A Sculpture Walk
I was on the wooded slopes of the Holywood hills during the week.
Not that Hollywood.
Our Holywood, with one ‘l’, overlooks Belfast Lough and across to the County Antrim coastline. For once, I was more interested in my immediate surroundings.
Originally, Culloden Estate was built as an official palace for the Bishops of Down, in 12 acres of beautiful secluded gardens and woodland and is only 6 miles from Belfast City Centre. Culloden Estate and Spa is now a 5 star hotel. It was built in 1876 and took two and a half years to complete, and most of the stone came from Scotland by boat, arriving in the County Down fishing village of Portaferry and being brought to the site by horse and cart.
Not sure I would like this guy outside my front door.
Ninth Life
This bronze sculpture was the work of Barry Callaghan, it was commissioned by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in 1992 and made available to Culloden Estate & Spa.
I am hoping to have a few more lives left before I reach my ninth!
In this life, my reason to visit was for ‘Art In The Garden‘, the first event of its kind in Northern Ireland. In association with the Culloden, Gormleys Fine Art were hosts of the event. A veritable feast of over 100 sculptures - some life size and others suitable for indoor display.
Every corner you turned or every pathway you followed provided a veritable feast.
The marquee was the display area for the smaller items.
Over the next few Sundays I will focus on some of the pieces.
Mayo said,
May 22, 2011 at 12:37 pm
Grannymar you are full of “life”. There is no stopping you.
Delirious said,
May 22, 2011 at 4:15 pm
What a wonderful experience! I love art, and look forward to your upcoming posts.
nick said,
May 22, 2011 at 4:24 pm
Every time we thought of going to see the sculptures, it started pouring with rain, so we never got there. It looks like you had to do a fair bit of walking to find them all.
wisewebwoman said,
May 22, 2011 at 5:08 pm
Wow GM:
Thanks for this virtual treat!
XO
WWW
Grannymar said,
May 22, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Mayo - It is hard to kill a bad thing…. or so the saying goes!
Delirious - I didn’t cover all of it, as I kept stopping to talk to people as I moved about. It was my plan to return before the event closed this evening, but alas that did not work out for me!
Nick - The way things were arranged, I didn’t realise that I had walked so far. It was very well presented and didn’t feel cluttered. I took plenty of photos and some I will reproduce over the coming weeks.
WWW - I think you would have enjoyed it!
speccy said,
May 23, 2011 at 9:01 am
I hadn’t heard about that at all- I look forward to seeing the photographs.
Grannymar said,
May 23, 2011 at 10:19 am
speccy - Alas, the event finished yesterday. I had hoped to return, but circumstances prevented me.
Rummuser said,
May 23, 2011 at 2:56 pm
If anything was needed to make NI the place on priority to visit, these photos did. They are lovely.
Grannymar said,
May 23, 2011 at 3:40 pm
Ramana - Thank you. This is only one small corner of our lovely land.
blackwatertown said,
May 23, 2011 at 11:50 pm
It’s a beautiful estate. Think I agree with you though about that first sculpture.
Grannymar said,
May 24, 2011 at 8:54 am
blackwatertown - Ninth Life seems to be a permanent item and not part of the event.
Alice said,
May 24, 2011 at 5:13 pm
What a lovely garden for art. I love the ivy-covered cottages!
Grannymar said,
May 24, 2011 at 5:30 pm
Alice - I am glad that I don’t need to look after that garden!
Grannymar » Art in the Garden 1 said,
May 29, 2011 at 6:01 am
[...] Last Sunday I promised to share with you some of the sculpture I saw at Art in the Garden. [...]
Grannymar » Art in the Garden 2 said,
June 5, 2011 at 6:00 am
[...] Another peek at some of the wonderful sculpture I enjoyed at Art in the Garden. [...]
Grannymar » Art In The Garden ~ 9 said,
July 24, 2011 at 6:02 am
[...] seems so long ago since my Sculpture Walk through Art in the [...]