Where in Scotland is Portrack?

Jencks' Garden of Cosmic Speculation

My information came from the Garden History Society (Scottish Group) http://www.gardenhistorysociety.org/activities/2000/portrackraehills2000.htm
"Fiona Jamieson, 30A Mansionhouse Road, Edinburgh EH9 2JD. Telephone 0131-667 8502 (evenings after 8pm)"

I have not been there, but Portrack House is in Dumfries & Galloway, 3+ miles from Dumfries off the A76 and close to the River Nith. Ordnance Survey "Landranger" Map 78 for Nithsdale & Annadale marks the house but not the Garden.

"... the gardens Jencks has made in London and in Dumfriesshire... are illustrated in his books: Towards a Symbolic Architecture and The Architecture of a Jumping Universe. His is in the great Platonic tradition of the 'imitation of nature' in garden design. But in this context 'imitation' refers to the idea of revealing the principles of nature in the design, not to the making of gardens which 'resemble natural scenery'."
http://www.gardenvisit.com/b/jencks.htm

Garden of Cosmic Speculation
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/bestof/curious_gardeners/
factsheet_scotland_300301.shtml#cosmic
Take a tour of the Cosmic garden in our video clip

Adrian
Leeds University Library

Thanks for the info!

According to the Dumfries Tourist Information people, this garden is only open to the public on one day, likely to be in June 2002, as part of the "Gardens of Scotland" open days.
Adrian

Open in 2004 23rd May:

PORTRACK HOUSE

Twisted, undulating landforms and terraces designed by Charles Jencks as "The Garden of Cosmic Speculation". Lakes designed by maggie Keswick. Nonsense building, sculptures, kitchen garden of the six senses. Teas. No Picture Avalable.
Click for map
£5.00
From Date To Date Opening Time Closing Time
23 May 23 May 02:00:00 PM 05:00:00 PM

Charities

40% Maggie's Centre, Western General Hospital

60% net to SGS Charities

Here is a link that might be useful: Scotland's Gardens Scheme

Charles Jencks' book "The Garden of Cosmic Speculation" is available:

Synopsis

Telling the story of one of the most important gardens in Europe, created by the internationally celebrated architectural critic and designer Charles Jencks and his late wife, the landscape architect and author Maggie Keswick, this book looks at The Garden of Cosmic Speculation. It is a landscape that celebrates the new sciences of complexity and chaos theory and consists of a series of metaphors exploring the origins, the destiny and the substance of the Universe. The garden is full of ideas, associations, games and memories; Jencks weaves his personal account of the garden's creation into an investigation into the revelations of recent science, using landscape and design to shed light on the way we can now conceive of the Universe. This book is illustrated with year-round photography, bringing the garden's many dimensions vividly to life.

ISBN: 0711222169

Frances Lincoln Ltd, 2003

Here is a link that might be useful: Publisher's website: Frances Lincoln