Cork in 50 Artworks, No 12: Irish Sky Garden, Liss Ard Estate, Skibbereen
The Sky Garden, at Liss Ard Estate in Skibbereen.
Irish Sky Garden at Liss Ard, Skibbereen is almost certainly the only work the celebrated American land artist James Turrell has ever designed and then disowned. Whether it can be considered part of his ouevre is therefore open to debate, though it remains a gift of his prodigious imagination.
Liss Ard, a mile from Skibbereen, has a long and colourful history. The main house at the 200-acre estate was built by the O’Donovan clan in the 1850s. During the Cold War, it was acquired by the eccentric Swiss spymaster Albert Bachmann as a bolthole for his government in the event of invasion or nuclear disaster.
