Garden of Cosmic Speculation, Sculpture garden in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.
The Garden of Cosmic Speculation is a sculpture garden in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, covering thirty acres with forty different areas including gardens, bridges, landforms, terraces and architectural works. The site connects scientific concepts with landscape design through shaped hills, winding staircases and geometric water features.
The architect and writer Charles Jencks designed the garden from the 1980s onwards together with his wife Maggie Keswick Jencks at the grounds of Portrack House. The couple transformed their private property into a walkable representation of cosmological and physical theories.
The garden began as a private vision by an architectural theorist and his wife, who wanted to translate modern science into landscape form. Visitors today experience how physics and mathematics become visible through paths, ponds and plantings.
Access is only possible one day per year, typically on the first May bank holiday Sunday through the Scotland's Gardens charity program. Paths lead through uneven terrain with staircases and hills, so visitors should wear sturdy footwear and allow time for exploration.
A water cascade staircase narrates the story of the universe from the Big Bang to the present, with each step representing a time epoch. A terrace demonstrates through its construction how space and time become distorted near black holes.
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