Edinburgh Outdoors

Cramond Island is a tidal island in the Forth Estuary which has a long and varied history and is  really worth a visit.  The area was an important port during Roman times and remains of a large fort can still be seen beside the church.  The island was once a farm, a popular holiday destination and then was occupied during the first and second world wars as a strategic defence site.  Many WW2 remai...

Many people don't know that Edinburgh was once a walled city, so we set off to find traces of the old walls that still remain.   In the times when the extent of the city covered the area we now call the 'old town' it was enclosed to protect its residents from attack and also to control commercial activity.  Remnants of the wall remain today, some dating back to the fourteenth century, and many peo...

Early in the year I met with Clare Stephen of Wild Workforce to talk about how getting out into our forests can help HR and employee wellbeing.  We discussed Clare's experiences around mental health at work and about her ambition to turn her relatively new business into a CIC so she can work with a wider range of organisations.  Since we met she has now succeeded and her CIC has launched.   Her wo...

Over 12 miles long, the Water of Leith snakes through Edinburgh from Balerno to the Forth Estuary.  Formerly a working river and home to over 70 mills, it is now a nature reserve with a walkway along its length, which makes for a great walk.  I met with Senior Ranger, Johnny Wells, to find out how the Water of Leith Conservation Trust manages the space and all its challenges.  Johnny was a terrifi...

Sunshine on Leith garden is a community space which is supported by Edible Estates.  Set in an old drying green behind tenements, the garden is a great example of community spirit.   Residents are each allocated a small plot for their own growing and the hidden gem of a garden also offers a place of tranquility and escape for flat dwellers. While you can't just drop by to enjoy the garden yourself...

Gracemount Walled Garden is in the south of Edinburgh and is run by the excellent team from Transition Edinburgh South for and by the local community.  There's so much going on there, including: events, school programmes, volunteering, free Friday lunches and tons of veg.   The team is unfailingly positive and an inspiration in how to work with a community and create a space that is open to all. ...

I joined the always interesting, Angus Miller of GeoWalks for another exploration of Edinburgh's geology.  We headed up to Blackford Hill and into the Hermitage to discover how our hills were formed by volcanic activity and then shaped through glaciation.  Many of us walk around our local greenspace without knowing where to spot fascinating glimpses of how the city was formed millions of years ago...

Bonaly Country Park is on the edge of the Pentland Hills and was the location for a kids’ Green Explorers day run by the impressive Green Team charity.  As I go round meeting people through the Edinburgh outdoors community, the name of the Green Team comes up time and again because they work with so many organisations. The Green Team inspires kids and young people to find enjoyment and support fro...

Ruth Boreham is a local provider of women's history walks.   We met in the Old Town to enjoy a chat about Scotland's often overlooked, but hugely talented, women writers.  We started out in Lady Stair's Close which is home to a beautiful building that houses the Writers' Museum.  The Museum focuses on just three writers:  Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson, but we talked wom...

The Edinburgh Union Canal opened in 1822 to transport coal and other goods into the city.  It closed to commercial traffic in the 1960s, but is now busy with rowers, canal boats and wildlife. Ford Buchanan is treasurer of the Edinburgh Union Canal Society, and he welcomed me for tea beside the well loved boathouse on Ashley Terrace, and we talked about how the society manages the age old tradition...

VIE Velo is an Edinburgh cycling community that pairs sighted and sight impaired cyclists who head out on tandems together.  This club is an example of how a passion for cycling transcends the usual volunteer/participant set-up, with all members of the club simply being there because they love cycling.   You'll also hear how much they love stopping for cake and chat too.  I was blown away by the p...

Could Lochend Park be the actual location of the famous Skating Minister painting by Henry Raeburn called: 'Skating on Duddingston Loch'?  Regular contributor, Hetty Lancaster, offers listeners an artistic challenge as she reveals the clues within the painting's background which indicate the loch where he skates may not be Duddingston, but might actually be at Lochend.  Hetty takes us on a tour of...

