We had some friends over for the day and we all went up there as it was glorious weather and the seven (!) children needed to run for a bit. The play-park there is normally fantastic but it was all full of wasps. Not good. After the youngest child got stung on the mouth by one of the nasty wasps we decided to move away from the play-park and headed for off for a walk through the woods towards The Horn.
It's a fantastic walk and not actually that far so the boys could run off and choose sticks/branches for sword fighting/casting spells while the girls picked flowers and whinged about having too far to walk - it was one of those days. At the corner of the park you are faced with this:
It really is a great sight. Here's a bit of stuff about it:
There's lots more about it here.
Designed by Scottish artists Matthew Dalziel and Louise Scullion, it was originally commissioned to act as landmark between the two cities, stimulating drivers on a stretch of road that was notoriously bleak and featureless. From a rigid stepped concrete foundation, its silvery vertical form tapers for eighteen metres, before modulating into a swan-like neck which flares in turn into an oval trumpet. Pointing towards the motorway, periodically the Horn “speaks” to the cars that speed past below - one mechanism to another. The occupants, sealed inside their vehicles, may not be aware of this voice, others may have heard that it speaks, whilst others still may exit the motorway at junction 4, and walk to the base to clearly hear the Horn’s voice.
Quote taken from the Art in Partnership website as previously linked. For the record - I've visited it twice and the sound isn't working any more!
Pictures taken from Martin's Flickr set.
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