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ART

Out of Africa

The last place you might expect to come across monumental sculptures from
Zimbabwe is rural Fife, but visit Lathrisk and that’s exactly what you’ll find

Words Stephanie Murphy

rowing up in an 18th-century house sur- plants and colour. I discovered that pieces by artists working
roun ded by a magnificent formal garden in the UK in stone or bronze would cost as much as £30,000.”
that’s part of the secluded Lathrisk estate, Peter Gwisa’s work, which has an international reputation
Tober Reilly always knew he was lucky to and was shown at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, starts at
G live in such a beautiful spot. But, as an adult, £1,400. At last, Tober had found an artist whose work would
travelling the world to perform in musical theatre, he came stand out amid the magnificent gardens – three acres of formal
to feel there was something missing from the gardens of his planting surrounded by stone walls, plus meadows and ancient
childhood home. He wanted to fill Lathrisk’s grounds with beech trees beyond – and which would not require the family
works of art. Only the prohibitive cost of doing so put him to sell the house first.
off. Then, while teaching in South Africa, he came across Peter The Reilly family have lived in the gothic property
Gwisa, a Zimbabwean sculptor, and realised that the gardens for almost 40 years. Astonishingly, they have never had a
could at last become the outdoor gallery he’d dreamt of. gardener. Instead, it has been four decades of the Reader’s
“Despite living abroad for six months of the year, my heart Digest botanical encyclopedia and trial and error. They have
is firmly here at Lathrisk,” he says. “I always wanted to put transformed the original grounds, laid out 200 years ago, to
sculpture in the grounds, but I also knew these would have to something fit for the 21st century.
be pieces of real scale if they were not to be lost in the sea of “We have a huge variety of plants,” Tober says proudly,

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