The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh was first founded in 1670 beginning life as a physic garden.
The gardens were started by Doctors Robert Sibbald and Andrew Balfour who, after meeting in France leased a piece of land near Holyrood Abbey.
With the help of local physicians who help with the costs, they imported plants from around the world.
With the onset of the British Empire, the collection grew so large that it outgrew its site and the gardens were relocated in 1763 to an 'out of town' area on the high road to Leith.
Eventually, the gardens were moved to their current home at Inverleith where it was said that Curator, William Mcnab, used a lot of ingenuity to lift and transplant the whole collection of mature trees and plants using specially developed lifting machines.
The gardens grew to such an extent that they swelled into Inverleith House where the arboretum was established.
The Botanic Gardens occupy three further sites at Benmore at Dunoon in Argyll, Dawyck at Stobo in the the Scottish Borders and Logan at Port Logan on the peninsula of Dumfries & Galloway.
Recent Comments