Tag: Gladstone's Land

Equi’s partners with Gladstone’s Land to create exclusive new ice cream

Scottish artisan ice cream maker, Equi’s, has created a bespoke Sicilian lemon and elderflower flavour for Gladstone’s Land to celebrate ice cream season. 

Inspired by ingredients found in a 17th-century cookbook that was published around the time that Gladstone’s first opened, the irresistible sweet treat will transport you straight to a long hot summer’s day in Sorrento. 

Following the launch of the historic National Trust for Scotland (NTS) venue last month, the exclusive flavour is now available from the new Gladstone’s Land ice cream parlour on the ground floor of the 500-year-old tenement house on the Royal Mile.

Blending Scots with Italian heritage like Equi’s roots, deliciously creamy lemon ripple – made with vanilla, egg yolks and Sicilian lemons are churned with delicious whole milk and double cream from local Scottish dairy farms and finished with a hint of elderflower. The result is a smooth summer-fresh flavour that is impossible to resist.  

Equi’s, the current UK ice cream champions, are known for creating irresistible artisan ice cream using high-quality ingredients from local Scottish dairy farms, and secret family recipes that have been passed down through four generations. 

This exciting new flavour marks the start of a new journey for the ice cream manufacturer as they look to move into new factory premises later in the year. Future plans include more experimentation and flavours for fans of the brand to enjoy. 

David Equi, director at Equi’s Ice Cream, explains: “We toiled and tinkered making this new indulgent ice cream. Nothing beats Sorrento in the summer, and after finding an old 17-century cookbook, we have created a fresh explosion of Scots-Italian aroma and flavour, exclusively for Gladstone’s Land. 

“Ice cream tastes best in the sunshine, and our partnership with Gladstone’s will let you enjoy an Equi’s ice cream looking out towards Edinburgh castle. It doesn’t get more perfect than that.”

Claire Grant, National Trust for Scotland’s Operations Manager for Gladstone’s Land said: “We’re delighted to have partnered up with Equi’s on making this truly unique ice cream. This special flavour reflects a recipe found in a 17-century cookbook, and it has been fantastic to see this flavour brought back to life. 

“Our new ice cream parlour is located on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile in Gladstone’s Land and is a perfect place for locals and tourists to stop and refuel this summer.”

The exclusive Equi’s flavour is now available daily between 9am and 6pm from Gladstone’s Land ice cream parlour, 477B Lawnmarket, Royal Mile. 

For more information on Equi’s Ice Cream visit their website https://www.equisicecream.com/

To find out more about Gladstone’s Land or book your tickets for a tour of the property in advance, visit https://www.nts.org.uk 

Food for thought!

Gladstone’s Land launches first historical food tour

After opening to the public for the first time last month following a £1.5m restoration, the National Trust for Scotland’s Gladstone’s Land at the top of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile is introducing its first ever interactive historical food tour next week (Wednesday June 9). 

Food is a strong theme throughout the 500 year old townhouse which now has a coffee shop and ice cream parlour on the ground floor, inspired by the building’s long history as a place of commerce and catering. 

The ‘Tables Through Time’ tour follows the lives of three women that lived and worked at Gladstone’s Land, telling the story of changing tastes in food in Edinburgh’s Old Town and the impact of trade, class and fashion on people’s diets. As well as hearing about these people, the conservation charity will also be inviting guests to sample some of the food and drink these individuals may have consumed. 

Claire Grant, the National Trust for Scotland’s Operations Manager for Edinburgh said: “It’s impossible to think about Gladstone’s Land without thinking of food. It has been at the centre of Edinburgh’s spice and coffee trade, it’s been a tavern, it’s been a home.

“From the ice cream flavours served to the spices that sit in the tables in the coffee shop, we’ve taken inspiration from the flavourful history of the building, its residents and its many uses over the centuries, to create a place people will love.”

Based on specially-commissioned research from Lindsay Middleton, PhD researcher in food history at the University of Glasgow and University of Aberdeen, the tour goes from a 17th century kitchen on the first floor, an 18th/19th century draper’s on the second floor and a 20th century boarding house on the third floor. 

Visitors will get to taste the likes of bannocks sweetened with fruit, sugar or honey; parlies, a type of ginger biscuit named because they were a favourite with members of the Scottish parliament; and ‘donkey tea’, toast steeped in hot water.

After the tour, visitors can try out an ice cream flavour developed especially for the property. The elderflower and lemon curd ice cream has been created using research about the flavours and tastes that would have been associated with Gladstone’s Land over the years. 

