“Where would you like to start?” The question, presented with a smile, is a good one. Looking at the map I’ve just been handed there’s plenty temptation. The Hidden Gardens of Kingsbarns offer no fewer than ten gardens open to visitors ready to explore nooks and crannies of this handsome village. But the tantalising trail is just part of a remarkable story which winds a long way back.
High noon on a midsummer Sunday. With eyes on ominous grey clouds, the East Neuk Friends of CHAS have set up stall in the village square ready for their latest fundraising event. It’s an extraordinary commitment to a cause which (before today’s takings) has raised more than £70,000 for Children’s Hospices Across Scotland. That’s a lot of behind the scenes organising and more to come. In April next year, they celebrate their 20th anniversary.
So where does this story start? The answer leads across The Square to Barns Cottage where a shady alleyway opens to a garden glowing with colour. Number 3 on the map is the home of Kate Stuttard.
She’s happy to take a break indoors away from the energetic East Neuk wind, leaving the task of plant sales and greetings to her friend Kate Eggo who also helps keep the garden in immaculate condition. At the age of 91, Kate Stuttard now restricts herself to weeding the fronts of borders for fear of falling if she ventures further back. “Not that I’m afraid of falling, but I don’t want to damage the plants,” she says with an infectious laugh. She’s known for her sense of humour, but it was a deeply moving story which inspired the beginning of this long-running community commitment.
On holiday in Achiltibuie, to the far northwest of Scotland, Kate and her husband Philip had met the father of two young girls whose life-shortening illness emerged as they grew older. In friendly conversation she learned about the work of CHAS and Rachel House in Kinross, Scotland’s first children’s hospice, and how much the family appreciated the support and respite the charity provided. The girls died in 2001 and 2003, both at the age of 13, a personal tragedy which Kate could not forget. An image lingers in her mind. “I can picture it still, their swing, swinging back and forward, empty.”
Back in Kingsbarns she went into action, quickly gathering the support needed to launch the East Neuk Friends of CHAS, first with informal fundraising events and then in April 2004 with a constituted community group and a committee of nine members. The first open gardens launched at the end of July that year. Very sadly, Philip died just a few days later. Kate pauses, then adds emphatically. “But it gave me a purpose.”
“Keep the joy alive”
The rest is not history. Returning to the stall in The Square, I find smiling t-shirted volunteers hard at work, welcoming visitors, taking the £4 entrance fees plus £1 for the quiz sheet, glad of the sun now beaming down from a clear sky.
“Love the t-shirt” someone shouts, “where did you get it?”
The answer to this one is CHAS. They provide the t-shirts and logo Keep the Joy Alive. It underlines a fundamental message of today’s event: the invaluable contribution of volunteers. The inspiring achievements of CHAS in supporting so many families across Scotland, like the continuing support of East Neuk Friends – they both depend on people willingly giving their time and talents often, when circumstances permit, for many years. Two of the founding members – Kate and Margo McKee (the current secretary) – are still actively involved. And new members join every year.
Liz Rankin, the current chair, has started me off on the trail with a glimpse of her own involvement which began almost as soon as she came to live in the village 15 years ago. “Maybe it wasn’t quite the day we got here,” she says laughing, “But I arrived in June and two people descended on me to ask if I’d open the garden in July for CHAS.” That settled it. As former head teacher at Broomlea School in Glasgow, Liz already knew about CHAS and how the charity met the many different needs of many different families.
Gardens of delight
My increasingly crumpled map leads me round the village which has its own intriguing history: well supplied with listed architecture, six miles south-east of St Andrews, Kingsbarns gets its name from the long-gone barns that stored grain for royal residences at Crail and Falkland in mediaeval times.
Perhaps that helps explain the sense of timelessness in gardens we’re exploring. Old and new, they open with the support of Elibby Spittal, the hidden gardens co-ordinator, who makes sure of a good balance between much-loved familiar places and exciting new discoveries – and strategic placing of teas and toilets. Bunting and balloons mark the spot as visitors meander from The Square to Seagate, along Back Stile to Lady Wynd, though not necessarily in that order. From cottage gardens to spacious lawns, from romantic wildness to carefully planned colour, from tree-shaded enclosure to a sudden sea view cleverly framed across a poppy field to the Bell Rock lighthouse…
“Each garden is so different,” says Lyndsay Stobie, CHAS community fundraiser. “This is such a special event; it could only happen in a community where everyone comes together.” CHAS has always kept close contact with its East Neuk Friends (which include Crail and Elie) and on the trail Lyndsay notices an echoing link, “It’s lovely to see people enjoying being in the gardens,” she says later, “Like Rachel House. Families say how much they enjoy just being in the garden, it’s such an important part of what they gain from their stay.”
A winning formula
By mid-afternoon, Kingsbarns pavements are busy with people still coming – and going with trophies from plant stalls. Looks like another successful day. Two weeks later, a phone call with Liz confirms a total of around £2,200 raised from 200-300 visitors. With the Christmas Bazaar to come in October they are likely to reach what has become a regular donation to CHAS of more than £4,000 a year.
East Neuk Friends have found a winning formula, concentrating on two main events a year to make a valuable contribution to the mounting costs of running CHAS. There’s a lot going on in Kingsbarns (golf, of course, and a new crowdfunder campaign to make the Kingsbarns Inn a community owned hub). But events like Hidden Gardens open day add an extra sense of pride and focus. “Even people who aren’t directly involved are pleased to see so many people coming to Kingsbarns for the gardens,” says Liz.
When I asked why people get involved Liz put the question to the rest of the group (there are 17 members, and counting, including retired teachers and parents of local schoolchildren). She was interested to see how many were inspired by the dedication of others and a sense of commitment to a worthwhile cause. For Liz that comes from Kate’s unshakeable sense of purpose over the last 19 years, “People feel that level of commitment,” she says, “I don’t think we can overestimate how that commitment gels us all.”
I look through the East Neuk Friends photo album which records developments since the start with reports from local newspapers. There’s also a handwritten letter of thanks from Achiltibuie. In April 2004, Ken and Ann Lowndes, parents of Jenny who died in July 2001 and Marion in October 2003, had been sent a Fife Today cutting reporting the chance encounter that inspired a lasting endeavour.
“I was amazed to think that I was the chance encounter and also very humbled to think that my little girls’ story could galvanise such support from a complete stranger.”
Ken Lowndes
The support continues. Remember: East Neuk Friends of CHAS Christmas Bazaar October; 20th Anniversary April 2024; Hidden Gardens July.
Feature image: Barns Cottage photo Alan Stobie
Further Reading (making link between East Neuk, Rachel House and Pond Garden) Sunshine on Rachel House
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