Dunbar's Close Garden, Edinburgh

Dunbar’s Close Garden is a tucked-away garden shaped by the narrow passage that brings you into it. Its designer, Filor, created a sequence of compartments that echoes the long gardens once stretching downhill behind Old Town houses. You can see clipped parterres made with yew, box, holly and bay, along with an east-facing planting bed of old roses and irises set behind a long lavender hedge.

The ground descends from the Canongate towards Calton Road beside Canongate Kirk. This was not always a garden: the plot had fallen into neglect by the 1970s, before the Mushroom Trust took it on in 1975. The trust revived an idea associated with Patrick Geddes around 1900: small gardens in crowded districts where people could pause and catch their breath. Planting was renewed in 2007 and 2012.