Great Britain’s Top 5 Art Gardens You Must See Before You Die

For centuries, Great Britain has had a (successful) love affair with gardening, developing a particular style known as “The English garden,” which has spread far and wide across the world. Today, we are taking a look at something similar in design but much larger in scope — “art gardens” — in particular, expansive English garden landscapes combined with outdoor sculptures, installations and art of all kinds.

For those art-devotees who love a good English garden (and a long walk!) these charming art gardens should definitely be added to your bucket list. In the meantime, simply sit back and enjoy some images of these breathtaking combinations of art and the natural world.

1) Yorkshire Sculpture Park – Wakefield, West Yorkshire

Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) is known as the UK’s leading open-air gallery. For 40 years, it has celebrated and showcased “art without walls,” with its open-air collection of sculptures and installations spread across 500 acres of land. The changing exhibition program has featured pieces from Ai Weiwei, Andy Goldsworthy, Joan Miró, Elisabeth Frink, Barbara Hepworth, and many more.

Credit: Henry-Moore.Foundation

2) Little Sparta – Pentland Hills of South Lanarkshire, Scotland

Little Sparta is a 7-acre art garden set in Pentland Hills of South Lanarkshire, near Edinburgh, Scotland. This internationally acclaimed “garden poem” was created by artist and poet Ian Hamilton Finlay and his wife Sue Finlay in 1966. Over the course of 25 years, Ian and Sue — and numerous other collaborators — developed the garden “poem by poem, vista by vista” to provide the settings in which over 275 works of art take their place.

Credit: Graphicarts.princeton.edu

3)  The Garden at the Chatsworth House – Derbyshire Dales, Derbyshire

The Chatsworth House is the seat of the Duke of Devonshire and has been home to the Cavendish family since the 16th century. The house and the Chatsworth Garden has played host to art and artists for centuries. The 105-acre Chatsworth Garden is the product of nearly 500 years of cultivation, and retains many of its early features (like the Canal Pond, Cascade, and 1st Duke’s Greenhouse) along with a maze, traditional waterworks, and modern sculptures.

Credit: Chatworth.org

4) Charleston – Firle, East Sussex

Shortly after the first World War, Charleston’s walled garden was created by artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, set in designs by Roger Fry. Flower beds, mosaic pavements, and tile-edged pools were combined with classical sculptures and a piazza by Quentin Bell. After the deaths of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant in 1961 and 1978, respectively, the art garden fell into disarray. Restoration of the garden began in 1984 and it opened to the public in 1986.

Credit: Gardenista.com

5) The Sculpture Garden at the Barbara Hepworth Museum  – St. Ives, Cornwall

The Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden preserves the studio and garden of the 20th-century sculptor, Barbara Hepworth, who came to live in Cornwall in 1949. Many of her favorite sculptures, created onsite in the studio (known as Trewyn Studio), are featured in the secluded garden.

Credit: ttnotes.com