Perth, Scotland
New roots in ancient ground.
A Roman fort stood here. Before that, Pictish settlements.
Medieval paths, farming fields, and now — 2,000 families.
You're the newest layer. You belong.
Every gathering adds a thread to this place. Here's what's coming up.
Every piece of litter picked from this ground is a small act of care that stretches back through the centuries. Meet at the school gates, 10am. Bags and gloves provided — just bring yourself and a willingness to be surprised by what turns up.
Your local councillor will be here. We've been compiling questions about the pedestrian crossing and the new green space proposal. Add yours — just turn up, no booking needed, 7pm at the Hub.
The gardening group is putting in daffodils and tulips along the main path — the same path that medieval farmers walked to the fields beyond. Come for an hour, stay all afternoon. The tea will be continuous.
Bring your own bap. We supply the tea, the long table, and the conversation. Last time sixty people came and nobody ran out of things to say. Find out who's been feeding the fox.
A place accumulates its character slowly. Here are three lenses on this one.
This land has been occupied for over two thousand years. A Roman fort — Bertha — guarded the confluence of the Almond and the Tay where they meet just north of Perth. Legionaries stood where your street now runs.
Before Rome, Pictish communities painted their bodies with woad — that brilliant blue — and left standing stones across Perthshire that still stand today. They knew this ground as sacred.
Medieval farmers worked these fields. Drovers passed through. The land was cleared, enclosed, ploughed, and rested over centuries. By the time planning permission was granted for Bertha Park, the soil remembered all of it.
The name "Bertha" is Roman. You are living in a place named by people who came here from across the known world — and made it home.
Two thousand households. Young families, retired couples, new arrivals, people who've been in Perth all their lives. A neighbourhood that's still finding its shape — which means you can still help shape it.
The community garden is in its third year. The residents group meets monthly. The litter picks have filled hundreds of bags and produced at least one genuine friendship between strangers who'd have never otherwise met.
Perth & Kinross Council approved the new pedestrian crossing in principle. The greenhouse is arriving in May. The youth football league is heading into its second season.
Small things. All of them adding up.
The Bertha Park Community Hub is at 15 Adamson Avenue. The door is usually open, the kettle is always on.
“I moved here not knowing a soul. Within a week I'd borrowed a drill, found a babysitter, and been invited to someone's birthday. The same thing has probably happened on this land for two thousand years.”
“I've lived on Adamson Avenue for thirty years. I didn't think I needed a community group. I was wrong. I've met more neighbours in the last six months than in the previous decade.”
“The litter pick last autumn was genuinely lovely. We found a traffic cone, three footballs, and someone's passport from 2009. We also found, under the hedge, a piece of pottery nobody could date. We left it there.”
You're the latest. Welcome.
We started in someone's living room in 2022, wondering why nobody had organised a Christmas tree. Now there are two thousand of us. We still argue about bins. We are, it turns out, very like every community that came before us on this land: people trying to look after each other, share what they have, and make somewhere worth living in.
There's no membership fee. No committee. No constitution. Just residents who happen to share a postcode — and have started to feel like they share something more than that.
The next gathering is Sunday 27th April, 10am.
You don't need to be a joiner-in type. Just turn up.