The Garden Bell celebrates its 400th anniversary in 2007. Cast in 1607 by the Whitechapel Foundry in London, probably for King James VI to use at Holyrood, it is the oldest known English-cast bell in Scotland. It is most likely to have come into RBGE care when James Sutherland, who became the first Regius Keeper in 1699, was restoring the King’s Garden at Holyrood for King William III.
The bell hung from the boiler house until 1967 when it was moved to the side of the Temperate Palm House, where Garden Supervisors would learn the technique of using two ropes for its twin-note call to Garden staff to break for lunch and to finish work at the end of the day – a function it is believed to have served for over 300 years!
In 1970 it was moved to just inside the entrance to the Herbarium and Library Building, where it is currently displayed.