This has become an annual Christmas night out for David and I since the event started a few years ago. So far we've always been lucky with the weather, considering it's November or December, though luckily this year we were back in the car five minutes and the heavens opened. This year the light display and organisation was done by a different company, so we were interested to see how different it would be.
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| Up-lighting trees |
Arriving through the west gate this year, the entrance to the display was through the John Hope Gateway (allowing for shopping in the RBGE shop if you've still got Christmas shopping to do). It was definitely a lot quieter than last year, but that may due to it being on Itison as an offer last year. As in previous years the route is organised to wind through the gardens creating a trail of about a mile. There was a lot more food huts this year, with choices of hot dogs, burgers, waffles, mulled wine and coffee on the patio outside the terrace cafe up by Inverlieth House. Once we'd enjoyed waffles and a warming hot chocolate (David - driver) and mulled wine (me - medicinal for this cold of course) we headed over to the lawn in front of the house.
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| Squid Soup |
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| Squid soup in red |
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| and white |
Squid soup was the instillation on the lawn in front of Inverlieth House and I really liked this. Balls on stalks that lit up and made a quiet tune, almost like they were talking to each other, quite eerie in the dark as you walked through it. From here you get a good view of the centre of the city with all the fun of the fair going on in Princes Street.
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| Inverleith House and squid soup |
We followed the path down hill past trees decorated with giant Christmas baubles and dripping lights and then up into the woodland area to the choir of trees. With ropes of lights winding up the tree trunks you are serenaded through the trees and beyond to the fire garden.
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| Dripping lights |
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| Giant baubles |
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| Lit globes on the lawns, sometimes they're white |
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| and sometimes red, then every colour in between |
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| The tree choir |
Walking up from the big pond towards the glasshouses we were mesmerised by the dancing flames of the fire garden. Lines of flames snaked through the trees and around metal Christmas trees topped with suns and moons taking us on up towards the palm house.
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| An alternative Christmas tree |
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| The fire garden |
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| I would like one of these |
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| A light tree |
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| The palm house |
The palm house lends itself to a light display with it's beautiful architecture and back drop of dark night. A series of colours and combinations played over the building to music, very impressive.
Also new this year was the wall of light, a curtain of lights draped along the giant beech hedge! This was simple but quite spectacular in it's scale. The Pampas grass also looked impressive back lit by the hedge.
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| A wall of light |
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| Botanic Cottage, a old new addition to the gardens |
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| Hedge of light, palm house and the moon, new, old and ancient |
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| Red trees and disco balls |
From here we arrived back at the entrance where we had a wander through the shop and I saw a couple of books I'm going to add to my book list. We enjoyed our night out, especially as it's the first time we'd both been out of the house for three days due a particularly bad cold. I did enjoy getting a chance to use my new camera at long last.
Was this as good as previous years? Had the new company done as good or better as previous? I don't think so, I came away feeling a bit disappointed to be honest. There was none of the amazing theatrical light and sound productions as previously on the big pond or in the Chinese garden. It just didn't feel as exciting as before, but maybe that's just me.
Find out for yourself, information on the RBGE website
here
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| A tree of light |
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| Time to go home |
Read about a previous visit to the Botanic lights
here
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