Regent, Royal and Carlton Terrace Gardens

Last updated

Afternoon in March in the centre of Regent Gardens, Edinburgh Regent Gardens, Edinburgh, March 2023.jpg
Afternoon in March in the centre of Regent Gardens, Edinburgh

The Regent, Royal and Carlton Terrace Gardens (informally called Regent Gardens, and previously known as the Calton Hill Pleasure Ground and the Large Garden) are private communal gardens in the New Town area of Edinburgh, EH7. They lie over a 4.8-hectare (12-acre) site on the east side of Calton Hill. [1] [2] The gardens have been listed on the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes as part of the New Town gardens heritage designation since March 2001. [1] The gardens form some of the collection of New Town Gardens.

Contents

The Regent, Royal and Carlton Terrace Gardens on an ordnance survey map from 1890s Regent Gardens, Edinburgh, Ordnance Survey map 1890s.jpg
The Regent, Royal and Carlton Terrace Gardens on an ordnance survey map from 1890s

The gardens are secluded high up on the hill, with impressive views southeast over Holyrood to Arthur's Seat and north across the Firth of Forth to Fife. [3] However, viewing the gardens from close nearby is difficult except from the adjacent properties. [1] [4] They are the largest and most impressively landscaped of all the gardens in Edinburgh's New Town remaining in private ownership. [3]

Design and history

The Regent, Royal and Carlton Terrace Gardens form a roughly triangular plot bordered on its two long sides by the individual domestic gardens of Regent Terrace and Royal Terrace. [1] They include an additional thin strip of land on the opposite (east) side, between Regent and Carlton Terraces and Regent Road.

The gardens were created between 1830 and 1832; the feu having been granted after an agreement that the ground be used for pleasure gardens. The gardens were laid out with the help of the naturalist and gardener Patrick Neill and botanist Robert Graham, the Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden. The layout of the gardens has remained largely unchanged since its inception. [5]

Sign by the west entrance to Regent Gardens Regent Gardens carving.jpg
Sign by the west entrance to Regent Gardens

The layout is broadly divided into a large 2.8-hectare (7-acre) area with six distinct lawns and a smaller 2-hectare (5-acre) area of woodland. The lawns are surrounded with several different species of trees, including an avenue of lime trees, and a series of horse chestnuts along a ha-ha near the Calton Hill boundary wall at the top of the grounds. Various paths covered by trees surround the large lawn area. The woodland area is planted with snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils and bluebells. [1] [5]

Two tennis courts were laid in the north west part of the gardens between 1882 and 1883; these were replaced by a more permanent court in 1889. [6] In 2012, this court area was enlarged and the red brick dust surface was replaced with green asphalt. [7]

Species

Crocuses in Regent Gardens in February Regentgardens2.jpg
Crocuses in Regent Gardens in February

Some of the older trees date back to the early 19th century. A chestnut tree planted in 1826 lasted until 2011, when it was felled due to disease. The following tree species were recorded in the gardens at the end of the 20th century: ash ( Fraxinus excelsior ), beech, black poplar ( Populus nigra ), cherry ( Prunus avium ), common lime ( Tilia × europaea ), English elm (Ulmus minor 'Atinia'), hawthorn ( Crataegus monogyna ), holly, horse chestnut ( Aesculus hippocastanum ), laburnum ( Laburnum anagyroides ), Norway maple ( Acer platanoides ), oak ( Quercus robur ), rowan ( Sorbus aucuparia ), silver birch ( Betula pendula ), small leafed lime ( Tilia cordata ), sweet chestnut ( Castanea sativa ), sycamore ( Acer pseudoplatanus ), tulip tree ( Liriodendron tulipifera ), whitebeam ( Sorbus aria ), white poplar ( Populus alba ), and wych elm ( Ulmus glabra ). [1]

Management

Title page for the Contract of Feu of 1836 for Calton Hill Pleasure Ground Contract of Feu of 1836.jpg
Title page for the Contract of Feu of 1836 for Calton Hill Pleasure Ground

The management of the gardens is governed by a Local Act of Parliament, the Regent, Royal and Carlton Terrace Gardens, Edinburgh Order Confirmation Act 1970, which received Royal Assent in May 1970, based on the original Contract of Feu of 1836. [8] [6]

The gardens are looked after by the Regent Royal and Carlton Terrace Gardens Association. [1] The journalist and editor Arnold Kemp wrote of his experiences serving on the association committee in the 1970s in a 1993 article for The Herald . [9] [10]

The gardens are publicly accessible each year through the Doors Open Days scheme. [11]

Bibliography

Ha-ha in Regent Gardens, planted with horse chestnuts Regent Gardens haha, Edinburgh 18 June 2022.jpg
Ha-ha in Regent Gardens, planted with horse chestnuts

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Henry Playfair</span> Scottish architect (1790-1857)

William Henry PlayfairFRSE was a prominent Scottish architect in the 19th century, who designed the Eastern, or Third, New Town and many of Edinburgh's neoclassical landmarks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calton Hill</span> Hill in central Edinburgh, Scotland

Calton Hill is a hill in central Edinburgh, Scotland, situated beyond the east end of Princes Street and included in the city's UNESCO World Heritage Site. Views of, and from, the hill are often used in photographs and paintings of the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buff-tip</span> Species of moth

The buff-tip is a moth of the family Notodontidae. It is found throughout Europe and in Asia to eastern Siberia. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grey dagger</span> Species of moth

The grey dagger is a moth of the family Noctuidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dugald Stewart Monument</span>

The Dugald Stewart Monument is a memorial to the Scottish philosopher Dugald Stewart (1753–1828). It is situated on Calton Hill overlooking the city of Edinburgh and was designed by Scottish architect William Henry Playfair.

