The Gardens of Edinburgh by Annie Bullen

Edinburgh, beautiful city of the North, shaped by centuries of turbulent and often bloody history, is divided into two distinct areas, each dominated by Edinburgh Castle, magnificent on its rocky outcrop. The Old Town, with its tall tenement buildings, and the New, wide streets of elegant granite buildings, each have charm. The New Town is where you’ll find more green space, although the Old Town holds at least two secret gardens.

The city of Edinburgh

The first of the secret gardens is one with a view – over the whole city from the roof of the National Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street. Pick a clear day to take the lift to the seventh floor of this wonderful building and enjoy the moorland-style garden and the wide views across the city and across to the Pentland Hills and the Firth of Forth.

As you wander down the Royal Mile towards Holyrood, you’ll notice little alleyways or ‘closes’, often with names across the entrance. Just by Canongate Kirk is a dank alleyway opening into a delightful and peaceful garden. You’ll see the name ‘Dunbar’s Close’ above the entrance. Here are well-planted borders backed by yew hedges, a knot garden and peaceful seats.

Not so secret but absolutely magnificent is the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh, on the edge of the New Town. Its wonderful setting on a hillside, with views across to the castle should appeal even to non-gardeners, while the terrific plantings, year-round, make it a must for everyone who loves plants and gardens. Blazing spring displays of rhododendrons and azaleas in the 70-acre grounds are the backdrop to the shows of flowers in the acclaimed rock garden, including trilliums in season. There are ponds, an enormous herbaceous border, spectacular glasshouses and a world-famous collection of Chinese plants.

Contacts: Royal Botanic Garden, Inverleith Row.
Tel: 0131 552 7171
National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street.
Tel: 0131 247 4422
Dunbar’s Close garden – off Canongate on the Royal Mile.

Just outside the city

To the east of the city centre, still within walking distance for the energetic, is the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, near Dean village. There’s a small and pretty garden behind the gallery, which you may enjoy as you’re eating your lunch, but the biggest talking point here is the astounding Landform Ueda, which occupies the space in front of the entrance. It’s not strictly a garden, although it has the same effect on the senses. This stepped mound, with turf paths linking three crescent-shaped pools, whose water reflects the light of the sky and the shape of the clouds, is the work of landscape architect Charles Jencks. It is popular with visitors who are welcome to walk round and round the dramatically curved turf paths, which seem to inspire contemplation.

Contacts: Landform Ueda at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Belford Road, Edinburgh.
Tel: 0131 624 6200. Shuttle buses run regularly from the art galleries in the city centre.

Pentland Hills

Many, including Sir Roy Strong, feel that Little Sparta, the late Ian Hamilton Finlay’s garden near Dunsyre in the Pentland Hills, 25 miles south-west of Edinburgh, is the only truly original garden to be made in the last 60 years. It is open only a couple of afternoons each week but the pilgrimage, which includes a half mile trek up a stony and beautiful path from the car park, will reward you with a garden you will never forget.

Here Finlay, poet and artist, created a place where plants, water, stone and earth have been brought together to inspire ideas. His art is everywhere, carvings, sculpture, words inscribed in stone and wood, sometimes puzzling, like a giant crossword clue, sometimes funny, sometimes moving, always exciting and emotionally charged at the same time. It is not unusual to see visitors moved to tears at the garden’s strange beauty.

Contacts: Little Sparta near Dunsyre. Take the A702 from Edinburgh, eventually turning right to Dunsyre. Once through the village, Little Sparta is signposted.