Dr MacKay’s Wood Needs Your Help! Local residents and the City of Edinburgh Council are teaming up, with support from the Edinburgh & Lothian Greenspace Trust, to restore this treasured woodland to its full potential—inviting everyone to join the effort.
By Paul Fisher Cockburn, C&B News
Dr MacKay’s Wood, it’s fair to say, is in need of a little care.
The small wooded area in Juniper Green, across from the junction of Foulis Crescent with Lanark Road, is for many residents “a beautiful space”—either an overlooked community asset or a treasured part of their daily dog-walking routine, given that it’s one of several routes connecting Lanark Road with the Water of Leith Walkway further down the hill.
However, as a group of local residents who met on 24 October pointed out, the Wood is looking somewhat overgrown and forlorn. Ivy is flourishing to the detriment of other undergrowth, while increasing biodiversity – both plant and animal – is possibly being hindered, in part, by the fact that most of the trees are the same age—around 20 years old.
The City of Edinburgh Council, which owns the land, are keen to work with local residents to improve the area, although – given their stated goal of becoming “a million tree city” by 2030 – its understandable that officials see no immediate requirement to cut or thin Dr MacKay’s Wood—as suggested by some residents to restore “the view”.
Also at the meeting was Emily Ronaldson, a Greenspace & Health Project Officer at Edinburgh & Lothian Greenspace Trust (ELGT), an organisation which works with local communities and other partners to develop and manage green spaces and ensure they’re being used as much as possible. In principle, ELGT could take care of tools, risk assessments and insurance issues around any planned project to revitalise the Wood.
Several residents attending the meeting were quite determined that no decisions about the future of the Wood should be made without significant consultation with the local community. This, in itself, will require a concerted effort by those willing to volunteer their time and energy to getting feedback from local schools, groups and residents.
Would you be willing to get involved?
An on-site meeting has been organised between 10am and noon on Wednesday 20 November. Any interested residents are welcome.
Background: The Wood
What might most surprise newer Juniper Green residents about Dr MacKay’s Wood is that it’s only around 20 years old!
The Wood is named after local resident Dr Reggie MacKay, who bought the land back in 1927—partly to house a pony, partly to preserve the view south to the Pentland Hills, which he enjoyed from his family home on the north side of Lanark Road (he lived in Muir House, long-since split into three flats and renamed Baberton Court).
In 1939, he donated the land to Edinburgh Corporation, on the condition that it be “kept as an open space and laid out as an ornamental pleasure ground… and that no buildings other than a small shelter shall be erected.”
As successor local authority, the land is now owned by the City of Edinburgh Council but, for many years, responsibility for its maintenance has been shared with the local community. For example, it was the Juniper Green Village Association who, in 2004, took on the task and decided to create a woodland for the local community to enjoy.
With an eye on conservation and encouraging biodiversity, a wide variety of native trees were planted in the field, including rowan, gean, bird cherry, field maple, birch and (of course) juniper. At the time, the creation of the new woodland was supported by The Edinburgh Green Belt Trust (with grant funding from the City of Edinburgh Council), the Scottish Executive (now Scottish Government) and Greenspace Scotland.
It was always the intention that, as the Wood matured, maintenance work carried out by local volunteers – such as weeding, grass-cutting, and tree-thinning – would ensure the trees didn’t block the views south, which Dr MacKay had so loved. Unfortunately, that volunteer support has long-since fallen away, leaving the Wood to grow uncontrolled.
As the 90th anniversary of the land being gifted to the city approaches (in 2029), a small group of interested locals are keen to ensure that Dr MacKay’s Wood remains a valuable local asset—not just now but for decades to come. Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust are willing to provide help, with at least some initial coordination by members of the Juniper Green & Baberton Mains Community Council.
However, there remains a need for local people to take a genuine interest in the Wood and to help bring it back to pristine condition. Interested?
