Friends of Figgate Park

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 01 Mar 2008, 16:59

The inaugural meeting of Friends of Figgate Park takes place on Wednesday 19 March at 7:30 pm in the Northfield/Willowbrae Community Centre. The park, which celebrates its 70th anniversary next month, is one of the finest green spaces in Edinburgh and a haven for wildlife.

Porty · Post by **Porty** » 01 Mar 2008, 19:30

sounds good.

Post by **wangi** » 04 Mar 2008, 14:48

Bob Jefferson wrote:The inaugural meeting of Friends of Figgate Park takes place on Wednesday 19 March at 7:30 pm in the Northfield/Willowbrae Community Centre. The park, which celebrates its 70th anniversary next month, is one of the finest green spaces in Edinburgh and a haven for wildlife.

vs

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/edinb ... 3839218.jp

A MEETING on enhancing Figgate Park in Portobello will be held later this month.
The inaugural meeting of friends of the park will take place on March 19 at 7.30pm in the Northfield and Willowbrae Community Centre.

The park, which celebrates its 70th anniversary next month, is a haven for wildlife.

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 10 Mar 2008, 22:34

The cheque's in the post I imagine. Remember you read it here first folks!

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 23 Mar 2008, 12:28

I was unable to attend the meeting but Tom Forsyth was elected chair and has just phoned me with an update.

Anyone interested in becoming a friend of Figgate Park can contact Tom at tomforsyth1@yahoo.co.uk

Membership is a nominal £1 but feel free to donate more if you wish. I'm off for a walk there this afternoon. Tom tells me that a new picnic bench was installed last year and that the Council is carrying out improvements, including new planting to enhance its status as a wildlife park.

If you would like to get directly involved, come along to the big clean up, starting at 10 am on Sunday 13 April. A limited selection of gloves and litter pickers will be provided. Bring waders if you have them.

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 09 Apr 2008, 19:33

I was amused to see that Dave Connelly is in the process of setting up a web site for 'Friends of Figgate Park'. You may recall that I invited Tom Forsyth, the chair, to speak at the most recent Community Council meeting.

I'm sure that Tom is very grateful for the offer of help, which I assume is free of charge, but maybe isn't aware that Dave's PPAG chums are on record as suggesting Figgate Park as a site for the new Portobello High School. With friends like these...

Of course PPAG claimed that they were misunderstood and soon dropped their 'Save Our Park, Build On Someone Else's' stance, to be replaced by 'Save Our Park, Build On An As Yet Unidentified Alternative Site, One Must Exist Somewhere Surely?' approach, before finally settling on 'Re-build Onsite, Playing Fields For Our Kids, Concrete For Yours.'

So, how long do you think it will be before a 'Friends of Portobello Park' group is announced? Watch this space!

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 13 Apr 2008, 18:15

Good turn out this morning for the clean up. Hopefully some pics to follow. I have now added a gallery of Tom Forsyth's photos of Figgate Park at:

http://porty.org.uk/gallery4/thumbnails.php?album=35

Poppy · Post by **Poppy** » 13 Apr 2008, 18:54

What have you done with the mallards, Bob & Friends??? There were hardly any today, although there were a few Goldeneyes & Goosanders.

We had a good time watching Mummy Swan sitting in the nest preparing it. And some geese preening themselves which involved doing a sort of semi-sommersault and lying on their back!

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 13 Apr 2008, 19:20

Maybe our presence scared them off. We dragged three bikes and a mini-scooter out of the water. There was also a couple of armchairs, a wooden pallet, bricks, bottles and about ten thousand crisp packets.

Poppy · Post by **Poppy** » 13 Apr 2008, 19:22

Good grief - armchairs!!??

Well done to you all - I'd have come along but it was a late night last night!

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 13 Apr 2008, 19:27

That's OK, you can make up for it by joining Marya and I for the clean up of Rosefield and Brighton parks on Saturday 26 April, meeting at 10 am in Rosefield Park.

Poppy · Post by **Poppy** » 13 Apr 2008, 21:03

No thanks.

No ducks in those parks!

Maria · Post by **Maria** » 13 Apr 2008, 21:22

No ducks, but we did find a dead swan one year.

