We recently welcomed a very special visitor at one of our planting days in Scotland: the Bishop of Edinburgh. As part of an exciting initiative by the Church of Scotland to plant church orchards and community orchards, we’ve been working with St. Ninian’s Scottish Episcopal Church, an Eco-Congregation in Edinburgh’s Comely Bank, to plant an orchard in the church grounds.
To celebrate this fantastic endeavour, the Bishop of Edinburgh attended the planting to give the newly planted fruit trees his blessing. Three local Councillors also attended the planting, which is part of St. Ninian’s plans to ‘green-up’ their church and create a more wildlife-friendly space.
Bishop of Edinburgh blesses new fruit trees at St Ninians.
The new orchard at St. Ninian’s is part of The Orchard Project’s work with the Church of Scotland, through the Church and Community Orchard Twinning project. Another Eco-Congregation involved is Greyfriars Kirk, one of the oldest churches in the city of Edinburgh which gets thousands of visitors a year for its links to Harry Potter and the Greyfriar’s Bobby. The Kirk (Scottish word for ‘church’) recently hosted an apple tasting event, where over 30 different apple varieties were available to try. This allowed members of the congregation and members of the Grassmarket Community Project to decide which fruit trees they’d like to plant in or nearby to this celebrated establishment.
Over 30 varieties of apple to try at Greyfriars Kirk.