Little Sparta has outstanding artistic interest as the creation and former private family garden of the artist, Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925–2006). Developed over a period of 40 years with a range of collaborators, Little Sparta is considered Hamilton Finlay's most important and best known work and is among the major artistic achievements of the second half of the 20^th century.

Inventory record and inventory boundary revised in 2025.

Type of site:  Artist's garden and artwork in its own right.

Main phases of landscape development: 1966–2006

Artistic Interest

Level of interest

Outstanding

• Little Sparta is renowned internationally as a pioneering 'garden-as-artwork'.
• It represents the most important work of the artist and poet, Ian Hamilton Finlay, where many of his ideas were tested and developed.
• It is appreciated for its varied experiential qualities (woodland, water, moorland edge) and the aesthetic effects of its combined cultural and natural forms. 

Historical

Level of interest

Outstanding

• A large body of archival material details the history of the site, including early photographs (National Library of Scotland), and first-hand accounts, images and film curated by the Little Sparta Trust.
• It is an outstanding and intact example of a contemporary post-war garden created as a work of art in its own right. 
• As his former private garden, Little Sparta closely reflects Ian Hamilton Finlay's life, episodes of struggle, and his interests and development as an artist.

Horticultural

Level of interest

Little

• Little Sparta contains a range of trees, shrubs and herbacious plants designed in tandem with themed garden areas and sculptural installations. There are no scientific collections, veteran trees or rare species. 

Architectural

Level of interest

High

• Former farm buildings of traditional construction include Hamilton-Finlay's former home, and two buildings adapted as part of the garden's development - the Temple of Apollo and the Hortus Conclusus. 
• These buildings recall the origins of the site and contribute to the overall interest of the site through their association with Hamilton Finlay and his creative output.

Archaeological

Level of interest

Little

• Stonypath appears on historic maps from the late 16th century, indicating long-established settlement on this site. As with many gardens and designed landscapes, there is potential for future survey or investigation to reveal further information about the site's past.
• A greenstone axe of prehistoric date was retrieved during the excavation of one of the ponds (Canmore ID 48842).

Scenic

Level of interest

Little

• The wooded canopy of the garden contrasts with the open hillside and moorland of the local landscape, but there is little scenic impact due the overall secluded character of the garden and its small scale. 

Nature Conservation

Level of interest

Little

• Varied habitats including streams, pools, woodland, grassland and planted areas support nature conservation and biodiversity. 

Little Sparta is set within the low moorland hills of the Pentlands at their most southwesterly extent, 25 miles southwest of Edinburgh. Access to the garden is via a track leading uphill from the road through Dunsyre. The landscape setting is of grazed fields and moorland, and the garden is concealed from view from the road below. 

Originally called Stonypath, the site is at 280m above sea level and was described as 'remote', 'wild' and 'exposed' before its later development into an artist's garden from the later 1960s (Sheeler and Gillanders 2015: xvii-xviii). Covering an area of around 7 acres, Little Sparta comprises a cluster of adapted farm buildings and a range of mainly secluded and mature garden areas with water features, numerous artworks, planting and woodlands (2024). The artificial ponds and Lochan Eck are fed by a moorland burn and spring. From the top (northern part) of the garden, there are landscape views looking south and east over the Vale of Dunsyre. 

Little Sparta (Stonypath) was created over a 40 year period from 1966 to the early 21^st century. It is the work of the Scottish poet, artist and gardener, Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006) and his collaborators. 

Previously the site was a farm called Stonypath (evident on Pont 1596; Roy 1747-55 and Ordnance Survey published 1860 and 1897). In the mid 20^th century, it was part of an estate owned by the parents of Hamilton Finlay's wife. In 1966, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Sue Finlay moved to Stonypath and began a gradual transformation of the grounds.

