Secret Herb Garden

The Secret Herb Garden, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, is a labour of love for husband and wife team Hamish and Liberty. Spending 24 months living out of two static caravans, the couple worked to create this 7.5 acre herb nursery with a cafe, shop, vintage furniture, comfy sofas and bees. The garden is home to over 500 different types of herbs, each with their own medicinal, cosmetic and culinary qualities – some of which can be sampled in the on site cafe, or experimented with in a series of courses and workshops.

The courses take place in a converted railway carriage and another railway carriage has been converted into a bee observatory, where visitors can watch the fascinating creatures at work. For the wee ones, there’s herbal safaris which lead across the grounds, and for the really wee ones there’s a Magic, Fairies and Herb tour around the garden too. The Secret Herb Garden is a beautiful venue and a pretty magical day out whether you're 75 or only six years old.

As well as all that, the Garden has more recently ventured into the culinary realms, hosting Full Moon Dinners – a four-course meal hosted to coincide with monthly full moons in a beautiful glasshouse setting. With wine tasting, a banquet of locally-sourced dishes and moonlight refracting overhead, these monthly evenings sound little short of enchanting. All in all, an outer-Edinburgh sanctuary.