Epitaph for the Elm

Last month while I was wandering round Edinburgh Park, I saw this sculpture and put it in my back pocket for a "sunny" day when I could actually get out of work on time. Today was that day.

Unveiled in 2001 sadly after the death of it's creator, Tim Stead (1952 ~ 2000) the sculpture is made up of 11 slices of a dead 200 year old elm tree held in place by steel plates and tensioned wires.

It's an interesting sculpture, positioned at the end of an avenue of trees and hedges. The location is bizarrely between two of the Park's buildings at the southern end of the Lochside and you could quite easily miss it if you weren't looking at the right moment.