Dr Neil's Garden

Open Door Weekend in Edinburgh.

Visited Duddingston Kirk and the grounds this morning. A beautiful little church with 1200 parishioners on the role, but on average only have 100 in the congregation every Sunday. Mostly elderly.

Along the road lying beside the Kirk is Dr Neil's Garden.
Dr Neil and his wife were parishioners of the church and were offered this garden to care for when they lost their allotment in another area. This was in 1947. It became a community garden with neighbours offering plants and trees.
In 1997 Dr Neil's Garden Trust was formed, with funding from the National Trust for Scotland, in order to take over the running of the garden, and to safeguard its future. Dr Neil and his wife both passed away in 2005.
It's a beautiful garden with lots of benches dotted around, all looking onto Duddingston Loch.
I will definately be back to this garden ; it is open all year round.

In one corner of the garden is Thomson's Tower, designed by William Henry Playfair, and built in 1825 for the Duddingston Curling Society to store its stones.

It's now late afternoon, the sun is shining and I'm enjoying pottering round the house, tidying and drinking coffee .