<i>Ulmus minor</i> Stricta Elm cultivar

The field elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Stricta', known as Cornish elm, was commonly found in South West England, Brittany, and south-west Ireland, until the arrival of Dutch elm disease in the late 1960s. The origin of Cornish elm in England remains a matter of contention. It is commonly assumed to have been introduced from Brittany. It is also considered possible that the tree may have survived the ice ages on lands to the south of Cornwall long since lost to the sea. Henry thought it "probably native in the south of Ireland". Dr Max Coleman of Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, arguing in his 2002 paper on British elms that there was no clear distinction between species and subspecies, suggested that known or suspected clones of Ulmus minor, once cultivated and named, should be treated as cultivars, preferred the designation U. minor 'Stricta' to Ulmus minor var. stricta. The DNA of 'Stricta' has been investigated and the cultivar is now known to be a clone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aller and Beer Woods</span>

Aller and Beer Woods is a 56.9 hectares biological Site of Special Scientific Interest. off the A372 Othery to Langport road near Aller in Somerset. It was notified in 1952.

The Museo e Arboreto Carlo Siemoni is a museum and historic arboretum located in Badia Prataglia, Poppi, Province of Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stepanavan Dendropark</span> Arboretum in Armenia

Officially Sochut Dendropark named after Edmund Leonowicz, commonly knowns as Stepanavan Dendropark, is an arboretum located near the Gyulagarak village, Lori Province, Armenia. Located around 85 km (53 mi) north of the capital Yerevan, the park was founded in 1931 by Polish engineer-forester Edmund Leonowicz. The arboretum is 35 ha in total of which 17.5 ha consist of natural forest and 15 ha of ornamental trees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regent Terrace</span>

Regent Terrace is a residential street of 34 classical 3-bay townhouses built on the upper south side of Calton Hill in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. Regent Terrace is within the Edinburgh New and Old Town UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upper Wye Gorge</span>

Upper Wye Gorge is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), noted for its biological and geological characteristics, around Symonds Yat in the Wye Valley on the Wales–England border. The site is listed in the 'Forest of Dean Local Plan Review' as a Key Wildlife Site (KWS).

<i>Ulmus minor</i> Monumentalis Elm cultivar

The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Monumentalis', the tomb elm (Grabmal-Rüster), was raised as a sucker of U. suberosa by Sebastian Rinz, the city gardener of Frankfurt, before 1855 and listed by the Jacob-Makoy nursery of Liège in their 1861 catalogue as Ulmus monumentalisRinz, "a new variety". Kirchner (1864) described it, confirming that it had only recently been propagated by Rinz and established in the nursery. It was distributed from the 1880s by the Baudriller nursery, Angers, and by the Späth nursery, Berlin, as U. campestris monumentalisRinz., appearing separately in their catalogues from U. minor 'Sarniensis', the Guernsey or Wheatley Elm, with which, according to Henry, it was confused on the continent. Krüssmann, for example, gives 'Monumentalis' as a synonym of 'Sarniensis'. 'Sarniensis' is known as monumentaaliep [:monumental elm] in The Netherlands. Springer noted that the Dutch monumentaaliep was "not the actual monumentaaliep but U. glabraMill.var. Wheatleyi Sim. Louis", and that it "should be renamed U. glabraMill. var. monumentalisHort.(non Rinz)". In England, Smith's of Worcester listed Ulmus monumentalis separately from Ulmus 'Wheatley' in the 1880s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Terrace, Edinburgh</span> Street in Edinburgh, Scotland

Royal Terrace is a grand street in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, on the north side of Calton Hill within the New Town and part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 1995, built on the south side of a setted street, facing the sloping banks of London Road Gardens, formerly Royal Terrace Gardens, with views looking north towards Leith and the Firth of Forth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlton Terrace, Edinburgh</span>

Carlton Terrace is a residential street in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located on the east side of Calton Hill, at the eastern extremity of the New Town, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">London Road Gardens, Edinburgh</span>

London Road Gardens are one of the collection of New Town Gardens located close to the city centre of Edinburgh in the New Town, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 1995. They occupy a long strip of land from east to west along the lower northern slope of Calton Hill, with an area of 4.37 hectares. The gardens are notable for their large, old trees including limes and some fine, surviving elms, also spring flowers, particularly daffodils.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bastejkalns Park</span> Park in Riga, Latvia

Bastejkalns Park is a spacious park on the eastern edge of the old town of Latvian capital Riga.

References

See also

55°57′20″N3°10′42″W / 55.95556°N 3.17833°W / 55.95556; -3.17833
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.