About Caol Ruadh - Scottish Sculpture Park

Caol Ruadh was completed in 1898 close to the shore opposite the Burnt Islands on the Kyles of Bute. It was a family home until 1939 when it became a residential school for children from Glasgow. The school closed in 1998 and the house again became a family home.

Over the last 20 years the land surrounding the house has gradually been turned into a series of gardens. The landscape forms an amphitheatre running down to the sea with rocky bluffs and cliffs which offer both a beautiful setting and dramatic backdrops for outdoor sculpture. Inspired by this, in 2012, Karen Scotland the owner of the estate and Anne Edmonds co-curated the first of five summer outdoor sculpture exhibitions. In 2019 Karen took over as sole curator.

The gardens have many features - a large pond surrounded by specimen trees and shrubs at the base of a spectacular cliff with a stone staircase carved from the rocky cliff, a formal reflecting pond or canopus, a wildflower garden with ponds and bridges, Heather Cottage nestling on the shoreline with a deck looking out to sea, a small walled garden, a hosta garden leading to a woodland walk and a revived gravel garden. Ancient rocks have been exposed to create a dramatic backdrop to extensive new planting.

Over the years, many of Scotland’s leading sculptors have exhibited, with many artists returning and each exhibition offering the work of exciting new artists. As the gardens develop and mature and new sculptures inspire the landscape, each exhibition offers fresh experiences to its visitors.