Community Covid Memorial Garden officially opened

Dundee’s Community Covid memorial garden has officially been opened.

The commemorative space, located on the corner of Moncur Crescent and Caird Avenue, was created to honour those affected by the pandemic following extensive engagement with local communities and creative practitioners in collective acts of remembrance, hope and healing.

As part of the official opening, a ceremony took place to recognise the contribution made by local people and partners to the project. The event included a minute’s silence, shared words of reflection, a poetry reading and music.

The memorial garden forms part of the national ‘Remembering Together’ project funded by Scottish Government and delivered by Greenspace Scotland.

The Scotland-wide programme was a community co-creation project that offered space for people to come together with others to share and process what Covid meant, and continues to mean, for communities across the country.

Dundee’s participation in the project saw over 200 local people contribute their experiences and ideas with time spent outdoors highlighted as vital for wellbeing. 

This led to the development of a garden space for people to go and reflect and connect with others and nature. It is a distinctive and accessible green space with winding paths representing the emotional twists and turns experienced during the pandemic.

Council Leader Cllr Mark Flynn said: “The city’s Covid Memorial Garden has been designed using the thoughts and ideas of local people who shared their personal experiences through workshops and drop-in sessions.

“This newly created green space is a free-to-access area which features artwork and serves as a place for reflection.

“It’s important that we continue to remember the people we have lost and the significant impact that Covid-19 had on our communities.”

Estelle Coulthard, project participant, said: “I lost my grandfather to Covid and never had the opportunity to say goodbye. The Memorial Garden will give me a place to sit and share my memories with others and allow our younger generation to have a place to find out how Covid affected our lives.”

Kirsten Wallace, Project Coordinator, UNESCO City of Design Dundee, said: “As a UNESCO City of Design, it is important to us to engage local people in co-designing shared spaces across the city.

“Throughout the Remembering Together programme, over 200 Dundee citizens were involved in the memorial’s co-creation stages, resulting in this Covid Memorial garden that has transformed previously vacant land in a residential area.

“It is the community’s ambition for the garden to serve as a reminder of how vital greenspace is in improving mental and physical health, which was evident during national lockdowns.

“We are delighted that Dundee’s Community Covid Memorial is now open for people to spend time in and reflect.”

Funding for the project also came from Coldside Regeneration Forum, Crowdfunder donors, Tayside Contracts Community Fund, Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund, the Leng Charitable Trust, Alexander Moncur Trust and Dundee Changemakers Hub.

The project has been led by UNESCO City of Design Dundee at Leisure & Culture Dundee in close collaboration with Dundee City Council’s Environment Service.

The works to create the memorial garden have included the creation of paths, planting beds, information panels and benches.

Plantings have included a mix of perennial native species that support biodiversity. Many of the plants have symbolic associations with remembrance, grief, peace and hope.

Five interpretation panels highlight how the Covid Memorial’s design reflects the shared experiences of the pandemic and how the changing seasons seen in the garden can mirror experiences of grief and healing.