The Kelpies

The Kelpies is a relative new addition to the landscape. Set in Phoenix park near Falkirk in Scotland it is the work of Andy Scott, a sculptor whose giant statues dot and adorne the UK.

They may look like giant horses, but they aren’t. Kelpies are a mythical Celtic creature, that takes the form of a horse or pony that invite the unwary to get on their backs. Once you do, according to the legend, you will be spirited away never to be seen again.

Scott’s Kelpies, there are two of them, are 100 feet tall landmarks that sit beside the motorway and are astonishingly striking. They look wild, as if frozen in time and metal by some ancient curse.

It was a beautiful cold October’s day when I photographed them, a clear blue sky which after some fiddling with in photoshop became a threatening inky backdrop to a wild and untamed beast — at least in my imagination anyway.