Working across areas of experimental photo-arts, coastal ecology and medicinal health, Remedy is an exploratory based community project working with a number of participants from Access to Industry.

Led by photographer Zoe Hamill, and working in collaboration with herbalists from Herbal Scotland, a series of eight workshops have recently being held in Portobello.

Top image (Colin) – processed using plants collected from local Portobello sites.

The workshops involved learning about analogue as well as camera-less photography, along with expert knowledge of medicinal plant ecology and remedy-making, to include photo-walks, plant-based film processing, plant identification and seed collection.

The project culminated in a public event held in March 2026 to view some of the photographs created through the project as well as to launch the new Portobello Seed Share and a small printed publication illustrating the various images produced (available to view – clicking image below).

The Portobello Seed Share is now available at Portobello Library for visitors to browse, borrow or add seed to. The seed share supports sustainable growing with the aim of developing a seed bank of locally resilient seed to be saved and shared.

Zoe is a photographer from Co. Antrim, now living in Edinburgh. She is interested in the relationship between humans and the environment, as well as the systems of classification that we use to make sense of the world around us. She was recently a commissioned artist for Connecting Threads Watery Commons programme, and is currently carrying out a Darkroom Garden residency at CraigmillarNow.

Supported by funding from City of Edinburgh Council Event Fund.

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What can we learn from walking a watercourse? Between April and August 2023, artist and curator Jonathan Baxter as part of his Craigmillar & Communities Residency led four group walks in collaboration with poet Helen Boden, visual artist Sarah Gittins and haiku writer James Spence.

The walks took a group of participants from mouth to the source along three adjoining burns: Figgate, Braid and Bonaly. Participants were invited to respond to the watercourse through writing, drawing and conversation. This publication includes a selection of such responses involving a number of the participants.

Contents:

Reflections on the Braid Walk Watercourse – Jonathan Baxter and Sarah Gittins
Braid poetry – Helen Boden
Braid writings – Sandy Bennett-Haber, Tamsin Grainger, David Gee, Ewan Davidson and Jonathan Baxter
Haiku / Voices / Drawings – James Spence, Glen Cousquer, Graham Robinson, Olga Bloeman, Pam Ager, Kirsty Jenkins and Sarah Gittins
Braid Walk Listening Score – Linda O’Keeffe and Sarah Gittins
Edited by Jonathan Baxter

Braid Walk (2023) was commissioned by Art Walk Projects and funded by Creative Scotland and Paths for All.

First edition of 100. Published by Art Walk Press Edinburgh UK.
Design and concept: Rosy Naylor, Maddie Lennon and Jonathan Baxter.
Printing DTP Southfield Musselburgh
ISBN: 978-1-7399400-8-9

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Taking inspiration from signature trees in Craigmillar Castle Park, this series of workshops invited participants to enter more deeply into the life of trees. Through planting, drawing and creative writing, participants developed a deeper understanding of the structures and patterns that inform our relationship with trees, woodlands and the ecologies they entangle.

Publication Launch
We are delighted to announce our publication coming through this project will soon be published by Art Walk Press. All are very welcome to come to the publication launch at Bridgend Farmhouse on 20 December 2025, along with visiting the accompanying exhibition – full info here.

A collaboration between Art Walk Projects, Bridgend Farmhouse and Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust

Programme 2025 (Part II of workshop series)

28th March, 1-4pm

Tree Planting in Craigmillar Castle Park 

(drop-in – no booking required – all ages welcome)

Location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/tWTYKnWXLJ2J1RG89

Tree planting is a symbolic act, it represents rebirth and a chance for a fresh start, but it’s also a practical solution to many environmental problems. Join Jonathan Baxter (Art Walk Projects) and Elly Kinross (Craigmillar Castle Park Engagement Project) to plant a mixed deciduous woodland of 500 trees in Craigmillar Castle Park. With trees donated by Woodland Trust Scotland – hazel, silver birch, rowan, English oak, sessile oak and blackthorn – and additional sessile oaks grown from Craigmillar acorns. This is a chance to enjoy the park and return the gift.  

28th April, 5th and 12th May, 10.30am-1pm

Drawing workshops in Craigmillar Castle Park with Sarah Gittins

Meeting at Bridgend Farmhouse (booking required)

“Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart.” (Robin Wall Kimmerer) Join Sarah Gittins for one or more of these walking and drawing workshops responding to signature trees in Craigmillar Castle Park. The focus is on drawing but walking will be part of the pleasure. No experience of drawing necessary.

