The 35-metre high 'Kelpie' heads are based on the mythical Scots creatures of the same name and are the brainchild of British Waterways and internationally acclaimed sculptor Andy Scott.

The heads will form part of a £25 million bid to the Big Lottery Fund for The Helix project, an ambitious initiative which, if the application is successful, will transform the landscape between Falkirk and Grangemouth into a thriving environmental community and tourism asset for Scotland.

The giant heads would be functional sculptures, complete with flowing manes. They would form an integral part of an ingenious boat lift mechanism at the eastern entrance to the Forth and Clyde canal, with the two heads slowly rocking back and forth to displace water from a lock chamber thereby allowing boats to move to and from Scotland's lowland canal network.

Backers are preparing a bid for lottery funding to create a new canal link, open up the Forth Estuary, create the Kelpie sculptures, and develop 300 hectares of new green space and woodland, with 750,000 new trees planted. It will also include 34km of paths and cycleways.

The bid will be made at the end of May and, in preparation, Andy Scott is currently creating two one-tenth scale steel models, which will be used to help generate support for this ambitious project.

Creation of the 3.5-metre high models involves welding thousands of small steel plates over a pre prepared steel skeleton. The skeleton itself will eventually be removed to leave a steel mosaic of the Kelpie heads.

Andy, whose father hailed from Falkirk, has a long association with equine sculpture, having created the landmark 'Heavy Horse' which sits proudly at the side of the main motorwat between Glasgow and Edinburgh, and various other world-renowned equine pieces in Australia and Spain.

"The horse occupies a very important place in the industrial history of Scotland, including the development of the country's canal network, and is therefore an ideal subject for this piece of work," Scott says.

"It will be a huge undertaking to create the world's largest equine sculptures. However, the process I am following to create the scaled down maquettes (models) will give both me and the engineering team a greater understanding of the issues and challenges ahead."

The steel maquettes are hoped to be ready for public display at the end of May.

If the project gets the green light, then work to start creating the massive Kelpie heads could begin at the end of the year.

Lottery funding of £250,000 is being used to pay for a full feasibility study of the multi-faceted project.

This article appears in Horsetalk