The Plodcast

Deep in the Cambrian Mountains, just outside Wales' remotest chapel, a small stream flows out of the barren hills. Now, in the depths of winter, a skin of ice has formed but the water still runs beneath, a soft voice in an empty landscape. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you...

Join Plodcast host Fergus and countryside writer Professor Fiona Stafford in the curious hilltop village of Brill to learn how to find hidden history in the landscape around you. Fiona's new book, Time and Tide (John Murray) is a series of fascinating adventures looking at how our countryside is transformed over time - and how quickly things are forgotten. Contact the Plodcast team and send your s...

You're walking an old tram road in an abandoned quarry in the Welsh hills. It's been deadly cold for weeks and water that normally cascades off the high ground has frozen into dramatic icicles as it runs down rock faces and over cave mouths. But this morning's warm sun has started a thaw and there is a gentle music of water released. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio post...

This week, Plodcast regular Kevin Parr explores a lost church in Dorset. St Luke's Chapel was built to serve the village of Sterte near Abbotsbury, in the 1240s. The chapel remained in use until the mid 16th Century when it was abandoned following the Act of Supremacy (1534) that gave Henry VIII the power to disband religious buildings. All that remains of the chapel (and the village) is a single...

It's an icy cold morning and you're walking through a once-waterlogged meadow now made crisp by frost. Low winter sun slants across the surrounding hills, picking out shadows and contours, silhouetting lone trees. As you descend into a shallow valley, distant rooks call from an ancient woodland. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you r...

Hidden in a peaceful corner of the Monmouthshire countryside is a site steeped in blood, treachery and revenge. Plodcast host Fergus and his son Owen set out one cold January morning to uncover the secret of medieval Castell Arnallt (Castle Arnold) - and track down what remains of this ill-fated and now forgotten Welsh castle. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the country...

You are on high country farm road in the Hakataramea Valley in deepest South Canterbury, New Zealand. Skylark song pours from the heavens, cascading over paddocks of ewes with noisy lambs at foot. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Nick Allen. Image...

We're beachcombing on Orkney this week. Plodcast regular Annabel Ross meets Martin Gray who has been finding curiosities on the seashore here for several decades. What will they find today? And what are the greatest treasures Martin has ever found? Listen on for more tales from the landscape. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If...

You're walking a muddy track beside a farm on the edge of a vast expanse of flooded land, the water perfectly reflecting a rare January blue sky. From the barns, a heady odour of sweat and dung rises from the cattle within. Across the marshes, swans sail, occasionally taking to the air on heavy, whoomping wingbeats. And from out of the ancient landscape, the eeries cries of cranes rise above tract...

The Plodcast goes fishing this week with plodcast regular Kevin Parr and author and TV presenter Will Millard. Host Fergus meets them on his local waterway, the Monmouthshire and Breconshire Canal, to talk about why fishing matters to much to them. It's the perfect combination of gentle adventure, chat and humour. But will they catch any fish? Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordin...

You're walking beside a stream swollen by rain, which tumbles through a wooded valley, crashing over rocks and weirs. Dippers chatter and dive for food, a heron hunts eels in the mill leat and watery sunlight breaks through the leafless canopy. A heavy scent of deep winter leaf decay fills the air. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help yo...

Plodcast host Fergus joins historian and battlefield tour guide Julian Humphrys at the site of a Civil War battlefield in the hills just north of Bath. It's a dark winter's day and fog descends creating an atmosphere of 'gunsmoke' and eerie sounds. Listen on to hear about how the dramatic battle unfolded... Find out more about the Battlefields Trust of which Julian is a trustee at https://www.batt...

After weeks of rain, it's a clear, calm rosy sunrise. A pair of robins in neighbouring gardens welcome the early sun with wistful phrases as if chatting over the fence. It's a duet to warm the soul in the depths of winter. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Rec...

Plodcast host Fergus joins broadcaster, writer and, best of all, brilliant birder Stephen Moss on a wild stretch of the Somerset coast to look for winter birds on the marshes and mudflats. Stephen also talks about his time as a BBC Natural History Unit producer and his lifelong love of wildlife. But what did they discover today? Stephen's new book The Owl: A Biography is published by Square Peg. L...

This week we're on the Ceredigion coast - a lonely cove of shingle with the Irish sea rolling with a soothing rhythm. No one else is around, no one that is apart from a seal bobbing just offshore. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Catrin Collins. E...

What is it like to swim outdoors under a full moon in the depths of winter? Maria Hodson braves the inky waters of Clevedon Marine Pool with the Bristol Blue Tits to learn about what cold water swimming can do for you. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plo...

Where the Somerset Levels meet the sea, broad, marshy pastures and forgotten fields host gulls, rooks, crows and egrets, foraging for food stirred up cattle and horses wintering here. But the birds are ever watchful – there are hunters here, peregrines roving the overcast sky ready to strike. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you rela...

Join Plodcast host Fergus and regulars Kevin Parr and Annabel Ross as well as editor Dan Kramer-Arden for a lighthearted look back at a year of recording nature – and take part in Kev's great Christmas quiz! Plus plenty more natural silliness to enjoy. Wild wishes from the Plodcast team and have a very merry Christmas. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to:...

You're in a wintry valley following a boisterous stream high into the Welsh hills. After recent rain, the water boils and churns and the river's song is wild and free. Fighting against the current are huge salmon, leaping lightning fast through the rough waters to reach the calmer spawning grounds. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help yo...

Come with us deep into the Welsh hills, to Gilfach Farm, a magical Radnorshire Wildlife Trust reserve in Powys. Here, in the tumbling River Marteg, salmon still leap waterfalls and rapids to reach their spawning grounds. Will plodcast host Fergus spot this incredible natural spectacle. With huge thanks to naturalist Megan Shersby and Radnorshire Wildlife Trust's head of conservation Sylvia Cojocar...

It’s a chilly evening and you are gathered with a crowd of others next to a large bonfire. The warmth it provides is a welcome break from the chilly air and the glow lights up the faces of joy around the neighbourhood park. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Re...

Explore the magic and myth of the Ring of Brodgar – an astonishing neolithic stone circle on Orkney in the company of local ranger Sandra Miller and the Plodcast's own Annabel Ross. Enjoy a blend of history, mystery and folklore… Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you coul...

You're on the wild and windy beach of Orkney’s South Ronaldsay. You listen to the cry of turnstones, plovers, sanderlings and redshanks, competing for the lead solo part, as they take flight from the water’s edge with the grey seals peacefully watching on. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautif...

Join Plodcast host Fergus and wonderful storyteller Duane Fitzsimons as they following in the footsteps of St Patrick along the coastline of Co Down. As they search for St Patrick's Well and his final resting place, Duane recounts tales of local folklore, shipwrecks and chilling ghost stories. This is the final episode of 4 in 2023 exploring St Patrick's Way in Northern Ireland. For more about Dua...

As the fluttering of pigeons' wings loosen the last beech nuts of the season, you stand under a gentle shower of nature’s crackles and pops, reminding us that autumn is in full flow. Majestic beech trees envelop you, offering up their fruits to passing wildlife. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere b...