Boughton Park

Northamptonshire

Boughton Park survives as an early eighteenth-century garden of land and water, avenues and vistas, rhythm and reflection.

The Dukes of Buccleuch began the massive task of restoring the gardens this century and commissioned Kim Wilkie to create a new feature on the empty space opposite the great eighteenth-century Mount.

The new space is inspired by the scale, mass and elements of the historic landscape. An Orphean Hades has been created to complement the Olympian Mount.

The inverted grass pyramid descends 7 metres below the level of the restored terraces. Walking around the landscape, the new design is invisible, but drawing near to the mount, a gentle grass path spirals down to a square pool of still water deep underground. The water reflects the sky, a little like an inverted James Turrell occulus.