CULTURE Secretary Fiona Hyslop has launched a new partnership which aims to preserve a garden in the Pentland Hills, near Edinburgh, and encourage research into the artist who created it.

Ms Hyslop, pictured with Little Sparta Trust chairman Magnus Linklater, hopes the initiative between Edinburgh University, the National Galleries of Scotland will encourage visitors to find out more about artist Ian Hamilton Finlay's greatest work.

The former shepherd was also a playwright and poet and lived at the site at Dunsyre, South Lanarkshire, up until his death in 2006, aged 80.

Picture: Calum Bennetts