Eye-catching artworks for Kielder Water
Jun 10 2009 by Tony Henderson, The Journal
PUPILS had a head start in visiting a series of new attractions on the shores of Northumberland’s Kielder Water.
Features at locations on the newly-completed 27-mile trail around the lake were officially unveiled yesterday.
They will double as artworks, shelters and rest places for walkers, cyclists, and horse riders who use the Lakeside Way circuit.
One of the features is an 18ft tall wooden head called Silvas Capitalis – Latin for forest head. Visitors can walk into the head’s mouth where a stairway leads to an upper storey, allowing people to view the lake from the head’s eyes and listen to the sounds of the forest through the sculpture’s ears.
When plans for the head were put before Tynedale councillors last October, Kielder Parish Council lodged an objection, saying that the head could frighten children and people of a nervous disposition.
But a class of youngsters from Sele School in Hexham put the theory to the test when they were given a preview on Monday. And there was not a shiver in sight as the children swarmed over the sculpture.
Kian Brown, nine, said. “I was really excited about seeing the sculpture as we had talked about it in class.”
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