Cruickshank Botanic Garden

Cruickshank Botanic Gardens
Cruickshank Botanic Gardens
	Cruickshank Botanic Gardens
	Interactive map of Cruickshank Botanic Gardens
Type	Trust owned gardens, open to public
Location	Old Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland
Coordinates	57°10′4″N 2°6′17″W / 57.16778°N 2.10472°W
Area	11 acres (4.5 ha)
Created	1898
Operator	University of Aberdeen and the Cruickshank Botanic Gardens Trust
Open	Daily (locked at night)

The Cruickshank Botanic Garden is a botanical garden in Aberdeen, Scotland. It includes a Herbarium, and houses rare and endangered plants.^[1]

History

The garden was built on land presented to the University of Aberdeen on 13 April 1898 by Anne Cruickshank to commemorate her brother Dr Alexander Cruickshank.^[2]^[3] Over time, more tracts of land were purchased, until the garden reached its present size.^[4] The 11 acre (45,000 m²) garden is located in a low-lying and fairly sheltered area of Aberdeen, less than 1-mile (1.6 km) from the North Sea.

The Cruickshank Botanic Garden is partly owned and financed by the university and partly by the Cruickshank Botanic Garden Trust. The Friends of the Cruickshank Botanic Garden were formed in 1982 in order to promote and support the garden.^[5]

Present status

Although open to the public, the garden is extensively used for both teaching and research purposes. The Natural History Centre regularly guides school parties round the Garden, and the School of Biological Sciences of the University of Aberdeen holds a reception for graduands and their guests here each July. During the summer holidays, the Friends provide a bursary to allow an undergraduate student interested in botany to gain work experience in the gardens.

A plaque in the Cruickshank Botanic Garden commemorates Francis Masson, a Scottish botanist, gardener, and Kew Gardens’ first plant hunter.^{[citation needed]}