The Famous Kelpies sculptures near Falkirk, are one of the most visited attractions in Scotland. Two magnificent steel structures portray the heads of the mythical beasts, that could change shape at will and only want to engage people to climb on their backs, and become trapped by a sticky hide, meaning that they can be dragged screaming down into the murky depths of a river or loch, to be killed and eaten by the Kelpie. Horrible stuff!

The horses of the water, (not to be mistaken for Hippopotamuses), could materialise as young women, old men or other animals, depending on where the legend is from, and there are several different regional names such as the Nuggle, from the Orkney Islands.

Robbie Burns mentions the “…water Kelpies” haunting the Foord “…by your direction, in his poem, “Address to the de ’il”, in which Robbie talks directly to the Devil about his dominion on earth. 

Every story and myth retold, is about a battle of wits between the Kelpie, in some guise or another, and a young woman, girl or young man. Trying desperately to get them onto his back, to be dragged downwards into the water.

In real life, the sculptures themselves are breath-taking! Visible from hundreds of metres away, and surrounded by roads, there is plenty of parking for visitors, and you can walk right up to and all around them. They are about 30 metres tall, and the two Kelpie heads are in the motion of the animals as they buck and canter. In daylight they are quite wonderful to behold, dwarfing everything around them – however at night, when a pre-set series of coloured lights come on from within them, the Kelpies take on an ethereal quality, quite unlike any other piece of art. Spellbinding and almost impossible to take your eyes off, it is as if their creator, the Artist Andy Scott, has captured the paranormal spirit of the Kelpies, and imbued it into the steel itself.