High-fired stoneware, speciality production of The Meadows Pottery in Edinburgh, is the unlikely source for lighting a flame of collaboration between established potter Paul Tebble and contemporary sundial maker Alastair Hunter. Continue reading
The images show a series of public and private gardens, galleries, sculpture exhibitions and fairs where the “Solar Time I” sundial has been on display in 2010-11. These are listed below.
Hatfield House, Living Crafts
Greenbank Garden, National Trust for Scotland
Edinburgh private garden
Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Art in the Garden
Cambo House
Dipley Mill contemporary sculpture exhibition
Borde Hill Garden
Wisley Garden, Royal Horticultural Society craft fair
Rosemoor Garden, Royal Horticultural Society sculpture exhibition
Inverewe Garden, National Trust for Scotland
The Garden Gallery
The Lost Gallery
Blenheim Palace, Living Crafts
Denbie’s Wine Estate sculpture exhibition
Harmony Garden, National Trust for Scotland sculpture exhibition
Priorwood Garden, National Trust for Scotland
Logan Garden, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Artparks International online
The beginning of the year is always a time for reflection—for seeing the bigger picture and looking ahead. In uncertain times, there’s a particular comfort to be found in looking at the wonders of the natural world. Such things put our own day-to-day (and often pressing) concerns into real perspective!
Intriguing thinking, award-winning design
As an engineer, I am fascinated by the solar system and solar time. Thinking on this has led me to construct precision sundials, which has become a passion—a passion that I have found is shared by many people who are intrigued by sundials and how they work as well as by their sculptural beauty.
They certainly seem to have caught the imagination of people across the UK. Three National Trust for Scotland gardens invited me to display a sundial in 2010 (at Inverewe in Ross-shire, Greenbank in Glasgow, and Priorwood in Melrose), and I exhibited in London and in the RHS garden at Wisley, Surrey. Currently I am showing in the winter sculpture exhibition at RHS Garden Rosemoor, Devon, and in the spring I am very pleased my work will be at The Garden Gallery, Stockbridge, Hampshire.
The sundials have been seen by many thousands of people. People are genuinely interested in their combination of sculptural form with precision engineering—Solar Time I winning praise in the British Sundial Society’s 2010 awards, where it won a top prize in the professional category.
Timely thinking …
I hope you will enjoy the enclosed cards. Please feel free to contact me at any time if you would like to know more about sundials and this creative form of time sculpture—I am always delighted to help. You might find that the macmillanhunter.co.uk website is also useful.
May I wish you the very best of times in the year ahead.
Yours sincerely
Alastair Hunte
Borders Book Festival 17-20 June
Scottish sundials—a little bit of enlightenment
With summer nearly upon us, I just wanted to draw your attention to the Brewin Dolphin Borders Book Festival in Melrose, and to one or two other places of interest across Scotland, where you can enjoy a grand day out and see a new and contemporary sculptural sundial. Like everyone, I am hoping for good weather this summer—and, in my case, for sundials too!
From Melrose to Inverewe
The Brewin Dolphin Borders Book Festival is due to be held on 17th to 20th June in Harmony Garden, Melrose. If you do happen to visit, you will find the Macmillan Hunter sundial in the sculpture exhibition, which will display the work of Borders Sculptors. Although we are a small Scottish business, we also have sundials on exhibition at the National Trust for Scotland’s Greenbank Garden in Glasgow and right up at the Trust’s Inverewe Garden in Ross-shire. The one at Greenbank is our entry into the 2010 British Sundial Society national competition; the sundial at Inverewe was installed just a couple of months ago, just in time for summer time.
Fascinating young and old—inspiring people to find out more
In all locations, the sundials have been intriguing both young and old. Youngsters in particular are fascinated by the scientific principles that underlie the design of a sundial, and are keen to get to grips with what are, in reality, educational ideas, well away from the confines of the classroom.
As a retired engineer, I founded Macmillan Hunter to create highly engineered sundials that are not only scientifically useful but sculptural, whether in private gardens or in public spaces. It’s true, engineers can be aesthetes too!
Whatever you are planning, I hope you have an enjoyable summer.
With best wishes
Alastair Hunter
Visitors can enjoy seeing the new sundial at the National Trust for Scotland’s Inverewe Garden, installed on 1 April in time for the summer season. June 15th is one of th
e four days in the year that sundials and clocks read the same time. September 1st, and December 25th, are two more days still to come, and April 15th next year is the fourth one. It will be an extra excitement on Christmas Day looking to see if the sundial reads the right time, providing the sun shines of course.
