SERC

Andy Scott's Kelpies

With no rides and no news, we’ve ventured off the beaten path for SERC’s contribution this time. In 2014 Lothians’ member Sarah Perkins was very taken with the story of the giant horses’ heads – the Kelpies – that were built alongside the M9.

Several years ago my job was occasionally taking me into Clackmannanshire and I discovered a sculpture that I really liked on a little rural roundabout. I was intrigued and started to investigate. I discovered that this sculpture was just one of several in Clackmannanshire by a chap called Andy Scott, so one fine day I headed off with my camera to find the Andy Scott Sculpture Trail. Scott was brought up in Glasgow, studied at the Glasgow School of Art and Glasgow is his home still. Apparently his father came from Falkirk though, which is kind of fitting for his most famous work to date. I can’t believe what a prolific artist he is, given the size of his sculptures, but I have read that he works 12 hour days, often seven days a week!

Hoardings started to appear in Falkirk advertising a project called the Helix, featuring two horses’ heads designed by Andy Scott. They were to be the centrepiece of a huge regenerated piece of wasteland at the canal basin, which would be known as the Helix and hopefully become a big visitor attraction. I immediately fell for the pair of 3m high prototypes or maquettes (miniature versions) that appeared beside the lock gates in full view of the M9 where I could admire them on my way to work. Sometimes they sat on the back of a small truck and then disappeared for days or weeks at a time. There are two pairs of maquettes, which have been displayed locally and across Scotland and simultaneously around the world. One pair popped up for a while at the Falkirk Wheel and also outside Edinburgh Airport and you may have seen them here or elsewhere.

The name Kelpies was chosen by Scottish Canals from the mythological transforming beasts which had the strength and endurance of ten horses. The Kelpies symbolise the history of the heavy horse in the Scottish economy, both in industry and agriculture, pulling wagons and ploughs and also towing barges and coalships along the canals.

The Kelpies are built of structural steel with a stainless steel cladding. Construction began in June 2013, and was completed in October 2013. The foundations are as deep as the Kelpies are high and consist of 1200 tonnes of steel reinforced concrete. There are over 10,000 special fixings which secure the 990 stainless steel skin plates, of which no two pieces are the same.

"The name Kelpies was chosen by Scottish Canals from the mythological transforming beasts which had the strength and endurance of ten horses"

From my viewpoint travelling along the M9 I watched the Kelpies grow and occasionally walked beside the canal for a closer look. I couldn’t believe how big they were and actually thought that the beauty of the small Kelpies could not be transferred into the giant ones that weigh 300 tonnes and are 30m high. The guys building them worked long hours - they were already at work when I drove past at 7.30am and were often still working on them when I drove home again at night. Some days it must have been fiercely cold sitting on a cherry picker building a giant metal jigsaw puzzle and positively miserable spending long hours in the lashing rain.

Some time ago there was a publicity stunt in which two Clydesdale horses were led around the site showing how tiny these massive horses were when standing alongside the Kelpies. The horses’ heads were completed last autumn but there has been much work done recently to

The site welcomed its millionth visitor a year after opening, and is an unqualified success.

finish clearing up the site, with landscaping, laying of concrete paths and planting of trees.

What I hadn’t realised until recently was just how prolific an artist Andy Scott is, and particularly how many horse sculptures he has created.

The site was officially opened at Easter 2014 on a beautiful weekend as part of a bigger event across Central Scotland celebrating the 100 year anniversary of John Muir and the extension of the John Muir Way as a coast to coast long distance footpath (anyone who has done our Seacliff ride will have touched on the John Muir Way). There were two nights of ticketed entry to the Helix Park to view the Kelpies lit up by a fantastic colourful light show set to music. Arriving about 9pm on Good Friday, parking was a nightmare and we had to trek to Falkirk Football Stadium to get our wrist bands and then kick our heels until our allotted entry time of 10pm, when we could queue at the barrier! There were other temporary ‘sculptures’, special lighting effects and odd troupes of actors but the main event was naturally around the Kelpies themselves. The music and light show was on a continual 15 minute cycle and I think we saw it about four times as we progressed along the path, every so often being asked to keep moving! Interspersed with the music the sound of horses galloping, neighing and snorting was quite evocative and with the flashes of light made me think I was in a mining landscape, not alongside a waterway.

I hope there was some warning on the overhead gantries on the M9 or motorists will have been alarmed to see these massive heads suddenly become bursts of colourful lights and flares. Apparently 10,000 people visited over these two spectacular evenings. Already this area is a local success. It is bringing whole families out of their houses with buggies, wheelchairs, kiddies’ bikes and scooters. There are Helix walking groups helping the less active to become more so and ticket offices have appeared in one of the car parks for tours of the Kelpies - this is to go inside them rather than to just admire them from the outside. It’s obviously providing local employment too and such a large park could be a venue for lots of outdoor events - but unfortunately not a SERC ride!