Hundreds, if not thousands, of people pass by Aberdeen’s Mounthooly roundabout daily.
It’s one of those well-known spots in the city centre, that most probably don’t take any notice of.
At a colossal 2.5 acres, it became known as Scotland’s biggest roundabout when it was built in 1977, and there’s even some debate around whether it can even be classed as a roundabout.
But it is also quite a large green space. In fact, it’s technically one of the few green spaces accessible to the residents living nearby, especially around the George Street area.
Which is why one community group decided it was time to do something a little bit innovative with the space…
And they’ve been getting their spades stuck in the ground to create a food forest.
Read on to find out:
- Why Mounthooly roundabout was chosen
- What a food forest is, and the plans to help it grow
- How it will benefit the community
‘You could almost forget you’re on one of the busiest roundabouts’
Like so many others, I make my way around Mounthooly, whether that’s by walking or driving, almost every day.
And although there are two underpasses, it’s not somewhere I really thought of going or even registered as a “green space” before.
That is until I stepped foot on it for the first time… it truly is a gem, hidden in plain sight.
And I was greeted by a group of smiling volunteers, clutching various gardening equipment, eager to get stuck in and work on their new space.
Miles Davies and his wife, Carolyn got involved with the project from the get-go.
While there wasn’t any real plan to begin with, Miles said the group recognised it was a “massive and pretty underutilised space” and just knew they wanted to do something with it.
So they set out to plant 12 apple and pear trees, which they did last month. The young trees have started to flower already, much to the group’s delight.
And now they’re planning on planting another eight along the perimeter.
“You could almost forget you’re on one of the busiest roundabouts in the city centre,” Miles said with a smile.
“There’s something nice about that, I think. There’s the busyness going round it, then the peacefulness in the middle.
“Strange, isn’t it? A bit of an oasis in the middle of a roundabout.”
Mounthooly Food Forest can build a community
This is the second “practical” meeting the group has had, and they used it to put up protection around the trees they planted last month.
And soon enough, the traffic is a distant sound, as the noise of happy chattering and stakes being hammered into the earth surrounds us instead.
Around seven people are regularly involved in the meetings, but Miles tells me that college students and other community groups have been coming along to help.
And they’re hoping to get more members from the local area and beyond involved.
He explained that a shared space like this encourages people, particularly those with limited access to green space, to get out of the house and helps improve their mental health.
But it can also build a sense of community.
“Certainly, when we lived on George Street, there were a huge number of people living there, but no community,” he explained.
“So, trying to find a mechanism to bring people together, get to know each other, work together, achieve something together – it limits isolation, which can be a huge issue for people
“Just look at the amount of people today that have come together, that otherwise wouldn’t have.”
‘I want to take my grandson to Mounthooly in the future to pick apples and pears’
As a lorry blasts its horn, Carolyn tells me the project started as a “really small group”.
“I was worried naebody was going to turn up,” she admitted before adding with a smile, “but it’s been amazing today hasn’t it?”
Laughing, she also disclosed that, unlike her husband, she hasn’t always been interested in gardening.
But now she’s been getting “right into it”.
“The aim for me would be to take my grandson here in the future and pick apples and pears. I think that would be really nice.
“It’s for his future really, and just taking a walk here and checking on the trees with him has been so nice. I love it.”
She wasn’t as convinced by the location, saying that she thought the trees wouldn’t be left alone.
But, she’s been “really pleasantly surprised” to find that not one has been damaged so far.
Green-fingered college students lend a hand at food forest
Millie Baker, a lecturer at the nearby Nescol was at the roundabout with a group of students from the Sustainability with Urban Gardening course.
She said they got involved after Cfine reached out to the college, and they realised it aligned with the values of the course.
There are two different groups of students involved, but 22 in total.
But they come and help in any way they can, using the opportunity as an outdoor learning space and developing skills to help them get into the workplace.
“It’s two acres right in the middle of town,” Millie explained. “You just wouldn’t expect it to be here.
“I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for the students to collaborate with people outwith the college.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity to get involved in really, it’s going to benefit the community as a whole, hopefully, and the students have got a lot of satisfaction out of being involved in something that’s going to give back.”
