A hill farmer and writer from the noble Galloway town of Dalbeattie, my 2020 book Native was a Times bestseller and was shortlisted for the Saltire Prize and the Wainwright Prize for UK Nature…
Walking across Northumberland sheds light on issues around land access... particularly when the trail becomes hard to follow. A farmer lost on somebody else's farmland finds the boot on the other foot...
I'm no hillwalker, but there's an undeniable thrill in climbing across some of Scotland's wildest and most dramatic landscapes... and there's nowhere more dramatic than Suilven.
It's hard to justify keeping a few backyard pigs on financial grounds, but spending time around these strangely satisfying animals offers repayment of a different and richer kind.
Beef is one of the most readily available meats in the UK, and its abundance has made it a controversial bone of contention - but we should remember that all food is seasonal, and our ancestors knew when and how to cut their steaks...
Roe deer have become super-abundant in Galloway - recreational stalkers like me can afford to be bullish and make better use of these animals, even if only to prevent them from being wasted.
Moorland managers are often encouraged to plant trees for black grouse along the moorland fringes, but these birds are too complicated for quick fixes and easy answers. Trees are part of the picture, but there's more to consider...
Belted galloways have probably never been more popular across the UK, but is "going native" for nature really all it's cracked up to be?
Modern twists on an ancient sport as Russia takes on Kazakhstan in the 2024 World Nomad Games, featuring a surprise appearance from a rubber goat...
As autumn sweeps into Uzbekistan, the ancient walnut groves of the Nuratau mountains come alive to the busy sights and sounds of eager people at work on the harvest.
A visit to Northern France provides a crash-course in manners, language and down-to-earth game cookery - but are we too frightened of being criticised in the UK, and should we learn from the French and care less about what people think?
Scary films like The Wicker Man and Straw Dogs often portray country folk as threatening, dangerous simpletons - but what was really going on in the emergence of 1970s "folk horror" stories, and why is it happening again?
Looking ahead to the new grouse season, I think about my own birds in Galloway and the national picture at a time of great change and upheaval in Scotland.