Sharing Granton’s secret garden?

‘Save our Secret Garden’ community campaign reaches climax on July 29th!

You may have heard of Granton Castle Walled Garden, but still not know where it is: that it is kept locked up and no-one can enter, or that it is still at risk from a luxury housing development (writes Kirsty Sutherland)!

At the end of this month the Friends Group campaign to safeguard and restore the walled garden will reach a crucial point.

On 29 July the council planners will make a final decision on the 2004 Waterfront Edinburgh Limited application; ‘minded to grant’ for demolition of parts of the walled garden to make way for 17 townhouses.

Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden hope they decide to refuse the 2004 application, instead allowing a chance of the listed garden’s restoration for community use.

Hundreds of local people have made their views known through petitions, representations and deputations to the city council, community councils and other organisations over the last year.

Historic Scotland visited the walled garden this spring and after reviewing the research compiled, concluded that it merits B-listing. Much older than previously thought, infact the oldest undeveloped walled garden in Edinburgh!

So what will happen if the council decide in favour of the historic garden being protected and restored at the end of this month?

Raising funds for a future community buyout was discussed at our last two Friends Group meetings.
Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill news is good for community groups like ours, interested in taking on the responsibility for a bit of our historic environment on the waterfront.

– Community Shares? – One idea to let local people own a bit of the walled garden and take part in planning and decisions on its future.

One share = one vote

Would you want to help save the garden if we could buy it?

Buy a share in the garden at £10 per share?

Get in touch or come along to a Friends Group Meeting if you want to hear more, ask questions or get involved.

grantoncastlegardengroup@gmail.com

Next meeting on ‘Ideas for the Garden’ in mid-August, date tbc.

Friends of Granton Castle Garden | ‘Forgotten’ Walled Garden

Walled Garden: growing hope

B-list boost for Friends campaign

A deputation representing The Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden will attend today’s Planning Committee meeting with renewed optimism thanks to an imminent report from Historic Scotland.

Friends group organiser Kirsty Sutherland explained: “Just two days before our Friends Group deputation to the City Chambers we learned from Historic Scotland that they have almost completed the review of Granton Castle Walled Garden – and the great news is that they want to upgrade its status to B-listed!

“We hope this groundbreaking news will help convince the city council’s planning committee members to support our Friends Group aim of safeguarding this historic garden from a luxury housing development.”

The recent Historic Environment Act and planning guidelines issued for Historic Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Edinburgh all recognise the significant contribution heritage landscapes & greenspaces make to our communities sense of place, cultural identity & understanding of history.

Friends Group members and supporters feel that one of the oldest walled gardens in Scotland deserves to be safeguarded, cherished and restored.

Kirsty added: “We’re really excited by the Historic Scotland news – I’m bubbling over! It’s a bit like David and Goliath, trying to stop a multi-million pound business from building houses in the garden.We’d like to thank everyone for their support – the more people that speak up and send in a wee message of support, the better.”

Deputation Letter to Planning Committee 14 May

Granton Castle Walled Garden exhibition

Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden are staging an exhibition at North Edinburgh Arts to publicise their efforts to retain the historic green space from development.

Friends group member Kirsty Sutherland said: “North Edinburgh Arts centre staff really pulled out all the stops and helped us put up an exhibition on the walled garden’s story. Thank you Caroline for all your patience and perseverance, it looks fab! Thank you to Friends Group members for pitching in.

“We used some of the old and new images of the garden, maps, photos, a few flowers, some captions and a timeline: go see!

“We are hoping this will help raise awareness locally and let more folk join the group, add their ideas and strength to the campaign to safeguard the garden first, and then to help restore it for community use.

“Membership forms have been put out too – and there are lovely new flower power boxes to deposit filled out forms. We decided to make membership of the group free for the first year so no cash please!”

Granton’s Walled Garden – update

Hi all,

A quick update to say the deputation to the City Chambers went really well with a decision made to review the outdated ‘minded to grant’ planning permission for the 17 luxury townhouses.

I didn’t expect local councillors to be so surprised by this garden’s existence, age and rarity, or the fact that it was a council arms-length company’s responsibility. Heartening indeed was their decision to review the individual planning application by WEL from 2003, in light of new planning policies meant to protect the Historic Environment and Scotland’s Cultural Heritage. Hopefully this time they will refuse it in recognition of the value of this garden as incredibly rare and valuable heritage greenspace.

STV News wrote a good covering article on our deputation (link below):

plea-to-save-grantons-forgotten-walled-garden-put-to-council

Next meeting

Thursday 12 March

6-7.30pm at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre.

Please send in any agenda points you wish discussed.
Hopefully some of you can make this date and time.

