school pupils and tourists to the little-known secrets of this part of Scotland.

There are well-known tourist attractions in the area, such as Scone Palace. But this rich and diverse landscape has extensive archaeological and cultural heritage dating back 8,000 years.

Evidence remains of flints from early settlers, Iron Age hillforts, Pictish stones, Romans, medieval churches and monasteries, 200-year-old earth buildings and 800-year-old historic orchards.

Let’s not forget the Tay estuary comprises the largest area of reedbeds in the United Kingdom and is home to rare breeding birds such as the marsh harrier. The river, until as recently as 1996, was important for salmon fishing and was instrumental to the livelihoods of many of the coastal villages.

TayLP has worked with over 22 schools to improve knowledge of the area’s local heritage. Children have been building mud walls, finding lithics in ploughed fields and pottery on Iron Age hillforts, not to mention baking delicious food with locally harvested apples.

This autumn, TayLP are launching a brand new and free interactive website packed with bespoke education resources, activity sheets and factsheets which have been written specifically about the River Tay. Aimed at primary schools and secondary years 1 and 2 (the Broad General Education phase), this new resource is relevant across the curriculum and will help to progress social studies, technologies and sciences, as well as raising attainment in literacy and numeracy.

There is an interactive map of the River Tay, where children can explore the wildlife and history of the river from its source to its mouth. For teachers, there is background information, along with pupil fact sheets and further resources to read about. The River Tay resource pages will be an exciting and valuable addition to the classroom and complement outdoor learning. It is full of amazing pictures which really capture the imagination of how the river was used by people in the past and provokes thinking and discussion.

Virtual reconstruction of Moredun Top Iron Age hillfort. © SmartHistory

The River Tay resource pack covers topics such as beavers, boats, bridges, flooding, habitats, Kinnoull Hill woodland, freshwater pearls, salmon fishing, the River Tay in early times, Elcho Castle and tales of the Tay. There are also virtual world reconstructions of what it might be like to have lived on Perth’s Moredun Top Iron Age hillfort or Forteviot village in Pictish times. Teachers and youth leaders will be able to download the teaching resources for classroom learning.

Other new downloadable education pages will also be available from the Tay Landscape Partnership’s website www.taylp.org, such as stories about beehives, worksheets on the life cycle of the Extract from the Son of Alba comic book. © Alfie Pound salmon, comic novels on the Tay’s early settlers and Kenneth MacAlpin, King of the Picts.

Betsy King from Learning for Sustainable Scotland said, “these engaging place-based resources capture the imagination and will be particularly good for supporting interdisciplinary learning and complementing outdoor learning approaches.”

The TayLP is a £2.6 million partnership between Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust and Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust. The principal funder is the Heritage Lottery Fund but grants were also received from the Gannochy Trust, Robertson Trust, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Perth and Kinross Council, Scottish Natural Heritage and Historic Environment Scotland. For further information contact Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust on 01738 477080.

“We are launching a brand new and free interactive website packed with bespoke education resources.”

32 Autumn 2018

Beyond Solar Impulse: selecting 1,000 solutions to protect the environment in a profitable way Dr Bertrand Piccard FRSGS, Initiator and Chairman of the Solar Impulse Foundation When I was flying around the world in my solar airplane, I remember looking at the sun that was giving energy to my four electric motors and their huge propellers. There was no noise, no pollution, no fuel... and I could fly forever. At a certain moment I thought, “this is science fiction, I’m in the future.” And then I realized, “no, it’s wrong, I’m in the present; this is what the technologies of today already allow me to do. It’s the rest of the world that is in the past, with old and inefficient devices.”

This moment was like an epiphany. We want the latest smartphone, but we continue to use combustion engines, badly insulated houses, incandescent lightbulbs, polluting ways to produce and distribute energy… Replacing all this with clean and efficient technologies would represent the biggest industrial market of the century.

