Remember WhenL It's all grow at Botanics

A HISTORIC cottage where some of Scotland's most important botanists studied 250 years ago reopened to the public earlier this week after it was dismantled stone by stone and rebuilt at a new site.

An elderly woman stops to look at the large wooden sculpture Orbit II in the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, August 1980

The Botanic Cottage, which was completed on May 10, 1766, stood at the entrance to the former site of the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh in Leith Walk.

It was rescued from demolition in 2008, meticulously dismantled and transported one mile to the present Botanics site at Inverleith.

The Georgian building has now been re-assembled in a £1.6 million project, using traditional techniques and historically accurate materials, as a state-of-the-art centre for community and education work.

Schoolboy Colin Arthur feeding a grey squirrel in The Botanic Gardens Edinburgh in January 1969

As our pictures show, there is always something going on at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh.

In August 1980, we captured an elderly woman stopping to look at the large wooden sculpture Orbit II.

And in 1969, schoolboy Colin Arthur showed he had an affinity with animals as he fed a grey squirrel.

Botanics workers were hard at it inside one of the hot houses in October 1967.

Meanwhile, a family was enjoying a stroll amongst the autumn leaves as the sun shone on the gardens in October 1965.

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