Category: Community Walking Projects

Community Walking Projects

Knots, a community walk

Knots, a community walk. Saturday 26th September, 1:45pm-3.00pm. Part of the Granton:hub / Madelvic House Doors Open Day (details below). Knots community walk booking link

Madelvic House, the fifth wheel and the William Peck sphinx

The walk will involve local history, play, art activities, and nature. We will begin by learning a little about the fifth wheel and sphinx on the front of Madelvic House (below). The weaving part of our walk relates to our neighbour, United Wire, a local and international business which was once situated where Granton:hub is now. One of our other historical and contemporary industries, fishing, is the inspiration for the basic knotting practices (appropriate for children and adults) which we will use to make a joint artwork. (During the walk, we will be learning about Quipu. Quipu are record-keeping devices fashioned from knotted cords. They were historically used by various cultures in the central Andes of South America, most prominently by the Inca Empire, and used to store data and tell stories.) It will start and end at the Granton:hub / Madelvic House.

Places are limited for participants’ safety and enjoyment. It will be suitable for those with wheels / sticks. Dogs on leads will be welcome on the walk.

Tamsin Grainger is a Paths for All walk leader. In 2024/5, she was the Granton Archive Community Development Worker, and she is an experienced pedestrian.

This event is free to attend. Knots Community Walk booking link

Knot (near Iona) and Weaving (by Tamsin Grainger)

Knots, the music

I recommend a track of the same name by Lisa Hannigan from her album ‘Passenger’; the official video is good fun! “I, I tie the knots to remember in my heart.”

A varied programme at Madelvic House / Granton:hub between 11.00am – 3:30pm, including several exhibitions, an archive drop-in session and this walk

Doors Open Day Saturday 26 September 2026

Visitors will be able to enjoy a varied programme at Madelvic House / Granton:hub between 11.00am – 3:30pm, including several exhibitions, an archive drop-in session and the above walk. Booking link here

Knots – a Community Walk

Knots, a community walk for all the family on Saturday 26th September, 1:45pm-3.00pm
Community Walking Projects

Winter Solstice 2025

I took a walk with Kristina Rothstein, together-apart, she in Vancouver, Canada, and I in Edinburgh, Scotland. We made a film which responded to a prompt by Kel Portman and was accepted to be part of his assemblage.

Kristina is on instagram @imatarockshow

Community Walking Projects

Walking in Pairs 6

Radical Gestures is a film based on a walk devised by Kristina Rothstein @imatarockshow based on visiting little free libraries. I walked in Edinburgh and Kristina walked in Vancouver at the same time. We both embarked with a book and let something about that book be our guide. Psychogeography in action!

Here is a link to Kristina’s blog about the walk. It has a lot more interesting information about the walk. She writes:

The “personal is political” message really resonates with the free libraries, significant sites of resistance against consumer culture. I find them an inspiring example of community building, and places where spontaneous and serendipitous interaction between strangers is possible.

We arrived at a little free library roughly every half an hour, swapping our book for one which had some connection (colour, theme, words on the cover). One of us randomly chose a page number. From that page, we each used the text to direct and inform the next segment of our walk – what to look for, what to think about and what kind of route to take.We repeated this several times, and the video and audio were created in collaboration during and afterwards. with

The Little Free Library on the title image can be found at Granton Parish Church, 55 Boswall Parkway, Edinburgh, EH5 2DA. Others were at St Columba’s Hospice, 15 Boswall Road, Edinburgh, EH5 3RW and at Starbank Park, Laverockbank Road, Edinburgh, EH5 3DA (there are two here, both in the upper section of the park: one for children on the west side and one for adults on the east).

Walking in Pairs is a Walking the Land project led by me, Tamsin Grainger. You may be interested in Walking in Pairs 1 Walking in Pairs 2 Walking in Pairs 3 Walking in Pairs 4 Walking in Pairs 5

This walk was made in March 2026.

Community Walking Projects

Walking the Taskscape

I walked a patch of land to the side of the new Spiers Bruce Way, opposite the Granton Castle Walled Garden in Edinburgh and imagined who had walked there before me, human and other-than-human.

