A CONTEMPORARY TWIST TO AN ANCIENT EDIFICE
David Harber has just installed a highly contemporary Pillar Dial as a centrepiece for the main Walled Garden at Loch Lomond Golf Club.
Historically many major Scottish gardens contained complex multiple sundials, typically around seven foot high and smothered with small sundials. A famous example is in the gardens of Drummonds Castle in Perthshire. Evidence suggests that the main house at Loch Lomond Golf Club had such a sundial in the eighteenth century. The essence of that dial has been replicated with David Harber's Pillar Dial, a comprehensive time piece incorporating 20 different sundials.
Loch Lomond is a private international golf club with members from over 30 countries worldwide. The Club is set in 660 acres and its course, which extends to 220 acres and is home to The Barclays Scottish Open, has been ranked among the top golf courses in the world.
The 3 metre Pillar Dial, in a pivotal position within the main Walled Garden which was designed by Stephen White, was designed to create a significant impact primarily through the use of an unusual combination of materials — notably mirror polished stainless steel, etched glass and natural stone.
The Pillar supports panels of glass and stainless steel. Each stainless steel panel is etched to mark the time in different associate golf courses around the world. The glass panels are etched with a series of golfing quotations from P.G. Woodhouse and aim to create not only a visually strong centrepiece but one that engages, entertains and educates.
The 12 dials on the obelisk are orientated NE, SE, SW and NW:
- The top four dials mark the time in HOKULI'A, Hawaii
- The middle four mark the time in Desert Mountain, Arizona and Santa Fe, New Mexico
- The bottom four mark the time in Loch Lomond and show the difference between Greenwich Mean Time and Local Solar Time
All four locations are properties owned by The Lyle Anderson Company Inc., owner of Loch Lomond Golf Club.
The 76cm diameter stainless steel sphere incorporates another 8 hemispherical dials using a sundial design that originated in Egypt 300BC. At any one time three of these hemispheres will mark the time.
The octagonal plinth is made of local sandstone and let into the step surrounding the plinth is a band of stainless steel, which has been engraved as a topograph indicating the distance and directions to other prime golfing locations.
Harber comments: “I am particularly proud of this contemporary tribute to the elegant and noble tradition of Scottish pillar dials.”
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