Guidelines for the February 2026 First Friday Walk (FFW) Please note that this is a distal prompt, but you can, of course, arrange to walk in a couple or a group wherever you are.
Choose a place to walk and make work. Find out the W3W/// location for your starting place (you will probably have a few options, so choose the one you like best or are most attracted to.)* Store those 3 words in your mind / notebook / phone. Set your timer and start walking. Stop after 15 minutes. Choose one of the 3 words and use it to make an intervention (it can be a photo(s), conversation, drawing, rubbing, poem, thought, installation … whatever you like). After long enough, walk for a further 15 minutes. Choose a second word and make an intervention as before (or differently).
Repeat a third time.
Either in the open air or back at home, compose your work in whatever way makes sense.
Share with someone or on social media #walkingtheland #firstfridaywalk The title (or subtitle of your work) will be the W3W/// and something of your choice.
What you will need
The W3W/// app or a text of some sort (poem, newspaper article etc)* Materials of your choice for making A timer, watch, or phone
Extra notes
*If you do not already have the W3W/// app on your phone, you can download it before you leave, from the Playstore or Applestore, look it up on the internet or on a laptop. If the whole W3W/// thing is too technology-focused for you, choose the 15th, 30th and 45th words from a text of your choice.
If you want to stay out longer, repeat with a second W3W/// address.
If you are part of another Walking the Land project, you could choose your Deep Encounters place to do this FFW, or walk at a distance with your Walking in Pairs partner (perhaps you decide in advance to swap W3W addresses, or use a mix of them).
An arts trail in North Edinburgh, from Natalie Taylor’s labyrinth at Pennywell Kirk to the mural on the Edinburgh Direct Aid Warehouse wall made by Draya Madú with Eva Paredes and volunteers. Map here.
A Cretan labyrinth in the grounds of Pennywell Kirk (Old Kirk and Muirhouse Parish Church) constructed by artist Natalie Taylor in 2016. It takes approximately 15 minutes to walk slowly into the centre. Commissioned by Centipede Project. Address: 42 Pennywell Gardens, Muirhouse, Edinburgh EH4 4PE.
Labyrinth by Nat Taylor at Pennywell Kirk. Photo on left by Michael Lindsay
Pennywell Arts Heritage Trail
Pennywell Arts Heritage Trail, Muirhouse and Pilton, Edinburgh – murals by artists-in-residence Fraser Gray and Eve Paredes. Eva and Fraser delivered the murals as a result of a range of public consultations and workshops for the local community around the new development. The Pennywell Arts and Heritage Trail was delivered with North Edinburgh Arts, funded by Urban Union and supported by the Edinburgh Council. Fraser Gray on Facebook Muirhouse Festival mural on YouTube
A. B. Fleming mural by Fraser Gray and Eva ParedeFishnets / rope mural by Fraser Gray and Eva ParedesMuirhouse Gala mural by Fraser Gray and Eva Paredes
Granton Gastower whale sculpture
By Svetlana Kondakova Muir, this sculpture depicts one of the Firth of Forth’s most special visitors – the humpback whale. It was commissioned by the City of Edinburgh Council for the new Gasholder 1 public park.
Humpback whale sculpture by Svetlana Kondakova Muir at Granton Gastower
Granton Castle Walled Garden
Mural on the wall of Granton Castle Walled Garden by Eve Murray, commissioned by Granton Hub and funded by Sustrans Artroots to speak to the history and culture of Granton.
The mural, with its elements of disguise, requires the viewer to actively look and decipher rather than passively absorb the image. This serves as a metaphor for Granton’s past – there is evidence of lost industries if you know where to look, what to look for and have the want to do so. Beyond this, it addresses a more general need for balance between the industrial world which bolsters economies and communities, and the natural world which we often abuse and will ultimately pay the price for.
Eve Murray
Granton Castle Walled Garden: L of Granton Castle. R by Eve Murray
The Wall
A sound walk on the Western Breakwater of Granton Harbour. Approach via Hesperus Causeway. Once on the wasteland, open the soundcloud link and listen on your phone. Sadly, the installation part of this artwork has blown down and been eroded as a result of the weather.
The Wall, sound walk by Tamsin Grainger. Click on this image to listen on Soundcloud as you walk beside the wall
Edinburgh Direct Aid Warehouse (EDA)
Mural symbolising the spirit of humanitarian aid designed by Mexican muralist Draya Madú who was joined by Mexican artist Eva Paredes and a team of volunteers.
The mural is not just a piece of art; it represents a light of hope and a reminder of our shared and caring humanity as well as a call to action to keep helping those in need
Draya Madú
16A West Harbour Road on the wall of Edinburgh Direct Aid (dedicated to providing humanitarian aid to people suffering as a result of man-made or natural disasters. EDA’s current main projects are in Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon.) The City of Edinburgh Council supported the artists who created the work through their Diversity and Inclusion Fund.