Food historian Lindsay Middleton (above) said: “Historical food is something we are becoming increasingly interested in, whether it is history week on the Great British Bake Off or reading recipes in historical cookbooks and marvelling at strange ingredients and cooking techniques. Scottish food does have a rich and varied history. In the harsh climate, Scottish people have had to be creative with food. 

“On the Tables Through Time tour, we look at three women who lived in Gladstone’s Land, and how food and drink figured in their lives. Considering the different foods that would have been cooked and eaten within the property throughout its history will show how food, life, and work have always been linked.” 

Tickets for the tour can be booked at https://nts.cloudvenue.co.uk/tablesthroughtime

For more information about Gladstone’s Land, go to:  www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/gladstones-land

Gladstone’s Land reopens for a taste of the past

One of the Royal Mile’s oldest buildings, the National Trust for Scotand’s Gladstone’s Land, starts a new chapter of its 500 year-old history as it re-opens to the public today after a £1.5m restoration, including a brand new coffee shop and ice cream parlour, continuing the spirit of the building’s long commercial use.   

At the top of the Royal Mile on the Lawnmarket in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town, the six storey tenement represents a new approach from the conservation charity, with visitors actively encouraged to connect with the property by interacting with the exhibits to find out about its fascinating history. 

Items can be picked up, chairs sat on and drawers and cabinets can be opened to reveal secrets about the property’s past. Interactive food tours are also planned for later in the month where visitors can even taste what our predecessors would have eaten. 

Rescued from demolition by the Trust in 1934, over the last 40 years the focus had mainly been on the life and times of merchant Thomas ‘Gledstanes’. He bought the building in the early 17th century, extended it and commissioned its famous Renaissance-style painted ceilings. 

Now though, thanks to years of meticulous historical research led by visitor services managers Dr Kate Stephenson and Anna Brereton (pictured ), the lives of other residents of the property over the centuries are being told too, with three floors of rooms laid out to reflect how they would have lived and worked.

The real-life stories of individual residents and the trading history of the address shows the rise and decline of the address and also reflects the fortunes of the Old Town as a whole, bringing Gladstone’s Land to life in a wholly new way.

Based on the will of wealthy 17th-century merchant John Riddoch, one room shows the recreation of his stockroom with the likes of ginger, sugar, pepper and cinnamon abounding. Another space shows a drapers based on the surviving trade accounts of a late 1700s business trading in silks, laces and printed cottons, including costumes for visitors to try on. 

A whole new floor of Gladstone’s Land is opening for the first time, presenting an early 20th-century boarding house inspired by Mary Wilson, a widow who in 1911 placed a newspaper advertisement offering a room in her apartment as suitable lodgings for ‘two or three respectable men’. 

On the street level, a new coffee shop has been created which is peppered with references to the property’s past. Gladstone’s Land can lay claim to be the oldest continually trading place of commerce in Edinburgh and the coffee shop (an important part of Edinburgh’s culture for centuries) continues that tradition. 

As well as the decoration of the space and ingredients in dishes inspired by the property’s past, the ice cream parlour on the same floor includes a specially created ice cream flavour. Researchers developed elderflower & lemon curd as the property’s first bespoke flavour, using documents related to the first sales of ice cream in Edinburgh in the 1900s and tastes associated with the property’s history.

Self-catering apartments on the upper floor have also been redesigned to create beautiful flats for holiday lets, profits from which will support the Trust’s wider conservation activities. 

General Manager for Edinburgh & East Stuart Maxwell said: “When we closed in February 2020 we expected that we’d be opening the doors to the new Gladstone’s Land in August last year but world events took over. We’re really pleased to reveal what’s been going on behind the hoardings and give people the chance to reconnect with this incredibly special place. 

“Work really started many, many years ago when the team came up with the idea of shifting the focus away from the prosperous merchant who owned the property to the people who actually lived and did business there and who may resonate more so with people today. By poring over documents such as wills, ships’ logs, trade accounts and newspapers we’ve been able to put together an incredibly detailed portrait of the individuals who inhabited the property over the last 500 years. 

“And we’re then presenting it in a way that is quite new for the Trust. Visitors are allowed to touch almost everything in the property and there are surprises at every turn for the curious. As well as the sense of touch, the immersive experience will involve sight, smell and taste too. There’s something there for everyone, from the specialised historian to the first-time museum goer. 

“We know how much people love Gladstone’s Land and we can’t wait for them to reconnect with its impressive history, and explore the new experiences that have been added to bring those centuries to life.”

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