Being in this garden would be like falling down Alice’s rabbit hole and coming out in Wonderland! The Garden of Cosmic Speculation in Scotland is one of the most amazing gardens I’ve ever seen. Imagine exploring this magical place with your kids.
The private garden, which sprawls over 30 acres at Portrack House near Dumfries, Scotland, was so named because its features are based on natural and scientific processes. This fusion of terrestrial nature, modern science and design creates some breathtaking results. Concepts such as quantum mechanics, string theory and complexity theory are illustrated through bizarre landscaping and metal sculptures. Structures representing black holes and fractals loom over the grounds. The masterminds behind this incredible space are renowned landscape architect Charles Jencks, and his late wife Maggie Keswick.
Now for the bad news: the garden is only open to the public one day a year. Well, it is a private garden, after all. And the proceeds from that day’s admission go to Maggie’s Centres, a cancer care charity named for Jencks’ wife. So, if you ever find yourself in southern Scotland on May 2, don’t miss out. I would jump on a plane just to experience this. And if that is never going to happen, there is a book about it called The Garden of Cosmic Speculation available here. I’m definitely adding this to our book collection.
The snail mound allows visitors to explore for themselves the Fibonacci sequence of numbers that make up a shell or at least feel it beneath their feet.
Around the garden are amazing sculptures on themes such as this – the DNA helix in gigantic metallic magnificence.
People are enthralled by the garden it has even been immortalised in an orchestral composition by US composer Michael Gandolfi and recorded by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
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One response to “Garden of Cosmic Speculation, Scotland”
Lovely garden, thank you for posting about it.
And of course, being Scotland, it’s raining!!