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In order to engage with and better understand users of the walkway, we are lauching an online survey of cyclists which will run until the end of May. The survey can be accessed here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/TDCYJMN Please promote this amongst your friends through Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets. The path through the Dean Valley forms part of the Council’s planned ‘QuietRoutes’ network of cycle routes across the city. This aims to provide a network of routes that are suitable for less-confident / less-experienced cyclists and is a key part of the Council’s ‘Active Travel Action Plan 2010-2020’ (originally referred...
The walkway through Dean Valley is immensely popular and the count of those using the walkway in August showed a dramatic rise in numbers by 37% to over 11,000 people using the walkway over a seven day period. In partnership with Living Streets Scotland, a charity promoting safe everyday walking in the UK, we installed automatic counters beside St Bernard's Well, in the heart of Dean Valley, to find out how many people exactly were using the walkway on a daily basis. Recent numbers from Living Streets show that an impressive total of 11,001 people either walked, jogged or cycled...
By David Perry In autumn, 1825, John Learmonth, the senior partner in the family’s coach-building business, feued 133 acres of the Dean Estate from Sir John Nisbet. The southern boundary of this land stood on the edge of an abyss - the Dean - created by the Water of Leith as it cut its way through the rock over the centuries. 100 feet below, the river flow drove the mills of the Village of the Water of Leith. And 500 feet across the ravine, on Randolph Cliff, grand new buildings were going up in the New Town. Learmonth wished to...
This year marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of Edinburgh’s Georgian New Town, and the publication of John Byrom’s much-awaited manual on the gardens that are so integral to this UNESCO World Heritage Site. The book is the result of decades of research, providing detailed guidance on the long term management and maintenance of Edinburgh’s 47 circus, square, crescent and informal grid-edge gardens that has remained previously unpublished. These gardens are very special, specifically designed to add colour and vibrancy to the city’s urban landscape – lush green contrasts to the classical sandstone architecture. They not only contribute aesthetically...

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