Well done to those who made the Figgie clean up. My excuse for missing it is that I've finally succombed to the lurgy that's been doing the rounds and feel very sorry for myself *gives a pathetic cough*

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 01 May 2008, 09:12

Friends of Figgate Park clean-up

Some of the many kids who helped out with the BRRA clean-up

Maria · Post by **Maria** » 14 Mar 2009, 15:21

Anyone been to Figgate Park recently? Hear there are lots of improvements going on.

Epykat · Post by **Epykat** » 14 Mar 2009, 17:03

We walk round Figgate Park quite regularly Marya and there are lots of changes going on. Apparently they're building some kind of boardwalk round one side and they've cleared loads of the old willow trees away to open it out more. Mr E saw a Kingfisher a couple of weeks ago too. He was more that a wee bit chuffed

BeachBum · Post by **BeachBum** » 31 Mar 2009, 17:51

Edinburgh Evening News 31-3-09 wrote:
Step forward for park clean-up

Volunteers are being sought to assist in a clean-up of a city park.

The Friends of Figgate Park group is appealing for help in clearing litter from the Duddingston park in its annual spring clean, which takes place on Sunday from 10am.

Pal of Porty · Post by **Pal of Porty** » 31 Mar 2009, 18:28

Is the Figgate Park that "flat, featureless piece of land" where PPAG wanted to build St. John's?

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 31 Mar 2009, 18:53

Nah, can't be. The Friends of Figgate Park website is run by the same guy that runs the PPAG website. That just wouldn't make sense.

Franck · Post by **Franck** » 02 Apr 2009, 11:24

Poppy wrote:No thanks.

No ducks in those parks!

Yes there is.In Rosefield there is currently 2 male & 1 female mallard ducks.They land in the burn just outside my hoose and paddle merrily up to the park.They are here every summer and use the quieter side of the burn to raise their brood.There's also an occasional Heron.

Eck · Post by **Eck** » 02 Apr 2009, 12:20

There was a woodpecker busy at work in the Figgate Park yesterday. It was in the 4 large trees that are at the East end off the park, near to the entrance next to Duddingston Park.

There was also a Cormorant last week in the 'pond'.

Poppy · Post by **Poppy** » 02 Apr 2009, 19:35

Franck wrote: In Rosefield there is currently 2 male & 1 female mallard ducks.They land in the burn just outside my hoose and paddle merrily up to the park.They are here every summer and use the quieter side of the burn to raise their brood.There's also an occasional Heron.

Aww! Cuteness!!

We've got much the same re mallards in the pond at work in Leith so I'm looking forward to seeing the babies.

Poppy · Post by **Poppy** » 02 Apr 2009, 19:37

Eck wrote:There was also a Cormorant last week in the 'pond'.

See the Photo thread for a photo of a Figgy cormorant and a wee Figgy fishy!!

teddygirl · Post by **teddygirl** » 04 Apr 2009, 19:40

Eck wrote:There was a woodpecker busy at work in the Figgate Park yesterday. It was in the 4 large trees that are at the East end off the park, near to the entrance next to Duddingston Park.

There was also a Cormorant last week in the 'pond'.

Wow, I've never seen a woodpecker there before. I've seen lots of different birds there including the kingfisher a couple of years ago but never a woodpecker, I'll be up soon looking out for it.

Recently we have had a flock of long tail tits visiting the Daisy Park, hadn't seen them there before.

Poppy · Post by **Poppy** » 04 Apr 2009, 20:10

The longtailed tits seemed to thriving this year - I've seen several in places I've never seen them before too. Cute wee things.

Eck · Post by **Eck** » 08 Apr 2009, 14:41

First AGM.

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topst ... 5152105.jp

Post by **wangi** » 28 Jul 2010, 21:27

I see Figgate Park is to get a "Green Flag" award:

Award-winning parks make the Capital's rivals green with envy
By SANDRA DICK
...
Edinburgh City Council today takes receipt of eight new Green Flags to add to the five it already has, bringing the total of award-winning parks to 13, which is more than any other local authority in Scotland.

As well as Inverleith Park, flags will soon fly at the more compact Station Road Park in South Queensferry, Figgate Park in Portobello, Craigmillar Castle Park, Corstorphine Hill, Portobello Community Garden, Burdiehouse Burn Valley Park and London Road Gardens.
...

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/featu ... 6443603.jp