Kielder Art & Architecture

The nearest public parking is at the car park sited just off the C200 at the bottom of the forest road signposted to the Skyspace, and beyond to the Observatory.

Walking to the Skyspace takes around 45 minutes, by bicycle, approximately 20 minutes depending on ability. The return downhill trip is considerably quicker by bicycle. Visitors should note that the Skyspace is approximately 360 feet/110m higher than the bottom car park and while the route is not a difficult walk, the additional elevation makes the site more exposed, and it is often colder and windier up on the hill.

There are also views across Kielder Water & Forest Park from the rocky outcrop behind the Skyspace.

Visitors wishing to drive up to the sculpture will need to get a key to pass through the forestry barrier beyond the lower car park. Keys are available from Kielder visitor centres, the local shop, the Anglers Arms in Kielder village and from the Calvert Trust activity centre.

Skyspace can also be accessed by following the Lonesome Pine red grade mountainbike trail. For comprehensive listing of cycle trails within Kielder Water & Forest Park, go to things-to-do/cycling and for the singletrack trails things-to-do/mountain-biking.

OS map re. NY 613928

Cat Cairn: the Kielder Skyspace is a sculptural artwork located on a rocky outcrop overlooking Kielder Water & Forest Park by internationally renowned American artist James Turrell. Over eighty Skyspaces exist worldwide and although each is different, all share a viewing room and and an opening to the sky. Kielder Skyspace has a short tunnel leading to a partially buried circular room, a ceiling containing a central circular oculus or opening, and a ring of seats forming the lower part of the inner wall.

The main structure presents an overall feel of rugged simplicity and quiet away from the visual distractions found outside. We often experience the sky as being 'far away' because we see it disappearing behind trees, hills or houses. The Skyspace removes these clues and when seen from inside, the sky is often perceived to be right on top of the space, or sometimes intruding into it.

Visitors will find themselves in a space where the artist manipulates our normal perceptions of light and space. In daylight hours, this chamber; illuminated only by natural light through the roof opening, is a rugged contemplative space that presents the ever-changing sky as a moving picture for visitor's enjoyment and meditation. As the light conditions change at dusk, a ring of hidden lights illuminate the upper part of the chamber providing visitors with an extremely unusual display of tone and colour lasting for just over an hour.

James Turrell is interested in the psychology of perception, essentially how our brains work to make sense of the world around us and 'invent' a reality to fit the information that our senses provide. In the Skyspace, a visitor's experience of colour becomes particularly challenged and the sky viewed from within the space often appears very different from the same sky seen outside. However, visitors are reminded that this is by its very nature an individual experience, and no two people will 'see' the same thing.

James Turrell

A 10 minute walk up the forestry road beyond the Skyspace is the site of the Kielder Observatory where visitors can walk around its decks in the daytime or attend astronomical events in the evening.

Art & Architecture guide starting from Kielder Castle Visitor Centre

Lighting times at the Skyspace change throughout the year as the days lengthen towards the summer solstice in June and shorten towards the winter solstice in December. The table below shows sunset times through out the year.

N.B. The Skyspace lighting programme currently starts 15 minutes after sunset. We plan to make a correction to this around the spring equinox in March 2020.

However, the table gives a good idea of the best times to visit the Skyspace in the evening at different times of the year. The lighting programme runs for just over an hour every day.

In summer months there is usually still light in the sky when the lighting programme finishes. In winter however, although sunset is much earlier in the day twilight is also much shorter, so visitors might wish to bring a torch to assist their journey back down to the car park near the C200.

Note that due to variables in the seasonal switch equipment you are therefore advised to arrive at least 10 minutes before the programme is due to start.

When the tunnel lights come on you will know that the system is active. This happens 15 minutes before the main lighting programme starts. Once activated, a sensor in the entrance recognises visitors entering the tunnel and will initiate the start of the main lighting at the appointed time.

If the tunnel lights are alread on when you arrive, please wait for the main lighting to start.

If you arrive after the programme would already have started, the lighting will come on part way through the programme, but then continue to the end.

The start of the programme is clearly signalled by the interior lighting intensity climbing swiftly to three-quarters brightness and then holding before climbing again to full, clearly delineating the start of the show.

After that, the intensity drops back to half, then rises in stages as the daylight diminishes outside.

During this time, the light levels continue to fall outside producing a range of different visual effects within the space as the intensity of the light inside and outside continuously move in and out of balance.

Light levels eventually peak again at full when the sky viewed through the ceiling opening will look inky black.

After a short pause, light levels gradually drop back to zero over a period of 12 minutes.

We recommend visitors stay in the space until the lighting programme has completely finished and the main lights go off. In the last seconds before the programme finishes visitors often experience a strong sense of the space reverting back to 'normal' as the sky, now night-time, suddenly becomes visible again. 

The lighting programme lasts 65 minutes in total.