Falkland in Fife is famous for its stunning floral displays and planters throughout the village, and owes its thanks to the hard work of the Falkland Gardening Group. Each year, the Group’s dedicated volunteers plant and tend to planters filled with perennial, spring bulbs and bedding plants to decorate and enhance the village. At the…
Bannockburn House – a hidden gem
Bannockburn House in Stirlingshire is a fantastic example of a community working together to save listed and historically significant buildings and estate for future generations. Previously privately-owned, the 17th century A-listed mansion house and estate is steeped in history – Bonnie Prince Charlie made it his HQ in both 1745 and 1746 – but has…
Hamiltonhill Claypits Local Nature Reserve – an inner-city oasis
Located just one mile from the hustle and bustle of Glasgow city centre lies an urban oasis – Hamiltonhill Claypits, the Dear Green Place’s only inner-city Local Nature Reserve. Running alongside the Forth and Clyde Canal, the area of the Claypits reserve was originally the home of a clay quarry used in construction of the…
Closeburn, Dumfries & Galloway – from active need to Passivhaus
A charitable trust incorporated in 2009, the Nith Valley Leaf Trust (NVLT) was set up to develop sustainable community development projects, and is based in Closeburn, Dumfries & Galloway. To address concerns in the area around the lack of affordable family-sized houses for rent and fuel poverty in the area, NVLT worked with South of…
Cumbernauld Living Landscape – volunteer-led conservation in one of Scotland’s greenest towns
With a population of around 52,000, Cumbernauld has some of the highest areas of multiple deprivation in Scotland, but it is also one of the greenest towns in the country, with over 50% of the town being greenspace. Cumbernauld Living Landscape brings different landowners in the town together to develop volunteer-led conservation. It works to…
Langholm Initiative – community nature reserve and regeneration project
The Langholm Initiative bought 5,200 acres of the Langholm Moor and Tarras Valley from Buccleuch Estates on behalf of the community, to create a vast new nature reserve and community regeneration project. Following extensive fundraising efforts by the Langholm Initiative, which received international support and hundreds of public donations, they were able to raise the…
Blackwood Community Woodland – creating an interest in nature
Blackwood Estate Community Association in Lanarkshire has secured funding to purchase 65 acres of Loch Wood in the Estate. The purchase was completed in April 2021. The group has quickly got to work carrying out essential Health and Safety works to host outdoor classes for local schoolchildren and community groups and restore the Victorian path…
The Knowe Garden Centre – enjoying the fresh Ayr-shire
Auchinleck Community Development Initiative (ACDI) was founded to improve the area and create jobs. They began by taking over derelict sites and turning them into small, volunteer-led community gardens, growing and selling plants. Over time this has grown into a commercial gardening operation generating permanent employment opportunities and has created the Knowe Garden Centre. This…
Castlebank Park, Horticultural Training Centre, and Community Hub – flowers, food and fun for the community
Castlebank Park was in desperate need of renovation when Lanark Community Development Trust took over the management of the gardens from the local council in late 2013. A large part of the park was no longer in public use and was severely overgrown and neglected. Volunteers and work squads from Community Payback cleared and renovated…
Bowhouse Market – From empty barn to thriving marketplace
 Using existing land and buildings in creative new ways is a great form of recycling, which helps not only communities but the environment too. Balcaskie Estate in the East Neuk of Fife did just that when they repurposed an existing barn, turning it from an infrequently used shed into the Bowhouse Market, a thriving indoor…
