Author: Sutherland Forsyth

Busy at the Botanic Cottage

Phew! Since opening in May, over 130 events have taken place in the Botanic Cottage, organised by a range of people across the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh as well as…

Another milestone for the Botanic Cottage

We recently reached another milestone with the rebuilding of the Botanic Cottage, when it was officially handed over from the contractors to us here at the Royal Botanic…

A hive of activity

In recent weeks we’ve seen fantastic progress being made on rebuilding the Botanic Cottage. The final slates are going onto the roof this week, and the pan-tiles are…

Botanic Cottage: Another milestone

This week sees another milestone in the rebuilding of the Botanic Cottage, with the completion of work on building the stone walls. When the chimney pots are added,…

The last dig

In the next few weeks the site which was once home to the Botanic Cottage and one of the remaining fragments of the long lost Leith Walk Botanic…

December progress

Three months into the contruction phase of the project, elements of the Botanic Cottage are now really starting to take shape. It’s wonderful to see the outline of…

Old stones, new building

          In the last couple of days there has been rapid progress on the Botanic Cottage – the stonemasons have moved on site and…

Making progress

Over the last few weeks, great progress has been made by the construction team rebuilding the Botanic Cottage. The foundations are now in place, and the outline of…

Work begins!

After years of discussion and planning, building work on the Botanic Cottage finally started this morning. This is a really exciting moment for what is one of the…

Digging up the past

We recently completed an archaeological dig of the former site of the Botanic Cottage on Leith Walk, and it was wonderful to be able to see the past…

Cutting the turf for the Botanic Cottage

On Monday the 28th of April 2014 a momentous moment took place in the long project to rebuild the Botanic Cottage – we finally broke ground! To mark…

A masterful monument

In just a few weeks work will have begun on the rebuilding of the Botanic Cottage, the only surviving building of the long lost 18th century incarnation of…

Getting ready for Botanic Cottage: Preparing the trees

With just a few months to go before work begins on the rebuilding of Botanic Cottage in the Demonstration Garden, site preparations are now beginning so that we…

Who was John Williamson?

At 4 o’clock in the morning on the 23rd of September 1780, a brutal assault took place on Princes Street. A group of armed smugglers ‘beat and wounded’…

Stories of the stones…

Today I went over to the nursery to see the stones from the deconstructed Botanic Cottage for the first time – palette after palette of stones of all…

Discover Botanic Cottage…

‘Edin. 29th March 1765. Received from Dr John Hope Professor of Botany in the College of Edinburgh, the sum of fifteen pounds ster for making Plans and Estimates…