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Open Country

BBC

Countryside magazine featuring the people and wildlife that shape the landscape of the British Isles

Episodes

20 of 470 episodes

Walter Scott country

Martha Kearney visits Walter Scott country. She traces the writer's footsteps through the Scottish countryside, visiting Abbotsford House ne...

24:28Oct 1, 2026

Whitwell Bird Ringers

Brett Westwood goes to meet ornithologist Jack Baddams and his fellow bird ringers in his home village Whitwell in Derbyshire, to find out h...

23:50Sep 24, 2026

Kate Stables and Winchester

Musician Kate Stables visits her favourite spots in Winchester to find out more about the area that she used to call home. From St Catherine...

25:57Sep 17, 2026

Saving the Rare Plants of Eryri

Martha Kearney meets the people protecting and restoring rare arctic-alpine plants in Eryri, also know as Snowdonia. Robbie Blackhall-Miles...

23:49Sep 10, 2026

Bramble Bank Cricket Match

Between the mainland and the Isle of Wight, when the tides are low enough and the days long enough, a sandbank emerges from the Solent. At s...

23:48Sep 3, 2026

River Pilgrimage

Pilgrimages are usually associated with the Middle Ages, when they were at their peak. Banned by Henry VIII in the 16th century, they are no...

24:12Aug 27, 2026

Ancient Technology Centre

Martha Kearney learns ancient skills like forging a knife, flint knapping and making a fire with flint and steel, alongside local schoolchil...

23:25Aug 20, 2026

Bluebird returns to Coniston

When Donald Campbell died on Coniston Water in Cumbria in January 1967, attempting to break his own water speed record it was, to many peopl...

24:30May 14, 2026

Wildlife Artists on Massingham Heath

Martha Kearney is in Norfolk to walk the heathland that is being returned to its ancient grassland habitat by Olly Birkbeck. The Society of...

23:40May 7, 2026

Roadside Verges

Britain's roadside verges rarely get much attention, but can play host to a whole range of plant and animal species. In this programme Marth...

24:25Apr 30, 2026

Welsh Incident in Criccieth

Jon Gower is in Criccieth in Gwynedd, to explore the area’s connection to Robert Graves’s 1929 poem, Welsh Incident. Robert Graves wrote the...

23:38Apr 23, 2026

Deer Stalking in Essex

Britain’s deer population has surged to around two million. These iconic animals are well-loved, but their growing numbers are putting real...

24:08Apr 16, 2026

Carrifran Wildwood

Martha Kearney visits one of the UK’s earliest environmental restoration projects. Southern Scotland was once covered in broadleaf woodland,...

23:56Apr 9, 2026

In Celebration of the Daffodil

Thriplow Daffodil Weekend in Cambridgeshire started as a way of raising money for a church roof in 1968. Nearly sixty years later, it is thr...

24:22Apr 2, 2026

Restoring Wallasea's Wild Coast

Martha Kearney visits Wallasea Island in Essex, the largest manmade coastal nature reserve in Europe. It was created from the 3 million tonn...

23:27Mar 26, 2026

Stroudwater's missing mile

The Stroudwater canal in Gloucestershire was built in the 1770s. It brought coal to the mills along the Stroud valleys, which had become an...

24:10Mar 19, 2026

The Rock Houses of Staffordshire

Martha Kearney visits the unique cave dwellings at Kinver Edge that were lived in until the 1960s. Cosy cottages were built into the soft re...

23:40Mar 12, 2026

Hedgerow havens

Hedges are such a traditional part of the British landscape that most of us don't give them a second thought. They're usually associated wit...

24:43Mar 5, 2026

Savernake Forest

It's an ancient hunting ground with thousands of 'veteran' trees. Henry VIII visited often as it was the seat of the Seymour Family at nearb...

23:47Mar 2, 2026

The Mourne Mountain Fires

The Mourne Mountains in County Down are home to Northern Ireland’s highest and most dramatic peaks - a landscape often shrouded in cloud and...

23:34Feb 20, 2026