At Jupiter Artland in West Lothian, top contemporary sculptors put their spin on a classical theme – at the invitation of owners Nicola and Robert Wilson

It is an impressive sight made all the more intriguing when you remember that Quinn is the artist best known for his statue Alison Lapper Pregnant, which sat on the fourth plinth in London's Trafalgar Square, and for famously sculpting his head using his own blood.

Opened earlier this year, Jupiter Artland is a private sculpture garden that features the work of major contemporary artists, including several Scots. It's set in 88 acres of woodland and parkland just ten miles west of Edinburgh.

Nicola Wilson, who grew up in Edinburgh and trained as a sculptor at the Camberwell College of Art, explains how the family acquired the house. "Robert was away skiing for a weekend when I saw it advertised in a magazine," she recalls. "I jumped on a plane with my two children and by the time he came home the house was nearly ours." The couple, who now have four children, subsequently bought the field in front of the property.

After spending two years renovating the house, they turned their attention to the garden. "The idea for a sculpture park came in response to living here. We soon realised it was a special place."

Work began with a commission to the postmodern architect Charles Jencks, whose own Garden of Cosmic Speculation in Dumfriesshire illustrates scientific concepts by manipulating the landscape. "Jencks generously agreed to do a commission for us, and once artists knew we were committed to quality they responded," Nicola says.

Jencks's show-stopping Life Mounds, a landscape of serpentine-shaped terraced hillocks enclosing tranquil, curved ponds, is the first thing you see as you emerge from the tree-flanked drive at Bonnington. The grassy landscape took five years to create.

Two further mounds remain to be finished, giving an idea of just how difficult it is to achieve perfection on a living work of art. Hidden in the woods, back down the drive, is Andy Goldsworthy's latest project, Stone Coppice, a set of granite boulders that appear scattered within the branches of a multi-stemmed sycamore.

Other works are found in the 45-acre Gala Hill Wood behind the house, and are reached along a network of grassy paths lined with wildflowers. Round the first corner, you stumble upon a vast, nearly six-metre tall rectangular cage with a lily-shaped central drain. Suck, by Anish Kapoor, is so unexpected that it stops you dead in your tracks. Explaining how the placement of works was an important element in their collaboration with each artist, Nicola tells how Kapoor, who was unable to visit before the work was set in place, later asked for it to be relocated.

Further along the path is Stone House, Andy Goldsworthy's flawless stone bothy. The surprise is inside, where the soil has been excavated to reveal the rough rock surface just two inches beneath the topsoil.

The path winds and curves through the trees before opening up to Firmament, by Antony Gormley. Made from 1,170 corten steel elements and 1,019 steel balls, this massive airy metal sculpture represents a prostrate figure and is set in a raised position against a skyline that from certain vantage points includes the Forth Bridge, an industrial estate and farmland.

"It's real life," Nicola says. In strong contrast, hiding in the woods, is a touching grove of six Weeping Girls by Laura Ford, one of Nicola's teachers at Camberwell College of Art.

Acknowledging that Ian Hamilton Finlay's Little Sparta is a "major inspiration", Nicola leads the way towards the late artist's work. Only Connect, his stone humpback bridge, leads towards a perfectly proportioned temple dedicated to Apollo.

From here you look down onto a statue of Sappho, entitled The Xth Muse, which was designed by the artist shortly before he died.

Slung between trees, Over Here, by Shane Waltener, is a four-metre gossamer cobweb inspired by Shetland lace, with a central circle that perfectly frames a view of the Pentland Hills.

Nicola stresses that the collaboration between the commissioners, the artists and the landscape is important.

"The artists themselves nearly always put the works in position," she explains. "Mark Quinn arrived and said, 'I'm going to put this right in front of your front door.' And Ian Hamilton Finlay walked round and round before finding the perfect place for the temple he built to Apollo."

Despite the quality of the works of art, this garden rejoices in its informality and lack of pretension. This is illustrated by the way in which the family run the grounds as a smallholding – sheep, ponies and miniature donkeys graze in paddocks between Quinn's Love Bomb, the Jencks Life Mounds and Signpost to Jupiter by Peter Liversidge. Pigs and poultry live on land just behind the house. On the day of my visit, Robert, who is chairman of the family-owned Nelson's Homeopathic Pharmacy, was busy loading a reluctant sow onto a trailer in preparation for a month-long visit to a local hog.

Laughing that Rocco, their youngest child, thinks it's normal to grow up with work by Charles Jencks in your garden, Nicola says: "For Robert and me, this is our passion together. I am very lucky to have a husband who is involved. We love the landscape and want to work in harmony with it rather than bending it to our own will. We also want the children to grow up feeling that anything is possible."

The creation of this garden is a brave and ongoing vision by a committed and hardworking couple who enjoy an evening picnic in the woods with their children, a bottle of ros on hand. Sharing the garden with the public is an act of generosity certain to inspire gardeners and enrich the lives of anyone who is fortunate enough to visit. sm

n Jupiter Artland is open in support of local schools, Thursday to Sunday, 10am-4pm, through August. Adults 5, family ticket 10, under-fives and disabled badge-holders free. To limit visitor numbers, booking must be made in advance. Allow an hour and a half to fully appreciate all the works and wear robust footwear. Disabled access is limited in the woodlands. For more details visit www.jupiterartland.org