The Boodles Raindance Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025 — designed by Dr Catherine MacDonald of Landform Consultants — was among the most celebrated installations of the year, winning a coveted Gold Medal. For Burlington Stone, the project represented more than a year of technical collaboration with the designer, combining Brandy Crag Heritage Cumbrian slate with intricate engineering to bring highly ambitious stone forms and textures to life.
This blog offers a behind-the-scenes look at that journey: from the extraction of oversized slate clogs, to precision CNC machining, to the logistical choreography required for a Main Avenue build at RHS Chelsea.
Early Collaboration and Technical Planning
Our involvement began over twelve months before construction, when we started working directly with Dr MacDonald. These early conversations were essential in determining what was possible in stone: the tolerances that could be achieved, the viability of specific surface effects, the complexities of installation, and the geometries required to realise the designer’s ambitions.
This foundation ensured the artistic intent of the Raindance Garden could be translated into fully workable engineering solutions without compromise. Manufacturing commenced in April 2025, giving adequate time for quarrying, processing, machining, finishing and pre-assembly ahead of Landform’s on-site installation in May.
From Clog to Disc: Sourcing Slate for Oversized Features
At the centre of the garden were two striking single-piece slate discs measuring 1500 mm in diameter. Creating monolithic circles of this scale required the identification and extraction of individual slate “clogs” — large, natural, irregular shaped, quarried block — big enough to produce the discs without any joins.
Once quarried, each clog was transformed from an irregular form into a rectangular block using a giant circular saw. Only after this preparation could CNC machining begin, cutting the perfectly accurate circular disc shapes from the processed blocks.
Because the finished discs needed to be 50 mm thick but also required raised elements to form the distinctive ripple effect, the rough-cut blanks had to be considerably thicker. This ensured there was sufficient material depth to carve both the troughs and the protrusions while retaining the required structural integrity.
Engineering the Ripple Effect
Creating the garden’s signature ripple surface required one of the most technically demanding uses of CNC machining we have undertaken. The three-dimensional surface involved cutting deep troughs into the stone while also forming raised elements above the final 50 mm surface plane. This dual requirement was only possible because the initial discs were machined from oversized blocks, allowing enough material for the full geometry to be sculpted. Once the ripple texture was complete, the discs were grit-blasted to ensure slip resistance across their highly varied topography.
The Facetted Slate Podium: Complex Geometry in Slate
Another centrepiece of the Raindance Garden was the large facetted podium with a maximum diameter of 3500mm, designed to echo the geometry of a cut diamond. Although it appears as a single monolithic form, the podium was actually engineered from multiple interlocking pieces, each manufactured to exact specifications so that the assembled structure would read as one seamless whole.
To balance aesthetics, material efficiency and ease of installation, all visible edges were produced at 50 mm thickness. Internal and non-visible facets were engineered at 20 mm thickness, reducing weight and simplifying on-site handling without altering the final appearance.
Installation Support and On-Site Integration
Landform Consultants installed all Burlington Stone elements in early May. Given the size, precision and complexity of the stonework — particularly the large ripple-cut discs and the multi-part podium — accuracy during installation was crucial. Burlington undertook detailed pre-delivery checks, prepared clearly defined lifting points and handling instructions, and supplied precise templating to ensure dimensional consistency. This careful preparation was essential for achieving flawless alignment during a the high-pressure, time-limited Chelsea build window.
What This Project Demonstrates About Burlington Stone
The Raindance Garden exemplifies Burlington Stone’s ability to interpret complex design briefs and convert them into practical engineering solutions. It highlights our full quarry-to-finish capability for oversized elements, our CNC and surface-engineering expertise, and our capacity to deliver highly technical work within the tight schedules typical of RHS Chelsea.