Still

I always feel sad coming back from the Highlands. Although I love Northumberland, half my head and heart is always in the Highlands, so on a journey home, I try to fill it with as many glimpses of Scottish glory as I can to fuel me until my next visit.

Last year, we took a bit of a detour to Loch Earn near Crieff. It was an unforgiving day with relentless rain that made it difficult to peep out, even between the whoosh of the windscreen wipers. The drive was long and the journey circuitous, but we were determined to leave with an impression of 'Still' to keep us afloat until our return.

Still is a nearly 9 foot man in the middle of Loch Earn. He's been in and out of residence at this specific spot since 2017.

Made of millions of tiny mirrors (his other name is Mirror Man), he reflects the immediate environment and refracts the light around him. Designed by environmental artist and sculptor Rob Mulholland, the sculpture originally shacked up in the shallows of Loch Earn in 2014. He drew in admirers from near and far, all keen to get a glimpse of this loch side Leviathan.

It's easy to see how this is the basis for this piece here in the Southern Highlands. Surrounded by the peaks of Ben Vorlich and Stùc a' Chròin and peppered with wildlife like red and roe deer, pine marten, red squirrels and otter on the ground and kites, buzzards and eagles overhead, this mirror man has a lot to reflect and project.

The loch is popular with tourists and is aimed to make us look at our own part in this place...what we give; what we take and how we relate and integrate with the space around us.

The sculpture is made of over 800 hand-cut pieces of marine grade mirrored stainless steel, each tessellated and pinned together with precision to keep him intact, like a mirrored coat of armour.

In the grey of the rain, he stood stoically with his back to the backlash of the wash, contemplative and still. I felt guilty in my coat, but there was something really beautiful in the colourless landscape of October that made him shine off shore.

Turn up your volume for the full deluge sound effects!

Seeing him from behind, his all-togetherness is somewhat awry. It appears that shards of his form are floating off into the atmosphere, soon to be windborne and away. And then what? If all of this man were to miraculously vanish, there'd be nothing but his shell. Perhaps this is a modern day parable to care for the land on which we stand. To savour the Monroes in our view, as without the care and consideration of humankind, all of this too could evanesce and ebb.

Rob Mulholland is also responsible for the steel volery sphere and patchwork metalwork of avian aerialists on the estuary at Amble. Flock Sphere is an array of ambiguous gulls gathered beak to wing tip, tail feather to tarsus, that enables the individual to climb inside, almost as if we were in an aviary looking out.

It's part of the Bord Waalk and lets the eye consider its relationship with birds at the beach, set against the saline seashore and skyline in weathered steel.

Back in the Southern Highlands, and the Mirror Man caused a bit of a hue and cry (or a Gordon and greet as they might say in Scotland!) In 2017, the owners of the Four Seasons Hotel, who had commissioned the sculpture, sold up and 'Still' was on the move too! Apparently, storm-damaged, the sculpture was removed without warning, and upped sticks and vanished. The local community understandably were up in arms. The artist, shocked too, pledged his support to the people of St Fillans and said he would do what he could to persuade the owners to return the sculpture to its lochside home.

But for eight long years, his void was felt in St Fillans; the spot which once was still had ceased.

After local campaigners had been on the case, the hardy folk at St Fillans in Bloom managed to dig deep and raise enough to give him a second innings in the Loch. He was repurchased, repaired and repatriated by the community.

It feels like a big whooooohoooo moment! The power of people is immense! '

Still was reinstated in Loch Earn in 2025. Made in Scotland and stayed in Scotland should be his tag line! Rob Mullholland from Glasgow was happy to see his artwork restablished back in the waters of Loch Earn, as were the locals.

And we were pleased to see Still before the fall of the light in late October, oblivious of the hoo haa that had preceded, and so inspired by Rob's words. Creativity and connection are key elements that improve life, learning and make us view the world around us in different ways.

Thanks to the artist Rob Mulholland for chatting and sharing his insight. He's currently working on an exciting sculpture trail near Loch Lomond called Arcadia which focuses on art in nature. Watch this space. We can't wait.

Thanks too to Steve Greenhorn for sharing some of his images and video with me, from a visit when he had bluer skies than me!