Legacy Garden
Nestled away in a corner of St Mary’s Quad on South Street lies a piece of land known as the “West Garden”. Few students know it exists, yet up until just sixty years ago this was the town’s main Botanic Garden and was both used for research by the University’s botanists and enjoyed by townspeople alike. Once the Botanic Gardens moved further out of town to the much larger current site, the once manicured West Garden was neglected and left to become wild and overgrown.
The Fellowship of St Andrews helped renovate this outdoor space into something to be used and enjoyed by everyone, and turned it into a Legacy Garden, a place for enjoying picnics with friends or just a relaxing space to surround yourself in nature.
Throughout 2012 and 2013, Fellows and volunteers donated their time on the weekends to the garden. Thanks to their work, the swathes of ivy and overgrown grass were cut back to reveal hidden paths and a pond, once concealed by dense patches of rushes. Once the garden was cleared of invasive species and given a general tidy, fellows and volunteers transformed it into a lush, colourful environment to be enjoyed by all!
