In 1670 two doctors – Robert Sibbald and Andrew Balfour – laid out a garden near the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh to grow herbs, flowers and plants for medical purposes. After the University of Oxford Botanic Garden, which had been founded earlier in 1621, it was the second botanic garden in Britain.
Later, in 1684, a second Physic Garden was opened by these two Edinburgh doctors on a site that used to be occupied by Trinity Hospital and is today part of the Waverley railway station. Eventually, these two gardens were united in 1763 on the west side of one of the longest streets in Edinburgh, Leith Walk, before the Royal Botanic Garden was transferred north to its present location at Inverleith in 1820. It is worth a visit for tourists, as the photos show.
Source
Turnbull, Michael T.R.B. Curious Edinburgh. Reprinted ed. Stroud. The History Press, 2010.
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