Clean technologies will boost economic growth, create jobs and generate profit. They are much more than ecological; they are logical. We need to find them, promote them, and start using them now.

their energy policy.

My commitment to the environment did not start overnight.

It had been running through my veins since I was a child, and this is why I initiated the Solar Impulse project. Indeed, the importance of respecting Planet Earth is a strong family legacy.

I have learned from my ancestors that scientific adventures must serve quality of life on Earth. My grandfather, Auguste Piccard, was the first man to enter the stratosphere and to witness the curvature of the Earth with his own eyes. His invention – the pressurized capsule – opened the way for highaltitude flights, where low air density allows for greatly reduced fuel consumption. My father, Jacques Piccard, was the first to reach the deepest spot on Earth – the Mariana Trench – with his revolutionary submarine, the Bathyscaphe. In doing so, he proved there was life even in the greatest depths, which led to an international moratorium on dumping radioactive waste in the oceans, a decision that would have threatened marine life in perpetuity. My grandfather, my father and I have always pushed the boundaries of the possible with a purpose in mind: protection of the environment.

“Thousands of solutions exist that can boost economic growth while preserving nature.”

Indeed, thousands of solutions exist that can boost economic growth while preserving nature, but they are often hidden in start-ups or research labs, and remain unknown to decision makers. I have therefore set myself a new challenge: select 1,000 clean, efficient and profitable solutions, and present them to decision makers in businesses and governments around the world to accelerate the transition to a carbon-free and sustainable economy.

I started by launching the World Alliance for Efficient Solutions which brings together the main actors in the field of clean technologies in order to share knowledge, create synergies and build relationships that will ultimately speed up the implementation of clean and profitable solutions. Members are divided into three main categories: innovators, those developing solutions; investors, who are looking into opportunities for investing; and seekers, who are looking for products, technologies or services that can help them transition toward sustainability. We already have over 1,000 members and I encourage everyone committed to fight climate change through clean technologies to join us.

I have long envisioned ecology through the lens of profitability. I believe clean technologies only have a chance to be implemented if they are profitable. To make sure all our members’ solutions are relevant, the Solar Impulse Foundation has created the Efficient Solution Label. Innovators who submit their solutions must go through a strict assessment process, made by a pool of independent experts. Solutions which meet our requirements in technological feasibility, environmental impact, and economic profitability, are granted the Label and included in the 1,000 solutions portfolio. This strict assessment process is necessary to select only relevant solutions and to ensure the Label’s credibility. Hundreds of innovators from all around the world have already started to submit their solutions and nearly 50 have already been labelled. In 2019, I will embark on a new round-the-world journey with the 1,000 solutions portfolio to present them to key decision makers, to deliver a message: they now have the solutions to be much more ambitious in their environmental targets and

The solar flight around the world was made neither to carry passengers, nor to break a world record. Solar Impulse was built to carry a message. I wanted to demonstrate how clean technologies and renewable energy can achieve the impossible.

With the Solar Impulse Foundation and the 1,000 Solutions Challenge, we’re now taking the adventure further, as success is not made to rest on the laurels, but always to push the limits for the benefit of both the people and the planet. This is the role of explorers and we should all embrace this state of mind!

The

33 Geographer14-

Autumn 2018

The Mighty Murray? A journey of a lifetime Karen Darke FRSGS, Mungo Park Medallist

The rolling layers of eucalyptus forest had already swallowed the evening sun, and as we huddled a little closer to the campfire, we watched kangaroos watching us. We were deep in the forest beneath Mount Kosciuszko, Australia’s highest mountain (2,228m), and beside the bubbling stream that is the start of the Murray River. Our plan was to cycle the river’s length, following the Murray River Trail.

I had been fortunate enough to win the Royal Geographical Society / BBC Radio 4 Journey of a Lifetime award. During the interview process, the panel asked me, “How is this different to any of the other journeys you’ve taken?”

Since becoming Paralympic handcycling champion in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, I had only been feeling 50% alive.

