Charles Jencks' Garden of Cosmic Speculation

If curiosity does indeed a pilgrim make then there can be no excuses for not taking the opportunity this Bank Holiday weekend to visit  the intriguingly monikered Garden of Cosmic Speculation. Located in the grounds of Portrack House, Dumfries, it is a private garden created by renowned landscape architect Charles Jencks – he who designed the distinctive Landform at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. The Scots-American has taken his concepts still further in his own private garden, which is open to the public for only one day of the year.

Inspired by the the universe, science and mathematic formulae with themes such as black holes, comets and DNA, the Garden's vast sculpted earth works, lakes and engineered structures are an impressive tribute to the mysterious universe which inspired them. To mark the occasion there’s a showing of Christoph Schuch’s programme about the garden at the Dumfries Film Festival the night before which Jencks will be introducing (he’s taking questions afterwards too and doesn’t appear in public very often). All entry money goes to the Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres which were set up in memory of his late wife, Maggie Keswick Jencks.