JUPITER ARTLAND

We went to Jupiter Artland yesterday. It isn’t far, just a few miles South-west of Edinburgh. I was going to title this piece Evoque-Land, not Jupiter Artland because I don’t think I have ever seen so many Range Rovers, Discoveries or Evoques in one place as the car-park for Jupiter.

Very interesting, modern sculpture garden with works by Gormley, Andy Goldsworthy, Anish Kapoor and well, anybody that’s anybody in the art and sculpture world. Must have cost a mint; and the house itself . . . hard to date . . . a pink crenulated mansion: Edwardian? is also beautiful. Fifty million for the house and the estate. Fifty million for the art. Or a house in the South of France. Maybe they have both?

I wrote back in May about the Garden of Cosmic Speculation, in Dumfries and cast doubt on whether Jencks had done all the design he claimed. He designed this. And it is better. He has learned. Also, unlike the Garden of Cosmic Speculation, it is open every day not once a year, so you don’t get that massive rush of two thousand people crowding the landscape. In fact we were there early and had the place to ourselves for about half an hour. Interestingly, you drive through the step mounds which is better than at Dumfries. A very engaging experience. I think if I hadn’t been to the Garden of Cosmic Speculation before, I would have found the whole thing breathtaking.

Not the least breathtaking thing is the siting of the cafe from which there are distant views of the Forth Rail Bridge. You can sit eating your fruit scone with a view of the south of Scotland in front of you.

Later: turns out the mansion is 17thC.