Dundee’s long-awaited whale sculpture has docked at the city’s Stannergate — ready to be transported to the Waterfront.
The sculpture, which was designed by 33-year-old artist Lee Simmons, left Littlehampton at the end of last week.
It was due to arrive in Dundee at 7am on Monday, however the tug boat bringing it up the coast was delayed.
It eventually docked at the Stannergate at the Port of Dundee just before 3pm and is expected to be transported to its home in Dundee’s Waterfront on Tuesday.
Weather permitting, it will likely be moved during high tide, which is forecast for around 3pm.
The £134,750 piece is 35 metres long and 18 metres tall — with stilts giving it an extra 12-metre elevation from the ground.
It forms part of Dundee City Council’s £1 billion Waterfront redevelopment.
Speaking before the sculpture’s arrival in Dundee, Simmons said: “I don’t think anything of this nature has been done in the UK at all.
“Most other notable UK landmarks have been built on-site and you see them gradually go up over the course of a month or a year.
“But when this comes it will be pretty sensational. It will enter the Tay and go through Broughty Ferry and the Tay Road Bridge before setting up at the Waterfront.
“The Discovery ship came to Dundee on a barge and I see this as a homecoming for the whale and also a monumentally impressive feat logistically.”
The statue is made out of heavy-duty steel sourced in Finland, assembled by a team of 20 workers in the UK.
‘A real difference’
Some locals didn’t know the whale was set to arrive in Dundee on Monday and stumbled upon the excitement.
Louise Kerry said: “I briefly mentioned this morning that they’re bringing in a whale sculpture but I didn’t really know what it was, I’d read a wee bit about it.
“I think it looks cool and it’ll be a good addition to the waterfront.
“We haven’t had a chance to use the rest of the waterfront, that’s why we were confused that it’s closed now but it looks good. We’ve just never been down to use it — that’s why we came down today.”
Mark McCormack said: “It looks pretty big from here, you can tell just by the size of the boat beside it, it’ll be pretty big.
“It’s nice yeah, I think the waterfront is really good already so it’ll add a little more to it.
“I think it’ll make a real difference.
“It said online that it was meant to go the whole way down but it appears to have docked at the Dundee docks.”
Locals excitedly flock to waterfront
Miriam McFadyen said: “I think it’ll be really good.
“We follow the artist on Instagram and then we saw the street signs to say the waterfront was closed from Monday.
“We’re quite excited for it that’s why we came down for it.
“We were in this morning and it looked like it was going to turn back but we saw it come further out so came to see it again.
“You can’t complain about them getting stuff like this, especially when the installation underneath will include sounds and an interactive playground. I think it’ll be really smart.
“We’ll probably come back tomorrow to see it lifted onto the waterfront.”
Some had been waiting out all day hoping to see the whale transported onto the Waterfront.
Dan Mitchell said: “We waited for about an hour.
“We saw it come down from the castle over to the docks.
“It’s definitely a lot bigger than I expected.”