03/07/2026
The Coastal Forager by Mark Williams, available at Ā£28 in The Wee Bookshop! It is not yet available online, but feel free to phone the shop on 01770 810531 if you can't pop in to see us!
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The Coastal Forager
To the knowing eye, our coasts are an incredible source of nutrition and flavours ā from aromatic maritime herbs and succulent coastal vegetables to umami-rich seaweeds and gourmet shellfish. Join Mark on an intimate gastronomic and ecological journey through a dazzling range of coastal habitats, learning how to safely identify, considerately harvest and creatively cook coastal wild foods.
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From Mark himself...
"I was raised on Arran and my connection with wild foods all started there, when I began looking for wild mushrooms around 1988. It was love at first find! There was no internet back then, and guidebooks were patchyā¦it was an exciting time to be a forager.
Locals may remember me as coalman, binman, chef, mountain rescuer and fishmonger, but the name that stuck was āMushroom Markā. I ran my first ever guided walk for the National Trust, exploring the fungi around Brodick Castle and over 100 people turned up! I also wrote a series of articles on edible wild mushrooms and ran a mushroom ID clinic in the Ormidale Hotel in 1989 - a spectacular year for wild mushrooms when fungi-fever gripped Arran.
Since then I have moved from Arran to Galloway and expanded my foraging repertoire to include plants and seaweeds. The seasonal guided walks I ran in my spare time proved so popular that about 15 years ago I became Scotlandās first full-time foraging teacher. Itās been incredible to see the growth of interest in foraging since then, and Iāve taught and mentored many of the new generation of wild chefs, distillers and foraging guides. Iāve built a huge free information resource on my website Galloway Wild Foods, and recently published my first book, The Coastal Forager.
Itās been quite a journey, and I feel very fortunate to teach about foraging for a living.
It all started on Arran, which is such an incredible place to connect with our wild plant, seaweed and fungi allies. I still revisit my old mushroom haunts when Iām over, and they feel like old friends. The first place I ever found chanterelles still produces tons of them each year, but my best porcini forest matured and was felled years agoā¦making me feel quite old!"
