Famous Gardens: Garden of Cosmic Speculation

Open to the public only one day a year, the Garden of Cosmic Speculation, a 30 acre sculpture garden, takes science and maths as its inspiration. Quite simply, there isn't another garden like it in the world. The garden was set up by Charles Jencks, together with his late wife Maggie Keswick and is located at Portrack House near Dumfries, in South West Scotland. 

It was set up in 1989 without the usual ideas people have when they create a garden. Horticultural displays very much take second place in this garden. Instead, it is designed with ideas in mind - and to provoke thought (or at least speculation) about the very nature of things.

The garden is inspired by science and mathematics, with sculptures and landscaping on these themes, such as Black Holes and Fractals. The garden is not abundant with plants, but sets mathematical formulae and scientific phenomena in a setting which elegantly combines natural features and artificial symmetry and curves. It is probably unique among gardens, drawing comparisons with a similarly abstract garden in Scotland, Little Sparta.
Access

The garden is private but usually opens on one day each year through Scotland's Gardens Scheme and raises money for Maggie's Centres, a cancer care charity named for Maggie Keswick Jencks.

Depiction In Music
The garden is the subject of an orchestral composition by American composer, Michael Gandolfi, which he composed for a joint commission from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center. The piece was subsequently recorded by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robert Spano, and nominated for "Best Contemporary Classical Composition" at the 2009 Grammy Awards.

Literary References
Louise Penny uses The Garden of Cosmic Speculation as an important plot device in her recent Gamache mystery, 'The Long Way Home' (St. Martin Press, 2014).

Cameron Jace makes creative use of The Garden of Cosmic Speculation in his fictional novel titled 'Circus', which is the third installment of his 'Insanity' series. In the book, Jace uses many true facts when referring to 'public' knowledge of the garden (per character conversation), but changed the name of the designer to better fit into the story's plot line.

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