Heriot-Watt University wins prestigious prize
Weddle Landscape Design’s client of more than 40 years, Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, became the first Scottish university to win a Green Flag award, which recognises excellence in managing a green space.
The university’s campus has grown around the lost gardens of Riccarton House, a stately home that had fallen into disrepair by the mid-1950s and had to be demolished. The gardens had disappeared under weeds and undergrowth.
Since Midlothian Council gave the site to Heriot-Watt in 1968, however, it has been transformed into a picturesque parkland campus. The site accommodates 9000 students, plus staff, conference delegates and other visitors, as well as wildlife habitats. It is also free to visit for the public. Weddles started the transformation of the site in 1968 and is still advising the university today.