Somewhere on the ‘Road to Rio’ I had gone into survival mode, and at the end of the road, I’d crashed. The Channel 4 Superheroes campaign had adopted a cultural narrative: ‘disabled athlete fights in the face of adversity, never gives up, and then achieves their wildest dream’, and whilst the world around me applauded the gold medal, I felt far from super or heroic.

agricultural region that has upscaled to mega-farms run by multinationals.

“In my vivid imagination, I had things in common with the Murray River… I felt a little stagnant, blocked, my energy like water struggling to flow.”

It is not traditional cycle-touring country, but the Murray brought magic. The sun burned hot and shade was rare. We traded sticky daytime riding for star and moonlit adventures. The stench of road-kill – rotting kangaroo and wombat – permeated the night air. We rode the skinsmooth surface of the main carriageway instead of the rubbly shoulder, dodging in when we saw juggernaut lights bearing down. The vast empty landscape could have left us feeling similarly vacuous. Indeed my mind was emptied with the days of pedalling. Trauma of the past and anxieties of the future were left behind in the drama of the Alps, displaced by an unfamiliar calmness.

If the hundreds of kilometres of desert highway ever felt desolate or lonely, they were punctuated by the warmth and soul of the people we met along the way. In long hours of pedalling through a land where staying alive is raw and real, our thoughts became occupied by water. In Murray-land, a litre of water costs more than a litre of wine. Water is the vital topic for all that live in the region: how to live sustainably so as not to run out of blue gold.

‘The Mighty Murray’ River conjures images of a torrent of power rushing from the Snowy In the contradiction of desert Mountains to the Southern Ocean, and river, I found an oasis. The but more water flows down the people and landscape have Amazon in a day than down the resilience in abundance. The Murray in a year. Its murky flow is river brings connection to the blocked by dams and weirs, and region in a way that makes 4G dredgers clear its mouth of sand seem primitive. The Aboriginal and its lakes of sludge. In my roots of the country may seem vivid imagination, I had things in lost, but their strength of spirit common with the Murray River…

Robinvale, Victoria. © Discover Murray River | www.murrayriver.com.au and survival is not. The intimate I felt a little stagnant, blocked, combination of bike and sound brought deep reminders of what my energy like water struggling to flow. The agricultural demand matters, and a calmness that continues to quiet my soul. Riding for water means the river basin is becoming steadily drier, more the Murray River was a journey of a lifetime. acidic and saline, its chemistry less able to sustain ecosystems.

Similarly, my demands on my own energy had drained me. My ecosystem was hurting, bacteria were running rife, and whilst a few emergency operations had temporarily fixed me, there remained the fundamental issue of restoring balance. Maybe I could learn from the Murray.

We began in the peaks and troughs of the Australian Alps, our aching muscles reminding us that the only thing that goes downhill from the source of a river is the water. But the slopes quickly fell away, and from day three onwards, the flatlands arrived, the river dropping only two hundred metres in two thousand kilometres. Lines of bitumen stretched to infinity, a conveyer belt for produce from the Murray River basin, doubletrailer trucks hurtling wine, wheat, fruit and almonds from the desert to the coast. It was arid country, where droughts, floods and bush fires are constant threats. Ghostly tree stumps were drowned in reservoirs. Vineyards and orchards were vast and fenced, statements of uniformity and globalization, their watersprinkled green an unhealthy paradox in a desert. The villages were not pretty, but functional strings of outback services, abandoned hotels and derelict brick buildings, relics of a bustling

The Journey of a Lifetime programme will be broadcast at 11:00am on Friday 12th October 2018 on BBC Radio 4.