19th May, 10.30am-1pm

Poetry workshop with Helen Boden

Bridgend Farmhouse (booking required)

Poetry allows us to see the world in different ways, offering fresh perspectives on our own lives and the lives of others; human and more-than-human. Taking inspiration from the woodlands in Craigmillar Castle Park, Helen Boden will guide participants through a series of tree-inspired poetry exercises. No experience with poetry or other genre writing necessary.

26th May, 10.30am-1pm

Speculative fiction workshop with Sandy Bennett-Haber

Bridgend Farmhouse (booking required)

Good science fiction can simultaneously take us into a new world and help us see our own world more clearly. How might the trees in Craigmillar Castle Park lead us towards a better future? Guided by Sandy Bennett-Haber. No experience with fiction or other genre writing necessary.

3rd-29th June

Encounters – exhibition outcomes for 5 walks, 5 trees, 5 poems 

Bridgend Farmhouse (community room) – Bridgend Farmhouse opening hours apply

Sharing visual art and writing made in response to 5 walks, 5 trees, 5 poems (2024-5), this exhibition offers an encounter with the trees of Craigmillar Castle Park. A reading event, sharing poetry and speculative fiction, will also be included in the programme (date tbc).

‘5 walks, 5 trees, 5 poems’ was facilitated by Jonathan Baxter (artist and peer-educator) – as part of his ongoing Craigmillar & Communities Walk Residency – and created in collaboration with Bridgend Farmhouse and Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust.

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Gardeners were invited to create pollinator-rich growing schemes inspired by ideas of seaside retro, in keeping with our 2025 ShowGround themed Art Walk Porty festival. The project aimed to increase biodiversity and connect neighbours together whilst celebrating nature, wildlife and colour.

All those participating were included in the Art Walk Porty Festival Map and had a ‘Flowering Porty’ sign located in their growing space, with all spaces being visible from the street.

Three small prizes were awarded for the Best Seaside Retro Garden based on a public vote.

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‘Walking is about freeing us from our fixity to a standpoint so that we can be more responsive to others and to places in their development.’ (Norman Wirzba)

Jonathan Baxter began his residency in 2020 with a year spent walking in Craigmillar and talking with local residents. With an initial research interest in the work of the Craigmillar Festival Society (CFS), Jonathan was particularly interested in the work that Craigmillar Now were doing to catalogue the CFS archive. With this work already underway, and other projects exploring similar territory, Jonathan decided to refocus his energy on the wider ecology of Craigmillar. Specifically, the meshwork of pathways that traverse Craigmillar – human and more-than-human, present and absent, placed and displaced.

To date this enquiry has led to the following projects:

2021: Line Walk Mindful Drawing

Line Walk Mindful Drawing was a year-long engagement with Little France Park. Walkers met on the first Saturday of the month from January to December 2021 to walk the same path, there and back, for an hour in both directions. The walk included an invitation to walk in mindful silence and to pause on occasion to make a drawing. Drawings included drawing breath, taking a photograph, writing a poem, drawing in a sketch book, and responsive movement. The aim of the walk was to deepen our engagement with Little Park France and to observe the changing seasons within our own lives. 

Outcomes of the project were exhibited at the 2021 and 2022 Art Walk Porty Festival and an illustrative bookwork and 12-postcard set was also published. James Spence, a regular walker, also published a collection of haiku poetry responding to the walk. 

2022 (ongoing): Wee Forest 

Working in collaboration with Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust (ELGT), Jonathan has been actively involved in planting and maintaining a Wee Forest in Peacocktail Close.

Wee Forests are part of the global family of ‘Miyawaki Forests’ or ‘Tiny Forests’ found all over the world. They’re small, tennis court-sized woodlands that help mitigate the effects of climate change, support urban wildlife and reconnect people with nature. 

Jonathan’s involvement has included community engagement to develop the site, planting the trees with local residents, follow-up maintenance and care activity, primary school engagement through citizen science (led by ELGT), and building benches to support outdoor learning (in collaboration with Action for Children, Bridgend Farmhouse and ELGT).

2022: Walking in the Footsteps of Time

Walking in the Footsteps of Time is the overall title for a more dispersed field of activity including community walks, photographic documentation, engagement with the Craigmillar Arts, Culture and Heritage Trail (CACHT), and local litter picks.

