Botanic gardens · Central Scotland
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Founded 1670, Edinburgh's 70-acre garden — world's largest rhododendron collection.
Greg Fitchett — CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons licence
Plan your visit
- Typical visit
- 1 h–2 h
- Family-friendly
About
Edinburgh Botanics — founded 1670 as a physic garden — is one of the oldest botanic gardens in the world. The 70-acre Inverleith site holds 13,500 plant species across glasshouses, the Chinese Hillside, the world's largest collection of rhododendrons in cultivation, and the John Hope Gateway visitor centre. Free to enter the grounds; charged glasshouses.
Photo gallery
From the Wikipedia article
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies four sites across Scotland—Edinburgh, Dawyck, Logan and Benmore—each with its own specialist collection. The RBGE's living collection consists of more than 13,302 plant species (34,422 accessions), whilst the herbarium contains in excess of 3 million preserved specimens. The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government. The Edinburgh site is the main garden and the headquarters of the public body, which is led by Regius Keeper Dr Julia Knights.
Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.
Background
History
The Edinburgh botanic garden was founded in 1670 at St. Anne's Yard, near Holyrood Palace, by Robert Sibbald and Andrew Balfour. It is the second oldest botanic garden in the UK after Oxford's. The plant collection used as the basis of the garden was the private collection of Sir Patrick Murray, 2nd Lord Elibank, moved from his home at Livingston Peel in 1672 following his death in September 1671. The original site was "obtained of John Brown, gardener of the North Yardes in the Holyrood Abby, an inclosure of some 40 foot of measure every way. By what we procured from Levingstone and other gardens, we made a collection of eight or nine hundred plants yr." This site proved too small, and in…
Description
The Botanic Garden's main site in Edinburgh is a hugely important player in a worldwide network of institutions seeking to ensure that biodiversity is not further eroded. Located one mile from the city centre it covers 70 acre. The RBGE is actively involved in, and coordinates numerous in situ and ex situ conservation projects both in the UK and internationally. The three main cross-cutting themes of scientific work at the RBGE are: Scottish Biodiversity, Plants & Climate Change, and Conservation. In addition to the RBGE's scientific activities the garden remains a popular destination for both tourists and locals. Locally known as "The Botanics", the garden is a popular place to go for a…
Sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Coordinates
- 55.9650, -3.2092
- District
- City of Edinburgh
- Postcode
- EH3 5NU
- Parliamentary constituency
- Edinburgh North and Leith
- Official site
- www.rbge.org.uk
Sources
- manual: royal-botanic-garden-edinburgh (manual)
- wikipedia: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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Frequently asked questions
- Where is Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh?
- Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is in central Scotland, United Kingdom (postcode EH3 5NU).
- When was Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh built?
- Dates from the Tudor or Stuart period.
- How do I get to Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh?
- Drivers can navigate to postcode EH3 5NU. It sits within the Edinburgh North and Leith parliamentary constituency.