JG300 are happy to report that the new monument to celebrate the historic past of Juniper Green is now ready to be installed. The first documented appearance of Juniper Green’s name was in 1707 (hence the 2007 tercentenary celebrations), but archaeological finds show that people were living here in the Bronze Age at least 4000 years ago. The Monument incorporates symbols of Juniper Green’s Bronze Age, the mills round which it grew and the plant after which it is named. Standing 2 metres above the ground and carved in green stone by sculptor, Ian Newton, and the stone will be unveiled in a special ceremony, which will take place on Sunday March 7th at 2pm and everyone’s invited!
Piper, Christopher Grieve, will start the proceedings and Bronze Age expert, Dr Alison Sheridan, of the National Museums of Scotland will give a short speech. We hope to follow this with a short Scottish dance performance and the serving of brose and “Bronze Age beaker” and “millstone” biscuits!
Bring along your camera as well as a little small change for our donations bucket and mementoes stall. Please join us for this historic event. Look out for posters in the village, and announcements on the website and in the local press and media.
Now the soil’s warming up after our long hard winter, something new has cropped up by the Tennis Courts in Juniper Green! This huge green rough hewn rock looks as though it’s been there for ever but it was only set in its place on March 3rd This was an achievement in itself owing to the then snow-bound conditions at the stone carver’s workshop!
The beautiful images on it, which were under wraps till the following Sunday, were designed by local ceramic artist, Mick Brettle. The stone itself was chosen and carved to Mick’s design with great skill and craftsmanship by Ian Newton, stone carver from Nine Mile Burn.
On it you can see the juniper sprig of the village’s name, the river and a mill wheel, symbolising the mills which used to flourish along the Water of Leith here and finally a Bronze Age beaker and skull recalling the settlement here of our hardy ancestors since at least 4000 years ago. The skull is part of a skeleton found with a beaker in a stone cist near the Lanark Road in 1851. He is known as Juniper Green Man and is now in the National Museums of Scotland, whose scientists have already worked out his age and what he had to eat! More Bronze Age urns were found in 1898 along the ridge of what is now Woodhall Terrace and it is only a stone’s throw from there to the site of the monument at the junction between Baberton Ave and Belmont Rd.
It was here that the monument had its ceremonial unveiling on Sunday March 7 at 2pm. This was a very happy event, attended by about 200 people, and the sun shone! There were golden balloons and a golden (or should that be bronze?) speech from guest speaker and Bronze Age expert, Dr Alison Sheridan of the NMS. Representatives of the oldest and youngest residents, all past or present pupils at JG school, unveiled the monument to the strains of Christopher Grieve’s pipes. A team of 12 of Anne Bangham’s dancers, in great costumes, provided a series of stunning performances in the Village Hall.
The refreshments, served in the grounds of the Tennis Club, were themed to our community’s past: juniper and lemon flavoured biscuits shaped and decorated like Bronze Age beakers, and “mill wheel” biscuits flavoured with cinnamon, which looks rather like the snuff that used to be milled here. More up-to date cuisine, in the form of pizza, was donated by Silvia Carpico of Pentland Fry and Al Borgo! It was all washed down with a choice of lemon brose made with real lemons, or Atholl brose, a heady concoction of oats, honey, cream and whisky. A photographic record of the whole event was made by Paul Watt.
Most important of all, there was a really good feeling of people meeting and greeting each other as part of a related community. Thanks are due to our sponsors, JGVA, JG300 and the makers of Juniper Green organic gin, London and Scottish International Ltd; to Juniper Green Tennis Club; and all those, too numerous to name, but including volunteers from the new JGCC, who gave their time, talents, energy, money and equipment to make this event such a success.
Finally, watch out for locals sporting badges with Juniper Green Man on it! They will soon be for sale in the village. And if you have already done so, come and see the new monument!
Article by Val Hawkin


