February 21 2025

Long-held ambitions to ornament the Scotland - England border with a giant sculpture celebrating invention have taken a major step forward with the submission of a planning application.

The Star of Caledonia has been repositioned from the River Sark to a new site on farmland opposite Smith's Hotel at Gretna Green to help draw up to 250,000 visitors per year to the region.

The brainchild of local farmer and entrepreneur Alasdair Houston the 33m tall steel sculpture, designed by Cecil Balmond, is to be studded with LED lights and has evolved from a simple landart sculpture and landscaped viewing platform into a broader honeypot attraction that will include a modular visitor hub, events space and cafe subject to further detailed design.

Numerous design tweaks have also been made to the £10m sculpture as it was first conceived, including reducing its height from 40m to keep a lid on costs.

Explaining the rationale behind relocating The Star of Caledonia Trust wrote: "This new and current location offers good accessibility for both construction and operation and a flat site with the potential to minimise the requirement of imported fill for the landform."

15.7ha of farmland has been earmarked for the broader proposal which includes a central water body to accentuate the scale of the giant sculpture and a larger landscape of elliptical paths 'orbiting' the main attraction. A prominent sight from the nearby A74 the landmark will bring the skyline to life by day and night as a complex knot of intertwined arches illuminated by a 'cosmic-like' network of custom lighting rods.  

Construction could begin as early as spring 2026 for completion the following year.

7 Comments

#1 Posted by town planner on 21 Feb 2025 at 13:12 PM

Shame the height has been reduced, most people will see it from the roads and the trees will obviously obscure it to an extent.

#2 Posted by Alan Ross on 21 Feb 2025 at 19:01 PM

This has been on the go for years and the design is a bit meh. An up and coming Scottish artist with a fresh take on this is really needed.

#3 Posted by Mark on 22 Feb 2025 at 19:31 PM

It's years since we last heard about this one. It still lacks the strong silhouette of the Angel of the North or the Kelpies, which is what you need when folk are driving past at 80mph. Agreed that it's rather "meh" and will end up obscured behind trees, rather like the Famous Grouse sculpture in the middle of Broxden Roundabout outside Perth.

#4 Posted by Sven on 23 Feb 2025 at 18:45 PM

Terrible design. Has no presence, lacks simplicity, too slack, too crap.

Kelpies and the Angel of the north work as they are welcoming. This will start thing is like none of those 1960s new town sculptures that you drive past, it’s been half hidden by trees like them. Bin the project.

#5 Posted by Roddy_ on 23 Feb 2025 at 19:14 PM

Mannered and too literal.
Looks like the entrance to a big box retail park / retail outlet.

#6 Posted by Christopher Grieve on 24 Feb 2025 at 09:12 AM

Perhaps a 20m high neon tombstone?
With the inscription: R.I.P Scotland, All is dead here, save stupidity?

#7 Posted by Lovely on 24 Feb 2025 at 11:16 AM

Agree with all of the above.

This rather poor but expensive amorphous blob with its garden shed alongside does embody the message in the above comment rather well in a subtle and sub-conscious way.

It actually catches the zeitgeist in Scotland at the moment rather nicely.

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