a month of Sundays
events at Little Sparta on Sundays in August 2025
all events are free with a purchased ticket to the garden – as always donations are welcome
towards the upkeep of the garden
a bus will run from Edinburgh every Sunday in August, leaving from 21-22 St Andrews Sq,
at 11.30, returning from Little Sparta at 3.30pm.The cost of the bus, including admission to the
garden, is £40. Booking at https://littlesparta.sumupstore.com/products
27th July– EXPERIENCING THE POETRY OF LITTLE SPARTA
2.00 pm
Professor Joanna Gavins, Chair in English Language and Literature, University of Sheffield, gives a talk on the language of Ian Hamilton Finlay’s poetry and how the garden plays a crucial part in how we experience it. This will be an interactive event and take place in part around the garden itself. Introduced by head gardener George Gilliland.
3rd August – A PAPER BOAT REGATTA
2.00 pm
An afternoon Regatta of 100 paper boats at Little Sparta to celebrate IHF’s centenary. You can make your own boat or sponsor one. They will then be sailed across the Lochan.
10th August – THE BOAT IN THE WRITING ROOM
2.00 pm
Writer and Finlay biographer Dr Alistair Peebles introduces a new film “The Boat in the Writing Room: retracing the origins of Stonypath, Little Sparta” and discusses Ian Hamilton Finlay’s early career with Professor Andrew Patrizio. An independent production, in collaboration with film-maker Michael Lloyd, the film looks at the developments in Finlay’s work that took place during the year that he and Sue Finlay spent at Gledfield Farmhouse, near Ardgay, Sutherland, May 1965-June 1966.
17th August – IN IAN’S LIBRARY
2.00 pm
‘Something Old, Something New’ Join Finlay scholars Professor Stephen Bann and Greg Thomas in exploring the labyrinthine world of Ian Hamilton Finlay’s library. Introduced by Magnus Linklater.
24th August – POETRY IN THE GARDEN
2.00 pm
An afternoon of poetry in the garden presented in collaboration with the Scottish Poetry Library featuring recitals and performances by: K Patrick, Christopher Crawford, Nasim Rebecca Asl and Nazaret Ranea.
31st August – AFTERWORDS…
2.00 pm
Join Michael Hamish Glen, one of Ian Hamilton Finlay’s earliest collaborators, in a workshop demonstration of letterpress printing using the original press on which he printed some of Ian Hamilton Finlay’s first cards and booklets. Hamish will also read from Afterwords, his recent account of Finlay reminiscences.
Plus
28th September – LAUNCH OF THE NEW ARCADIAN JOURNAL
Join Patrick Eyres, editor of the NAJ and long-standing friend of IHF and Little Sparta, in conversation with the author and Finlay scholar Yves Abrioux to celebrate the launch the New Arcadian Journal devoted to Finlay and ‘the French Affair’.