34 Autumn 2018

Informing climate policy Sarah Beattie-Smith, Project and Information Manager, ClimateXChange

ClimateXChange is Scotland’s centre of expertise on climate change, bringing together scientists and policy makers to help the Scottish Government create policies informed by the best available evidence. Over the last seven years, we have delivered cutting-edge research on land use, including work on peatland restoration, soil carbon sequestration and reducing emissions from livestock production. From the Tay’s source on the slopes of Ben Lui, through peatlands and woodlands, past farms and grazing land, and to cities, towns and villages, our work is relevant the length and breadth of the river.

landscapes, ecosystems and economy. ClimateXChange research published this summer builds an understanding of the consequences of forestry activity. As planting, maintaining and felling forestry can disturb soils, and given that about two-thirds of Scotland is covered by high carboncontent soils, it is important that the consequences of forestry activity are properly understood. Our report looks at new evidence published since 2010 and finds that it is likely that moderate and high productivity forests planted on shallower peat soils with limited disturbance provide a substantial net carbon uptake over the forest cycle.

ClimateXChange works closely with the Scottish Environment, Food and Agriculture Research Institutes (SEFARI) – Scotland’s leading research institutes – to help answer some of the toughest questions facing climate policy makers. Their researchers bring wide-ranging expertise on mitigation, adaptation and finding ways to create climate change policies that are fair and make the most of Scotland’s assets. We work with Scotland’s leading universities to offer Post-Doctoral Research Fellowships to do in-depth investigation over a year or more.

We also use our flexible funding to commission research from a wider pool of expertise, including public, non-profit and commercial research providers.

Agriculture and related land use is now the second biggest emitting sector after transport, with methane emissions from livestock accounting for half of all agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. That is why ClimateXChange commissions research and works with SEFARI institutes to better understand how to reduce those emissions and inform Scottish Government policies on farming. Most recently we published research which looks at practical solutions for better slurry and farmyard manure management and how to reduce emissions through additives to livestock feed or introducing nutritional strategies.

“We have identified six key challenges in climate policy.”

We have identified six key challenges in climate policy, including how we use Scotland’s land in a sustainable way and how we build resilient places. On land use, our research focuses on questions around how the decisions taken across agriculture, forestry, water management, biodiversity and planning can all support each other to benefit the natural environment, support sustainable local businesses, and create healthy rural and urban communities.

Our work extends beyond the natural environment to examine how climate change mitigation and adaptation can happen in a way that benefits people and the economy. Flooding and urban drainage are significant issues across Scotland, particularly for communities near rivers which regularly flood.

ClimateXChange works closely with partners in the Scottish Government on adaptation, including developing indicators to assess the extent to which the goals of the Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme (SCCAP) are being met.

From source to sea, the Tay flows through the heart of Scotland and through many of the landscapes in which The peatlands around the River Tay are a crucial carbon sink. our research is informing Scottish Government policies to Across Scotland peatlands contain over half of the total mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Scottish soil carbon. But more than 90% of lowland raised bogs (and over half of the blanket bog) have been altered to such an extent that they are now degraded, causing substantial greenhouse gas emissions. Recent ClimateXChange research on peatlands explores the links between greenhouse gas emissions and peatlands, and looks at the costs and benefits of peatland restoration activities in Scotland, to get a sense of the cost effectiveness of different techniques. This research also makes several recommendations for how to improve monitoring and evaluation of restoration. In 2017 we worked with the Peatland Action Programme team to review their support for the restoration of over 10,000ha of peatland in Scotland. ClimateXChange researchers in the James Hutton Institute studied the information that was gathered through the process, and captured lessons that could be learned as the Scottish Government was setting new challenges for restoration under the Climate Change Plan.

Smeaton’s Bridge, Perth. © Lorne Gill Woodlands cover nearly 18% of Scottish land and, like peatlands, play a crucial role in the fight against climate change, as well as forming a vital part of Scotland’s

See www.climatexchange.org.uk to find out more about the work of ClimateXChange or to talk about working together.

The

35 Geographer14-

Autumn 2018

Getting the right knowledge to the right people Dr Marc Stutter, Professor David Miller, Dr Nikki Dodd and Professor Bob Ferrier, Centre of Expertise for Waters (www.crew.ac.uk), The James Hutton Institute The Centre of Expertise for Waters (CREW) provides contemporary understanding and knowledge to assist government policy teams, practitioners such as farmers, and those in industry to meet current and future water challenges. In particular, CREW supports decision making across four main themes – river basin planning, water quality, flooding, and building sustainable communities.

