Quingo Scooters aims to bring you a wide range of Britain’s best attractions as part of our Accessible Attractions series, this week we have one that’s perfect for keen gardeners. So why not take a trip out this summer for some gardening inspiration!
This week, we’re at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, founded in 1670 as a physic garden, it is now a world-renowned centre for plant science, horticulture and education.
The Gardens
The Gardens are dedicated to discovering and describing plants and their relationships, evolution, conservation and biology. There are four gardens that make up the Botanic Gardens, with each having a different use:
- Edinburgh – the grounds feature the world-famous Rock Garden, peat and woodland gardens, colourful herbaceous borders, large and well-stocked glasshouses and several specialist collections such as the Chinese Hillside.
- Benmore – a milder oceanic climate, growing trees and shrubs from high rainfall areas, especially conifers and rhododendrons.
- Dawyck – is suitable for hardy plants from the cooler, drier areas of the world.
- Logan – Scotland’s most exotic garden has an almost sub-tropical climate and provides ideal growing conditions for southern hemisphere plants.
As well as the stunning gardens to explore, the Botanic Gardens have many exhibitions running throughout the year. This summer visit their new exhibition, Plant Scenery of the World, as they mark the 50th anniversary of the ‘Front Range’, the Garden’s modernist Glasshouses that opening in 1967. Highlights of the exhibition will include:
- Laura Aldridge’s continued work with sculpture as an immersive, sensory-driven experience through a new nature printed floor, using exotic plant material grown in the Glasshouses.
- Charlie Billingham creates energetic and elegant room installations, with wall prints and painting installations stylistically borrowed from the work of Enlightenment and Regency-era social satirists.
- Oliver Osborne brings together a selection of emotive and ambivalent rubber plant paintings in a vivid room installation.
- Bobby Niven presents a series of hand carved anthropomorphic sculptures to animate the Gallery and Glasshouses.
Ticket prices and opening times
The Gardens are open daily from 1 March to 31 October. During March and October, the Gardens are open from 10am – 5pm, between April and September the Gardens are open from 10am – 6pm.
Prices for entry to the Gardens include a small voluntary donation: adults £6.50, concessions £5.50 and children (0-15) can enter free of charge.
For more information, visit the website here.
Getting there
The Botanic Gardens are set within the Lock Lomond & Trossachs National Park and the Argyll Forest Park.
By car and ferry visitors can use the Argyll Ferries and Western Ferries, which both sail from Gourock to Dunoon. The journey time is approximately 20 minutes – Argyll Ferries do not transport vehicles.
Using public transport, visitors can use West Coast Motors who operate a regular bus service daily to the Garden from Dunoon.
For more information regarding travelling to the Botanic Gardens, please see the website here.
Accessibility
The Gardens provide accessible toilets in the visitor centre, restaurant and within the Garden. The Botanic Gardens have full accessibility for all visitors to enjoy. The Botanic Garden has a maximum of six blue badge disabled parking bays located to the left of the West Gate entrance. Parking is free on Saturdays and Sundays.
There is a lift available to take visitors to the Gateway restaurant on the first floor and to the outdoor terrace. There are three accessible toilets in the John Hope Gateway. The gardens are accessible for scooter users, and are tarmacked in most places Any paths which are not accessible to scooter users are signposted.
For more accessibility information please visit the website here.
About Quingo
The Quingo Scooter range features six models to suit your needs and budget. New models are now available from just £22/week on our new contract hire scheme, which includes all servicing and maintenance, Insurance, Roadside Recovery, Call Outs and Consumables including Batteries and Tyres. For more information on this, or the latest Quingo Scooter range, please visit our website. Alternatively, if you have any service questions you can always contact us or call customer services on 01582 430 900.
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