Greg Borthwick, Roslin Glen, Edinburgh

It’s a place that I’ve got lots of different connections to, it was where I started loving being outdoors, and that crossed over to my work with Dads Rock now where I’m hopefully giving other dads that same kind of love for being outdoors.

Dads Rock is a charity that started about 11 years by two dads in Edinburgh. They were finding it difficult to find things to do with their kids, so they started a playgroup. 11 years later that playgroup is ongoing, but now we also do support work and workshops, run a peer support network, WhatsApp groups, trips, and even antenatal for dads.

"My main job during the week is young dads support work, which is done on a one-to-one basis. I started with Dads Rock in 2019, and prior to that I worked in childcare. Covid-19 came along during that time and so the playgroups they ran had to be moved outdoors. Fortunately, I had been running forest schools in nurseries for quite a few years, so I was very excited to take our playgroup out into the woods. We started ‘Dads in the Wood at Craigmillar Castle Park, but I have a far bigger personal connection to Roslin Glen.

I grew up basically at the entrance to Roslin Glen. I have a lot of memories of my dad there. It’s a lot to do with family tradition. My dad used to tell us there’s a touching tree in Roslin Glen, that you have to touch every time you walk past it. Lo and behold, it turns out it was just a random tree he chose that was far enough away that he could say, ‘okay they’ve had a big enough walk’. But to us, it was a tree that we had to go and touch every time.

And there was the jumping wall. In my head, it was six foot tall, and I would jump off it and my dad would catch me. It goes up to about my chest, so it’s a lot shorter than I thought it was, but now my little girl jumps off it and I catch her. We’ve found our own little places there now – there’s the ‘feelie tree’, just a big lumpy old tree, and that’s where the fairies live, so we have to go and give the fairies a gift every time we visit.

It’s a place that I’ve got lots of different connections to, it was where I started loving being outdoors, and that crossed over to my work with Dads Rock now where I’m hopefully giving other dads that same kind of love for being outdoors. There’s a lot of dads, especially in Edinburgh, that are not as outdoorsy and having a group makes them feel a bit more comfortable.

I think outdoor play is really valuable in a different way that indoor play is. One thing I know about children is they need a sense of adventure and risk in their play. That’s very difficult to do in an indoor setting. But also, dads and adults need to be playful too. Play has been shown to have a really positive effect on both mental and physical health, at any age. Outdoors is a much more natural setting for that play to happen.If you ask anyone of my age what they were doing when they were kids, they won’t tell you about the times when they were indoors playing. Their memories will be of outdoor play. And for some reason, now that we’re parents, we seem to be drawn more to this indoor play. So hopefully by running Dads Rock and outdoor play, we can help folks remember being outdoors is safe."

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