Balgreen seat

First, an apology for how long this took me to post. Excuse (skip this paragraph if you don't want to hear it): I forgot to take an 'after' shot at the end of the second day's build, so I didn't really have anything much to show. And even if I had remembered, the seat was only half way up by then ... and then I wasn't at the final build, and it's taken me up until now to get back down to the site to take photos.

Anyway, yesterday I finally managed to get back down to the site (by the Water of Leith, at the back of the Balgreen bowling club). And this is how it looks:

The seat is part of a project to improve this corner of the walkway, with some of the work being done in conjunction with some local 'NEETS' (Not in Education, Employment or Training, I think it stands for), giving them A) the chance to learn some dyking and B) some ownership of this site, therefore hopefully improving its chances of not being 'reconfigured' by disaffected youths. To this end, two training courses were held in which a wall was built at the other end of the site. The first of the courses, at least, went pretty well, with a couple of the lads concerned seeming reasonably interested, and the product wasn't too bad either.

The tape was added as a deterrent to any would-be reconfigurers, and for a while it seemed to be working: however, when we went back to do the seat a couple of months later, the deterrent effect seemed to have worn off.

A quick look round located the missing stone, the culprits showing some dedication to their cause as they appeared to have loaded the stone onto a shopping trolley and wheeled it to the middle of the nearby bridge, with the whole lot then being deposited in the river - no mean feat considering the weight involved.

Our original idea for the seat was to build a semi-circle in the centre of the raised bed area:

A quick survey of the stone indicated that we'd probably actually have enough, and the right shapes, for a full circular seat, and we set to work putting up the poles for this (somewhat challenging) build. However, before we'd got stated, Ben from the Water of Leith Conservation Trust showed up and mooted the idea of a curved seat to one side, centered on the same point. This sounded just as attractive, and an easier build to boot, so we shelved the circular seat idea (though we may yet go back and implement it at a later date), and set to work.

Work continued apace with only occasional interruptions to provide directions to walkers and cyclists confused by the nearby diversion in the walkway, and by the end of the day we we'd got a good few courses up.

We returned the following week and got the bottom part of the seat pretty much finished: however, I have only a 'before' photo for this day (looking very much like the above - only without the sunshine - fortunately no reconfiguration having taken place), so you'll just have to imagine how it looked (not a hard task, really - like the above, but with more stone on it). And a few very dedicated members returned a few days later to complete the seat back.

Dave and Ben from WoL also returned and repaired (and completed) the wall.

And all in all, the finished site is a great improvement on what was previously a pretty uninteresting corner of the walkway. 

And with any luck, the winter weather will deter any attempts at further reconfiguration, and by next year they'll've got used to it being there and won't bother trying to trash it.