Outcomes have included a day-long walking programme for the 2022 Craigmillar and Niddrie Community Festival. The programme was inspired by CFS and asked people to consider three questions: Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going? It included a community parade, a foraging walk, a deep time walk, and a woodland installation. Collaborators included Bridgend Farmhouse, ELGT, Alistair McGowan (geologist, palaeontologist and natural historian), and artists from Mutual Studios, Craigmillar.

Jonathan also maintains an ongoing dialogue with City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) focused on the maintenance and care of three local ‘monuments’ originally included in CACHT: Niddrie Standing Stone, Gulliver Play Sculpture (now reduced to a single ‘foot’) and A Monument to an Unknown Baby (also known as Baby Craig Millar Memorial).

For more information about the day-long walking programme see here. For updates about Jonathan’s engagement with CEC watch this space. 

Key community collaborators have included Miranda Baird, Michael Inman, Stuart Keiller, and Laura McNamee.

2023-24: Braid Walk 

Developing ideas explored in Line Walk Mindful Drawing (LWMD), and working in collaboration with some of the LWMD participants – specifically, Helen Boden (writing) Sarah Gittins (drawing) and James Spence (haiku poetry) –Braid Walk was an invitation to walk from mouth to source along three adjoining burns: Figgate, Braid and Bonaly. The walk took its inspiration from a Taoist understanding of the Watercourse Way (or Tao) and explored braiding as a metaphor for how to bring multiple ways of knowing together in a respectful manner. The walk asked participants to consider how walking a watercourse might inform their engagement with the climate and ecological crisis.  

Outcomes of the project were shared at the 2023 Art Walk Porty Festival and the project was featured in Art Walk Projects’ Art Walk Journal Issue 2, Autumn 2024. A final Braid Walk publication is currently underway. 

2024-25: 5 walks, 5 trees, 5 poems

5 walks, 5 trees, 5 poems sees Jonathan returning to the woodlands of Craigmillar Castle Park for five autumnal walks. Participants are invited to learn more about the ecology of woodlands and the ethics they engender. Periods of mindful silence, drawing and poetry will punctuate the walks.

As with previous AWP projects, a final publication will document the process and include selected drawings and poetry by the participants.

This project builds on earlier collaborations with Bridgend Farmhouse, ELGT and includes drawing workshops with Sarah Gittins. 

2026 (pending): Brick Walk

‘The walker’s attention comes not from having arrived at a position but from being pulled away from it, from displacement.’ (Tim Ingold)

More details to follow – subject to funding.

Jonathan Baxter is an ‘artist and …’ He works across disciplines – both art and non-art related – using psychoanalytic methodologies and performative practices to variously open up, challenge and propose what is. Since 2009 Jonathan has combined the roles of artist, curator and peer-educator to deliver a series of participatory art projects and peer-learning programmes.

To contact Jonathan directly please email jb4change[at]gmail.com.
All enquiries are welcome. Collaboration is encouraged.

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Scotland is home to >1500 species of lichen, more than 85% of the total species found in the UK, and is recognized for its clean air quality and abundance of lichens. Despite this prevalence, lichens are far less likely to be identified and surveyed by members of the public and citizen science initiatives than vascular plants. The interactive guide and walks seek to increase awareness around lichen biology and ecology, uncovering the environmental importance of lichen species.

Toby Mills – researcher based in Glasgow, currently studying at RBGE
Frances Lingard – creative technologist and researcher based in Glasgow, working with websites, games and CGI 
Finn Rabbitt Dove – digital artist and filmmaker based in Glasgow
Sam Della-Valle – artist who has created the illustrative map for this project 

The project is funded by Art Walk Projects (Paths for All – SCSP Award) and the British Lichen Society, with support from Rosy Naylor, Curator, Art Walk Projects, and Dr Rebecca Yahr Lichen Biodiversity Scientist at RBGE

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Mycography refers to creative processes of documenting fungi. This may encompass techniques such as drawing, recording, or other imaginative methods of rich description.

Participants were able to get involved in beginner mushroom identification, illustration, crafts and cultivation. The walks & workshops contributed to a collectively shaped chronicle of contemporary connections with local fungi.

