Surprising things you see on a walk #4: a scary stone monster

Published 22 March 2015

A sculpture made out of flat stones, made to look like a person with a tall hat.
A stone sculpture on the Southern Upland Way between Beattock and St Mary’s Loch.

So you’re walking along a trail, and you notice something curious. Something frankly odd. It’s got a face, and a mouth, and a hat. And it’s frankly rather sinister. And it’s sat there, on the path, looking at you. Oh and it’s about 60cm high which makes it even worse.

That’s odd, you think. I didn’t expect that. In fact that’s so odd, it’s surprising.

Well it would be. I mean you expect to see trees, or streams or sheep. But stone creatures looking at you? Well that is frankly scary.

Well there’s no need to be scared. The stone creature in question is a piece of art, gently decaying in the hills beyond the town of Moffat. It was originally installed as part of the Waymerks project, and I presume is still there. It certainly was when I passed it by in 2011, and frankly why would anyone ever remove it. Besides, the longer it’s there, the longer it will weird people out.

For more on the Waymerk project, check out my Waymerks video.

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