Water of Leith Conservation Trust

After the storms it was straight back to it for our volunteers, helping to clear up the walkway of leaves, debris and litter. Today's session was from Dean Bridge to St Bernard's bridge. A huge difference made to the local area

Plenty of Water of Leith today

Post storms the river is above 1m for the first time in many months

Due to the storm we have taken the decision to close the Visitor Centre and cancel our planned event today. Sunday 25th October, with a lively river and high winds in wooded areas please take extra care

The Water of Leith 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿❤️ #WaterOfLeith #Edinburgh #Scotland

With a lot of rain forecast ahead you can track the rise in flow on the Water of Leith via SEPA's website site here - waterlevels.sepa.org.uk/Station/14868 Whilst any discharges from the combined sewage overflows can be seen here. www.scottishwater.co.uk/Your-Home/Yo...

Parsons Green PS P5s were drawing by the river yesterday taking part in our Rivers and Water programme. What a difference a day can make.

Never seen a Tufty out of the water before! Feel I shouldn’t be public posting to preserve its dignity 😬🫠🙂 Water of Leith , Edinburgh #Birds #BirdsSeenIn2026

The Coalie Coalition were out in the sunshine today for their 13th session - unlucky for leaves and taggers, as we swept off paths and steps to restore optimal accessibility, and removed graffiti from signs and walls. We were joined by a small group from Locogen too. Thanks folks!

Great to have more young people from Balerno HS out with us yesterday, preventing litter entering the water at the start of the urban stretch of the river. Balerno send different pupils every month so we can engage with as many as possible, encouraging pickers not droppers. Amazing work guys!👍🚮🙌

A productive day at Saughton park with volunteers from Informed solutions and some of their partners from the Scottish Government all lending a hand. Teams helped to improve the local paths for the many users and waded the river to keep it healthy. Thanks for all effort team

Harlequin beetle on a bridge on the Water of Leith. Great afternoon on a photography walk led by Gillian at @wolct.bsky.social and with accomplished photographer Charles Everitt. Plus a few other scenes along the way including the incredible artwork in the Colinton tunnel (last one shows the artist)

Yesterday morning along the Water of Leith in Edinburgh. 🍂

A morning of wading and cutting back willow on the Bonnington stretch of the Water of Leith with @wolct.bsky.social Before and after photos give a sense of what we managed.

Another great turn out for the session in Bonnington today where we got busy trimming vegetation and sweeping leaves from the paths, cleaned graffiti, removed litter from the walkway and the water, and trimmed back 2 large willow trees that were hanging across river. Brilliant!🙌

A lovely start to the week taking a walk through Craiglockart Dell on a fungi survey. Plenty on show at the moment from artist palletes, earth stars, stink horns and a beautiful violet webcap

Port of Leith, Edinburgh

A walk along the Water of Leith path to Stockbridge in Edinburgh, very pretty

All about pacing

A dedicated team of nineteen were out today from the Edinburgh office of Blackrock making a difference on the walkway. They did a huge rake & brush of soggy leaves from Dean Bridge to St Bernard's bridge. Followed by a cut back along the Damside path. Top effort folks

Barry decided if anyone called him “A big chonk” again there would be consequences 😬 Water of Leith , Edinburgh #Birds #BirdsSeenIn2026 #PigeonSky

Water of Leith and Tanfield from the Japanese bridge

Another fabulous turn out for today's session around Balgreen! We swept leaves and trimmed vegetation from paths, planted and weeded in the Community Garden, weeded the bridges over to Murrayfield, and coppiced willow to use in other projects. Litter picking too obviously!

Was out for my lunchbreak walk and thought to myself I never really see any new species here then on last stretch in way back saw this cute as a button Little Grebe 🥰 Water of Leith , Edinburgh #Birds #BirdsSeenIn2026

Great turn out in Balerno to help with sweeping leaves and removing some old fence posts from Graham's Garden in preperation for the imminent new drystane wall to be built. We also removed some invasive snowberry and did some planting in the garden. Very productive, thanks folks!

A digital frame from my photowalk on Saturday. I'll probably change my mind but right now this is my favourite picture of the big yellow windfarm jackets in Leith - or at least their reflections on the surface of the water. #sharemondays2026

Goosander steaming towards me on psychedelic water at full speed on my lunchtime walk today 🌈😎🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Water of Leith, Edinburgh #birds #BirdsSeenIn2026 #Scotland

A great morning down at Bells with a team from the Edinburgh office of Wood Mackenzie . On the menu today was raking the meadow and sowing yellow rattle. Willow spiling to reduce bank erosion. Clearing the walkway of leaves. Refreshing the soakaway drain. Top work team 👏 👍

It’s not all messing about in rivers! Monday’s AGM saw a fantastic turnout of members and volunteers, a great presentation on the Murrayburn, and a toast to another successful year. 🥂 Read our Annual Report www.waterofleith.org.uk/wp-content/u...

