The Loch Ness Monster has been spotted in Kirklands alongside his friend Hamish McCoo!
But it is not early trick-or-treaters or the latest Hollywood blockbuster being filmed in Lanarkshire. That’s right, it must be the Bothwell Scarecrow Festival.
Two dedicated teams within Kirklands went to work on their amazing creations with the occupational therapy entry The Loch Ness Monster scooping two prizes for best new entrant and best community group.
Jacqueline Evans, occupational therapy assistant practitioner, said:
“Myself and colleagues from the occupational therapy adult learning disability services worked alongside the inpatients at Kirklands to create a wonderful scarecrow for the festival for the past five years.
“However, this is the first time we entered the competition and we are delighted to win two of the awards. Our prizes were two wonderful hampers which we shared with our patients and two trophies that are now proudly on display in Kylepark assessment centre reception.
“Our winning entry this year was ‘The Loch Ness Monster’ and patients worked every weekend for a whole month to design and build it. It was absolutely delightful to be able to announce them as winners today and celebrate all their efforts.
“My colleague Kirsty Neville and I have really enjoyed being part of the event and would like to express our thanks and gratitude to the Bothwell Scarecrow committee, not to forget a special nod to all the fabulous scarecrow entries we were up against. It’s a fantastic annual event and really brings the community together.”
Those of you visiting Kirklands over the last few weeks will have been greeted by Hamish McCoo just outside the main car park.
Lyndsay McLean, management team secretary in public health, said:
“The idea originated from discussion within an informal Public Health chat, whereby it was felt a happy and positive opportunity to take part in a longstanding festival within the Bothwell area where NHS Lanarkshire is situated within the community.
“Both myself and fellow colleague, Kerri Duncan volunteered to take on the challenge of coming up with a scarecrow idea – even motivated enough to go along to the scarecrow making workshop run by the organising committee.
“After brainstorming some ideas within which we were keen to incorporate a Scottish theme, I suggested we could take inspiration from Lizzie McCoo by Steven Brown. The image of Lizzie is well recognised throughout Scotland and a keen favourite of many.
“Hamish – as we later named him – was constructed within my dad’s garage at home which he kindly allowed me to ‘take over’ as my workshop for two weeks. My dad helped with constructing the frame upon which I later applied the multi-coloured strips of material that allowed Hamish a keen likeness to Lizzie McCoo’s bold colours.
“A lot of fabric cutting and crocheting later, along with many glue gun burned fingers, I was able to stuff him full of his straw, really bringing him to life! The final ‘cherry on top’ was his wooden horns collected on a forest walk alongside my Labrador pup – all in all, a team effort!
“A late night visit to Kirklands delivered Hamish to his new spot at the entrance to Kirklands, with Bothwell scarecrow festival committee waking up the next morning to the arrival of the newest addition to the festival.”
