I visited magical, mossy Little Sparta, Ian Hamilton Finlay’s greatest work of art, as part of my research into artist’s gardens (set in the Pentland Hills, near Edinburgh). Above, are a few of the 270 artworks spread across seven acres of wild and exposed moorlands. Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925 – 2006) was a poet, writer, visual artist and gardener.

I’m always looking for the poetry in a garden and this garden delivered in tonnes (both metaphorically and literally).

“Collaborating with stone carvers, letterers and at times other artists and poets, the numerous sculptures and artworks created by Finlay, which are all integral to the garden, explore themes as diverse as the sea and its fishing fleets, our relationship to nature, classical antiquity, the French Revolution and the Second World War. Individual poetic and sculptural elements, in wood, stone and metal, are sited in relation to carefully structured landscaping and planting. In this way, the garden in its entirety is the artwork.”

Part of research funded by an RHS bursary (report to be written at a later date).