A sunny session down in Leith at our monthly clean up. We protected the local environment clearing a large pile of rubbish. Maintained the walkway clearing leaves and reclaiming the width. Removed taggiing and adding additional planting to enhance it. #civicpride

Water of Leith, just downstream of Redbraes Weir. Edinburgh

A busy day for staff from the Edinburgh office of AECOM at our visitor centre. They rolled up their sleeves to help get it ready for our Summer's End event on the 25th of Oct. Then they took to the river, removing several bags of waste to keep the river healthy Top work team

A breezy morning a Longstone where yhe volunteers planted 240 trees to boost the biodiversity next to Saughton Prison. Removed nine bags of litter, 1 mattress and a foot spa. Trimmed back the prison path to keep it useable for the local community. #civicpride

A busy 2nd quarter with 2,706 hours of practical volunteering recorded, making the running total 5332 hours. After the big spring clean we've moved to a more diverse list of tasks on the wallway, treating INNS biological surveys and wildflower scything

As the seasons change its that time of year when we begin our fungi surveys of Craiglockhart and Colinton Dells. Thus it was great to get out for a refresher on the Autumn @fieldstudiesc.bsky.social Fungi course run by Chris Knowles. Lots of knowledge gained and ready to be put into action

The final day of the Scottish Countryside Ranger Association Conference. Our rangers have been in full attendance from Tues - Fri. Sharing knowledge, developing relationships and learning some new tricks from other rangers from across Scotland. Back to looking after the natural world on Monday

Fancy something different to celebrate the changing season - join our Samhain inspired Summer's End event on 25th October. Book your start time from 3pm onwards. £5 per person. www.waterofleith.org.uk/events/summe...

It’s time to put the meadow to bed for the winter! Who could be better to do this than P6s from Broughton PS who stomped the cuttings to ensure every last seed hit the ground, then raked, scarified and reseeded. Thanks P6 for all your hard work!

Our Source to Sea geography river study started in the rainy Pentlands with Balerno and Currie HS AdH pupils. By the time we got to Slateford it was sunny and by Stockbridge it was almost summer again.

A second day on the trott for our hardcore volunteers, this time between Juniper Green and Kinleith, sweeping off leaves and cutting back to make the path wide and safe. Plenty of rubbish to be foraged from the undergrowth too. Time to put you feet up folks!

A beautiful morning in Colinton Dell, sweeping leaves from the path, clearing out drains and weeding steps, and of course, sweeping the area for rubbish. Nice to be joined by a group from the British Council too. Thanks everyone!

Two volunteer teams out this morning. The 1st was at Longstone scything vegetation off the mounds ready for tree planting next week. By removing the vegetation there will be less competition and a better chance of the trees making it to maturity.

Thanks to the Friends of Warriston cemetery for a very informative tour as part of Doors Open Door Days New factoids for the next time we are working in that area. Amazing to think there have been around 69,000 burials there.

An enjoyable morning with a small team of staff from the Edinburgh office of Blackrock. They helped to improve the entrance to St Mark Park and then moved onto the walkway rebuilding the hazel fence and raking off debris from Wednesdays heavy rain.

A fun night on the Leith Theatre heritage tour. Great to hear the history of the building, see back stage and imagine the hey day when the wombles performed there. Hopefully more gigs to come #everydayisaschoolday

Sunshine on (the Water of) Leith #Leith #Edinburgh #River #Proclaimers

Fantastic team effort today in Currie! We managed to reclaim a huge amount of the walkway from encroaching vegetation, from Haston Wall to Poets Glen, including steps and side paths. Started brushing out the moss collecting on the edges & removed graffiti from all signage. Amazing job folks, thanks!

A morning for Johnny listening to the river roar at Bells meadow whilst using the strimmer to cut the grassy section in the meadow. We'll be sowing yellow rattle in the coming weeks to help reduce the grass to encourage more wildflowers

A small team wade up above Balerno, injecting and spraying Japanese Knotweed before it can spread further downstream. A few Himalayan balsam found still lurching about as well

The Shore, Leith, Edinburgh.