Some of you may have been watching the BBC2 TV series called How Earth Made Us. The presenter Prof Iain Stewart travelled the world for the series looking at the impact of the natural forces of earth on humans. He visited amazing places around the world including the Sahara desert, Mexican crystal caves, lakes in Oregon, glaciers in Iceland plus sites in Iran and China.
So imagine his thoughts when he found himself filming on a cold late afternoon in February on Flanders Moss. He was there with a small film crew to make a short part of a series of documentaries looking at man's impact on Scotland's landscape. Their point of interest was the peat clearances of the Carse of Stirling between 1750 and 1860 with Lord Kames and the removal of Blair Drummond Moss as the focus. Flanders was being filmed to show what the moss looked like before the clearances happened. The crew and Iain turned up at nearly 3pm so were chasing the light for nearly all the time they were on the site. One poor cameraman was sent in a ditch to film water flowing over sphagnum while we set up peat core to show the depth of peat. This had to be pulled out and pushed in about 5 times to film different angles. They then filmed in the gathering gloom and sporadic sleet Iain from the viewing tower before finishing at 6pm.
The whole team were in good spirits and didn't complain too much despite the charms of Flanders being hard to discern on that particular day. Though I am sure I could detect a slightly wistful look on Iain face at times as he must have remembered some of the slightly more exotic locations he had filmed and wondered how he landed this bum gig on a bog.
So imagine his thoughts when he found himself filming on a cold late afternoon in February on Flanders Moss. He was there with a small film crew to make a short part of a series of documentaries looking at man's impact on Scotland's landscape. Their point of interest was the peat clearances of the Carse of Stirling between 1750 and 1860 with Lord Kames and the removal of Blair Drummond Moss as the focus. Flanders was being filmed to show what the moss looked like before the clearances happened. The crew and Iain turned up at nearly 3pm so were chasing the light for nearly all the time they were on the site. One poor cameraman was sent in a ditch to film water flowing over sphagnum while we set up peat core to show the depth of peat. This had to be pulled out and pushed in about 5 times to film different angles. They then filmed in the gathering gloom and sporadic sleet Iain from the viewing tower before finishing at 6pm.
The whole team were in good spirits and didn't complain too much despite the charms of Flanders being hard to discern on that particular day. Though I am sure I could detect a slightly wistful look on Iain face at times as he must have remembered some of the slightly more exotic locations he had filmed and wondered how he landed this bum gig on a bog.