Largely confined to Stonypath due to his agoraphobia, the garden became Ian Hamilton Finlay's long-term 'artwork-in-progress', and 'nursery-of-ideas' (Eyres 2009) as well as his family home. Hamilton Finlay designed the artwork and gained further international recognition as a leading proponent of the Concrete Poetry movement. Meanwhile, Sue Finlay provided gardening expertise and played an important role in delivering exhibitions and commissions. 

From 1966 to the 1970s, they planted trees to shelter the exposed site, adapted the former farm buildings, cultivated the front garden grounds and dug out the ponds and Lochan Eck. From the outset, visual poems were a part of the design, with the scale and choice of planting sympathetic to these elements. Work progressed incrementally as time and money permitted, with new artworks and garden settings developed in partnership with other artists, craftspeople and architects. 

Ian Hamilton Finlay renamed the garden 'Little Sparta' in 1980. Evoking the ancient Greek city state of Sparta and its military prowess in the face of larger powers, the name countered Edinburgh's 'Athens of the North' and also represented the idea that the garden could be conceived as an 'attack' rather than a 'retreat' (Bann, in Sheeler and Gillanders 2014: xiv). Hamilton Finlay often clashed with arts bodies and governmental organisations in episodes that he referred to as 'Battles' and the concept of conflict and warfare is one of the principal themes explored within the garden. Other recurring themes are classical mythology, the sea, ships and naval warfare, the French Revolution, and artists and writers. 

Sue Finlay left Little Sparta (Stonypath) in 1989. Ian Hamilton Finlay continued his work there with the 'English Parkland' forming the last major development in the 1990s. In 1995, he established the Little Sparta Trust, which continues to maintain and promote the garden, and which curates and publishes related archives (2024). Although the site was created as a private garden, public access developed gradually in the later 20^th century as it became more renowned.

Ian Hamilton Finlay considered the garden to be complete by 2006 – the year of his death, although some additional works were installed in the years immediately afterwards (Eyres 2009). Two influential head gardeners – Ralph Irving and George Gilliland have provided continuity in terms of garden development and ongoing maintenance and conservation (2024). In 2025, Storm Eowyn resulted in the loss of 20 mature trees, planted in the early days of the garden. 

Ian Hamilton Finlay is recognised internationally for his contributions to art and literature, with Little Sparta considered his most important work. Born in 1925, and called up for military service in 1943–47, he achieved recognition for his experimental writing and poetry in the late 1950s and 60s before founding his own publishers, the Wild Hawthorn Press. Little Sparta subsequently became the epicentre for Hamilton Finlay's creative production, where he could test new ideas and develop collaborations, resulting in exhibitions and commissions for sculpture parks, gardens and galleries worldwide. In 2004, Little Sparta was chosen as the most important single work of Scottish art in a poll of Scottish artists and gallery directors (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). 

Architectural Features

Little Sparta retains adapted farm buildings of traditional stone construction. Stonypath Cottage was the former home of Ian Hamilton Finlay. The Temple of Apollo was a former byre repaired in the 1970s for use as a gallery. Dedicated 'To Apollo. His Music. His Missiles. His Muses' it has classical inscriptions and Corinthian columns added in paint and gilding to the front elevation (1984). To the north, the Hortus Conclusus is an enclosed garden bound by the walls of another former detached farm building, adapted in 2009 from designs in Hamilton Finlay's notebook (Sheeler and Gillanders 2015: 187). 

Water Features

The ponds and Lochan Eck were first created as recreational features for model boats, swimming and fishing in the late 1960s–70s. These later became important means for developing poetic references and enhancing associated works relating to water and the sea (Sheeler and Gillanders 2015: xii).

The Gardens

Little Sparta contains more than 280 individual artworks distributed within areas developed incrementally by Ian Hamilton Finlay, Sue Finlay and other collaborators. Many works were scrapped and removed over the years as part of the long-term creative process (Linklater 2015: 2).

