25 The Paddock Spring 2015 The newsletter of Duddingston Village Conservation Society
Welcome This newsletter is delivered free to everybody who lives in the Duddingston Conservation Area, and it’s also posted to a number of others with an interest in Duddingston. DVCS publishes and fnances the newsletter on behalf of its members. Duddingston’s Conservation Area is in two parts, the “old village” focused on The Causeway and Old Church Lane, and an area to its east comprising Cavalry Park Drive and Duddingston House and Courtyard. The Paddock is the newsletter of the whole Conservation Area, and we welcome suggestions from anybody who wants to contribute to it. For the beneft of newcomers, we wanted to start by showing (opposite) the main facilities of the old village, including the land which DVCS recently bought from the NTS (shaded lime green), the Field (rented from the Council), and attractions such as the Grade-A listed Kirk, Dr Neils Garden, the Millar and Kirk Halls and the Sheep Heid pub. The access to some of these is far from obvious, as many of us know from having guided baffed visitors on the street. The red dotted lines on this fne map should help newcomers to fnd their way around on foot. Whilst the laying chickens, veggie garden and orchard are the focus of a lot of work and fun, it is conservation that lies at the heart of our priorities. So please turn to pages 4-5, where our Chairman expresses grave concerns about the shortcomings of Edinburgh Council’s planning process, and its effect on our Credit: thanks to Ingrid Tait for this original artwork Conservation Area.
IMPORTANT DATE FOR YOUR DIARY Duddingston Village Conservation Society Annual General Meeting, Millar Hall, The Paddock Spring8 pm 2015 on Thursday www.duddingston-village.org.uk 21 May: details p. 2; more diary p. 8. 1 Community Land Group
The CLG was set up in June 2014 to manage the newly purchased land and to develop the derelict byre and tack room. Its work includes solving drainage issues, organising volunteer work days, Open Days and talks, Bonfre Night, building and maintaining paths, relocating raised beds and cold frame, and keeping abreast of health and safety issues. The architect Bern Balfe has produced drawings of the derelict buildings and will soon create refurbishment designs. These will be shared with DVCS members for further consultation. The CLG proposes that the installation of services and the refurbishment of the tack room are included in the Moving the chicken shed frst phase.
The CLG regularly hosts meetings and visits with The CLG maintains the DVCS website, and its other groups, organisations and individuals. Facebook and Twitter accounts: Members of the group attend various forums, discussion groups and community events. duddingston-village.org.uk www.facebook.com/DuddingstonVillage It set up The Grafters – a group of people who are @DuddingstonV willing and able to turn up for heavier types of work, e.g. clearing and helping to rebuild the Byre, Membership of the CLG: Carn Gibson, Leo Harding, Nick repairing sheds and fences and building new Marshall, Christine Murdoch, Freda O’Byrne (Chair), and composting bays. Kathleen White.
Duddingston Village Message from the DVCS Chairman
Conservation Society: Annual I hope I shall see you at our AGM in the Millar Hall General Meeting on 21 May. We really welcome new Committee members. The scope of DVCS includes 8pm on Thursday 21 May 2015 Duddingston House and Courtyard, all properties in in the Millar Hall Cavalry Park Drive and also the golf course. We would like to balance our Committee with more Please join us for the AGM, and afterwards for a representation from these areas. Some residents sociable glass of wine. there were very generous in contributing to our There will be vacancies on the committee and appeal to buy the Community land just over a year nominations are welcomed. Please send written ago. You can read about the excellent progress nominations at least fve days prior to the AGM, made by the Community Land Group above. including the names of a proposer and seconder, Malcolm Windsor to: the Secretary, Mary Moultrie, 4 The Causeway, Edinburgh, EH15 3PZ or by email: [email protected]. Have you completed and signed a DVCS membership form yet? This is the formal notifcation of the DVCS AGM. The annual accounts will be presented at the If not, please do this at the AGM if not before. It meeting, and will also be available online. costs nothing and unless everybody signs up, DVCS can’t do its job properly. If you can’t attend the The accounts and minutes of the last meeting will AGM, or can’t remember if you have signed up, be sent by email to registered members, and can please contact the Secretary: be made available in hard copy on request. [email protected].