Series co-curated by artist Johanna Koen & researcher Oona Dooley from Myceliart. Featuring facilitation by Sally Somerville-Woodiwis and Ruby Scott-Geddes, as well as workshops led by Edinburgh’s community mushroom farm and education project Rhyze Mushrooms.

An Introduction to Foraging for Medicinal Fungi (Nov 2023 to Sept 2024)

A series of walks were held exploring the rich variety of fungi present across a number of outskirt green space areas of Edinburgh, led by Myceliart organiser Johanna Koen and Rhyze Mushrooms.

Held across areas of Craigmillar, Craigentinny, Duddingston and Newhailes the walking workshops delved into the world of local medicinal fungi. A creative exploration developed covering the fascinating history of ethnomycology, a field of study that explores the relationship between fungi and humans. This involved recording medicinal fungi uses, with Rhyze Mushrooms demonstrating guerrilla mushroom cultivation of frequently-used medicinal species.

A number of the walks are detailed below.

This series of mycelial walks and workshops was commissioned by Art Walk Projects and forms part of our continuing Climate Cafe ‘In Hand with the Land’ series supported by Postcode Lottery and Awards for All.

The series culminated in an exhibition at the 2024 Art Walk Porty ‘UnderCurrent’ Festival including the production of e-zine produced by the participants.

14th January 2024 12:30-2.30pm

Newhailes Pilgrimage – Mapping a Fungi Forage

Join Myceliart organisers Johanna Koen and Oona Dooley on an upcoming pilgrimage to creatively document our winter mushroom encounters at Newhailes Estate. 

Join us on a walk to chronicle your winter fungi sightings. This is an opportunity to engage in radical mycography, the creative documentation of our mushroom encounters, as well as a chance to share our foraging experiences in and around Edinburgh. 

Inspired by both medieval pilgrimages and the radical mycology movement, this foraging walk sets out to question themes of self-transformation, linear progression, and predetermined destinations as we document our shared journey.

We will provide pens and paper. However, you can bring your preferred writing and drawing materials if you so desire.

All notes and drawings will contribute to a co-created record of our experiences, thoughts, sightings and feelings regarding fungi. Upon completion of the pilgrimage, a medieval souvenir awaits you.

10th February 2024 1-3pm

Fungi Paper Making – Lochend Park

Join Myceliart on an upcoming workshop to learn how to make paper out of bracket fungi. 

The session will start with a short guided walk through Lochend Park where we’ll discover fungi and first signs of spring. Subsequently, we will settle down at the picnic tables, where we will demonstrate the process of making paper from bracket fungi. 

Please note that this is a demonstrative session only, and the paper takes about a day to dry. If you wish to take some home, kindly bring a tea towel and folder for transport.

Any leftover paper made during this workshop will contribute to a co-created field studies guide– There will be opportunities for drawing and note-taking, so feel free to take a notebook

If you attended our previous workshop, you’re welcome to bring any drawings or notes from the last session to add to our collaborative field studies guide. 

Starting Location: Lochend Park, meet by the benches next to Playpark, Edinburgh EH7 6BP

Sat 9 March 2024 12.45–3pm

Foraging Journaling at The Field, Duddingston 

Join Myceliart for an upcoming nature journaling workshop with Ruby Scott-Geddes and Johanna Koen at the Field in Duddingston. Learn to identify spring plants and mushrooms through anatomy, context and sensory immersion. 

The session will start with a relaxed exploration around the area, collecting and observing what’s growing this time of year. After our walk we’ll look at some drawing techniques and sketch our finds with guidance and advice from Ruby and Johanna.

Images by Johanna Koen

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Over nine weeks participants from Access to Industry (PAGE 2 Group – Photographic Arts Group Empowerment) took part in a series of photo walks collecting plant materials to experiment with different chemical-free photographic processes, aiming to teach new skills, reduce isolation and improve wellbeing for participants.

Across the weekly workshops led by Scott Hunter and Keira Tucker, students experimented with a range of alternative methods of developing/creating photographs using plants, bacteria, and fungi involving cyanotypes, chemigrams, phytograms, soil chromatographs, microscopy, and more. 