Kirsty Sutherland,

Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden

PS: Can everyone fill in a membership form if you haven’t done so already, postcode is handy to identify areas support is coming from, full address isn’t needed unless you wish to receive correspondence by post rather than e-mail.

For more information check out Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden on FaceBook

Granton Castle garden group’s growing ideas

Lots of ideas to raise awareness this month, and a chance to push for the safeguarding of the walled garden at the City Chambers!

Our action group is feeling inspired by the enthusiasm of people hearing about this garden for the first time, and offers to help and support our community campaign: see below for draft meeting notes with some dates and events to look out for.

5th Feb 2015 Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden

Next Friends Group meeting provisionally on

Thursday 12th March, 6-7.30

Royston Wardieburn Community Centre

Please send in any points or ideas for the agenda.

A wee image (above) inspired by the history research of Edinburgh’s gardens in the 1600’s.

Kirsty Sutherland, Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden

This Land is Your Land!

An update from the Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden:

Granton Castle’s ‘forgotten’ Garden may well be the oldest Walled Garden in Edinburgh, and it deserves to be protected from neglect and demolition.

Local plantswoman Kirsty Sutherland was inspired by the idea that the two acre walled garden could become an oasis of locally grown food.

After a brief visit to the garden in the spring of 2013, Kirsty returned with a group of interested community growers from North Edinburgh to do a bit of remedial pruning work on the old fruit trees. They all fell in love with this ‘secret’ garden, overgrown and tangled but magical in its air of faded grandeur.

The wealth of tales recounted by the retired gardener from over 500 years of occupancy were fascinating, and the windfall of apples much appreciated!

The Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden, a small but dedicated group of locals, have campaigned since then to save the garden and restore it as a community resource for the area. Local gardeners, historians and community groups are keen to be involved.

Recent awareness raising has garnered support from many people and organisations at a crucial time, when the future of the walled garden is being discussed by the planning department.

Strength in numbers is needed to persuade the city council that it is better to save this historic garden, rather than allow it to be demolished to make way for 17 luxury townhouses as developers wish.

” North Edinburgh is leading Edinburgh’s local food revolution. It has more community gardens per square mile than any other residential area in the city. Local people are increasingly coming to understand the fact that if we want cheap, fresh, healthy food, the best way to get it bar none, is to grow it yourself.

“Community gardening is starting to heal fractured communities and help develop relationships, skills and top class nutrition for a whole new generation. The vision for Granton Castle’s Garden is to create a safe and inclusive environment for local people to learn more about the history of their area and the skills needed to bring fresh food from local soil.”

(Quote from a member of Transition Scotland & Fife Diet)

We are asking that anyone who wants to show their support fill out a membership form. They will be left out in three places in North Edinburgh, with a dropbox to deposit them:

Muirhouse Community Shop – 57 Pennywell Road, EH4 4TY
Pilton Community Health Project – 73 Boswall Parkway, EH5 2PW
Royston Wardieburn Community Centre – 11 Pilton Drive North, EH5 1NF

Forms can also be downloaded and printed from our website and posted to the Community Shop. Community groups and organisations can also join as associate members to show their support for our campaign.

We don’t want this garden to be demolished for townhouses: it could be full of fruit, herbs, flowers and vegetables instead. A community cafe, visitor centre, plants & crafts for sale. A ‘horticultural jewel’, showcasing the history and cultural heritage of North Edinburgh!

Help local people protect the ‘Oldest Walled Garden in Edinburgh’, and restore a living link with the past, dating back as far as 1479. Please fill in a Friends Group form to show your support, or better still join in!

Read more at https://grantoncastlewalledgarden.wordpress.com/ or check out the FB page for the latest news and local meetings.

Friends to meet next Thursday

The Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden will hold their first meeting of the New Year next Thursday (8 January) at 6pm in Royston Wardieburn Community Centre.

Agenda items include:

Sharing latest news, plans and ideas!
Slideshow of garden images
Membership forms
Nomination and selection of committee members

All welcome

You need friends …

Friends of Granton Castle Walled Gardens set January date

Next Public Meeting Venue confirmed 8 January at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre 6 – 7.30pm.

Agenda so far:

Updates and plans for the new year!
Quick slideshow of garden images through time.
Group membership forms and committee elections.

All welcome!

Kirsty Sutherland

Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden

Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden invite

Deadline looms for historic local treasure

The Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden group is holding an informal ‘meet and eat’ event at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre on Tuesday (9 September) at 3pm.

Organiser Kirsty Sutherland said: “It is really important folk know what’s happening before the 3rd October as that is the last date anything can be done to change local development plans. Our local community council agreed with our aims and will write a letter of support for our group, but we hope more people will get involved to help save this precious community asset.”

For further information see the group’s Facebook page.