As I mentioned in my last post, Terry and I decided to take a couple of days off last week to try and take advantage of the drier-than-usual weather (That turned out to be a wise decision, too: I’m typing this on Sunday morning, and I’m fairly sure that’s a Biblical-style rainstorm I can hear drumming against the windows…), and on Thursday we headed to Jupiter Artland, near Edinburgh, which, to lazily quote their own website, is “a contemporary sculpture garden”.
Actually, though, that doesn’t quite sum up what Jupiter Artland is. It’s in the grounds of an old mansion house (the owners live in it, so you can’t just rock up for tea and cakes, unfortunately…), and once you’ve parked up and paid (It was about £8 each, but totally worth it), you begin walking along a woodland path, which leads you past various installations, which seemed to me to be right out of one of the horror movies I love so much:
There’s a cage with a giant hole, leading to who knows where. A gun leaning against a tree. A cemetery entered through a narrow door, and with all the names removed from the gravestones. A gang of creepy girls weeping in the woods, their hair obscuring their faces, horror-movie style.
It was absolutely amazing.
Once you’ve strolled through this sinister/beautiful woodland path, however, you emerge into a different kind of dream, this time one filled with the most amazing mounds of earth:
That white thing I’m sitting on in the second-from-top photo? It’s supposed to be a sperm. I was sitting on a sperm. And I only realised after I’d smiled for the camera. Ah, well!
Oh, there are also donkeys:
And a cute little retro caravan/snack bar:
(Yes, we had three cakes. Because we had our invisible friend, Brian, with us, obviously.)
(No, it was because you had to spend more than £10 to be able to pay by card, so we were “forced” to buy another one. Oh, noes!)
There’s a whole more more, too, including a cave in the ground, made entirely out of amethyst:
Unfortunately, it was really hard to do justice to the place on film, which is why I’ve shown you more photos of the snack bar than of the actual artworks. You’ll just have to take my word for how awesome it is, though: or, better still, pay a visit yourself if you’re ever in the area.
Trust me, it’s worth it.
Robin
08/06/2012Errm, what shoes are you wearing? I can’t believe I can’t see your shoes in any of the pictures. VERY cool place, thought. I love the creepy statue of the little girl in the woods.
Louise
08/06/2012Omg, what a fab place. I really want to go, I love that sort of day out.
Becky | life.style.flash.
08/06/2012How interesting! And OMG DONKEYS! 😀
Becky | life.style.flash. x
Amber
08/06/2012Haha, that was exactly what I said!
Roisin
08/06/2012Oh this looks fabulous! I loved seeing your photos on Instagram – even better to see them here. Also,naturally I love the polka dots 🙂
Bemsy
08/06/2012Oh wow, I’m adding this to my list of places to visit!
Bemsy x
Panthera
08/06/2012The place looks awesome! And the donkeys are so cute, and clean-looking! I’m not a big anti- dirt person (okey, yes I am), but clean animals usually means happy, well-taken-care-of animals, and well cared for animals make me happy. Happy all around!
Not sure what it says about me or my country, but my only reaction to the “3 cakes” thing was “you had to buy 3 cakes on top of the coffee to pay 100kr??? (10£) Wow, I can have many cakes if I go to Britain..”
Ophelia
08/06/2012I LOVE the picture of you in the cave. It gives an “Alice in
WonderlandSpace” vibe to me. Or Manga meets porcelaine doll. The coloursheme is just so pretty!Amber
08/06/2012Oh, I really wish those photos had worked out better – they really don’t do it justice, it was just so pretty, and very Alice-esque!
Sandy
08/06/2012I’m now sad I live too far away as that park looks brilliant!
Never got further north than Bradford…or Preston…whichever is highest. Whenever I suggest to anyone to go to Scotland they all get this funny twitchy eye thing and start saying things like “you do KNOW how far away that is?” etc etc. Spoilsports.
Katie
08/07/2012It looks like a fascinating place! I think I will take inspiration from your adventures and go to a sculpture garden in my area this weekend, provided the weather plays nice.
Jayne
08/09/2012Oh wow! This place looks amazing, another reason for me to arrange a holiday to Edinburgh ASAP!
Kim Hutton
08/14/2012Wow this is righ by my mum’s house but i’ve never been! I think I defo need to go now, always wondred what it looked like on the inside. 🙂
char
08/15/2012Oh this looks like such a fab place to explore. I’ll put in on my “if I ever go to Scotland” list. 😉
Reb
09/29/2012Cave made of amethyst. You are kidding me. Oh my sweet baby Jesus. WOW!!!
Throughout this entire post, my jaw kept dropping further and further, and when I thought it couldn’t drop any further, I see AMETHYST CAVE! NEED TO GO. NOW.