After my drop in surgeries and home
visits on Saturday I stopped off at Reres Hill to have a look at the works recently
carried out by the council’s environment department. A lot of shrubbery that
had overgrown the paths has been cut back and the route to the top of the hill has
been cleared and is much easier to get to now. Broughty Ferry Development Trust,
of which I am a committee member, is working with the council to make improvements
at Reres Hill and to restore some of its features. The aim of the development trust
is to enhance and maintain the historical and environmental features of
Broughty Ferry which makes Reres Hill a good project to be involved with. 
Reres Hill was purchased by
Broughty Ferry Police Burgh in 1868 to be used as a pleasure ground and place
of public resort and recreation. In 1887 improvements to the park were agreed to
celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria including a new wall on the Monifieth
Road side of the park with iron railings and three gates, one at each end of
the park and a central main archway. These
were paid for by James Guthrie Orchar, Provost of Broughty Ferry from 1886 to
1898, and a great benefactor to the City of Dundee and the Burgh of Broughty
Ferry. Two years later he purchased the land south of Reres Hill and
established New Park or Orchar Park as it is now known.