The intimate connection of the waters travelling through its catchment means that ‘signals’ of the Tay’s many diverse landscapes are imparted to the waters in terms of timing of flows and their chemical, physical and biological quality. This down-slope and down-river conveyance means that tributaries carry their signatures of the land activities and management considerable distances down the channel and onto the coast.

The movement of eroding soils, chemicals, organic matter and other substances to the river from the land is termed ‘diffuse’ inputs, to make the distinction between that coming from specific and traceable sources (so-called ‘point’ sources). Some of these inputs reflect natural processes where, for example, an appropriate amount of sediment or organic matter is generated when flows increase, but where it comprises excessive erosion or introduces chemicals from agriculture to a level that potentially alters the river ecosystem, then this is termed diffuse pollution.

Tackling the challenge of diffuse pollution from land use has been, and continues to be, a major issue for water quality management. CREW provides knowledge and expertise on our current understanding of the processes involved and the mitigation mechanisms needed to address these challenges which can be very different in different distinct landscapes. The lowland sections of the Isla, Almond and main stem of the Tay, which are gently sloping and freely draining, host high value farmland that is worked intensively for food production. Moving up-river, the foothills and valley floors of the upland areas of the Tay, Tummel, and Garry support mixed agriculture and livestock production where cultivation becomes limited by slope and climate. The largest part of the Tay catchment has low intensity agriculture, more forestry and (increasingly) heathland developed on wet or thin soils, excessive slopes and higher altitudes.

areas away from the streams and drain connections from yard areas.

“The Tay supports many important ecological species with relevance to the local economy.”

The interface between the land and the watercourse (the riparian zone) is also a key location for intervention, often by creating a ‘buffer zone’ where the primary purpose is to slow and store waters and pollutants temporarily, to allow deposition or natural biological and chemical amelioration, and minimise fast delivery to watercourses. Such actions often bring associated benefits such as slowing flood peaks and allowing the stream or river corridor more space for other natural processes (trees for shading to regulate water temperature, natural stream form, improved habitat, rooting to stabilise banks from eroding, etc). These various actions are complementary and form a ‘train of treatment’ that is much stronger when all parts of the chain are in place.

The Tay remains a river of good water quality. However, the sheer volume of water (larger than any other British river) delivers a significant mass of diffuse pollution to the estuary, even though overall concentrations of pollutants remain low. The Tay also supports many important ecological species with relevance to the local economy, in particular salmonids, which require high quality and well oxygenated water. Going forward there is no room for complacency however, and we will have to work harder at ensuring control measures are in place as the climate becomes more variable and we ask more from our landscapes in terms of food, fibre and energy provision and places to live.

Top row, L-R: issues of pollution in the rural environment (excessive cattle poaching near-channel, too narrow water margins, soil erosion).

Bottom row, L-R: example control measures (enhanced fenced water margins with tree planting, ridged slope bottom grass margins for infiltration, small wetlands).

Diffuse pollution issues range from those associated with arable production such as the loss of fertilizer nutrients, pesticides and other agri-chemicals, to those associated with livestock which can include the wash-off from yards and hard-standing areas, the poaching of wet ground, and the loss of faecal material and bacterial contaminants to watercourses.

Many of the issues are being tackled through the establishment and adoption of basic good practice, and CREW engages with the farming community to ensure that these approaches are promoted and supported through knowledge exchange.

There are many options available including: • soil cultivation practices to minimise erosion and compaction by machinery; • use of cover crops; • amount and timing of fertilisers being informed by yields; • soil testing and precision farming techniques including pesticide management.

Good livestock practices can reduce the closeness of areas where animals congregate by feeders, gates and drinking Major land cover in the Tay catchment.

