Where is Little Sparta?

Little Sparta is in Central Scotland, in the United Kingdom — coordinates 55.7243°, -3.5087°.

Gardens · Central Scotland

Little Sparta

Little Sparta — Public artwork by Ian Hamilton Findlay;Sue Findlay.

Plan your visit

Typical visit: 1 h–2.5 h
Best time of year: Spring & summer (Apr–Sep)

Dog-friendly

Little Sparta is a place of interest in the United Kingdom. Wikidata describes it as: "Public artwork by Ian Hamilton Findlay;Sue Findlay.". Coordinates: 55.7243°, -3.5087°.

Photo gallery

From the Wikipedia article

Little Sparta is a garden at Dunsyre in the Pentland Hills in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, created by artist and poet Ian Hamilton Finlay and his wife Sue Finlay, since 1966. The five-acre (two-hectare) Arcadian garden includes concrete poetry in sculptural form, polemic, and philosophical aphorisms, together with sculptures and two temples. Altogether it includes over 275 artworks by the artist, created in collaboration with numerous craftsmen and women.

Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.

Background

History

The garden was first established in 1966 and was originally named Stonypath. Finlay lived there until shortly before his death in 2006. Finlay chose the name "Little Sparta" in 1983, in response to Edinburgh's nickname, the "Athens of the North", and playing on the historical rivalry between the Ancient Greek cities Athens and Sparta. Little Sparta survived numerous disputes, or "Wars" as Finlay termed them, regarding the rating and status of the Garden Temple; including tax disputes and government seizures. The wars are documented in the papers of Graeme Moore, landscape artist who worked with Finlay, held by the University of Pennsylvania's Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare…

Sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0.