Kelpies Reflections, Helix Park, Falkirk, Scotland

Kelpies Reflections

This picture of Kelpies Reflections is for sale.

It comes as a canvas (from £77.70), a framed print (from £70.25), a framed mounted print (from £72.96) or an acrylic (from £174.64).

Why not take a look at my other pictures of the Kelpies.

One of the Kelpies, at Helix Park in Falkirk, reflected in the water that surrounds it.

The Kelpies are two 30 metre high horse head sculptures, each 10 metres taller than Anthony Gormley's Angel of the North statue in Gateshead. They are named Duke and Baron after the two Clydesdale horses that sculptor Andy Scott chose as his life models to base the sculptures on. This, with his nose down, is Duke.

The Kelpies commemorate the the horses that worked the Forth and Clyde and the Union Canals in their heyday in the 1820s and 30s. The horses, which were changed every four miles, towed barges along what was the first super-highway between Scotland's two largest cities, cutting the journey from Edinburgh to Glasgow from twelve uncomfortable and dangerous hours by stagecoach along poorly maintained turnpike roads to eight smooth and relaxing hours by canal. Incidentally, stagecoach passengers in the cheap seats on the top of the carriage had to be wary that they did not fall asleep on the journey - they were left where they fell, giving rise to the phrase "dropping off".

A Kelpie, or water kelpie, from the Gaelic calpa or cailpeach, meaning "heifer" or "colt", was a mythical Scottish water beast that took the form of a horse, but which adopted human form when it left the water - usually a handsome young man. The creature would prey on any human that it came into contact with.

It has been proposed that belief in keplies originated in human sacrifices that were made to appease pagan water gods. It is also thought that they served a practical purpose, warning children to stay away from water.