Garden of Cosmic Speculation

Portrack, Scotland is home to the Garden of Cosmic Speculation - one of the most intriguing gardens of the 20th century. Charles Jencks and his late wife Maggie Keswick, together with head gardener, Alistair Cook have designed one of the most original gardens on the planet.

The garden is full of ideas, associations and games, combining breathtaking beauty and wonderful eccentricity. Jencks uses landscape and design to shed light on the way we perceive of the Universe.

Using a central theme of snaking curves Jencks has created a “landscape of waves” with a repeated use of the spiral throughout the garden.

A giant “snail mound”
several stories high
features a narrow path that curves around the perimeter forming a 'double helix', like the two backbones of every DNA molecule on the planet.

What was once the kitchen garden is now a garden of the six senses, reflecting the five senses and the sixth sense of human intuition. The garden beds house plants each stimulating a particular sense for example the bed dedicated to the nose, is planted with aromatic plants while the sense of touch bed grows thistles and nettles.

he landscape is divided into overlapping gardens. The old tennis court is now The Sense of Fair Play; the kitchen garden is The Garden of Common Sense; and there is even a Garden of Taking Leave of Your Senses.

Spread over 30 acres of winding, earthen terraces and clear blue lakes are a curious array of crisscrossing staircases, whimsically nonsensical structures and looping metal sculptures.

The whole garden is wildly stimulating, leaving its visitors amused, entranced and exhausted.

There is also a wonderful book available on The Garden of Cosmic Speculation.

credited from Kathy Ireland