36 Autumn 2018

Sir Ernest Shackleton: The Liberal Unionist candidate for Dundee Jo Woolf, RSGS Writer-in-Residence It must have been with a certain sense of irony that, as Secretary of the RSGS, Sir Ernest Shackleton took down the minutes of a Council meeting where his own offer of resignation was being discussed.

It was 14th March 1905. Shackleton, then aged 31, had been at the RSGS for over a year, and in that time he had jolted its dignified, frock-coated Council members into an unwelcome acquaintance with the 20th century. He had made many friends, but there were some who disliked his brusque energy.

This bothered him not at all. His attention was already focused on the new prospect of a career in politics: he was intending to stand for Parliament in the constituency of Dundee.

banners; and the newly-emerging Labour party was about to prove that it was a force to be reckoned with. Shackleton, who thought on his feet and relied on humour as a failsafe, was stepping unwittingly into a maelstrom. The face of British politics was about to change forever.

In December 1905, Balfour finally gave in to growing unpopularity and resigned. Immediately, the incoming Liberal government announced a general election.

“’I love to see enthusiasm and if a man thinks he can run a Geogr. Society and be Prime Minister at the same time I would back that man.’”

Shackleton was a natural public speaker, whose gifts had been noticed by new, influential friends when he moved to Edinburgh in January 1904. He could hold an audience with the sheer force of his personality, combining an innate sense of drama with charm and wit. He had returned to Britain from Antarctica only six months previously, having been invalided home early by the leader of the Discovery expedition, Robert Falcon Scott. Shackleton refused to admit to any physical weaknesses, and although he still held the record for the ‘Furthest South’, attained in the company of Scott and Edward Wilson in December 1902, inwardly he was still smarting from the perceived insult.

Now, as a Liberal Unionist candidate, he had a chance to regain some of his prestige. The only problem was that a few members of the RSGS, among them its President, Professor James Geikie, saw a conflict of interest between his current post and his Parliamentary ambitions. Shackleton promptly offered to resign.

John George Bartholomew, cartographer and co-founder of the Society, was one of Shackleton’s supporters. To his friend Hugh Robert Mill, he wrote, “I love to see enthusiasm and if a man thinks he can run a Geogr. Society and be Prime Minister at the same time I would back that man – at all events I would not like to disillusion him!” At the March meeting, Council members voted by ten votes to five to keep Shackleton in office, but this state of affairs did not last long. In July, the applicants for his replacement were already being discussed. Meanwhile, the country was having to wait much longer than anticipated for the election to be called.

Since 1895, Britain had been governed by a coalition between the Conservative and Liberal Unionist parties, and Prime Minister Arthur Balfour had been in office for three years. The Liberal Unionist party had been formed by a faction which broke away from the Liberal Party in 1886, and was now “in all but name a branch of the Conservative party.” There were other elements at work, too, because religion was still inextricably tied to party

With only three weeks between the calling of the election and the commencement of voting, the hustings reached fever pitch. Suddenly, everything had to be accomplished in double-quick time, and Shackleton’s spirit rose to the challenge. He hurried from one meeting room to the next, debating, arguing, persuading. Key issues of the day included free trade, supported by the Liberals but opposed by the Conservatives; and Irish Home Rule, which the Conservatives and Liberal Unionists strongly opposed. The Irish Land Acts, offering government subsidies for Irish tenants to purchase their own holdings, offended many voters. Female suffrage was a hotly debated topic; the country was still reeling from the effects of the Boer War; poverty and sickness were rife.

In Dundee, with its strong tradition of ship-building and whaling, Shackleton’s Antarctic exploits commanded respect. He and his rivals were still subjected to an alarming level of grilling from the general public; at one meeting, the heckling went on for threequarters of an hour. The Scotsman newspaper of 11th January 1906 offered an interesting insight into what was apparently an age-old tradition.