Mural on the wall of the Edinburgh Direct Aid Warehouse, 16A West Harbour Road, Granton, Edinburgh EH5 1PNAbout the Edinburgh Direct Aid mural
Covid Memorial Trail
This links nicely to the Covid Memorial Trail, ‘Remembering Together’ by Skye Loneragan in collaboration with Stewart Ennis. It was funded by Greenspace Scotland and supported by Artlink and the City of Edinburgh Council. The project explored experiences of the pandemic, with the goal of highlighting the challenges faced by disabled people, while also celebrating their resilience and potential.was installed in the Wardie Bay area
Widdershins sculpture near Wardie Bay by Skye Loneragan and Stewart Ennis – Covid Memorial TrailSometimes Loss Leaves a Hollow, Covid Memorial Trail, Edinburgh Covid Memorial Trail, Edinburgh
R2 North Edinburgh Response and Recovery Project Musical Movement, an active travel event on the path between Gypsy Brae and the Brick Beach in North Edinburgh, including the completion and unveiling of murals on the planters at Gypsy Brae.
The Granton Burn, a textile map by Tamsin Grainger
All photocraphs copyright Tamsin Grainger unless otherwise stated.
Deep Encounters is a Walking the Land project conceived of by Janette Kerr, and includes Zoe Ashbrook, Ruth Broadbent, Alison Berrett, Sara Dudman, Ffin(V C Price), Richard Keating, Melinda Hunt, Rachel McDonnell, Amanda Steer, Sally Stenton, and Molly Wagner.
Deep Encounters is a multifaceted mapping of a small piece of land involving artists working in different areas/location. At its centre is the perception of a space in a much more intricate way than normal.
Janette Kerr
There is a patch of woodland in the municipal park near my house where I will be walking regularly. It is in the middle of a residential area, overlooked by many tenement flats, and the trees in it have a view of the sea. To one side there is a newer coppice with smaller trees planted by the community.
Dark Wood – surrounded by park grass, Wheatley Elm, tenements, and cars parked to the left, newer residential units that replaced the fisher families cottages to the right. 7am January 2026
Surrounded by grass and a playpark, it is well-used but not always respected, with a great deal of rubbish ending up there, one way or another. There have been burnings, graffiti and other damage done. There is a great variety of trees and other undergrowth, and I’m guessing that birds inhabit it and animals visit.
Although I have spent some time at Granton Crescent Park in the past, my aim is to continue to show it some appreciation – after all, it is the closest I get to countryside here in the city. Paying attention to somewhere changes me and it may even be that I change it, although I would not seek to interfere. I will get to know the place further – listening, watching, touching, smelling and even tasting. The landscape and I will be in a more continuous relationship, and who knows what will arise. It will be interesting to see what artwork comes through as the seasons turn and we get used to each other.
Place work… From knowing-about to becoming-with
Rae Wilcox @greengreenteas
February update
New mapping in progress: of animal and human desire lines before the Spring growth changes the patterns. Walking and walking, counting my paces, measuring and learning the land.
Various photos taken in the process of mapping. Deep EncountersDrawings of the desire lines which cross cross the copse for Deep Encounters
I will be adding to this blog on a regular basis as the project progresses.
A film made during and in response to the January 2026 First Friday Walk, prompted by Lucy Guenot.
She wrote, “Let’s think about the walks and the paths and tracks that are most familiar to us: the comfort of taking a well-known route where you don’t need to think about directions or following a map.”
“Reflect also on the history of old tracks, made by centuries of walking:
"These are old paths, designed
And kept alive by feet
For whom walking was
The only way of going.
These are the treads of workers,
Plodding early with their bait
To quarries, mills, farms …"
From 'Wotton Walks’ by U A Fanthorpe."
I was booked on the train from London to Edinburgh on January 2nd, so I could not walk. Instead, I filmed the countryside, cities, and full moon through the window as we rushed past. To make the work, I slowed the footage down and juxtaposed it with the sound of me walking a familiar walk between my home and the nearby beach.
On the train, I didn’t need to think about directions or following a map, I was simply carried along. This was a ‘comfort’ of sorts, though walking is better for my hips than sitting down for long periods. I had time to think that the train tracks between Scotland and England were laid down over the same earth that drovers walked on from the Highlands to the Lowlands in the 18th and 19th centuries. These epic walks were with dogs, sheep, and ‘hardy black cattle’.
By contrast, I walked on striped LNER carpets, bumping into the seats on my way to the buffet, loo, or the end of the carriage to stretch. Standing looking out, I remembered the old school trains which had windows which opened. I used to lean out as far as I could and feel the fast air on my cheeks.
Kristina Rothstein and Tamsin Grainger took a third walk, together yet apart in October 2025.
We walked at the same time as each other, Kristina in Canada and Tamsin in Scotland, agreeing that the location would be woods, and the subject, mapping. Stopping at 20, 40 and 60 minutes, we drew and/or recorded verbal maps on site and then followed up with artwork that included collage and video.
The top two images above were taken by Kristina Rothstein in Canada and the two below by me, on our Woods Walk.
The top two images above were taken by me, and the two below by Kristina Rothstein in Canada, on our Woods Walk.
The three illustrations above show Kristina’s maps of words, memories and dogs respectively.
This video shows images (photographic and hand-drawn in pencil), from Tamsin’s walk in Scotland, together with recorded audio maps of the natural species found in the woods, and the rubbish that threatens to engulf them. It also includes two collages made using the InCollage app and paper/glue/scissors.
Walking without a donkey 