Around Aberdeen: The Gordon Highlanders Statue

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my trip with Gus to the Gordon Highlanders Museum. One of the items in the museum is a maquette of the Gordon Highlanders statue that resides at The Castlegate. (It's not visible in that satellite shot because it was only installed last year - by Charles, Prince of Wales, whom some of you may have heard of!)

Anyway, I decided to take a few pictures of the statue, which features two figures: a kilted Gordon Highlander reflecting the early days of the Regiment, which was originally formed as the 92nd Gordon Highlanders in 1794; and a figure depicting a more recent soldier in the Regiment. This, of course, is a beautiful testament to the storied history and heritage of valor and sacrifice from one of Scotland's storied units. Its location in Aberdeen's city center is appropriate, as the Gordon Highlanders defended Scotland and the United Kingdom at large, and are especially deserving of a prominent position in the city.

The sculptor has mercifully portrayed the modern soldier as carrying the L1A1 SLR, although the Gordon Highlanders would have carried the SA80 before the Regiment was amalgamated first into The Highlanders, which was subsequently reduced in strength to battalion level and incorporated into the Royal Regiment of Scotland. As a result, the statue is somewhat reminiscent of the statue of The Yomper at the Royal Marines Museum in Eastney, Hampshire.

On the One Pub Crawl to Rule Them All, I took a few night shots of the statue, so I'll share those, too.

It's really a gorgeous, majestic statue. We have statues back home, but we have a tendency to commission horribly gaudy statues that look like a foundry vomited. It's nice to see that the Scots haven't made the same mistake, because the statues they've commissioned actually look like humans and aren't completely hideous.