[above] phytograms – left: Allyn, right: Steven

The project culminated with an exhibition at Portobello Library showing a number of the plant-processed photographs, petri dish experiments and other processes involved including bacteria prints – bacterial cultures on exposed negative film, some of which are shown below (l-r: Liz, Lucy, Prarthana, Prarthana, Scott, Allyn)

Thanks to support from Stills Gallery in helping realise this project and Portobello Library for hosting of the exhibition. Funded by Paths for All (Smarter Choices, Smarter Places fund) and Peoples Postcode Lottery.

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Tonya McMullan situates her work amidst communities using long-term engagement to make context-specific, process-based, participatory and perfo rmative installations that foreground ecological concerns. McMullan has immersed herself in the world of insects for several years: ongoing projects with beekeeping, urban agri- culture and pollinators have developed into explorations of our sensory and extra-sensory connections. 

Past projects include The Lure of Tomorrow’s Harvests (2020), an installation commissioned by Talbot Rice Gallery comprising an archive of Edinburgh honey collected during lockdown, and There is something in the æther (2021), a scent and hand sanitiser created for TULCA festival in Galway to encourage people to recollect smell memories and consider our relationship with the environment past present and future. 

Commissioned Works & Events:

Exhibition
Crude Floral, Art Walk Porty Hub, September 2022 (scent, card, seamix)
Salt Works Group exhibition, mote102 102 Ferry Road Edinburgh, March 2023 (tomato plants, compost, found tarpaulin and fur coat, drawings, photographs, scent)

Workshops
Ecological Explorations at Seafield, November 2022
Beginning with a talk by Lyle Boyle, Seagrass Officer from The Ecology Centre, and Leonie Alexander, Ecologist from the Edinburgh Shoreline project, this session involved the creation of paintings based on smell and local ecology

Painting with Synthetic Seawater Workshop, September 2022
McMullan shares her research into synthetic sea water in this workshop, which is used by scientists to simulate the theoretical content of natural sea water in lab environments. Participants create a batch of synthetic sea water and use it to produce watercolour paintings of the Firth of Forth. 

Seafield Scent Identifying Workshop, September 2022
McMullan leads a small group walk to discuss the scents that can be detected in the air, land and sea, and begin to make scent diaries. The group will then work together in a makeshift beach laboratory, combining synthetic seawater and other materials to create a new scent.  

Writing commissioned in partnership with MAP Magazine, published in SALT journal published by Art Walk Press 2023:

The Smellscape of the Seascape on Tonya McMullan by Jan Prichard – available to read on MAP

All photos Ellie J McMaster

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Christina Riley’s latest work brings this unseen activity to the surface, asking what life looks like to those who live underwater.

Her work compares the weighty, sharp and unwieldy gear of the scallop dredge with its chain mail “belly bag” to the delicate marine bodies underwater. Riley has engaged with local marine scientists and conservationists to create underwater photographs of affected locations. These images show not only the impacts of dredging but also the positive solutions being enacted by communities.

Christina Riley is an interdisciplinary artist based on the west coast of Scotland, who explores connections between art and science with a focus on the sea and inshore habitats. Living next to the water and infatuated by the endless unknowns of life on earth, Riley seeks underwater and multi-species perspectives as a means of exploring the idea that something does not need to be understood in order to be cared for, but it does need to be experienced, somehow. 

Drawn by an instinctive desire to hold, touch, collect, gather and share, her practice involves books and storytelling as well as natural and man-made objects. She is inspired by the power of the individual within a collective, the significance of the seemingly insignificant, and how the part becomes the whole. 

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For Art Walk Porty, McMullan is collaborating with Restalrig-based community group, The Ripple Project, looking at methods of rainwater collection and community growing to create a scented water-collection sculpture. Made from discarded plastic and organic material, this work is informed by McMullan’s interest in interactions between humans and insects, as well as the unique scent and growth patterns of tomato plants.

Tonya McMullan situates her work amidst communities using long-term engagement to make context-specific, process-based, participatory and performative installations that foreground ecological concerns. McMullan has immersed herself in the world of insects for several years: ongoing projects with beekeeping, urban agriculture and pollinators have developed into explorations of our sensory and extra-sensory connections.

Past projects include Crude Floral (2022), a series of scent explorations with Art Walk Projects; There is something in the æther (2021), a scent and hand sanitiser created for TULCA festival in Galway to encourage people to recollect smell memories and consider relationships with the environment past present and future; and The Lure of Tomorrow’s Harvests (2020), an installation commissioned by Talbot Rice Gallery comprising an archive of Edinburgh honey collected during lockdown.

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