The Paddock Spring 2015 www.duddingston-village.org.uk 2 Community Vegetable Garden
November: The garden shed was cleared out and de-cluttered. The paths were covered with fresh wood bark that was sourced from Meadowfeld Park (with permission from Edinburgh Council).
December: The digging in of homemade compost continued. Garlic bulbs were planted in the hope of a good crop to harvest in May.
January: Digging and preparation of the soil beds continued. Our new Kelly kettle was used to make tea for volunteers. The kettle boils water rapidly and effciently, using only a small amount of kindling sticks as fuel.
February: Sunday 22 was Potato Day. We bought our seed potatoes at Bridge-end allotments; earlies Work in the garden during the spring and summer of and maincrop. They are now chitting in trays, 2014 produced a succession of fresh organic, waiting for the weather to heat up a bit, before vegetables, salads, fruits, herbs and cut fowers for planting out. We hope to have earlies ready by the local residents and visitors to enjoy. Several start of July. volunteers made jams and chutneys and also dried herbs for use as teas. There was a steady crop of We also rearranged our raised beds and cold frame in tomatoes, cucumbers and chillies – all grown in the the paddock. We have 3 home made wormeries in greenhouse in the Paddock. the form of large blue barrels beside the compost beds, where all waste food, including cooked, can be Due to continuing problems with excess water deposited. Cooked material is not suitable for the fowing off the hill, new drains were laid all the way compost beds because it can attract vermin, but now across the vegetable garden, re-routing the water it can go in the wormeries and will produce ideal away from local houses to a stone flled sump. This organic fertiliser for the garden. meant that paths and beds had to be dug up and then replaced when the work was completed. A Available produce dwindles at this time of year. We raised path creating a terrace and steps was built have kale, purple sprouting broccoli, chard, spinach across the bottom of the garden to halt soil creep. and herbs. A green tipped cane at end of a row means ready to use; a red tipped means not yet Watering and weeding eased off in September after ready. a dry summer and was replaced with a mountain of maintenance and planning for the following year. Freshly laid eggs are available to residents: if you Fortunately, a stream of committed volunteers turn don’t know how this system works, please email up to dig, weed, prune, laugh and drink tea /coffee Kathleen White: [email protected]. on a regular basis. Most of the work is done on the Email Kathleen also if you would like to be involved. garden workdays that take place on the last Sunday You can offer as much or as little time as you can of each month. Volunteers also work regularly in the spare. Our motto is many hands make light work. garden at different times depending on their availability. This was our frst full year without the support of professional gardener Claudia. We really do miss her, September: The rotten decking at the top of the but are grateful for all that she has taught us over the garden steps was repaired and painted, and the years. strawberry beds were replanted. The Paddock has learned that Claudia was awarded a October: Our homemade compost was dug in to Certifcate of Merit by the Royal Caledonian feed the vegetable beds for next season’s produce Horticultural Society in March 2015. We congratulate and the herb beds were pruned and tidied for the her warmly for this outstanding achievement. winter.
The Paddock Spring 2015 www.duddingston-village.org.uk 3 Letter from the DVCS Chairman Dear Member the processes. It was very speedily done and I want to share with you our grave concerns she concluded that there were two areas where about how the planning process is working in our complaint was ‘partly’ upheld. Edinburgh. The glaring example is the huge, view-blocking extension to Craigneuk (15 Old “The planning process had failed to comply Church Lane) that the planners have allowed. It with approved policies relating to development robs us all, residents and visitors alike, of the in Conservation Areas.” lovely view of the loch and of Bawsinch Nature Reserve as you descend Old Church Lane into Planning offcer who investigated our complaint the Royal Park. We cannot understand how this development was allowed at one of the most sensitive spots in our Conservation Area, the interface between the entrance to the village, She agreed with our complaint that the the Royal Park and Duddingston Kirk. planning process had failed to comply with approved policies relating to development in Your Committee has investigated the matter Conservation Areas. She also agreed that the and I should say frst that, as far as we are aware, application for the removal of trees was the owners complied with the necessary mishandled. We argued too that Historic procedures to obtain permission. But the Scotland should have been consulted as they planners did not comply with their own rules. are the next-door neighbours to the property. We know this because we lodged a formal They said that they had not been consulted, but complaint and the Council then carried out an she said that they had. So we need to unravel investigation. This cannot be considered that. The fact that she ‘partly’ upheld our independent because the person appointed to complaints is, in my view, ridiculous. I don’t see carry it out was a planner in Edinburgh Council! how you can ‘partly’ fail to take account of I met her and she indicated that although she conservation policies: a failure in any part of the worked in Planning, she had played no role in process is a failure of it all! the application. I urged her to come to visit the So our next step is to raise a complaint with the site but, to my surprise, she said that it was not Scottish Public Service Ombudsman (SPSO) and necessary. Her report was actually only about your committee has now done that.
