The light-based Illuminate festival takes place at Royal William Yard and has some additional installations around the Barbican and Mount Edgcumbe. Mount Edgcumbe will be the location for our own Illuminate projects, so I visited the country park and the House on the Rame peninsula to get some inspiration for my future work.
The park is free to the public and open all year, it covers over 865 acres and was the earliest landscaped park in Cornwall. Today it is made up of open parkland, several gardens and the Mount Edgcumbe House (Mount Edgcumbe, 2018a).
Within the park it is possible to explore a lot of different gardens that were added to the House through generations of the Egdcumbe family as their wealth increased – for example the Italian, French, English, Rose, Fern or Bee Garden (Mount Edgcumbe, 2018b). The area of the gardens covers around 7 acres stretching from the area of the House to the lower park at Cremyll.
The House itself is decorated in a classical style and is the ancestral home of the Earls of Mount Edgcumbe. It was built between 1547 and 1550 using local Staddon Grit with a distinctive red colour for the walls. The facings are made of carved granite and the stylish windows give the house a special look (Mount Edgcumbe, 2018c).
Mount Edgcumbe (2018a) Explore the Park. Available at: https://www.mountedgcumbe.gov.uk/visit/explore-the-park/ (Accessed: 07 October 2019).
Mount Edgcumbe (2018b) The Gardes. Available at: https://www.mountedgcumbe.gov.uk/visit/the-gardens/ (Accessed: 07 October 2019).
Mount Edgcumbe (2018c) The House. Available at: https://www.mountedgcumbe.gov.uk/visit/house/ (Accessed: 07 October 2019).
Documentation of MEDI512 "Experiment" 