Friends Of Easter Craiglockhart Hill

We had a great volunteering session yesterday, thank you to everyone who came. The team tended to our trees and planted some more juniper. We have 90 trees to plant in March. If you'd like to get involved please email us: friends@eastercraiglockharthill.org

Great work from the Sunday volunteers yesterday to complete the last 10m of dead hedge alongside the zigzag path. This is a great habitat for insects and is a barrier to prevent material falling into the path. Good effort everyone!

Once storm Eowyn passed last weekend, an intrepid group of volunteers braved the cold to take part in RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch on the hill. Between the lower woodland and upper meadow, we counted 36 birds of 12 different species that landed in our sight within an hour.

A great return to Sunday volunteering in 2025! Thanks to everyone who came along. We cleared the mud that moves onto the path outside the sports centre and extended the dead hedge at the marsh end of the pond - taking care not to trample snowdrops that are emerging on the hill.

Exciting news - the pontoon is finished! The gates are open now so please do have a wee nosey. There are two roosting platforms either side of the pontoon which will be perfect for the birds sunbathing in the summer.

We've been quiet on volunteering posts, but we're still active every second Sunday! On Sunday we built more dead hedge, cut sycamore branches as per our Management Plan & raked the zigzag path. The dead hedge provides habitat, food for animals & prevents soil erosion on paths.

Materials for the pontoon have been delayed until 18th November 2024. The work will restart once materials arrive. The contractor reused as much of the original structure as possible & takes care not to disturb swans and wildfowl; they leave the water via ramps beside the works.

We have some news about our dear Brighid (NUU)! The SSPCA have told us: "NUU was released at Linlithgow Loch on 28th May 2024. No records since then.” No sign of Brighid on the pond since and let’s hope she stays in her new home and is happily settled there.

We hope everybody enjoyed our organised Geology Walk. A big thank you to Angus Miller from Geowalks for sharing his knowledge of all things geology on Easter Craiglockhart Hill. We loved imagining how our wee hill would have looked 350 million years ago!

A young boy said to us: ‘that’s not a pirate ship, there’s no mast!’ FECH take feedback of this kind very seriously so we are renovating our salty dog to make her seaworthy again. If you see us working on the ship, please throw us a piece of eight and don’t feed the parrot!

ERIC UPDATE: Eric is doing well; he has had some x-rays and a small procedure to attend to his injured leg. He’s doing great now, has a friend in with him at the centre and they are both due to hopefully be released later this week.

Thanks for your patience whilst the ramp is being repaired. Work'll be finished by 16 October, weather permitting Work to replace the pontoons at the sports centre end of the pond starts on 14 October. There will be a diversion in place around the sports centre for several weeks

FOUND CAT The Little Monkeys had a wee cat following them from the woods to the nursery today. It's steel grey and has a tartan collar, unfortunately without contact details on. If this is your cat, or you know the owner, please get in touch with Little Monkeys directly.

Swan update Eric is still receiving treatment at Fishcross from the SSPCA. Once he’s recovered he will be returned to the pond and reunited with his family. We have no date as yet but will publish one when we hear

RAMP PATH The council have engaged a company to fix the ramp. Work commences Monday 7th October & involves path closures & heavy machinery. The timescale of the work is unknown but we'll update you when we know Please avoid the area & keep children & dogs safe around the works

Eric, the male adult swan on the pond, has had a sore leg for weeks & was struggling so the SSPCA were called on Wednesday. We hope he’ll make a swift recovery and be back with his family very soon. In the meantime Dotty is looking after the four adolescent swans by herself.

Easter Craiglockhart Hill is teeming with fascinating insects! We came across a new one to us: the devil's coach horse beetle. It hunts worms, slugs, spiders, & woodlice by wielding its powerful jaws to capture prey, and when it feels threatened it lifts its tail like a scorpion!

We teamed up with a local canoe club to clear some litter that's been in the pond for ages. Thanks guys! On a less positive note, we've had repeated incidents of people breaking or moving signs. It's extremely disheartening having to retrieve and fix the signage on the hill.

The ramp from the Meadowspot path to the pond is in a bad state & worsening. The council are responsible for fixing the path but have no timescale yet as they're trying to secure funds & contractor to do the work. The council’s position is that the path is shut as it’s dangerous.

On Sunday, our volunteers got stuck into planting 300 daffodil bulbs. They need a wee while to bed in, so we hope spring of 2026 will look especially daffodil-y!