Craigneuk: original house on the right, large extension to its left (© J Megarry)
The Paddock Spring 2015 www.duddingston-village.org.uk 4 We also intend to take up the ma er with Historic angles from two-dimensional drawings. So the Scotland, who should be an ally in this complaint, DVCS commi ee has resolved to ring-fence funds though being another public body they may want for independent professional appraisals of future to keep their head below the parapet. applica ons of this significance. Malcolm Windsor, Chairman, DVCS
“So, in short, the planning process has failed us. A massive extension has been allowed to block Have you signed the petition yet? the view in a very sensitive spot.” DVCS wants to draw your attention to a petition which some have signed already, but as we go to press the number of signatories is still just a couple of hundred short of the critical 5000 minimum which Could all this lead to the planning permission would put it in front of the Scottish Parliament. being revoked and the extension removed, with The petition is to register No confdence in compensa on to the owners? This is very, very Edinburgh Council’s Planning Department and to unlikely. Permission was granted, however appeal for a halt to the controversial Caltongate/New sloppily the process was handled, and it is Waverley application. Although not specifcally extremely rare for it to be revoked. I am afraid about the Craigneuk decision, we think it’s important that the best we can hope for, assuming that the that we all see Duddingston’s issues in a wider SPSO supports our complaint, is that the planners context. are rebuked for their shoddy work and that there Please visit this website and add your voice: is be er protec on in future for Conserva on https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/no- Areas such as ours. confdence-in-the-city-of-edinburgh-planning- So, in short, the planning process has failed us. A department. massive extension has been allowed to block the view in a very sensi ve spot. All we can do is to Why should you bookmark the try to ensure that this never happens again – not DVCS website? just here, nor in any of the other Conserva on Areas in Edinburgh. The DVCS website is at www.duddingston- village.org.uk and if you haven’t visited it recently, But there is a lesson for us all: we have to become please have a look. There’s masses of useful more professional ourselves. If a poten al information there, and loads of photos, and it’s purchaser shows the neighbours some drawings or updated frequently. For example, an ar st’s impressions of something they are • fnd out about DVCS campaigns e.g. Craigneuk planning, it may seem temp ng to meet them • enjoy photos of the veggie garden socially and take a look at their plans. But most of fnd out how to join and support DVCS us, me included, would find it very difficult to • download previous issues of The Paddock grasp all aspects of the changes to views and to • judge the rela ve heights and • watch a slide show about the Byre. View over Duddingston before trees were felled and Craigneuk extended
The Paddock Spring 2015 www.duddingston-village.org.uk 5 The Field Group We had an outbreak of minor vandalism (two fres set by children in grass piles) which means the grass is 2014 was an exciting year for The Field. We got now piled in a big heap at the bottom before being ourselves registered as a charity and we were added to the compost heaps. congratulated by the council on our habitat restoration work in the feld. We harvested enough The Field Group has a website and a Facebook page apples for an apple day and we fnally brought the to help publicise our work and the Field. We’re meadow under a consistent mowing regime. building links with health groups to encourage older people to use the feld and schools to bring groups Paddock readers will remember that we set up a of schoolchildren to use the area for learning about separate community group (The Field Group) to take the environment. For more information, visit: on management of the feld in October 2011 www.duddingstonfeld.org.uk and through a lease from the council. Now that we are www.facebook.com/FieldGroupDuddingston. an SCIO, we’re negotiating a 5-year lease with the council. The Orchard We had a very successful open day (jointly with the community garden) in June 2014, and busy work The year saw steady progress towards completing days every month. We got a grant from Edinburgh our collection of apples of Scottish origin, as well and Lothian Greenbelt Trust which enabled us to buy as adding traditional and modern apples of wood-fred stoves and kettles so we can provide hot interest. Of the 65 trees we had in Autumn 2013, drinks (and even soup) for volunteers and visitors. 