Escaping the Fringe madness reminds me of the importance of the countryside

The Edinburgh Festival is reaching a crescendo. The streets are packed, the place is buzzing so like any sensible person who lives in the city I’m seizing the opportunity….to spend a week in Northumberland where the land is empty and the only buzz comes from the beehives in the next field.

I’ve only ever lived in towns and big cities and the past few days have reminded me how little I know about the countryside. It’s been a relief to escape from the cacophony of Edinburgh in August but at least the sounds are familiar. In contrast, I thought a synthesiser was being tuned outside until discovering that was the sound of the lapwing.

Here nature is as abundant as leaflets on the Royal Mile. I’m convinced the same butterfly has been shadowing me all week, always at my side on early or late walks up the nearby hill. From the top you can look over Flodden battlefield and then all the way down to Bamburgh Castle and the rugged Northumbrian coast.

In the fields, the combine harvesters are everywhere, spelling the end of summer and the next stage in the cycle of the seasons. It’s a rhythm largely lost on those of us living in the cities and that situation is only going to get worse.

Worldwide, people are flocking together. According to the United Nations, in 2018 23 per cent of people globally lived in a conurbation. By 2030 that figure is projected to be 28 per cent and to carry on growing. In contrast, the Scottish Government expects the population in rural areas to fall over the next 20 years.

With the move to urban living comes a decline in our empathy with the countryside. That matters because we rely on it more than ever. We might not choose to live in rural places but they are increasingly where spend our leisure time. Latest figures show up to 80 per cent of Scots regularly access the countryside in summer compared to 64 per cent just a few years ago.

On top of that, it feeds us. With the vegan boom now bust, the focus has shifted back to what we eat in a cost effective and sustainable way. Why are supermarkets stocking lamb frozen and shipped from New Zealand when it is a source of protein that thrives right here?

Most of our landscape does not lend itself to high yield crops and we need to make the best of what we have, so it is lucky that dairy cows love our lush, rain soaked grass and hill sheep thrive on our steepest and stoniest slopes.

We lose touch with the countryside at our peril. Luckily it has an outstanding ambassador in the unlikely form of Jeremy Clarkson. He may be Marmite to many but all the farmers I’ve spoken with this week say his TV show is the best thing that has happened to them in a long time.

The new series of “Clarkson’s Farm” is currently in production and given the weather this summer, it’s likely to be a grim watch. Lower yields, poorer returns and drainage problems in the lower field don’t make for sold out Fringe show but they do matter and anything that makes us see and think about the challenges in the countryside can only be good news for all of us.