“Time was when the gentle art of heckling was regarded as a peculiarly Scottish institution. It was a hardy product of the Northern soil, drawing its form and sustenance from Scottish character and social and political conditions, and retaining and expressing much of the humour of the Scot, of which the Southron can be made to feel the force, when it hits him hard, even when he is unable fully to understand its quality.”

Shackleton, however, was not going to be anybody’s victim. As he was an Irish landlord himself, shouted one heckler, did he think it was fair to subsidise Irish landlords? “I wish to goodness I was an Irish landlord,” Shackleton shot back. “All the land I own is just enough for me to hang my washing on.” What were his thoughts about women’s suffrage? Shackleton was in favour of it, but he could not resist the temptation. “Hush!” he said, in a stage whisper. “The fact is, my wife is present.” “I like that funny beggar!” exclaimed a delighted voter after one of Shackleton’s debates.

The

37 Geographer14-

Autumn 2018

He could, however, speak from the heart: “I appeal to you, workers, to return me – a worker myself, a worker by my hands as well as by my head, from the time I was a boy of 16 – as one who by the hard road of manual toil has been brought up to understand the conditions of the working man and to sympathise with him.” Labour voters recognised his sincerity, and one of them raised his voice with a promise: “Come on our side, boy, and we’ll put you in at the top of the poll!” What Shackleton may not have fully realised was that it was the party, not the person, that counted.

After three intensive weeks of campaigning, during which Shackleton wrote to his wife, Emily, that he was “eating plenty and taking Champagne,” his fate lay in the hands of the voters.

The polling would take two weeks; there was nothing to do but wait. Shackleton was satisfied and optimistic. “Dundee,” he said, “will ever remain with me a memory of straightforward talk and straightforward answers on both sides.”

Dundee was one of the old constituencies that elected two members to Parliament in one poll. In the early hours of 17th January 1906, the result was declared. One Liberal and one Labour candidate (Edmund Robertson and Alexander Wilkie) had been elected, with 9,276 and 6,709 votes respectively. Shackleton was in fourth place, with 3,865 votes. “I got all the applause,” he reflected ruefully, “and the other fellows got all the votes.” There was nothing to be ashamed of, however. The election had seen a landslide victory for the Liberal and Labour parties. Shackleton could not have turned that tide.

What if Shackleton had gained a seat in Parliament? What if he had progressed to a Cabinet office, become Prime Minister? Would we have had a world leader on a par with Winston Churchill? We shall never know. We lost a statesman, but gained a hero.

Shackleton did not let his failure trouble him for long. Within weeks, the Antarctic was haunting him again. He had promised Emily that he was done with exploration, but his soul would not let him rest.

Secretly, he started planning.

“I want to do a little in the world to help it and no honest endeavour can be without its result. With life before me, and strength and hope, all these things which time will whittle down, I may achieve something before the period at which life grows stale and strength wanes and hope flies…”

Sir Ernest Shackleton (right) visiting Parliament on 29th June 1909, with Rt Hon Arthur J Balfour. © Parliamentary Copyright

Political posters illustrated the contrasting views of the Liberal Unionist Party and the Liberal Party on free trade. © LSE Library, Creative Commons

FURTHER READING The Life of Sir Ernest Shackleton, by Hugh Robert Mill Shackleton, by Roland Huntford Obituary of Sir Ernest Shackleton, by Hugh Robert Mill (1922) (Scottish Geographical Magazine vol 38)

BOOK CLUB

38 Autumn 2018

The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World Times Atlases (Times Books, September 2018) The Times Atlas has been regarded as the world’s most prestigious and authoritative atlas for over 120 years; it is a benchmark of cartographic excellence, and a trusted reference source for governments, media, international organisations, and households.

When Your Life Depends on It

Extreme Decision Making Lessons from the Antarctic

Beautifully redesigned and fully updated in this new 15th edition, it shows our world as it is today in one substantial volume, with over 200,000 place names, and new world topics including migration, health and resources.