15 were of Scottish origin. We now have over 100 We also had a visit from the Japanese Association of apple trees in all, with more than 30 Scottish Charitable Organisations, which included a ceremonial planting of oak trees. varieties, as well as six pears, plus eight trees in the plum orchard. We’ve had a couple of grafting We planted a further 1000 trees in the native days helping local people develop their skills and woodland area (including three hundred from our we donated nine trees to a school in Glasgow in tree nursery) and you can see the oldest trees now January. The apple day in October was a great starting to show themselves as stout saplings, some success with lots of juice drunk and apples tasted. up to 2m tall. We’re planting more trees to fll in gaps and also to extend the willow bed. The meadow is starting to look a bit more like a meadow, with some patches of newly-planted meadow Councillors/MSPs fowers and the tough weeds suppressed by To contact your elected representatives by email: repeated mowing with the scythe mower. Cllr Alex Lunn [email protected] The path network has been improved by regular Cllr Joan Griffths mowing and a section of duckboard over a boggy [email protected] Cllr Stefan Tymkewycz patch. Another boggy bit was sorted by laying a [email protected] drainage pipe under it and a new section of path Kenny MacAskill, MSP (linking the western to central paths) was created. [email protected]
Hard graft in The Field, with great views
The Paddock Spring 2015 www.duddingston-village.org.uk 6 Dr Neils Garden I also wanted you to know what I absence of three years, perhaps did with your generous gifts. I helped by less frequent visits by February in Dr Neils Garden is have two new arches in my otters. Within Bawsinch, we are very much a feeling of holding vegetable garden to support progressively converting the your breath and waiting … We clematis, jasmine and roses. grassland area to the south of the are nearly there, nearly at the end hide into a fower meadow. This of winter. There are a few I also have a pile of books that I will enhance the existing precious friends to keep us have coveted for a long time: delightful meadow which company and light our way. Edible Perennial Gardening by attracts a wide range of Winter Aconite, lifting its clear Annie Kelsey butterfies, bees and other yellow head with a green ruff The Art of Fermentation by Sandor insects. The ponds are also good into the weak winter sun, in drifts Katz, for innumerable frogs, toads and of gold, emerging just as January Rhododendrons and Azaleas, A newts as well as damselfies and gets into its boots. That’s when Colour Guide by Ken Cox dragonfies. Last year we had a my heart frst skips a beat. Scotland for Gardeners by K. Cox frst record of nuthatch – birds Fruit and Vegetables for Scotland Next is Iris ungicularis, delicate which have been steadily by Ken Cox and Caroline Beaton. and spicy, and then the familiar spreading north and may breed These are all wonderful books Snowdrops, coming up in here. that I would highly recommend. clumps, rather than drifts, this Further west we have been year. Now we are beginning to working to clear invasive non- see the diminutive Cyclamen native dogwood and snowberry, coum, tiny dark pink jewels and Bawsinch nature reserve and removing birch from the Cardamine pentaphyllos is Bawsinch is the Scottish Wildlife reed beds. While these areas are beginning to lift its head, naked, Trust nature reserve on the south now becoming very attractive out of the soil. That’s it, I can see side of Duddingston Loch, almost areas for wildlife, the access path the light at the end of the tunnel, on your doorstep. Access is remains diffcult. We don’t want we are nearly there. controlled but on several Sundays this year you can visit to disturb the heronry at the west Claudia Pottier and either