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PRESS RELEASE Royal Collection Trust announces plans to create a new garden at the Palace of Holyroodhouse Royal Collection Trust today announced plans to make a new public garden at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, inspired by the 17th-century physic garden that was once within the Palace grounds. The original garden, created to teach students about the medicinal properties of plants and to provide pharmacists with fresh materials, was the first of its kind in Scotland and the second botanic garden to be established in Britain. The origins of today's Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh can be traced back to this historic Palace garden. The garden will be created in the 2,500m² area behind the Abbey Strand buildings, which by the end of 2018 will house a new Learning Centre. At the same time, the Palace's Forecourt will be opened up to the public. Each of these projects is part of Future Programme, the £10-million investment by Royal Collection Trust to transform the experience of visiting Edinburgh's Royal Palace. The new physic garden will have raised flowerbeds laid out in a geometric pattern, reflecting the design of early botanic gardens. The year-round planting will include both indigenous and exotic medicinal plants that would have been grown in the 17th century, such as Birthwort (said to assist with childbirth), Feverfew (thought to reduce fever), and Scurvy Grass (a remedy used by sailors after long voyages). Alongside the reimagined physic garden will be a flowering meadow evoking the 15th-century monastic garden of Holyrood Abbey, the Palace's first recorded garden. The physic garden will be designed by landscape architects J&L Gibbons under the direction of Future Programme's Lead Designers, Burd Haward Architects, with specialist planting advice supplied by Catherine FitzGerald of Mark Lutyens Associates. Research undertaken by Royal Collection Trust and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh has informed the design process. Work is expected to begin in winter 2017, subject to planning permission, and the garden will open in the spring of 2019. The Palace Forecourt will open to the public at the end of 2018. The original physic garden was established at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in 1670 by two of the founding members of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Sir Robert Sibbald and Dr Andrew Balfour. Initially Sibbald and Balfour rented a small plot of land north of the Palace Forecourt (today the North Carriage Drive), planting it with around 90 medicinal plant species. Five years later, when space ran out, the garden was moved to Trinity Hospital, now Platform 11 at Waverley Station, and then to Leith. In 1820 the garden was established in Inverleith, where today the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh covers over 70 acres and displays more than 13,000 plant species. The Trinity Hospital's young, self-taught gardener, James Sutherland, recorded the plants in the physic garden, many of which were transported from the Palace, in Scotland's first botanical publication, Hortus Medicus Edinburgensis. He lists species from parts of the world as Press Office, Royal Collection Trust, York House, St James’s Palace, London SW1A 1BQ T. +44 (0)20 7839 1377, [email protected], www.royalcollection.org.uk distant as Egypt and the southern tip of Africa, and describes plants such as the Hairy Kidneywort (believed to cure epilepsy), the Spotted Lungwort (thought to cure pulmonary infections), and the Common Hounds-Tongue (used to treat everything from piles and persistent coughs to baldness and madness). Sutherland went on to become the first Regius Keeper, a title now given to the head of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The gardens at the Palace of Holyroodhouse have been put to a number of uses over the centuries. By the time Mary, Queen of Scots was resident at the Palace in the 1560s, they included areas for jousting tournaments, hunting, hawking and archery. The Palace even boasted a tennis court and a menagerie, containing tigers, lynx, bears, a lion, an ape and a camel. Jonathan Marsden, Director, Royal Collection Trust, said, 'The return of scientific gardening to the place of its birth in Scotland will provide a new focus of interest for visitors to the Palace, for the local community, and especially, we hope, for young people. It will be a further addition to the Palace's spectacular setting within the natural landscape of Holyrood Park and Arthur's Seat beyond. It forms an important part of our plans to make more of the Palace's surroundings and will provide a family friendly space just moments from the Royal Mile.' Simon Milne, Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, said, 'The very being of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, one