The Meadows, Edinburgh

The Meadows is a broad public park south of Edinburgh’s city centre, with open grassland, tree-lined paths and spaces for sport. Its quiet landscape conceals a watery past: the area once held the South Loch, which supplied much of the town’s drinking water until Edinburgh gained piped water from Comiston in 1621. Drainage work ordered by Sir Thomas Hope in 1722 transformed marshy ground into a park with avenues, canals and a path around its edge.

The land remained protected from construction by an Act of Parliament in 1827. It also helped shape Edinburgh football: Hearts and Hibernian played their inaugural derby here on 25 December 1875. During the Second World War, more than 500 allotments occupied the park for the city’s Victory garden programme. The Meadows is still known for its mature elms, even though Dutch elm disease has reduced their number.