Community health & community gardens: The Haven at Belhaven Community Garden

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Research findings and reflections on community health during a visit to Belhaven Community Garden in Dunbar. A valuable and inspiring partnership with NHS Lothian, the garden is now threatened by the closure of the Belhaven hospital. By Story Weaver Joana Avi-Lorie

With a special thanks to Philip Revell and Naomi Barnes.

Community health, climate change, and ecosystem health are closely interconnected, each playing a vital role in sustaining human well-being. As climate change accelerates, it threatens ecosystems and poses serious risks to public health, particularly in vulnerable communities, by intensifying heatwaves and other climate events, disrupting food and water supplies and worsening air quality.

Last week, Spain (where I currently sit finishing this story) faced severe storms that led to catastrophic flooding and widespread devastation, particularly in the eastern and southeastern regions. Even though I am not close to those areas, the air quality here in Madrid is so bad it is marked as a ‘public health emergency’ level.

This is because strong storms can worsen air quality by stirring up ground pollutants and creating atmospheric layers that trap them near the surface. Storms can cause temperature inversions, where warmer air sits above cooler air, preventing pollutants from dispersing upward. After the storm, weak winds often fail to spread out the pollution, causing it to linger and degrade air quality in urban areas.

Rising, warm air often helps disperse pollution from near the surface (top), but in a temperature inversion, the warm air cannot rise, trapping pollution at the surface (bottom).
EPA
https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/air-quality/how-weather-affects-air-quality

Healthy ecosystems help counterbalance the effects of climate disruptions like these by filtering air, purifying water, and supporting biodiversity. And one of the best examples of healthy ecosystems in urban and suburban areas is gardens.

Community gardens have emerged as valuable contributors to health by providing access to fresh food, green spaces for physical activity, and social hubs that enhance mental well-being. These gardens not only help mitigate some impacts of climate change by cooling urban areas and absorbing CO₂ but also strengthen community resilience. Embracing community-driven green spaces reinforces both environmental and human health, fostering a holistic approach to resilience in the face of climate challenges.

Belhaven Community Garden (BCG), a Sustaining Dunbar project, is a great example of how community gardens contribute to public health and environmental resilience. Since partnering with NHS Lothian in 2012, BCG has transformed land adjacent to Belhaven Hospital into a shared green space where locals, community groups, hospital staff, and patients can come together to grow food, build connections, and enjoy nature.

Philip Revell and Naomi Barnes from Sustaining Dunbar welcomed me, my partner and our son to the garden, to show us around and tell us some stories about this fascinating project that they have helped create and have been supporting for more than a decade.

On the map at the entrance, both Philip and Naomi can be seen in the pictures from 2012 planting and marking what would become the sensory garden, today thick, wild and magical, where my little son marvelled at a nest of slaters (their collective is called a quabble, I have just learned!). In the past, this garden offered a comforting space and reflective time for end-of-life patients at the hospital, and it can now have a new role in supporting community health.


While my son watched a beautiful speckled wood butterfly resting on a tomato with great interest, I remembered it’s not just human local communities that can benefit from nature-based health projects like BCG, but other animal communities too. In a critical time for the hedgehog population in Scotland which is down 50% in only the last 20 years, initiatives like the Pledgehog Project are important to encourage people to get involved in helping animal populations in their local area, which in turn supports a healthy ecosystem for all.

Not all human and non-human folks are ‘friends of the garden’. For different reasons, deer and vandals are best to stay out when roaming through the estate and Naomi told me that if Sustaining Dunbar gets the community asset transfer which they applied for they can get gates on – and do so much more that the garden needs.

We kept walking towards the vegetable patches, snacking delicious tomatoes and apples. The patches are regularly kept by the volunteers, some collectively, some taken by committed individuals.

The orchard has 140 fruit trees including a Scottish heritage variety of apples and hazelnuts. Beyond the wildflower meadow, the young woodland salutes us, with birch, hazel, hawthorn, blackthorn, dogrose, holly, and rowan trees. To protect some specific areas, hawthorn and blackthorn hedges were planted to help break the wind. Naomi pointed us out to the ‘dead hedges’, made from any woody material that takes a long time to break down, which were also built to act as windbreaks for the orchard. Like the wildflower meadow and woodland, the hedges provide a precious insect habitat.


We ate more apples and tried to stay away from the flight paths of the bees on our way back to the now empty hospital building adjacent to the entrance of the garden. My son jumped and danced under a small gazebo, tapping his feet on the stones, turning it into a bandstand in my imagination, and maybe in his too. I could clearly see how this place could be an even more beautiful and vibrant haven for the community if they can secure the community assets transfer.


Naomi and Philip told us about other initiatives and groups that BCG welcomes throughout the year – social prescribing, beavers’ and cubs’ groups, adults with learning difficulties, schools and college visits and activities, setting refugees into the area, cultural exchange, dementia carers group, and local community cooking with kids in the Summer. I could see them all around us, and I could see more people enjoying the now abandoned rooms of the hospital, the walls covered with traces, planning and celebrations of their activity, their smiles and their tears pouring into the garden.

My son started following another family with small kids who had just arrived to enjoy the garden but it was time to say goodbye. With a lunchbox full of apples and a heart full of hope for the future, I felt emotional but didn’t know how to express it, so I want to say here an extra thank you to Philip and Naomi for the special time they have gifted me and my family with this visit.


“A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all, it teaches entire trust.”
– Gertrude Jekyll, 1843-1932, cottage-garden artist, plantswoman, author

We desperately need trust.

The proposal to close Belhaven Hospital is said to be centered on safety and sustainability concerns due to its outdated facilities, ongoing maintenance issues, and challenges in meeting modern healthcare standards. Advocates argue that shifting services to more accessible, up-to-date facilities like East Lothian Community Hospital will enhance patient safety, dignity, and care quality while allowing better use of resources to support East Lothian’s ageing population.

On the other hand, critics worry that the closure will reduce local access to healthcare, creating travel challenges for Dunbar residents, especially the elderly and those without transportation. And then there is community concern over the potential loss of valued local resources, such as intergenerational programs and this amazing community garden.

The NHS Lothian estate’s recent assessment (2021) highlights the powerful role that nature can play in healthcare across its 94 sites, which include 174 hectares with 46% as greenspace. This land supports carbon capture of 283 metric tons of CO₂ per year, valued at £19,501 annually, and improves air quality by filtering out nearly 1 ton of PM2.5 particles each year—an impact worth £255,993. While 71% of the estate’s greenspaces are currently in poor condition, targeted improvements in habitat quality could significantly enhance its biodiversity value.

Expanding programs like therapeutic gardening, which already supports 350 participants and delivers a 2:1 return on investment, could further boost health and economic returns. With added greenspaces and connections to community areas, NHS Lothian can turn its grounds into vibrant, health-promoting spaces aligned with its net-zero and biodiversity goals, creating long-term benefits for patients, staff, and local communities.

The future of the Belhaven Community Garden is threatened with the closure of the hospital. You can show your support for taking the land into community ownership as a way to ensure a long-term future and public health benefit from the Belhaven Community Garden project by signing this form and also adding your opinions and knowledge.

More to read/listen to about Belhaven Community Garden:

Links to other 1000 Better Stories about community gardens

References:

Holt, A.R., Dempsey, N., Henneberry, J.M., Ashby, M. and Lush, C. (2021) Biodiversity and climate change assessment for the NHS Lothian estate. Report to the NHS Lothian, Natural Capital Solutions Ltd, February 2021

‘Creating Community Health: Interventions for Sustainable Healthcare’ by Simon Lennane published by Routledge (2023) https://www.communityhealth.uk/home