Water of Leith Conservation Trust

18/06/2026

https://www.waterofleith.org.uk/events/guided-wade-with-johnny-bonnington-to-redbraes/
Something different this weekend. A guided WADE with Ranger Johnny. We have a few spaces left if you would like to join us. Based in the Bonnington area. Waders will be provided please give our shoe size, also bear in mind this in IN the river so very uneven and potentially slippery.

We will provide waders and poles, you need to be physically fit for this one as access is tricky and the river bed rocky and unpredictable.

16/06/2026

As part of the Veolia - UK volunteering week we had their Edinburgh team out at Redbraes this morning.

They provided their muscle to give the walkway a much well needed trim back of the walkway to keep everything nice and open for users.

12/06/2026

Weekly Update 8th - 14th of June.

Practical conservation sessions at St Marks , Riccarton, Currie, Balerno and the Cockburn. With a focus on hunting invasive species, litter and trimming the walkway back.

With just two more weeks of schools before the holidays. The education team have hosted almost 40 classes connect them to their local river and woodlands. This week they hosted two groups from Erskine Stewart's Melville Schools

12/06/2026

Walkway closure - Currie Kirkgate to Waulkmill Loan

We have just be advised of the following from the natural heritage team of the council responsible for the walkway.

I write to inform you that we have, unfortunately had to close the Water of Leith Walkway at Kinauld Tan Works Footbridge (Approx. Location: https://w3w.co/minute.guises.looked) as a hole has appeared in the bridge. There is no through route over this bridge in either direction and the suggested diversion is via Lanark Road West.

Presently, we do not know the scale of the damage or the underlying cause, this will be investigated in due course. Meantime, we need to protect the public and have therefore made the difficult decision to close the bridge to ensure public safety. While the hole is currently relatively small in size, it is still big enough for someone to get their foot caught in it or for a horse to get a hoof caught. Also, we do not know how this hole will develop over the weekend and it may increase in size.

We are therefore asking everyone to respect this closure and for their own safety and the safety of others to use an alternative route.

08/06/2026

The wonders of the water of leith

08/06/2026

Weekly Update 1st – 7th of June

An action packed first week of June across the board with four conservation tasks, four education groups and a celebration to round off the week.
Our regular conservation volunteers were also joined by corporate volunteers from Scottish Power, Aberdeen Plc, Revenue Scotland and Scottish Enterprise.

On Monday we were down in Stockbridge with volunteers wading for rubbish and invasive species, trimming back the walkway and litter picking.

Tuesday was tributary day, working on the Murrayburn and John’s Burn. One group continued the battle again Giant Hogweed up at Riccarton, while the other surveyed the river invertebrate population and pulled Himalayan Balsam near Balerno.

Wednesday saw our monthly boat clean up down in Leith with the basin and local area swept for litter, pollinators surveyed, vegetation cut back, paths swept and graffiti removed.

Education has groups from Murrayburn, Towerbank, Longstone and Gore Glen primary schools who spend their sessions exploring woodlands, finding invertebrates and learning how to look after our natural environment.

We ended our week with a celebration of Coalie Park in Leith, marking the huge transformation of this community space over the last couple of years. A massive thank you to everyone who was involved in regenerating this space.

04/06/2026

Join us for a fun afternoon of activities at Coalie Park this Sunday from 12pm to 3pm, as we celebrate the transformation of this community space over the last 2 yrs. Check out all these before and after photos. Activities include:
Nature and Art Activities
Explore the Park Treasure Hunt
Wheeled fun at the Skate Area
Clean-up Games
Cake and Juice at 2pm
Free event just come along

01/06/2026

More great work by Andy Arthur on the history of Edinburgh

On this day, 40 years ago, a councillor cut the ceremonial ribbon and opened a section of cycle path in north Edinburgh. This was a rather special bit of cycle path however as it hadn’t been …

31/05/2026

Weekly 25th - 31st of May

As May comes to an end we've racked up 902 volunteer hours this month on the conservation side of our work. This week our volunteers were involved with scything, Giant Hogweed digging, spring cleaning the river, gardening and a glow up around the visitor centre.

Whilst our education team hosted pupils from Juniper Green primary school and Linlithgow High at the centre, whilst also doing outreach with Dunedin High.

For our volunteers Monday was a double task with a small team doing some mosaic scything at Juniper Green meadow to help extend the flowering season. Whilst a bigger group were down at Redbraes clearing rubbish and hunting for Giant Hogweed.

On Tuesday we swept from the bypass to the end of Heriot Watt University campus for Giant Hogweed Along the way we found some big beast to dispatch to make sure none seed this year.

Wednesday was up at Balerno giving the walkway a trim back, removing tagging, weeding the garden and litter picking. Then we rounded off the week on Sunday weeding around the visitor centre and litter picking locally.

24/05/2026