Epic Bike Rides of the World Lonely Planet (September 2016)

With tales of 50 cycling routes in 30 countries, and suggestions for three more similar rides for each The authors, a decision scientist and an Antarctic story, this book will inspire two-wheeled travel all historian, consider how Scott, Shackleton, Amundsen over the world. Rides range from family-friendly and Mawson risked it all in their quest for the South jaunts to backcountry expeditions, via city tours, Pole and beyond, and what we can learn from their situations to improve our modern-day decision making. classic circuits and meandering adventures. The Looking afresh at some of the greatest survival stories book is organised by continent, and each ride is illustrated with inspiring photography and a map. in the history of exploration, this remarkable book is A toolkit of practical details (where to start and filled with unforgettable stories about the challenges and decisions the polar pioneers faced on the ice, and finish, how to get there, where to stay and more) helps riders plan reveals valuable lessons in leadership, team work, and their own trips. Each piece shows how cycling is a fantastic way to get to know a place, a people and their culture. sheer grit and determination that can help all of us make better decisions in our lives today.

Brad Borkan and David Hirzel (Terra Nova Press, January 2017)

Danny Dorling (Polity Press, October 2017) Dorling critically analyses historical trends and contemporary assumptions in order to question the idea that inequality is an inevitability. What if, he asks, widespread economic inequality is actually just a passing phase, a feature of the capitalist transition from a settled rural way of life to our next highly urban steady-state? Is it really likely that we face a Blade Runner-style dystopian future divided between a tiny elite and an impoverished mass? Dorling shows how, amongst much else, a stabilizing population, changing gender relations and rising access to education make a more egalitarian alternative to this nightmare vision not only preferable, but realistic.

Dadventures

Amazing Outdoor Adventures for Daring Dads and Fearless Kids Alex Gregory (HarperCollins, May 2018) For a parent, leaving the house can sometimes be the hardest part. But outside is where adventures and memories are waiting to be made. Double Olympic gold medallist rower and father-of-three Alex Gregory shares exciting ideas for enjoying time together as a family, in all seasons. Whether you have 30 minutes to do homework up a tree, or a whole day to build an ancient bridge, you can delve in together and be inspired by this practical, easy guide for all ages. The book contains chapters such as After-School Adventures, 30-Minute Activities, Two-Hour Missions, Half-Day Experiences, Full-Day Adventures, Overnight Expeditions and Pushing Away from Land.

R eader Offer - 20% discount + free UK p&p Offer ends 31st Dec 2018

The Tay 25 Walks from Source to Sea K R Fergus (Pocket Mountains, April 2015) As well as being Scotland’s longest river, the Tay also carries the largest volume of water of any river in the UK – more than the Thames and Severn combined when it reaches the Firth of Tay. From its source high up the slopes of Ben Lui near Tyndrum, it makes its way through Stirlingshire and Perthshire to meet the North Sea near Dundee.

As one of the best salmon rivers in Europe, the Tay lures anglers from around the world, and many more come to explore the nearby hills and the glens through which it passes. There is no better way to discover the wildlife, architecture and history of this area of Scotland than to walk. Whatever your ability – walking at high or low level, following tough terrain or level paths – the 25 routes in this guide offer something for everyone.

K R Fergus has also written books of 25 inviting walks around four other Scottish rivers – The Clyde, The Dee, The Spey and The Tweed – all published by Pocket Mountains.

Readers of The Geographer can purchase any of these books of walks for only £5.60 (RRP £6.99) with FREE UK P&P. To order, please visit www.pocketmountains.com and quote offer reference ‘RSGS’ at the checkout.

RSGS: a better way to see the world Phone 01738 455050 or visit www.rsgs.org to join the RSGS. Lord John Murray House, 15-19 North Port, Perth, PH1 5LU Charity SC015599

Printed by www.jtcp.co.uk on Claro Silk 115gsm paper.

100% FSC certified using vegetable-based inks in a 100% chemistry-free process.

Do We Need Economic Inequality?