Walking the Taskscape* on the first Friday of June 2026
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I walk these grounds belonging to Granton Castle in 1160. As Head Gardener, I nurture the soil to provide vegetables, fruit, and herbs for my master’s table. King William the Lion is on the throne.

I proudly walk this land surrounding Grantoun House in 1479, a member of the Melville Family of Fife. I survey my many turrets and admire my grand old trees, rooted deep in the earth to shelter us from the gales coming off the Firth of Forth.

I walk this property in 1684. Appointed gamekeeper, my task is to tend the deer and fowl, providing cover for the breeding animals, and open land for my lord’s sport.

I walk across these pastures in 1834, estates which belong to Walter Francis Montagu Douglas Scott, the 5th Duke of Buccleuch. His cattle thrive on the rich grass.  

I walk this place in 1905, Controller of Granton Gas Works. Coal arrives from the Niddrie fields on the other side of the city, and is heated in oxygen-free furnaces to produce combustible gas. Inside the tall, round cylinders and metal frames you can see from Princes Street, the gas levels rise and fall, providing for the industries and homes of the city. 

I walk on hard, pale-brown Craigleith stone in 1920, speculating for the new quarry. Bain’s my name, and this Castle has been in ruins for years. The Corporation may have said the heritage should be preserved, but if they did, I did not get the message.

I walk along the ridge in 1952. I’m Robert Mushet and it was my father who discovered the black iron which I now smelt in the furnaces of the Steel Foundry in front of me, the most modern factory of its kind in Britain today.

I walk here in the year 2000, between rubble and stalk, stumbling over mounds of contaminated soil. This is not wasted land; it waits for fox and badger to bring barbs of Herb Bennett on its fur and for the wind to spread Fireweed seeds; starting the process of renewal.

I walk this plot in 2026, cut-off wires sticking out of the soil, debris and black plastic all around. The lone fawn over by the wall picks her way over devastated soil; recent destruction of the woods no longer offers shelter. The homeless people who lived in the Social Bite Village have been moved on, making way for blocks of flats to address the ‘declared housing emergency’.
Illustration for Walking the Taskscape by Tamsin Grainger

This was in response to a prompt for the Walking the Land June 2026 First Friday Walk provided by Caroline Morris (@curioverse on instagram)

* Taskscape is an anthropological concept introduced by social anthropologist Tim Ingold. It describes the temporally unfolding field of human and non-human activities that occur within a landscape.

Community Walking Projects

Free to Explore

Free to Explore, Glasgow City Of Walking
A film by Tamsin Grainger

I took a walk from Queens Street Station to Glasgow Green for a Women’s Heritage Walk which was led by the Glasgow Women’s Library (GWL)

Walking route, Glasgow Scotland
Map of the route(s) I took, Glasgow walking

GWL Women’s Heritage Walking Tour

We walked around the East End area in Glasgow visiting different buildings and hearing stories from the industrial and social past.

‘The women of Glasgow’s East End have always had to be industrious and resourceful simply to survive. This walk focuses on some of their achievements and struggles, and the radical nature of the area which gave birth to them.’

GWL website

With thanks to Mary from the GWL. More information on these tours here.

St Thenue / Teneu mural

St Thenue (Enoch) is the mother of St Mungo, patron saint of Glasgow. The mural of her on the gable of 374 Abercromby Street, Calton, Glasgow is by Mark Worst. More info here

Templeton Carpet Factory, Glasgow Green

In 1889, 29 young women lost their lives when a wall blew down in a gale at Templeton Carpet Factory on Glasgow Green. (From this blog, The Templeton Disaster)

We were told about a famous event: On the morning of Tuesday 21 March 1911, 12 women went on strike at the Singer Manufacturing Company in Bridgeton, followed by 10,000 other women and men. This was a brave move against the international company (which also operated in Russia, the US and Germany) and brought the sewing machine plant to a standstill. Link to the Open University information page (now the site of a business park).

Entrance to the Barras, Glasgow

Other places I have enjoyed on this route:

Cafe Outlier (38 London Road, G1 5NB)

Gallery The Modern Institute (14-20 Osbourne Street, G1 5QN)

Reid Gallery

Suffragette ribbons I found on my walk

Links

Glasgow Green has long been a site for gatherings. It is the place where I and my walking companions collected with millions of others after walking the Pilgrimage for COP26 in 2021.