Garden Awards
VISIT SCOTLAND GARDEN AWARDS
How does the system work? Advisors visit and assess establishments on up to 50 areas from quality, comfort and cleanliness to welcome, ambience and service. If an establishment scores less than 60% it will not be graded.
Graded visitor attractions. Visitor attractions from castles and museums to gardens are graded with 1 to 5 stars depending on their level of customers care. The focus is on the standard of hospitality and service as well as presentation, quality of shop or café (if there is one) and toilet facilities.
The promise of the stars:
* it is clean, tidy and an acceptable if basic , standard.
* * it is a good, all-round standard.
* * * it is a very good standard, with attention to detail in every area
* * * * it is excellent – using high quality materials, good food (except self catering) and friendly, professional service.
* * * * * an exceptional standard where presentation, ambience, food (except self catering) and service is hard to fault.
The Barnhill Rock Garden achieved a * * * * award in 2008.
www.visitscotland.com
Beautiful Scotland
Beautiful Scotland is an environmental campaign in Scotland for communities who are working to improve and enhance their local area. The main campaign has been running for over 40 years and until recently was known as "Beautiful Scotland in Bloom".
Neighbourhood Awards
The Neighbourhood Awards are a relatively new initiative in Scotland. They are designed for groups who are beginners to making local environmental improvements in their area, particularly (but not exclusively) in urban areas.
The scheme is non-competitive; it aims instead to give recognition and support to groups by means of a one hour visit from an assessor during the month of August.
The assessor will give the group some guidance as to how they might proceed, and all entrants are awarded a certificate at an annual seminar in November. There are three levels of certificate – Improvement, Merit and Outstanding Achievement.
In 2008, 45 communities across Scotland took part in the Neighbourhood Awards and the Barnhill Rock Garden was one of three to receive the Certificate of Outstanding Achievement.
The first stage of the Scree Bed renovation project won another Outstanding Achievement Award in 2009
www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org.uk
The Green Flag Award Scheme.
The Green Flag Award scheme was launched in 1996 and gave its first awards in England and Wales in1997. Thirteen years later, the programme continues to provide the benchmark against which our parks and green spaces are measured. For the 2009/2010 round of judging, the scheme continues to go from strength to strength, with a record number of parks and green spaces receiving the accolade.
The award recognises well managed and high-quality green spaces and is valid for one year. To be eligible sites must be freely accessible to the public and perform well against the following eight criteria:
The scheme was trialled for the first time in Scotland in 2007 by Edinburgh and Dundee and the Barnhill Rock Garden won its first award. In 2008 Trottick Ponds and the Rock Garden obtained the award and in 2009 they were joined by Baxter Park. Perth also took part in 2009.
