Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden
Annual General Meeting Thursday 26 November 6 – 8pm
Royston Wardieburn Community Centre
Tag: Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden
Friends to hold first AGM
A year of growth for Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden
Hi folks,
I can’t believe it has been a year, and it is time to take stock of the year’s events and achievements, and look forward to what we could do together.
- Latest news, chance to discuss ideas and ask questions, and find out about events upcoming with our Scotland’s Urban Past project being supported by Historic Environment Scotland.
- Apples and a few other surprises from Eve’s Apple Shack!
Hope to see you at our upcoming AGM – help us raise awareness of our campaign to save the last of Scotland’s Lost Gardens.
Kirsty Sutherland, Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden
Working together to save Walled Garden
Update from our first events with Historic Environment Scotland (HES) this October:
Friends Group members and supporters have begun working with support from the Scotland’s Urban Past team, to investigate and share the story of the ‘secret’ garden (writes Kirsty Sutherland).
Walled Garden: day of action
A reminder that tomorrow afternoon (Friday 23 October) we have a day of outdoor action planned between 2 – 5pm (writes Kirsty Sutherland).
Thanks to the support from Historic Environment Scotland and the Scotland’s Urban Past team ,we are having a gathering arranged tomorrow outside the walled garden to do some surveying and mapping of the area.
We can find the spot where a 2nd century Roman find was made and where the old castle once stood.
- GPS mapping techniques will be shown to a group of the members.
- A gazebo with a display of our sustainable gardening ideas , fliers, old pictures of the garden and grounds (depending on the wind!)
About 14 people so far want to take part in the training, and this would be an ideal day to come along and find out where the garden is!
- Meet some of the Friends Group members who have been actively campaigning to Save Granton’s ‘forgotten’ Walled Garden.
- Find out where the new door and steps could go in.
- Ask questions, add ideas!
A wee treasure map is attached (below) if you don’t know where the walled garden is. The ‘green bit’ with the cycletrack is where we are gathering tomorrow afternoon.
Walled garden group takes steps (and may just build some too!)
Last week seven of the ‘Action Group’ got together outside the walled garden for some serious discussions, following on from the recent positive meeting with developers EDI Ltd (writes KIRSTY SUTHERLAND).
How to get steps up this steep slope & understanding where the castle used to be!
Many trees have covered the quarry site where Granton Castle stood until 1926, and the ground level is a lot lower than it used to be.
What we chatted about at this site visit:
- Possible temporary access point to the walled garden back door, still in working order but at the top of a wooded embankment.
- Access and horticultural use proposal, ‘Heads of terms’, is to be put forward to EDI on behalf of the Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden.
(KS to circulate license proposal to committee members for discussion as soon as draft available)
- We hope to begin work in earnest with the RCAHMS through ‘Scotland’s Urban Past’ by the end of October at the latest. Scotland’s Lost Gardens
Surveys of the listed walls & garden are needed urgently, before any clearance work and restoration could begin.
Finally a thank you to Anne Hamilton of Lothian Life for publishing an awareness-raising article on our behalf. See Granton’s Secret Garden
Our next General Meeting is open to all – hope you can make it!
Thursday 10 September, 6-7.30 pm
Royston Wardieburn Community Centre, Pilton Drive North
Royston Wardieburn Community Centre, Pilton Drive North
Agenda so far…
- Stairway to the garden door! When could we start, initial funding?
- Community Shares Scotland guest speaker – presentation & questions answered on how this could work. A short film was forwarded to explain the basics Community Shares animation
- Ideas for the first couple of years, if we get in! Archaeological digs? CSA? Heritage Orchard project?
Please get in touch if you are coming along, seating for 20, or send in any questions or ideas if you can’t make it.
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.
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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):
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.
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