Ben Fogle: A New Life in the Wild. Season 15, Episode 1: Ullapool. My5.tv
A passing comment made a real impact on me when watching this documentary over the weekend. It’s an inspiring programme, by the way. Jaw-droppingly beautiful scenery of the wild Scottish Highlands, alongside a dive into the lives of the young couple who single-handedly look after their 10,000 acre Estate with their baby son and dogs in tow.
There were some scenes that resonated with me – feeding and changing a baby while out in the Wild is something I am pretty comfortable with! But I can’t claim to be anything like as tough as this couple with what their day-to-day life entailed. They live a simple and almost completely off-grid existence, and don’t have any reliance on modern machinery or technology. This is inspirational, yet back-breakingly hard work!
Anyway, back to that comment.
Ben Fogle asked Iona, ‘Are you guys the Lairds of the land?’
Iona responded, ‘I prefer to think of myself as the Steward, of looking after the land for future generations. It’s not so short-sighted as thinking it’s anything to do with me.’
It makes such perfect sense. It shows an understanding of the responsibility she has to take care of the land, its flora and fauna, in order to keep it thriving for the future. She’s absolutely right. It’s not about us. We are simply passing through. If we all adopted this attitude, what kind of difference could we make?
If we all looked at the land surrounding us – whether a private garden, our local street or local park, and thought of ourselves as Stewards of that land, we could collectively make an enormous impact. It’s about seeing the land not as something we own, or enjoy using, but as something we have a responsibility to protect for the future.
We’re lucky enough to spend time running events on many beautiful private Estates across the UK. We’re always so careful to make minimum impact on the land, and to leave the land exactly as we found it. But this has made me think about what more we can do. How can we make a positive impact on the land we use, rather than simply returning it to its previous state? It’s our responsibility to do this. It’s something we will definitely be turning our efforts to as our events start coming back this year.
We’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas!