Our group was celebrating being a whole month old and this Tuesday evening saw us return to Leith Community Croft, our first ever Group Run task. This is a fantastic community croft run by Earth in Common.

Ali was on hand to welcome us, dish out the tools, and point us towards an overgrown herb garden and surrounding growing spaces that were in need of some TLC. Armed with trowels, forks, spades, and plenty of determination, we got to work straight away.

An hour of solid effort later, there was a significant transformation. We tackled weeds, cleared beds, and helped bring some order back to the growing areas. There's always plenty to do at the Croft, but it's amazing what a motivated team can achieve in a short space of time.

We have been talking with Ali about the possibility of GoodGym taking on a dedicated corner of the market garden to maintain on a longer-term basis. Ali is really keen on this idea so it looks like we will be returning to the community croft on a regular basis. Watch this space for what could become our very own GoodGym Growing Project! 🌿

A special shout-out goes to Luke, who joined us from GoodGym Kingston for the second consecutive week while enjoying his holidays in Edinburgh. We hope you've enjoyed seeing a bit of the Scottish capital and thanks for being part of the team.

Also a big welcome to Imogen, Michael, Ian and Suilven. Great to have you onboard!

With the tools packed away and some energy to spare we squeezed in a quick workout before running back up Leith Walk and a nice wee crew stuck around at Edinburgh Street Food for some well-earned food and drinks, taking advantage of that 15% discount.

Five weeks in and we're already building partnerships, improving local spaces, and perhaps even planting the seeds for a project of our own. Here's to month two! 💚🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️🌱

We have recently set up a Whatsapp community - link to join is here: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LWdv5YU8SJ7LYNARbKFj6f

And don't forget to follow us on Instagram (any help with photos/videos and getting posts out is greatly appreciated) https://www.instagram.com/goodgymedinburgh/

It was a small but mighty crew for this week’s GoodGym Edinburgh group run, with four of us meeting at P’s and G’s Church at the slightlier earlier than usual time of 5.30pm to support Volunteer Edinburgh as they closed down and cleared up Scotland’s largest Volunteer Recruitment Fair.

Our stall had been buzzing throughout the day, thanks to the brilliant efforts of Lucia, Katie and Suzanne, who came along earlier to help spread the word. Across the event we spoke to over 110 people, lots of people keen to get involved and many folk having spotted our feature in Monday's Edinburgh Minute! https://www.edinburghminute.com/the-edinburgh-minute-monday-31-august-2026/

Packing Down the Fair

At 5.30 the fair was closed to the public and there was mountain of work to tackle. We got stuck straight into shifting and stacking chairs, packing down tables across the hall, sweeping and mopping the main floor and clearing leftover materials and rubbish.

The staff on site were hugely appreciative for our help making a mammoth end‑of‑day job manageable. It’s safe to say we earned some serious brownie points with Volunteer Edinburgh for a strong showing during the clear‑up as well as the fair itself.

A Drizzly Litter Pick at St George V Park

With spirits high after a satisfying indoor task, we dropped bags at Edinburgh Street Food and jogged down to St George V Park and Rodney Street Tunnel for a bonus mission: a quick litter pick in the light drizzle. It proved to be a worthwhile spot. In a short session we collected over 300 pieces of litter with some bizarre, and slightly creepy, finds along the way.

Thanks to Chris Evans and Edinburgh Council's Seafield Street Cleaning Hub for providing us with litter pickers, gloves and bags, and thanks to Councillor Jack Caldwell for linking us in with the team!

Finishing With a 5km Loop

To round off the evening, we completed a 5km loop taking in Warriston Path. Big efforts from Jake (closing in on 50 GoodGym activities completed!), Kate, Luke and Jake for a great evening!

A tidy hall, a cleaner park, and a solid run — not bad for a Tuesday evening.

GoodGym Edinburgh spent a full day at Scotland’s largest Volunteer Recruitment Fair, running a stall from 10am to 5.30pm at P’s and G’s Church to introduce hundreds of Edinburgh residents to the idea of getting active while doing good.

We are Scotland’s first GoodGym group, this was our first major public event and it was a corker, lots of people keen to get involved and many folk having spotted our feature in Monday's Edinburgh Minute! https://www.edinburghminute.com/the-edinburgh-minute-monday-31-august-2026/

At our stall we had GoodGym posters, QR codes for people to sign up or follow us on social and printed out reports from our last 3 weeks of Group Runs. We were right at the back of the hall but still managed to draw in lots of interest from a wide range of ages, interests and backgrounds.

Huge shout out to Kate, Suzanne and Lucia for coming down at different times of the day to welcome people to the stall, answer questions and share stories about how fantastic GoodGym is. It added a lot to have stories from each of your previous GoodGym experience with groups in different parts of the country!

By the end of the afternoon, we had spoken to over 110 people, with the vast majority showing genuine interest and support.

A big thank you to the Volunteer Edinburgh team for putting on a fantastic event and supporting GoodGym Edinburgh as we find our feet and try to reach more people to get involved in our activities.

After the event we wen't straight into that evening's Group Run - report linked here: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/reports/a-fair-amount-of-cleaning-at-the-volunteer-fair