of the world’s leading botanic gardens, is linked to the Palace of Holyroodhouse and Scotland's first physic garden, created by the two adventurous doctors, Robert Sibbald and Andrew Balfour. As we prepare to celebrate our 350th anniversary in 2020, we are thrilled that Royal Collection Trust is creating a new physic garden at the Palace, and we look forward to even greater collaboration and the opportunity for more people to be inspired about the plants and their history.' For further information and photographs, please contact the Royal Collection Trust Press Office, +44 (0)20 7839 1377, [email protected]. Ends Notes to Editors 1) The Palace Forecourt is currently only accessible to the Royal Family's guests at Garden Parties, investitures, and official receptions, and paying visitors to the Palace. Every July it is transformed into a parade ground for the Ceremony of the Keys, when The Queen is presented with the keys to the City of Edinburgh. The gates were added in the 1920s as part of the Scottish National Memorial to King Edward VII (1841-1910). 2) The new Learning Centre will occupy the ground and first floor of the Abbey Strand buildings. Royal Collection Trust plans to develop the upper floors into ten short-let holiday apartments, bringing these historic buildings back into full use. 3) Royal Collection Trust, a department of the Royal Household, is responsible for the care and display of the Royal Collection, and manages the public opening of the official residences of The Queen. Its work is undertaken without public funding of any kind. Press Office, Royal Collection Trust, York House, St James’s Palace, London SW1A 1BQ T. +44 (0)20 7839 1377, [email protected], www.royalcollection.org.uk Income generated from admissions and from associated commercial activities contributes directly to The Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity. The aims of The Trust are the care and conservation of the Royal Collection, and the promotion of access and enjoyment through exhibitions, publications, loans and educational programmes. 4) As Her Majesty’s Official Residence in Scotland, The Palace of Holyroodhouse and gardens are maintained by Historic Environment Scotland’s Conservation Directorate on behalf of Scottish Ministers. 5) Set up by Catherine Burd & Buddy Haward in 1998, Burd Haward Architects has a reputation for making award-winning, carefully crafted, authentic, sustainable buildings. The practice works across a diverse range of building types and has led projects at a number of high-profile architecturally sensitive historic sites, including Chastleton House, Red House and Chartwell. Their ‘Welcome Centre’ for the National Trust at Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire won a 2016 RIBA Award. 6) J&L Gibbons are an award winning Landscape Architecture studio. Established in 1986, the studio strives to create public realm and landscape strategies that are relevant, innovative and embedded in the genius loci. Project inspiration is drawn from landscape history and the physical, social and cultural conditions that have influenced the character of a place. The studio works across a broad range of projects concerning heritage significance, green infrastructure, healthy living and urban regeneration. Current projects include the landscape restoration of Marble Hill Park in Richmond for English Heritage, and the new Museum of London at West Smithfield. 7) Catherine FitzGerald trained as a horticulturalist at the Royal Horticultural Society, Wisley and then completed a Post-graduate Diploma at the Architectural Association, where she specialised in Landscape Conservation and History. She spent several years working as Planting Designer for renowned Landscape Designer and many times Chelsea winner Arabella Lennox-Boyd. She now works as an independent designer and consultant, often in collaboration with the landscape architect Mark Lutyens. 8) The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a leading international research organisation delivering knowledge, education and plant conservation action in more than 50 countries around the world. In Scotland its four Gardens at Edinburgh, Benmore, Dawyck and Logan attract nearly a million visitors each year. It operates as a Non Departmental Public Body established under the National Heritage (Scotland) Act 1985, principally funded by the Scottish Government. It is also a registered charity, managed by a Board of Trustees appointed by Ministers. Its mission is 'To explore, conserve and explain the world of plants for a better future'. Admission to the Palace of Holyroodhouse is managed by The Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity in England and Wales (1016972) and in Scotland (SCO39772). Press Office, Royal Collection Trust, York House, St James’s Palace, London SW1A 1BQ T. +44 (0)20 7839 1377, [email protected], www.royalcollection.org.uk .