Alfred the Owl

Leith Links will shortly be the home of Alfred the Owl, or rather a replica of him who may or may not be called Alfred. City of Edinburgh Council and University of Edinburgh are working together on a project called Parklife (funded by NESTA) which will see the owl installed in a tree to monitor & interact with park users.

Four parks across the City will have an electronic owl installed – Inverleith Park, Leith Links, The Meadows & Bruntsfield Links and Saughton Park.

The project will explore and develop new ways to use data and digital technologies to better understand how parks are used and valued by citizens, and how to engage park users in shaping the future of our parks.

Should park users wish to do so, they can connect with the owl via wifi in order to engage with each other for the purposes of sharing information such as the park users location & usage of the park etc.

Representatives of City of Edinburgh Council and University of Edinburgh will be attending a future meeting of Leith Links Community Council (date to be decided) to speak with us about the project. And of course we will publish more details as & when they become available. The meeting will be open to the public and we will promote the meeting in advance on this website as well as our Facebook & Twitter streams.