Westhill Pigs

Cosmo and myself had quite a long walk this morning around Westhill. We took a different route from usual and we passed the Westhill pigs

A couple of years ago the shopping centre was expanded, and presumably partly to disguise the ugliness of the building this patch of green was introduced and these pigs arrived. the story behind the pigs is related on the Council website as follows.

Gertrude and her family occupy a spot at Westhill Shopping Centre on the corner of Westhill Drive and Old Skene Road. The inspiration is from the parish of Skene, which the hamlet of Westhill originally belonged to.
The idea came from a story about King Malcolm Canmore, who, while hunting in the forest, was attacked by a wild boar. The man who saved him used a dagger like weapon called a skian, hence the name Skene. The land was then gifted to him.

A steering committee was asked if they would have preferred a sculpture of a male wild boar or a female with piglets.They chose the latter as it was felt that the village has a large proportion of women and children at home while the men work away, often in the oil industry.

I cannot comment as to the veracity of the story of the king. In any event Cosmo was not impressed and totally ignored the pigs, though she might have considered the grass as potentially interesting. We carried on a little way up the hill to see the craft fayre, before returning home.