Richard Love changed career in his mid forties to become a dry stone waller and has enjoyed a long career in the outdoors creating everything from Pentland walls to works of art for artists.  Richard and I met in the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh to view the Nepalese prayer gate, a project he worked on some years ago.  We rang the bell on the gate and talked about how it was constructed and h...

Sean Magee headed outdoors and launched CPS Activities after a long career in recruitment, first aid training and social care.  Having found the career of his dreams means Sean can now take put his well-honed teaching skills into practice up in the hills teaching navigational skills, outdoors awareness, rock climbing and mountain guiding.  In a first for Edinburgh Outdoors we were slightly inside...

Tracy Griffen is a really impressive personal trainer who uses the outdoors as a core part of her workouts.  After leaving Australia thirty years ago, Tracy has built a business that brings the Scottish outdoors into people's active lives.  Like many of us she relishes the changing seasons and brings a sense of nature into her courses and sessions.    We walked round Pilrig Park which is to the No...

The Lost Shore Surf Resort is Edinburgh's coolest new activity centre and so much more.  Set beside the International Climbing Arena in Ratho to the west of the city and close to the airport, Lost Shore is centred around Europe's largest surf pool.  In addition to the pool the site includes luxury lodges, a wellness centre and events space, a restaurant, saunas and a surf shop.  Even in mid Januar...

Katie Paterson is a truly inspiring and talented woman who has cycled round the world on an astounding journey, worked on national campaigns to get more people outside and launched the hugely successful The Outsiders outdoor networking group.  Now in it's second year, the group brings together sole traders and freelancers to 'netwalk' in the outdoors once a month in a different location in Edinbur...

Calton Hill Conservation Trust is a relatively new team of volunteers who are preserving and enhancing the historic Calton Hill right in the middle of the city.   Set above Princes Street with stunning views in all directions, Calton Hill is a popular spot for visitors to escape the streets and see what it is that makes Edinburgh such a stunning location.   With views to the local hills, to Fife a...

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...

The final podcast of Season 1 discovers Edinburgh's fascinating geology and the role played in the eighteenth century by the father of modern geology: James Hutton.    I met up with geologist Angus Miller of Geowalks in the James Hutton Memorial Garden and he filled me in on how Hutton's thinking was so groundbreaking and influential, even in the modern day.  We looked at some significant rocks wi...

Anna Neubert Wood runs her own business, Wander Women.  She created it to take women initially - but now everyone including individuals and groups - into the wilds to find peace, tranquility and childlike fun. After a childhood in East Germany and flexi-schooling her children, Anna has created experiences that bring escape in the outdoors in and around Edinburgh.  Her offering includes wild swimmi...

Charlie Ellis is a writer and walker with a keen interest in Edinburgh's former railways that are now footpaths and cycle routes.  He enjoys heading off to explore old paths and to find new, or potential, ones.  When we met up he took me off to find some existing and potential paths, including the Powderhall Line which was only closed in 2016 and is the subject of a campaign to have it joined into...

Learning all about bees: on a driech day in Edinburgh I went to visit the West Linton & District Beekeepers group in an equally driech Carlops, in the Pentland Hills.  There weren't many bees buzzing around on the day I dropped by to the apiary as it was a bit cold, but I still spent a brilliant hour with a great group of enthusiasts. We talked all things bees, cold summers, swarms and the ben...

Having occupied Britain for hundreds of years, the Romans had a huge impact on our culture, landscape and history.  I met the team from the now complete Rediscovering the Antonine Wall project to find out how they had worked with the line of the Antonine Wall - the Central Belt's own Roman wall (or what remains of it) to connect communities.   We talked about Roman history, some fascinating finds...

Hetty's History Walks is run by historian, Hetty Lancaster.  She runs tours across the city introducing both visitors and locals to fascinating facts about Edinburgh and its past.  We met on a sunny autumn day in Holyrood Park - the King's park which surrounds the Palace of Holyroodhouse and is a wild and beautiful spot right in the middle of the city.  Hetty is going to join me regularly over the...