Lottery fund may help to reveal secrets of cottage

Published on Monday 4 August 2008 22:30

ITS run-down appearance gives little clue to its part in the history of one of Edinburgh's most treasured visitor attractions.

Yet the neglected stone cottage on the capital's Leith Walk is at the centre of a campaign which has won tens of thousands of pounds of National Lottery money.

Built to provide a home for the head gardener at the new Royal Botanic Garden after a larger site was commissioned in 1763, it is thought to have been designed by the renowned Edinburgh architect John Adam.

But little is known of its history and it is thought a treasure trove of archaeological secrets may be hidden in the fabric of the building or buried below its foundations.

The site of the cottage, used latterly as premises for a car hire firm, lies is earmarked for a major new hotel development on Leith Walk

It is hoped the 48,500 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund will help kickstart efforts to have the Botanic Cottage dismantled and moved brick by brick to the botanic garden's current home in Inverleith.

A major fundraising campaign is being planned to help properly preserve the history of the cottage and meet the cost of its relocation.

When it was built in 1773, the cottage was the home for the keeper of the botanics, John Williamson. It was finished just before the improvement works which raised the level of Leith Walk in 1776.

The Royal Botanic Garden was founded as a medicinal garden in 1670 on a site at St Anne's Yard, in the Holyrood area. Such was its success that it moved to a site now occupied by part of Waverley Station, before relocating to Leith Walk. It moves to its present location at Inverleith Row in 1820.

Among those involved in the rescue bid are the Edinburgh conservation architect James Simpson, a long-time champion of Botanic Cottage.

Eileen Dickie, spokeswoman for the Friends of Hopetoun Crescent Garden group, which is behind the rescue bid for the cottage, said: "This was the site of the old botanics immediately before it moved to Inverleith.

"It is really exciting that the house will be looked at by professional archaeologists and researchers and secrets will be unearthed for all to see.

"We might find proof in the archives that it was actually built by John Adam as the centre piece for the Leith Walk Royal Botanic Garden and that would be an exciting discovery."

Colin McLean, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in Scotland, said: "Our grant will mean that the secret histories of Botanic Cottage can be revealed and shared, and that people can learn about it long after the building itself has disappeared."

It took nearly two years to move all the plants from Leith Walk to the new site and thanks to a transplanting machine invented by the chief gardener William McNab hardly a single plant was lost.