Scotties by the Sea: New Scottie dog statue trail opens

Thirty painted sculptures form Scotties by the Sea, a public art trail appearing across St Andrews and the Northeast Fife Coast.

The initiative is being run by BID St Andrews and Wild in Art, with the aim of celebrating local creativity and promoting tourism in the area while raising money for Maggie’s Everyone’s Home of Cancer Care.

“It’s something we’ve been talking about doing since 2018 but Covid put a halt to it,” says Jane Kennedy, manager of BID St Andrews.

“Originally it was just supposed to be 16 giant Scottie dogs in St Andrews, but we decided to make it a little bit bigger and involve our commuters along the coastal pathway.”

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Artists were invited to submit designs in February and the chosen few then received their massive blank Scottie, ready for a makeover.

“We had over 200 design submissions and whittling it down was really tough,” says Kennedy, “We’ve tried to have something for everyone, there are some real characters and then other sculptures that are more artistic.”

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The opening of the trail yesterday saw the diverse gang get their big reveal, each one completely individual in its style. Next to the Byre Theatre in St Andrews a Billy Connolly Scottie proudly stands while outside The Adamson restaurant a pouty Elvis Scottie is resplendent in sideburns.

While most Scotties have been installed in St Andrews, there are also pups in Newport, Tayport, and stretching down the coast all the way to Leven. The route has been constructed to include a variety of coastal towns, but also aims to expose new visitors to the offerings of local businesses and the beautiful attributes of the natural landscape.

Ball in mouth, this Scottie surveys The Old Course

“We chose places with stunning backdrops and stories to tell,” says Kennedy. “Some of the locations have also got ties with Maggie’s and specific cancer stories which is really nice to support.”

Some artists have even decided that they want their Scottie to blend in with a particular location, a goggle-wearing swimming Scottie placed by the Getty Marine Lab and a golfer Scottie paying tribute to the Old Course in St Andrews.

The project hopes to raise over £150,000 for Maggie’s, with opportunities along the trail for visitors to donate. When the exhibition ends in November there will then be a charity bidding war at the Old Course Hotel where each Scottie will be auctioned off.

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Aviemore-born graphic designer Roma McCook is excited for the reveal of her sculpture “Scottie Mackintosh” who is fully ready to weather any unpredictable Fife storms in his bright yellow anorak.

As a part-time pet portraitist, the project spoke to her passion for animals, but the design process has not been without its trials. “It’s such an unusual task to work with a 3D object when you’re used to working with watercolours on a bit of paper,” says McCook.

Dundee artist Douglas Roulston is responsible for Scottie “Storm” and is now a dab hand at larger-than-life sculptures having taken part in Maggie’s Penguin Parade in 2018 and Oor Wullie’s BIG Bucket Trail in 2019. “It’s always a lovely experience because you get to meet other artists and hear some heart-warming stories about how the sculptures affect charities,” says Roulston.

Roulston has gone the extra mile with charity trails in the past, carrying his penguin sculpture to the top of the Sidlaws and then his Oor Wullie to the top of Ben Nevis.

“I’ve been thinking really hard about what to do with my Scottie dog,” he says. “I quite fancy incorporating the Scottie dog into my biking and maybe doing some sort of adventure around Fife and St Andrews with the Scottie dog attached to the trailer.”

Most Scotties are located along Stagecoach lines for easy access and visitors can navigate their way around the trail using a downloadable map.

Alternatively, a Scotties by the Sea app has been created which enables visitors to ‘collect’ Scotties as they visit each one in turn, receiving rewards provided by event sponsors along the way.