From the Pentlands to Portrack – a Summer visit to two Magical Gardens
The Hon. Secretary, Tony Burton, arranged a trip for members in June, leaving Glasgow in the morning and in the mid-morning visiting Little Sparta, Dunsyre, South Lanarkshire
Set in the Pentland Hills, Little Sparta is Ian Hamilton Finlay’s greatest work of art. Finlay moved to the farm of Stonypath in 1966 and, in partnership with his wife Sue Finlay, began to create what would become an internationally acclaimed garden across seven acres of wild and exposed moorland site.
The 5-acre Arcadian garden includes concrete poetry in sculptural form, polemic, and philosophical aphorisms, together with sculptures and two temples. Altogether it includes over 275 artworks by the artist, created in collaboration with numerous craftsmen and women.
After leaving Little Sparta lunch was taken at the Black Bull, Moffat.
The Black Bull Inn, Moffat is an independently owned Scottish inn, established in 1568 and the oldest hostelry in the area. It has connections with the history and literature of southern Scotland: being a centre for government troops during the time of the Covenanters; and a visiting place for Robert Burns when an Excise Officer. We will have a two-course lunch here with tea and coffee.
From Moffat members visited The Garden of Cosmic Speculation, Portrack House, Holywood, Dumfries.
Designed by Charles Jenks the garden covers thirty acres with gardens, bridges, landforms, sculpture, terraces, fences, and architectural works. Portrack is one and half miles off the A76, five miles north of Dumfries.
A water cascade of steps recounts the story of the universe; a terrace shows the distortion of space and time caused by a black hole; a “Quark Walk” takes the visitor on a journey to the smallest building blocks of matter and a series of landforms and lakes recall fractal geometry.
The garden is private and normally open to the public on only one day a year. The Society had special permission for this visit and in thanks we donated £20 a head to Maggie’s Centres.
After a full day the coach safely returned members to Glasgow.