Edinburgh Talk by Alan Stewart: a lifetime of ‘Walking with Wildlife’
Wildlife crime expert and author, Alan Stewart has a long association with the Dupplin Estate in Perthshire – as a schoolboy, as a farm worker and as a rabbit controller. To write Walking with Wildlife: a year on a Scottish estate, he revisited and walked over the whole estate over the course of a year to observe and record what changes there have been in farming practice, the environment and wildlife in the intervening years. His written record is a culmination of a lifetime’s knowledge of wildlife and the country environment.
Alan explains:
‘From the age of eight until I started work at eighteen, I spent nearly every available day at East Lamberkin Farm, cycling out from Perth about 0700 and returning home in the late evening. Along with Jimmy, Alex and David Robb, whose father Bill was tenant farmer, we took part in every task that needed to be done on the farm. This included working with the cattle, sheep or pigs, bringing in loads of turnips from the fields, planting and picking tatties, a variety of tractor work and of course the different jobs associated with the harvest.’
Alan’s memories of those far off days are still pretty clear, even down to the registration number of the farm tractor!
‘This photograph shows farmer Bill and I forking oat sheaves to the farm workers building the stacks. I was forking to Bob Clark and farmer Bill was forking to Jim Ogg. It is important to ensure that the sheaves land beside the men building in the manner that gives them least work. They then must put the sheaf into place with minimal manoeuvring. Jimmy Robb is in the foreground, probably tidying up sheaves that have fallen off the trailer. The tractor is a Fordson Dexta, the registration number of which I remember as SES 37. The year would be around 1962 and the month was most likely to be September.
To mark its publication, an illustrated presentation on Walking with Wildlife will be held in Perth and Edinburgh on:
Thursday 5th December at 7pm (until 8.30pm)
Venue: The Crannie, 9 Cranston Street, Edinburgh, EH8 8BE
Limited capacity, please book through Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/walking-with-wildlife-tickets-81287273423
Alternatively, email thirstybooks@hotmail.com or phone/text 07598323440 to book a place