Morning Briefing: £40m Botanic Garden revamp revealed

The attraction has revealed details of a long-awaited blueprint which will include replacing or upgrading all of its historic glasshouses and building a school of horticulture and botany.

The new masterplan follows a £1.5 million funding boost from the Scottish Government.

Several new state-of-the-art structures are to be created in a bid to increase visitor numbers by 40 per cent. Some of these new eco-friendly buildings will replace existing research houses which were built in the 1960s and 1970s and expected to last 20 years.

The move will mean all of the Botanics’ research facilities being centralised on the one site. Professor Stephen Blackmore, regius keeper at the Botanics, said: “The masterplan will be one of the most significant developments in our long history.”

• THE buried secrets which lay beneath one of Edinburgh’s busiest nightspots have been uncovered by an archaeological dig in the

Cowgate.

Archaeologists digging in the historic Edinburgh street have discovered a series of buildings dating back to the 16th century and artefacts ranging from combs to a primitive board game.

The last phase of excavation of the site, which is being developed by SoCo, has revealed the street frontages of the 16th-century buildings previously discovered.

Experts have already described the finds as among the most important ever uncovered in the Capital.

The latest findings are the final phase of architectural work which has been going on for the past ten years, following a major fire which raged for more than 52 hours and destroyed 13 buildings in 2002.

City council archaeologist John Lawson, pictured below, told the Evening News: “This part of the dig was the last piece of the puzzle – when all the discoveries are put together, I think it will be one of the most important archeological finds in Edinburgh. We’re getting evidence of 500 years of Edinburgh history, covering everything from early mansions of the rich to the slums of the 19th century.”

The excavation is also believed to have uncovered the work of the famed Scottish archeological family the Adams.

• A HEALTH warning has been issued to body art fans after a suspected rogue tattoo artist was arrested in the Capital.

The 28-year-old man had allegedly been operating a mobile tattooing business, which would see him travel to customers’ homes to carry out his work, despite not having the proper qualifications or licences.

Following the arrest, health chiefs warned of the dangers of using unlicensed tattooists, saying unhygienic equipment could spread viruses including HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C.

Erik Grieve, a tattoo artist at Tribe Tattoos in Broughton Street, said amateur tattooists were becoming increasingly common, with the industry being glamorised by television shows such as Miami Ink.

Mr Grieve said: “It’s a huge concern. There’s artistic dangers and the health implications can be horrendous.

“The licensing laws mean any studio has to apply for a licence, pay for it and be inspected. The council will come and make sure studios are up to the same hygiene standards as hospitals.

“Now people can get a cheaper tattoo from people who don’t know what they’re doing. But the reason tattoos in legitimate studios are expensive is because we’ve got to have the licences and proof we do know what we’re doing.”