Grow 73, The Ruglen Ropewalk, Story and Sculpture Trail.

Ruglen Ropewalk map, words by Amanda Edmiston, design and illustration Rosemary Cunningham.

In Spring 2017 Rutherglen based community gardening group Grow 73 were awarded money from Tesco’s ‘Bags of Help’ fund, to create a nature trail in Overtoun Park.

They commissioned storyteller Amanda to help create and collate the project, telling and gathering stories with schools, care homes and community groups.

Over the course of a year Amanda added blog posts journalling the project and the stories on a simple website.

These intergenerational storytelling workshops then went on to inform a sculpture trail , designed and crafted by Rob Mulholland and installed with the help of the children and volunteers. Artist and illustrator Rosemary Cunningham create a beautiful map with stories and activities created by Amanda which guided visitors to the park through the trail

Amanda’s work gathering stories on local heritage, were also used to inform the mural at Rutherglen train station, and Grow 73’s 2023 land art project with environmental art students from Glasgow School of Art: Lavinia the protector of the pond and was part of the groups chapter in Seeds to Solutions, the book published by Incredible Edibles looking at community solutions to food and climate crisis.

Amanda and Grow 73 have continued this creative journey, with regular storytelling led workshops in the community garden and in 2023 Grow 73 hosted Amanda, local schools and film production company Retroviseur on a forthcoming project based on Jackie Morris and Rob MacFarlane’s book The Lost Words.

Check back soon for details!