Property Manager, Roy Dowsett, said, “The sundial is attracting a lot of interest. People study and discuss it for a long time, after they come through the garden and see it near the house. It really is an intriguing sculpture. We are very pleased to have it in our garden.”
“New sundial installed at the National Trust for Scotland’s Inverewe Gardens – in time for solar time”
Press report: “Just in Time”, Scotland in Trust magazine, Summer 2010.
The latest design of sundial was one of the exhibits at Imperial College on Saturday for the Spring Conference of the Society of Garden Designers, held on 17 April. The theme of the meeting
this time was water in the garden, hence its title “Splash”, while exhibits covered broad areas of work involved in contemporary garden design.
“This was an excellent event,” said Alastair Hunter, a correspondent member of the society. “We just had to splash around a bit and let everyone see the time, so we moved our sundial outdoors into the sunshine.”
SGD is the only UK organisation for professional garden designers.
INFORMATION RELEASE
Saturday, April 17, 2010 – for immediate release – images available
FAO Newsdesk/Features, 2 pages
Recent Installations by Macmillan Hunter Sundials for the National Trust for Scotland – from Ross-shire to Glasgow
A new and contemporary-design sundial has just been installed in Ross-shire at the National Trust for Scotland’s Inverewe Garden, which opened to visitors on April 1. Designed by Alastair Hunter of Edinburgh-based Macmillan Hunter, a small family-run business, the sundial, at 5.5 degrees West, is situated at almost the most westerly point in mainland Britain.
Roy Dowsett, property manager for the National Trust for Scotland at Inverewe, says: “The sundial looks great and I am sure it is going to generate a lot of interest; Inverewe is an excellent site for it.”
If they are to be accurate, sundials have to be manufactured for their specific location; a sundial designed for Edinburgh or Glasgow would not be accurate or appropriate for Inverewe. Speaking of the new Macmillan Hunter sundial, Alastair Hunter of Macmillan Hunter says:
“We had to manufacture the sundial at Inverewe to take account of its location. We had to do new calculations for time and seasons: the lines for the length of day, for example, had to be redrawn to account for the longer summer daylight so far north, 58 degrees North – and there wasn’t an existing sundial in the garden for us to make comparisons.”
The sundial is positioned at the side of the drive, next to the main house, in an area that is open to the sun. The site was chosen for this reason, and, just as importantly, because it is highly visible for visitors and fits in well with the building and plant structures that surround it.
Further south, Macmillan Hunter has installed a sundial at the National Trust for Scotland’s Greenbank Garden in Glasgow. The Glasgow dial is at a similar latitude (approx 56 degrees) to the design prototype in Edinburgh, but adapted for a longitude further west. The dial is Macmillan Hunter’s professional-class entry for the British Sundial Society’s 2010 sundial design competition.
For further information, images or to interview Alastair Hunter, please contact: Christopher Glen, Macmillan Hunter’s PR, on 07977 229469
Additional Information
About Macmillan Hunter. Founded by Alastair Hunter, a professional engineer and sundial expert, Macmillan Hunter specialises in creating sundials that combine contemporary design and precision-engineering. Macmillan Hunter operates throughout the UK.
The British Sundial Society’s competition is run every five years. The closing date for 2010 entries was February 28, 2010. Judging will take place during the course of 2010, with awards being announced in April 2011.
“New sundial installed at Inverewe in time for notable solar date”
Macmillan Hunter has launched a new sundial, which was installed at the National Trust for Scotland’s Greenbank Garden in Glasgow on 19 October 2009. It is an entirely original sundial design that has been submitted for the prestigious 2010 design competition run by The British Sundial Society. The National Trust for Scotland will host the sundial in their beautiful garden at Greenbank during the judging process and afterwards.
“When we heard that Alastair Hunter was seeking a garden to display the new sundial, we were all pleased to help at Greenbank,” said David Ferguson, Property Manager and Head Gardener. “We like to give ideas and inspiration to the everyday gardener, and this is a great feature to show how technology has changed over the years.”
BSS The British Sundial Society exists to promote sundial science, understanding, and innovation. The sundial design competition is held every five years.
Alastair Hunter presented his paper on “Lining up a Sundial” at The British Sundial Society’s annual conference that opened in Exeter on Friday 9 April. The BSS meeting is held over three days and has attracted more than one hundred UK and international delegates this year.
“It took me some time to realise that aligning south exactly on the meridian is important,” said Alastair, who is entering his sundial for the British Sundial Society’s 2010 design competition, “otherwise the gnomon casts the wrong shadow and the sundial cannot read the time. Careful design must involve an accurate method of installation.”
BSS has UK and overseas members, who are interested in history, science and art of sundials.
“Greenbank’s the place if you have time on your hands”