Mountainhall Greenspace Community is a community project being developed from the NHS grounds of the Mountainhall treatment centre. The project aims to create a thriving  community space with access to nature and creative wellbeing.
Mountainhall Greenspace  is an 11acre site that sits behind Mountainhall Treatment Centre, the former main hospital for the town.
NHS D&G are looking across their estates through a ‘climate and sustainability’ lens, and are exploring ways in which Mountainhall Greenspace can be better looked after, and better used as a community asset.

Propagate was invited to support the NHS alongside DesignHOPES (design research for healthcare) from early 2024, when we hosted our first round of community consultations. In late 2024, alongside What We Do Now Network, we commissioned Miranda Bane and Pippa Thomas @ Two Isles creative ecologist and environmental artist, who achieved lots in their four months on the project. Organised creative and fun ways for the community to get to know Mountainhall and identifying key areas of community interest to develop.

From March 2025 onwards. The project has been gently evolving as we've learnt more about what it means for a community project to be activated on an NHS greenspace estate. And how best to support public health with access to creativity, wellbeing, nature and community. With learning and steering from multiple organisations and community members (termed oversight group) the project is finding it's footing ready to be a beautiful asset to the Dumfries community, and the local institutes which neighbor the greenspace site.

We are now looking for people to join our 'working groups' which are focused groups of keen individuals who work alongside an 'over sight group' to help deliver the projects aims, set out here in the Mountainhall Design Statement. We would love a mixture of voices, expertise and knowledge to help guide the direction of this project.

The Government's new Wellbeing Economy policies highlight the NHS as 'Anchor Institutes' Anchor institutions are large organizations that are deeply rooted in their local communities and whose long-term sustainability is tied to the wellbeing of the populations they serve. They leverage their resources and influence to address social, economic, and environmental priorities, ultimately aiming to reduce health inequalities and improve community health. *from Public Health Scotland

Join the mailing list to receive newsletters from this project. If you have other enquiries and would like to learn more about the project please contact mountainhallgreenspace@gmail.com

Our Propagate project lead for the Mountainhall Greenspace is Emily Tough, a Dumfries based artist and Propagate Justice member.

Click the images below to view our monthly 2025 newsletters.

We will also send you invites to activities and other updates from time to time.

Browse, add and comment our Mountainhall Greenspace Community padlet. This is a great online platform to stay up to date with the project.

Find all project reports and useful information from this space.

Working group sign up form and group structure proposal.
Draft one. We are looking for people to guide the future of this project.