Join us to celebrate all the fantastic work our team of volunteers have carried out in our historic orchards in the last year, and find out more about our plans for 2013-2017.

Friday 24th May

Sandeman Room, AK Bell Library, York Place, Perth, PH2 8EP

The evening will begin with a review of what we have achieved over the last 12 months. Find out about all the pruning, grafting and harvesting and how this has helped to conserve and restore our historic orchards.

We will then look forward to what we hope to achieve over the next four years, in our historic orchards and throughout the Tay Landscape Partnership Scheme.

This event is for you if you have taken part in our orchard volunteer activities, are interested in taking part in the future, or if you are just curious about the historic orchards of the Tay Landscape Partnership area.

This event will start at 7pm. Tea, coffee and tray-bakes will be available. Booking is not required, and there is no charge, but it would be useful to have an idea of numbers, so if you are planning to join us, do let us know.

We look forward to seeing lots of you there!

I am delighted to announce that, on 7th March, we successfully submitted our bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund. This will help bring £2.6million of investment to Perth and the surrounding countryside and villages through a range of exciting projects.

On behalf of everyone here at Tay LP, I would like to thank all of the organisations, groups, and individuals we have worked with over the last 12 months. With your help we have developed a suit of 29 diverse yet interconnected projects. These will help conserve and restore everything from wildlife and habitats to historic buildings and traditional skills. Perhaps most importantly, we want to encourage people to get actively involved in learning about and caring for their local environment.

The Tay LP Scheme will cover an area of nearly 250km2 lying between the Sidlaw Hills and the Ochil Hills. It is centred on the River Tay below Perth, at its confluence with the River Earn. It extends from Scone and Forteviot, in the north and west, to Newburgh and Longforgan in the east.

The Scheme will upgrade over 11km of paths that link communities, including routes down to and along the river. It will offer people the chance to take part in archaeological digs of the hill forts on Moncreiffe Hill and Roman sites close to the River Tay. More than a dozen historic orchards will be replanted with local varieties of fruit trees such as the Bloody Ploughman and the Lass o’ Gowrie. The hunt will continue for historic clay buildings and much needed repairs will be carried out on some of the most important examples - there are even plans to construct a new clay building.

There will be lots of opportunities to learn new skills, with training available in hedge-laying, coppicing, coble boat building, traditional building techniques, orchard management, bee keeping, wildlife surveying and recording historic grave stones.

The Scheme will be a hub for all sorts of information about the history, wildlife and people of the area and show residents and visitors where they can go and what they can see.

A summary of each of our projects will appear on our website this week. I will also be updating our Gallery with a selection of images to give you a flavour of the fully developed Scheme.

Our Development Officer, Johanna Babbs, and I will be working on a part time basis until the end of May. During this time we will continue to liaise with landowners and communities to confirm the remaining details of our projects and to spread the word about the Scheme. We will also be working to secure funding to match the anticipated contribution from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

If you have any queries, or would like to discuss any aspect of the Tay Landscape Partnership, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Catriona Davies

Assistant Development Officer

The 17th January was Twelfth Night in the old calendar – and is the traditional date for the ceremony of wassailing in the orchard. What better place to wassail than the orchard at Megginch Castle – where veteran apple and ancient pear trees are being restored and looked after, while a brand new orchard of both traditional and modern varieties is being planted?

Wassailing is an ancient custom with the aim of wishing blessings, good health and a prolific crop to the orchard – usually through its biggest or best tree, known as the Apple Tree King. At this first Megginch Wassail as darkness falls there will be a bonfire with traditional songs and rhymes being sung and a loud toasting or wassail of the young fruit trees. This will be followed by a lantern procession to the old orchard where the Apple Tree King will be toasted and decorated with tartan ribbons. As wassailing involves making a lot of noise, those attending the event are encouraged to bring saucepans, dustbin lids, gongs, pipes drums, firecrackers but to leave behind the traditional shotguns! 

The event takes place on Thursday 17th January from 2pm – 5pm. For those arriving from 2pm there will be an opportunity to help plant a row of young fruit trees that were grafted last February in the castle’s walled garden. These will help make this lovely old orchard even more beautiful and productive. There is no charge for the event and hot drinks and mince pies will be available. All are welcome.

To book call Margaret Lear on 01738 787278 or email@plantsandapples.co.uk

It has been a productive few months here at the Tay Landscape Partnership. With about four months to go until we submit our application to the Heritage Lottery Fund we have been busy finding out as much as we can about our landscape and developing our projects.

We commissioned a number of surveys, studies and plans and these have either been completed or are nearing completion. We have asked each of our contributors to produce a short summary, in addition to their full report. Each summary will be posted on this website as they become available - simply go to the “Resources” page. If you would like a copy of one or more of the full reports, please contact us.

Our Working Groups are using these professional reports and the results of our community consultation earlier this year to help form a programme of projects for our delivery phase. We hope to have prepared detailed costs and timescales for most of our projects by the end of this month. The final list of projects will be posted on the "Projects" page of this website in due course.

Another significant task is to secure match funding for our delivery phase. This will be made up of cash, in-kind contributions and volunteer time. We have begun to identify charitable trusts that may be interested in supporting our projects and we are also looking into the possibility of business sponsorship.

Our orchard volunteers have also been busy and a great deal of useful work has been carried out in several of our historic orchards. The next activity will be an orchard clean-up on Saturday 17th November, full details will be posted here shortly. 

If you are interested in receiving updates from the Tay LP, including information about upcoming events and volunteering oportunities, please get in touch via the "Contact" page of this website and I'll add you to our E-mailing List.

Catriona Davies

Assistant Development Officer

Enjoy the Autumn fruit harvest at the Carse of Gowrie Orchard Festival this weekend.

The Festival gets off to a fantastic start with an Apple Day at the Cairn O’Mohr Winery on Saturday 29th September between 11am and 4pm. Celebrate Cairn O’Mohr’s 25th Anniversary, with tours of the winery, apple pressing, wine tasting and the first ever Carse of Gowrie Apple Pie-athalon. Bring your home made apple pie along to the café at 11am where the judges will decide on the champion pie with prizes awarded later in the day.

The historic orchard at Megginch Castle will be open to visitors on Saturday 29th September between 11am and 4pm.  With guided walks around the orchard, pond dipping, childrens’ arts and crafts, fruit pressing and bee keeping demonstrations, there will be something for the whole family.

The Glendoick Garden Centre will be the venue for an Orchard Fruit Day on Sunday 30th September.  Renowned expert Willie Duncan will be on hand to identify apples and answer questions about looking after fruit trees.  There will be a display of local apples and pears too.  New fruit varieties for Scotland will be on sale and there will be a special orchard themed menu in the café.

For more information about the Carse of Gowrie Orchard Festival visit http://www.carseofgowrieorchards.org.uk/.

If you would like to get involved in some practical orchard work, join Margaret and Andrew Lear at Monorgan orchard on Sunday 30th September. Join a team of volunteers in collecting samples of both known and unknown varieties of fruit for DNA analysis and identification. Full instruction will be given. To take part in this activity or to find out more contact Margaret and Andrew; email@plantsandapples.co.uk, 01738 787 278.