The Kelpies

According to ancient Scottish legends kelpies are shape-shifting water spirits who inhabit the lochs and waterways of Scotland and appear most often as a horse, although they can appear in human form too, but can be recognised by water weeds in their hair.

A common theme in the Kelpie stories is of several children clambering onto the creature's back while one child remains on the shore. Usually a little boy, he then pets the horse but his hand sticks to its neck. In some variations the lad cuts off his fingers or hand to free himself; he survives but the other children are carried off by the kelpie and drowned, with only some of their entrails being found later. Gory!

These Kelpies are better behaved than that.

These Kelpie statues stand 30m tall (around 100 feet) and weigh over 600 tonnes.  Designed by Scottish sculptor Andy Scott and completed in October 2013, the Kelpies stand in the Helix Park in Falkirk. They pay tribute to the working horses of Central Scotland.

Each Kelpie contains 3,000m of steel tubing and 17,000 components, and the whole sculpture cost around 5 million pounds to build.

And I wonder what the Kelpies would look like under the surface......

One of the most astonishing sculptures I have ever seen.