Cathedral Grounds
Volunteer with us
The Cathedral grounds are currently undergoing a process of regeneration, with planning permission now secured to develop a community garden on the north lawn and a native wild flower meadow on the south lawn. Both developments include orchard planting.
To assist this process we run regular volunteer gardening days, including a Thursday gardening group from 10am-1pm. To join us or find out more please contact Jonathan Baxter at A+E.
Radical Harvest
In October 2024 we started working with students from the Radical Harvest Masters design studio within the University of Edinburgh School for Architecture and Landscape Architecture.
The project outcomes are now installed on the south lawn. Additional archival and explanatory material will be shown as part of the Cathedral’s summer programme 2025. See below for more details:
On 5 benches you will find names
of species at risk across Scotland in 2025.
Sitting at each bench you will face a waymark
towards the habitats these beings call home.
On Sacred Ground is a temporary installation, designed and built by University of Edinburgh students Ollie Howell, Joseph Simms and Jaaziel Kajoba. Together 5 benches and 5 waymarks form a dial for relating oneself to landscapes and the beings that call them home. A space to sit, to gather, to contemplate, to remember.
The project aims to answer the need for seating and gathering spaces within the cathedral grounds through asking questions championed by A+E. “We ask, how might the Cathedral’s buildings and grounds be repurposed in light of the climate and ecological crisis and what might that mean for the Cathedral’s self-identity as a place of regeneration and hope?” A cathedral is a powerful infrastructure for ritual and memorialisation. Who is remembered in these spaces? Positioned as a celebration and a reminder of the abundant biodiversity around us, these small structures become a set of pre-emptive memorials to the beings yet to be lost.
Across Scotland we have identified 5 key habitats at risk: Woodland, Marine, Fresh Water, Moorland & Mountain. Each habitat is memorialised by a corresponding bench and waymark pair. Inscribed into each bench are the names of the species that reside in the given habitat: Capercaillie, Snow Bunting, Atlantic Salmon, Whorl Snail, Sand Deceiver and many others, each remembered through the act of casting their name in earth. From each bench you face a waymark, informing you which habitat these beings reside in and orientating you towards them. The waymarks form a set of ‘playful furnitures’ that prompt new interactions, allowing participants to re-imagine their relationship to the cathedral grounds.
Each habitat is celebrated through ornamentation drawn directly from the cathedral and altered to represent beings found within them. Drawing heavily upon the principles of Ruskin these sculptures have been created to express the maker’s love of the natural world through an earth based Gothic architecture.
On Sacred Ground was completed with a budget of £100. Earth was gathered from the nearby Cowdenbeath Quarry. Timber was salvaged and donated from across the city of Edinburgh. Scaffold boards were donated by AMF Access. CLS was donated from BE-ST. Engineered oak and Victorian pine floorboards were salvaged from a refurbishment in Morningside. The remaining Items were purchased: hemp, screws for fixings, linseed oil for treatment. The work has been completed as part of the Radical Harvest Masters design studio within the University of Edinburgh school for Architecture and Landscape Architecture.
It will be animated by its users and integrated into the cathedral’s outdoor worship and liturgy.
A+E 