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The Garden of Cosmic Speculation

Photo of The Garden of Cosmic Speculation, a garden near Holywood, Dumfries and Galloway, southern Scotland.

The Garden of Cosmic Speculation

© Ruth Sharville / Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0

© Ruth Sharville / Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0

The Garden of Cosmic Speculation

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The Garden of Cosmic Speculation is Charles Jencks’s extraordinary sculptural landscape at Portrack House near Holywood, its grass landforms, terraces and pools shaped around ideas from cosmology and mathematics: black holes, fractals, the double helix of DNA. Jencks made it with his wife, Maggie Keswick Jencks. It opens for just one weekend a year, usually in early May, for Scotland’s Gardens Scheme, so tickets go fast and need booking ahead. Dumfries station is about 8km away.

More places to visit near The Garden of Cosmic Speculation

Photo of Hole i' the Wa' Inn, a pub in Dumfries and Galloway, southern Scotland.

Hole i' the Wa' Inn

Pub near Dumfries

Historic Dumfries pub down a narrow close, pouring pints for over three centuries and once frequented by Burns.

7.6 km SE

Photo of The Globe Inn, a pub in Dumfries and Galloway, southern Scotland.

The Globe Inn

Pub near Dumfries

One of Scotland's oldest working inns, dating to 1610 and Robert Burns' favourite howff.

7.9 km SE

Photo along the Romans and Reivers Route, a long-distance trail running from Ae to Hawick, southern Scotland.

Romans and Reivers Route

Scotland's Great Trail

Fifty-two miles across the Southern Uplands from Ae Forest to Hawick, on old Roman and drove roads through Reivers country

8.1 km NE · Dumfries and Galloway & Scottish Borders

Photo of Torthorwald Castle, a ruined castle in Dumfries and Galloway, southern Scotland.

Torthorwald Castle

Castle near Dumfries

A medieval castle in Dumfries and Galloway.

10.6 km SE

Photo of the Nith Estuary, a National Scenic Area in Dumfries and Galloway, southern Scotland.Highlight

Nith Estuary

National Scenic Area near Carsethorn

Solway saltmarsh under Criffel, with wintering geese, a moated castle and an abbey ruin all within a few miles

11.3 km S

Photo of Thornhill, a village in Dumfries and Galloway, southern Scotland.

Thornhill

Village

Planned Nithsdale village of 1714, its lime-lined streets meeting at a column topped by the Queensberry winged horse

13.7 km NW · Dumfries and Galloway