The Wallabies

Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.

Kenneth Steven explores his visit to an island in the largest of freshwater lakes, Loch Lomond.
There was nothing; possibly the soft murmur of birdsong, but precious little more than that. I walked on until I must have been about the middle of the island and then I stopped again, looked around me. And all at once, to my amazement and my great joy, were exactly what I had come to find, and the last thing in the world you would ever imagine: wallabies. There were perhaps half a dozen with me in the glade, and they were watching me. They were standing upright and probably they’d have come up to the height of my thighs: somehow akin to giant rabbits; furry-faced and doe-eyed. And as I stood there watching them one or two bounced about between the growing patches of sunlight. And now I knew at last I had proved the story true after all: there were indeed wallabies on the island of Inchconnachan on Loch Lomond.

Presenter Kenneth Steven

Producer Mark Rickards

A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 3