The front garden of Stonypath cottage was the first area worked on by the Finlays and the setting for early experiments. Bisected by a central allé, small and secluded garden settings planted with shrubs and trees contain inscriptions, word poems and other sculptural pieces mainly dating to the 1970s and 1980s. Adjacent to the west is the entrance area, with wooden gateway and stone gatepier and containing poems that encompass the main themes of Little Sparta. The front path runs along Stonypath Cottage and encompasses the kitchen garden - the kailyard - established at this location in 1996.

The Temple Pool Garden occupies the former farmyard of Stonypath farm. It is the most enclosed part of Little Sparta with a lawn, trees and pool. At the gable end of the former farm range, Julie's Garden is named after the secret garden in Jean-Jacque Rousseau's 1761 novel 'Julie, ou la Nouvelle Héloise'.

At the centre of Little Sparta, the Woodland Garden is a shaded area with paths, an allotment and numerous sculptural and inscribed works set among the trees and dating from the 1970s–1990s. To the northwest, the Wild Garden extends uphill towards the moorland edge and encompasses wooded and open grounds, a stream and two pools. These are the settings for many further individual works, including the Little Sparta pantheon (1980) – an arc of six inscribed stone column bases for living trees, which became a maquette for the 'Sacred Grove' at the Kröller-Möller sculpture park in the Netherlands.

In the northeast part of Little Sparta, the Lochan Eck Garden is mainly open hillside and rough grass surrounding the lochan. Panoramic views extend south and east. Artworks mainly date from the 1980s–1990s and include the monumental poem 'The Present Order' (1983) on 11 gigantic half-dressed blocks. 

Created in the 1990s, the English Parkland was the last area developed by Finlay and his collaborators. It combines open lawns with tree lines and hedges and contains smaller sculptures/inscribed pieces and larger works, such as the drystone wall enclosure 'Eclogue, Folding the Last Sheep' (1998), another monumental poem, 'Wave Vague, Woge, Onda, Unda' (1998) and the double-hedged 'Huff Lane' (1999).

Outside of the inventory boundary, there is a single artwork next to the entrance track - The 'Battle Monument' (1984, remade 2016). This commemorates Hamilton Finlay's long-running dispute with Strathclyde Regional Council over rebate levels for the Temple of Apollo (defined by the latter as an art gallery).

Historic Environment Scotland https://canmore.org.uk/site/221813/little-sparta-house-and-garden [accessed January 2025]

Maps and archives

Pont, T. (1596), Glasgow and the county of Lanark – Pont 34, https://maps.nls.uk/

Roy, W. (1747–55), Roy Military Survey of Scotland, https://maps.nls.uk/

Ordnance Survey, Lanarkshire XXI.14 (Dunsyre), Twenty five inches to the mile, Survey date: 1859, Publication date: 1860

Ordnance Survey, Lanarkshire XXI.14 (Dunsyre), Twenty five inches to the mile, Survey date: 1896, Publication date: 1897

Archives and Manuscript Catalogue Acc. 13053, National Library of Scotland, 'Photographs, transparencies and negatives of Ian Hamilton Finlay artwork, including early images of the beginnings of the garden at Stonypath/Little Sparta taken by Stuart Mills.' [Online catalogue reference viewed only, February 2025]

Printed sources

Eyres, P. (2009), 'A people's Arcadia: the public gardens of Ian Hamilton Finlay in relation to Little Sparta', Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes: An International Quarterly, vol. 29, Issue 1–2: Sculpture in Arcadia

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14601170701807088 [Accessed February 2025]

Linklater, M. (2015), 'Little Sparta, the garden of Ian Hamilton Finlay' in The Bottle Imp, Issue 17, www.thebottleimp.org.uk [Accessed February 2025].

Sheeler, J (author); Gillanders R. (photographer) (2015), Little Sparta: a guide to the garden of Ian Hamilton Finlay, Edinburgh: Birlinn

Online sources

Ian Hamilton Finlay: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2010), https://doi-org.nls.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/97737 [Accessed February 2025].

Little Sparta: The garden of Ian Hamilton Finlay https://www.littlesparta.org.uk [Accessed February 2025]