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22 May 2020

An eggs-cellent use of our Easter egg mountain

Three children in bunny outfits running in front of a large house.
We’re looking for places to donate our unused Easter eggs
Our Easter egg hunts in April this year were due to be our best yet. Over 32,000 people came along last year and we were expecting a bigger turnout for 2020. Around 38,000 eggs had been delivered to properties and everything was being made ready for what is usually our biggest weekend of the year. Then along came coronavirus and all the events were cancelled.

If they were stacked on top of each other, the total number of eggs would be three times the height of Ben Lawers. Cadbury very generously gave us permission to distribute the chocolate treats, and in recent weeks our staff have donated around half the eggs. But we’re now looking to hear from more groups who could make use of them.

The eggs have a best before date of July and are currently being kept in storage at our properties. If you have any suggestions of organisations who could take our remaining Easter eggs, please let us know through our social media pages.

Lots of small, brightly coloured, foil-covered mini chocolate eggs

Supporting the NHS and other care organisations

Many of the eggs that we’ve already given away have gone to patients and staff of hospitals around the country. Paediatric wards and porters in NHS Lanarkshire took a delivery, as well as the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow. Branklyn Garden in Perthshire donated to the Perth Royal Infirmary and properties in Fife made donations to the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy. Further south, eggs made their way to Borders General Hospital.

In Tayside, eggs went to a range of locations including Brechin’s Stracathro Hospital, Kingsway Care Centre in Dundee, the Murray Royal Hospital and Community Mental Health Teams in Perth, Kinross, Arbroath, Brechin and Forfar.

Culzean Castle, Brodick Castle, Pollok House, Threave Garden and The Tenement House all donated their eggs to local foodbanks. Bannockburn gave its chocolate treats to Women’s Aid in Alloa and the Bellfield Centre in Stirling. Eggs also went to community groups and charities such as the Community Pantry in Larbert, Fullarton Connexions in Irvine, homelessness charity Seascape in Ayr, 10:10 Trust in Ayrshire, Centrestage in Kilmarnock, Peace Childcare and the Royal Blind Home in Edinburgh.

Culzean Castle on a sunny day.
Culzean Castle should have welcomed thousands of visitors to its Easter egg hunt this year

A total of 41 Trust places around Scotland had been gearing up for what is usually our busiest weekend of the year.

Hunts were due to take place in the grounds of places such as Culzean Castle in Ayrshire, Falkland Palace in Fife and Crathes Castle in Banchory, as well as smaller properties including the Tenement House in Glasgow and the Georgian House in Edinburgh. Outdoor locations such the Hermitage at Dunkeld, Inverewe at Poolewe and Arduaine Garden, Oban had also planned on hosting hunts.

Mark Bishop, Director of Customer & Cause at the Trust, said: ‘It was absolutely heartbreaking to have to cancel our Easter egg hunts this year and not be able to welcome the tens of thousands of people who we usually see. As well as being our biggest weekend of the year, Easter marks the start of the season for many of our properties, but given the unprecedented global situation everything had to be put in hold. In the midst of all this though we saw that some good could come out of the situation.

‘38,000 Easter eggs don’t eat themselves and our operations teams have been finding places for them to go. It’s wonderful that so many have gone to the NHS and to other groups and organisations doing incredible work in our communities.’

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