Tree Planting in West Barns (16th November 2025)
Wild about West Barns joined the East Lothian Countryside Rangers on Sunday 16th November to help plant a whopping 524 young trees in a new community woodland behind West Barns Bowling Club!
The woodland planting started in Spring 2025 and has been extended this Autumn with the addition of another 1000 trees, including aspen, hawthorn, wild cherry, oak, birch and scots pine. The funding for this includes a kind gift from Celebrants Scotland, who planted 254 trees for the number of weddings they have officiated, with the rest coming from the Nature Restoration Fund.
Throughout the planting and care of the young woodland, the ELC Rangers have been joined by Wild about West Barns, Celebrants Scotland, West Barns Primary, Belhaven Hill and the East Lothian Countryside Volunteers, making it a real community effort!
Sunday was a very special day with residents from all generations in West Barns coming out to plant the trees together. We are all really looking forward to seeing how the trees grow over the next few years and decades. No doubt they will grow to be taller than some of the young helpers very quickly.
West Barns goes wild about hedgehogs! (2nd November 2025)
Wild about West Barns met for a hedgehog hoedown on Sunday 2nd November. We had a gorgeous afternoon learning about hedgehogs with Jen from The Pledgehog project, making our own clay hedgehogs, learning what hedgehogs eat, where they sleep and what we can do in our own gardens to make them more hedgehog-friendly. We also had a great time running around the meadow and swinging in the trees. Thanks to everyone who came along and joined in.
Don’t forget, you can follow all the West Barns hedgehog action on the Pledgehog YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXPqFEcX4tT4crlqRi28bqyNO2eT3wPZT&si=UFXCFMRBaJ3WuS1l
And you can donate to the Pledgehog project here (stating “For the Pledgehog Project”): https://sustainingdunbar.org/donate/
Wildflower Walk (2nd September 2025)
Wild About West Barns met for a wildflower walk on Saturday 2nd September. We started at the Bowling Club, headed through the meadow towards the red bridge over the Biel, walked along the saltmarsh to the corner of Linkfield car park before returning across the carrot fields to the Biel road bridge. Despite it being the start of Autumn we found over twenty plants in flower. Fascinating to look closely at everything we normally walk past.
Looking closely at the bracts (leafy sepals at the base of the flower) of the bindweed helped us to identify the hedge bindweed from its close relatives.
While looking through the hands lens it became obvious that the yarrow “flower” is actually made up of hundreds of tiny flowers with yellow stamens poking out (similar to all members of the Asteraceae or daisy family).
Araliaceae / Ivy family
Ivy – Hedera helix
Asteraceae / Daisy family
Yarrow – Achillea millefolium
Ragwort – Jaconaea vulgaris
Tansy – Tanacetum vulgare
Pineapple Weed – Matricaria discoidea
Sea Wormwood – Artemesia maritime
Mayweed – Matricaria recutita – or Chamomile – Chamaemelum nobile
Sea Aster – Aster tripolium
Knapweed – Centurea sp.
Thistle – Cirsium sp.
Boraginaceae / Broage family
Vipers Bugloss – Echium vulgare
Brassicaceae / Cabbage family
Hoary Cress – Lepidium draba
Caryophyllaceae / Pinks family
Sea Sandwort – Honckenya peploides
Bladder Campion – Silene vulgaris
Clusiaceae / St Johns Wort Family
Perforate St. John’s Wort – Hypercium perforatum
Convolvulaceae / Bindweed family
Hedge Bindweed – Calystegia septum
Fabaceae / Pea family
Common Restharrow – Ononis repense
Tufted Vetch – Vicia cracca
Geraniaceae / Geranium family
Meadow Cranesbill – Geranium pratense
Common Storks-bill – Erodium cicutarium
Lamiaceae / Deadnettle family
Hedge Woundwort – Stachys sylvatica