It has been great this last month for Granton Castle Walled Garden to share their first harvests from the garden in local community cafe & garden venues around Granton, Pilton and Muirhouse; encouraging people to grow their own and raising awareness of the amazing green resource being restored by community members on the shore for all to enjoy. GCWG would like to thank Sheila Wong for the saved courgette seeds; which resulted in a bumper crop of all shapes, colours and sizes. Why not pop down to Granton Castle Walled Garden to see some of the fruits of their labours for yourself? You can also sign up to become a volunteer! 1st September from 12-2pm – Open Saturday, bring a picnic, pick your own brambles, pop-up cafe and plant stall. 29th September from 12-4pm – Cockburn Association Door’s Open Day. Granton Castle Walled Garden, West Shore Road, Granton, Edinburgh, EH5 1QJ....

Newhaven Community Choir entertained visitors at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on Monday (20 August) with traditional fishwives songs as part of Edinburgh Shoreline, an exciting project to regenerate natural habitats along the city’s coastline. The choir performed songs including ‘Caller Herrin’, based on the traditional street cry of the Newhaven fishwives as they carried fresh fish from Newhaven Harbour up to Edinburgh’s Old and New Towns and ‘Caller Ou’, a common street cry among the fish sellers of Newhaven, advertising fresh oysters to the Edinburgh public. The backdrop for their performance was the Edinburgh Shoreline exhibition at the Garden’s John Hope Gateway. It will run until 28 October. Schools, community groups and individuals who care about the local environment and heritage have joined together to regenerate natural habitats along Edinburgh’s 27km coastline from Port Edgar to Joppa. By connecting with scientists and conservationists in the Shoreline project everyone who...

If you’ve been reading the ‘Communities’ section of our website, or visited the Edinburgh Shoreline exhibition at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, you’ll know that the Green Ferry Trust have been working hard to restore the historic vennel area of South Queensferry. They’ve provided us with a quick update on the progress of work to create a beautiful green space for the local community: In July 2018 phase 2 of the development started. The area to the south of the existing site required a substantial amount of remedial work given its many years of neglect. This important step will provide an impressive 600 sq.metres of community green space, giving residents of all age groups the opportunity to spend more time outside engaging with the local environment and enjoying incredible views of the historic forth bridges. On 11th August they held a launch event for local families. GreenFerry committee spent a lovely day...

Last night, Wardie Bay in Granton played host to a bunch of enthusiastic novices and a few enthusiastic professionals on the hunt for fish in the Forth. Dr Alastair Lyndon, a Marine Biologist from Heriot Watt University donned his wetsuit and wrangled a seine net to help us uncover a surprisingly broad array of marine life in the shallows at low tide. Alastair walked out to about knee depth and was helped by the crowd to drag the net back in to the shore. Adults and children alike trawled through the seaweed and the species that we uncovered were: shore crabs, flounder, sea squirts, a beautiful plaice, squid egg sacs, herring (the silver darlings upon which much of the historic Edinburgh fishing industry was based), sprats, goby and a pipe fish (that caused much excitement). Many of us were surprised by the amount and variety of fish that we found...

Many thanks to those who have joined us in our first three participatory mapping sessions. It’s been really worthwhile capturing your views on the Edinburgh shoreline, memories from the past and completely inspiring to hear your visions for the future. With this information we’ll be creating a new artwork: a map, but a very different kind of map, one which highlights the human experience of the shoreline, from the point of view of the people who live and work on it. Don’t forget we still have two sessions coming up: Rosebery Hall, South Queensferry on 14th August, 4-7pm and Granton Hub on 21st August, 4-7pm. We look forward to seeing some of you there!

Many thanks to all who joined us on Friday 27th July to celebrate the official launch of community input to the Edinburgh Shoreline exhibition at the John Hope Gateway, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Whether we have been highlighting the problem of plastic pollution, revisiting old traditions, discovering species on derelict land, celebrating the coast as a place of recreation or knitting the forth rail bridge (!) it has been a pleasure to work alongside local community groups to make our exhibition a reality and it was great to see their finished displays in the gallery space. They all look great! You can see the exhibition in the John Hope Gateway, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh until 23 September. The exhibition is open daily and free to enter. Many thanks to the lovely Julie and Alanna of the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home for their picture.

Over the next six weeks we are mapping and recording your experiences of Edinburgh’s 27 kilometres of shoreline. We want to know: How do you use it? What’s important and what’s not? Are there hidden gems that other people should know about? Or is there something that needs improved? You will find us at: The Wash House, 3 Adelphi Grove, EH15 1AP 7th August from 4-7pm Craigentinny Community Centre 9 Loaning Road, EH7, 8th August from 4-7pm Rosebery Hall South Queensferry, 7 West Terrace EH30 14 August from 4-7pm Granton Hub, 33 Granton Park Ave, EH5 21st August from 4-7pm Don’t worry if you cannot make one of the events, you can still take part in the project: just post an image from you phone or camera, ideally with a couple of lines about why you chose it, and we will highlight on the map. Share you images on www.facebook.com/EdinburghShoreline...

Ever wondered what the Edinburgh shoreline looks like from the sky? Wonder no more, just click the link to see footage captured for us by the UK Drone Co. HINT: It looks amazing!  

Hi, my name is Simone Landwehr-Traxler, I am a Glasgow based visual artist and over the next few months I will be facilitating a series of consultations for the Edinburgh Shoreline Project. Together with Stephen Brown, a community engagement practitioner, I will be asking questions about how individuals and communities interact and value their Shoreline, exploring both what they like and don’t like.   I will use the information gathered during these consultations to inform an interpretive map of the Edinburgh coast, emphasising the emotional, physical and practical connections and concerns people have to that Shoreline.   I also hope to capture and amplify the aspirations communities have for their coast.   The first consultation will be held in Leith Library on the 17th of July, 4pm – 7pm. Hope to see you there!

Wardie Bay SOS #SaveOurSeas Well, we might not have had blazing sunshine for our SOS event on Saturday 23 June, but neither did we have the thunderstorms of the previous Saturday! We were at Wardie Beach with Wardie Bay Beachwatch and local residents to do a beach clean and survey for the Marine Conservation Society. What did we find? The usual horrors: wet wipes galore, small plastic items such as bottle lids and cotton bud sticks and even a syringe needle! Grim. But these need not be the usual horrors – we can, and will, combat the tide of plastic pollution. That’s why we followed up our litter pick by spelling out ‘SOS’ across the beach: #SaveOurSeas. We filmed the whole escapade from the sky with a drone! It’s time to tell the world that enough is enough. See our message at the Edinburgh Shoreline exhibition from 28 July.