Overview

This accessible garden, based on a 17th Century style, is run by the Haddington Garden Trust SCIO and is free to the public, though donations are welcome. Features include a sunken garden, a laburnum walk and a variety of orchard and unusual trees such as medlar and mulberry,

Transport & Parking

The garden does not have its own car park but there are two on-street Blue Badge spaces just outside it. When we visited, not only were these taken, but there were a lot of cars parked along the street as well. This may have been because there were roadworks in the town centre, disrupting parking there. We found a public car par just a little further along (see last picture) nearly opposite the entrance to St Mary's Church. It was tarmac and fairly level to push a wheelchair along to the garden - taking maybe three or four minutes.

Access

It is possible to see most of the garden using flagstone paths. These were a little uneven, but the wheelchair user didn't complain that it was too bumpy. As shown in picture 10, there are cobbles at the entrance but it is possible to avoid these by turning left. Most of the garden is fairly level The central area is grass and at one side there are mown grass paths among the trees. We didn't try these but I think they might be wheelchair accessible. There are a lot of seats, with backrests and arms, around the sunken garden (which can easily be seen without going down the five steps into it.) There are also seats to the left of the entrance in nooks beside circular stone tables. Picture 4. The only improvement I would suggest is to have several seats at the back of the garden near the laburnum walk to allow disabled people (or their wheelchair pushers) to have a rest there. There are interesting information boards about the garden.

Toilets

Staff

No staff on site but the gardens are beautifully maintained.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

The garden does not have toilets but there is an accessible toilet in Tesco in the town centre. The East Lothian website says there are accessible public toilets in the town but we didn't try these.

Photos