‘Mounthooly for me is something that I drive past…’
Like me, it was the first time Jamie Cole-Hamilton had stepped foot on the roundabout.
The NESCAN (North East Scotland Climate Action Network) community development officer came down to lend a helping hand and find out how he can support the group in the future.
“I don’t live in the city, so Mounthooly for me is something that I drive past. I didn’t know how much green space there was.
“So the fact that this is going on in the middle of it is great. Isn’t it a novel twist on things?
“It looks like it’s going to go really well.”
Jamie told me that he thinks it’s important to utilise green spaces like these, especially when there’s people who live in the city who have no access to any.
But projects like this can encourage people to get out into nature.
Why Mounthooly and what is Cfine’s involvement?
The idea for the Mounthooly Food Forest was born out of the George Street Masterplan, which highlighted a lack of green spaces and outdoor social areas.
George Street is now classed as a priority area in Aberdeen, and when Cfine heard the feedback, they decided to engage with the community to see how they could help.
Rebecca Dunn, community growing development worker, explained at the time they were just starting a round of indoor gardening classes at the vaccination centre in the Bon Accord.
And so there was already a local group attending, and they went on a walk around with Graham Donald from Aberdeen City Council to scope the area for green spaces.
It was then that people realised the potential to do something with the Mounthooly Roundabout.
Although Rebecca said this was a “catalyst”, it still took the group a year to establish themselves and get the right permissions for the land.
“I think it did come out of the fact that green spaces in this area are fairly limited, and just kind of seeing potential where they could really,” she explained.
“And that’s one side of what Cfine does, which is support community growing projects from the ground up to provide advice and offer site visits and support on linking up with different bodies.
“So that’s been our role here in it, and just listening to those voices from the community and finding ways to support it as part of a team effort.”
‘Taking steps now to benefit in the future’
In no time at all, the wire has been wrapped carefully around each of the young, fragile trees, and people are happily admiring their work.
“It does look amazing, doesn’t it? And it’s a good atmosphere,” she added.
“It’s quite amazing when everybody gets together, the energy that comes into it and the enthusiasm.”
The community growing development worker said that the overall vision was always a food forest, which is why they started with apple and pear trees.
They’re taking it “just a step at a time”, so the group can learn to walk before they run — but she said there’s potential for even more to be grown on the roundabout in the future.
“The actual fruit trees will take a few years before they produce any fruit,” she explained. “So it’s a bit of a long-term goal.
“It’s about taking steps now so that we can benefit from them in the future. There are some edible things we could grow that would be a bit of a quicker reward, but that’s really talking about that as a group and deciding if that’s the next step.”
Members have also been talking to the graffiti artists who work on the legal walls around the roundabout to collaborate, and there could potentially even be a bench put in the spot in the future they could help paint.
Mounthooly Food Forest is in an ‘iconic location’
Cfine secured the funding from the Suez UK’s Aberdeen Reuse Community Fund to get the project started.
And community growing assistant Lucy Edwards told me the trees all came from Social Juice in Udny.
“It’s quite an iconic location,” she said. “I think whenever I’ve mentioned to people that we’re doing work at Mounthooly, they get really excited about it.
“I personally love coming here.”
Lucy is involved with many different community growing groups across the city, and she said it’s “amazing to see the transformation in Aberdeen”.
And not only that, but the community growing assistant enjoys seeing people coming together to work on these projects.
“I also think it’s quite special when you start facilitating with a group of people,” she added. “Especially people who are maybe suffering with difficulties.
“Say they are struggling for employment and training opportunities, or they’re socially isolated or they have long-term mental health problems. Or even a combination of these things.
“Whatever the baggage they’re bringing, it’s quite amazing when these people come together, and you give people reasons to positively interact in a shared space.
“It’s quite magical.”
The Mounthooly Food Forest is open to anyone to join.
If you want to get involved, or find out more about the project email: mounthooly@outlook.com
Read more:
Demolition and desolation: The community lost to make way for Mounthooly roundabout
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