Continuing my perambulation in the park I wander down towards the lake, the lower one. Here are two large ‘architectural’ installations from Anthony Caro. 

A strange but captivating ring of twelve animal heads from the Chinese Zodiac. The artist Ai Weiwei, a Chinese dissident, wanted them to be fun “everybody has a Zodiac connection”

Looking at my map I see there is a footpath around the upper lake which looks interesting. The two lakes were originally hand dug for Bretton Hall in the C18th and are at the centre of the park, they are connected to the River Deame which flows through the park. In amongst the trees I come across scattered artworks.

Idit Nathan and Helen Stratford’s  Further Afield. 2021. are several railway sleepers inviting you to play.

No sculpture park is complete without Antony Gormley.  One and Other. 2000.

I particularly like this use of the old boat house.  JocJonJosch.  Eddy.2014. in which the three artists each have an oar, going nowhere.

At the end pf the lake by the bridge this young man is on his phone. But what is he thinking about?       Network 2013. Thomas J Price. 

I’ve never been up to the Longside Gallery on this side of the park, and despite it being closed I fancy the walk. A steep field leads me upwards with good views back over the lakes and park. Hereabouts are lots of lovely trees which has given me an idea for a separate post on nature in the park.

There is nobody about as I continue along the ridge to the Round Wood and unexpectedly come across a circular stone wall, it must be one of Andy Goldsworthy’s.

Oh, there is somebody up here, a solitary figure sat looking at the view. But as I get closer he becomes much larger. Sean Henry’s  Seated Figure. 2016 plays with scale. The last photo in the series fortunately has a passing lady stood next to him for perspective.

As I walk down the hill the boundary wall in the sunken Ha Ha suddenly develops small deep rectangular enclosures, could this be Goldsworthy again? In one a suspended tree has been captured, perhaps there were in the other two but decay may have moved in.

I can’t get to grips with the last ‘installation’ on the hill. Seventy One Steps.  David Nash. 2010. And that’s just what they are, though I didn’t count them. Charred Oak sleepers embedded in coal and slowly merging into the hillside, probably just as he imagined similar to his Barnsley lump of coal on the other side of the park.

At the bottom are the remains of the ornate C17th Lady Eglinton’s well.

I was glad I had done the long walk up the hill.

Time for a sit down and a spot of lunch.