Golden riches from Bronze Age Ireland, strange terraces on the steep sides of Glastonbury Tor, drowned oak forests below the sea in the Solent, ancient towers in Shetland built using techniques found in Egyptian pyramids, a priapic giant carved on a chalk hillside in Dorset, strange tracks carved on a Yorkshire seashore, mammoth skulls in a South Wales cave and tales of drowned sea ports in Kent - these are some of the mysteries I'll be following with you over the next few weeks.

Once you get your eye in, then every landscape need no longer be taken simply for granted. They all have a history which can be pieced together from a diverse range of clues. Geology is often the starting point because the rocks affect the way we humans live in a landscape and change it. Where did rarities like gold come from? Where did the staggering abundance of chalk come from and with it the flints which were the key raw material for our ancestors for thousands of years.

The plants and animals with which we shared the landscapes also tell their story: salt marshes fringing the sea and the dangers of flooding, rich woodland or dry pasture. Grasslands where there is now sea and their bones in caves show that our early ancestors lived with woolly rhinoceros and hyenas. Farmland where there was once sea and whale bones to prove it. Modern archaeology uses the techniques of diverse modern science combined with the old skills of meticulous excavation, restoration and deduction to piece together the way people lived in their landscapes. It also overlaps with history because old records tell us how marshes were drained and land cultivated, how monasteries, towns and industries flourished or decayed.

The clues to all these long stories are all around us. I have had the good luck in these programmes to meet up with experts who have shown them to me. But it's easy enough for anyone to begin as a landscape detective. Local enthusiasts are always there and a trip to the library will start you off on the origin of that disused quarry or the parallel ridges in those fields. One of the most engaging things for me as a biologist beginning to learn about landscapes, is that the boundaries between the professionals and the amateurs are very blurred. It's clear that information, encouragement and enthusiasm flows in both directions - you too can contribute!

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Content last updated: 25/09/2003