join a guided walk or end of the loch – by far the From Claudia: a thankyou (if you have been previously) just largest in the Lothians, with 25+ to Community Gardeners walk and make use of the hide – breeding pairs of herons every year. This is the birthplace of any It is a year since you took on the see page 8 for dates. Email me heron you see around Edinburgh. vegetable garden independently. if you wish to arrange additional I was overwhelmed by your visits for small groups. Ken Knowles generosity when I left, and I am Last year saw the return of a [email protected] very proud of the wonderful breeding pair of Great crested SWT Reserve Convenor book that you all contributed to. grebes after an Great crested grebe on Duddingston Loch, courtesy SWT
The Paddock Spring 2015 www.duddingston-village.org.uk 7 Regular events 6-17 May 08.30-18.00, whereas in winter Exhibition of tapestry by the re-opening is earlier – The Sheep Heid hosts a weekly students of Laura Magliveras in offcially at 16.00 but sometimes quiz night on Wednesdays from 9 the Thomson Tower. 15.30. Roads are also sometimes pm; all welcome. 23-24 May 2.00 to 5.00 pm closed because of ice, rockfall, At the Kirk, in addition to the Open Weekend for the garden, events or accidents. Sunday services at 10 am and with plants for sale and teas in Holyrood Park guided walks 11.30 am, there is a weekly silent the Kirk Hall. Entry £3 at the gate. service (meditation) on All guided walks are free but Wednesdays from 10-10.30 am. The Kirk must be pre-booked. To book, or Saturday 9 May for more details, contact the Monthly work parties The Kirk is organising an Auction Ranger Service: phone 652 8150 All are welcome to turn up and Sale at 12 noon in the Kirk Hall, or email help. The Garden group meets with viewing from 11 am. [email protected] last Sunday each month; the Proceeds are for Church funds, Field is second Saturday each and they are seeking household Arthur's Amble (Mondays) month. All start at 10 am. items including antiques, 1 June, 15 June, 29 June, 13 July, 27 July: an easy guided walk to Garden dates (Sundays) paintings, china, clocks and discover Holyrood Park and 26 April jewellery. Small items of Arthur's Seat: 1.00 to 2.30 pm. 31 May furniture are welcome but no electrical or large items. Please 28 June Arthur's Secrets (Tuesdays) 26 July contact the Church offce on 661 Every Tuesday 7 April to 28 July: 30 Aug 4240 about any donations. 27 Sept guided walk (moderate) to 25 Oct Wednesday 24 June discover Holyrood Park and 29 Nov Join a midsummer tour of the Arthur's Seat:, 1.00 to 3.00 pm. 27 Dec Kirk from 7-9 pm, with refreshments afterwards in the Arthur's Adventure (Mondays) Field dates (Saturdays) Millar Hall. Suitable for adults 8 June, 22 June, 6 July, 20 July: an 9 May and teenagers. exciting guided walk over more 13 June challenging routes within the 11 July Bawsinch Nature Reserve Park: 1.00 to 4.00 pm. 8 August There will be guided walks 12 Sept RSPB: giving nature a home 10 Oct starting at 2 pm on four Sundays: 16 and 17 May - Join the RSPB 14 Nov 24 May, 28 June, 26 July and 18 and Historic Scotland to make 12 Dec October. Meet at the hide via the wicket gate at the corner of bird feeders, dissect owl pellets Other events & dates Duddingston Road West on the and take a guided walk focused on wildlife in the Royal Park. Dr Neils Garden south side of Duddingston Loch. Saturday 18 April Holyrood Park Within These Walls A Frog in my Throat - a concert of The roads are closed (except the 21 June, 12 July, 16 August - music and song by Jacqui High Road which is open when Three hour walk around the Edwards: 7.45 pm in The Kirk, possible) every Sunday. From boundary wall to explore the tickets £12 or £10 in aid of Dr late March/early April to 30 Park’s history since the 1540s Neils Garden. September, the closure is under James V.
The Paddock is published by Duddingston Village Conservation Society (SCIO 16606). www.duddingston-village.org.uk
Editor: Jacquetta Megarry. Please email [email protected] with any comments or contributions. Contributors: Morna Fergusson, Jim Jack, Ken Knowles, Nick Marshall, Freda O'Byrne, Claudia Pottier, Kathleen White, Malcolm Windsor; all photographs © Freda O’Byrne except where otherwise credited. The Paddock Spring 2015 www.duddingston-village.org.uk 8