Edinburgh Outdoors15 Jan 2025

Dunbars Close and plant explorers with Hetty's History Walks

The first episode of Season 2: Dunbars Close on the Canongate in Edinburgh's Old Town is a reimagined seventeeth century garden and is well worth a visit. Containing eight distinct areas, the garden combines formal shapes with more informal planting and features over 190 plants which were within Scotland around that time. Many have medicinal properties and were brought to Scotland by adventurous plant explores. The garden was created by a charity called The Mushroom Trust.

I explored the garden with regular contributor and local historian, Hetty Lancaster of Hetty's History Walks. She brought fascinating insight into the creation of the garden, as well as the plant explorers who brought plants back to Scotland and were instrumental in building our reputation in horticulture and the stories behind their adventures. We toured the garden and chatted about the properties of the some of the plants, as well as hearing stories of some of the characters who travelled the globe to source what were then the new and exotic - but many of which are now our commonplace garden plants.

In the seventeenth century the Canongate was a suburb of the city and we also learn more about who lived here at the time and Edinburgh suburban living.

To find the James Gordon 1647 map you can search the archives of the National Library of Scotland:

https://maps.nls.uk/view/102190447

The John Slezer picture from Calton Hill, part of an encylopedia of Scottish images - 'The Queen Anne View' - can be found here:

https://maps.nls.uk/view/74419503

The Mushroom Trust created and maintains the garden:

https://mushroomtrust.com/

Books discussed include:

Seeds of Blood and Beauty by Anne Lindsay:

https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/collections/author-books-by-ann-lindsay

The Fair Botanists by Sara Sheridan:

https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/collections/author-books-by-sara-sheridan

And finally, here is the location of Dunbar's Close:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/7zbj1aBb6FKKxzrV7

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