{"id":386616,"date":"2026-01-23T19:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/386616\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T19:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:22:08","slug":"highland-council-wolf-sculpture-outside-inverness-town-house-damaged-by-gale-blowing-over-christmas-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/386616\/","title":{"rendered":"Highland Council wolf sculpture outside Inverness Town House damaged by gale blowing over Christmas tree"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Highland Council is blaming a howling gale for a wolf sculpture\u2019s demise outside Inverness Town House<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There was speculation that vandals had struck<\/a> after images on social media showed one of the two sandstone statues with a missing ear.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe damaged wolf sculpture outside Inverness Town House. Picture: Alasdair Fraser<\/p>\n

The wolves standing guard outside the main entrance of the civic building have become popular with visitors and locals alike.<\/p>\n

The council is now facing a potential repair bill \u2013 if the damage is fixable \u2013 after high winds caused a Christmas tree standing outside the building to strike the ornamental structure.<\/p>\n

The sculptures were commissioned as part of the \u00a33.04m third phase of the upgrade of the Inverness Common Good-fund owned Town House.<\/p>\n

\"InvernessInverness Town House<\/p>\n

David Haas, senior community development manager, said: \u201cThe two wolf statues at the front of the Townhouse are already a much loved addition following the \u00a37.4 million investment in the city’s iconic civic building.<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, recent high winds caused one of the Christmas trees to tilt and strike the corner of the statue sitting to the right of the main door.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs both statues are carefully crafted, steps are being taken with the original sculptors to understand how best to repair the damaged statue, which lost the tip of its right ear, to ensure its longevity.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe damaged wolf sculpture outside Inverness Town House. Picture: What’s Happening Inverness<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully we still hold the piece that came away during the storm.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sculptures were commissioned a decade ago to replace the then-missing statues of two dogs<\/a>, seen in historic photos perched high on the roof of the A-listed Town House.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn old photograph of the two original dogs on the roof of Inverness Town House. Picture: Am Baile.<\/p>\n

Just before the wolves were due to be installed in September 2017, the two original statues of the dogs were by chance re-discovered in unmarked crates during a clear-out at a council storage depot.<\/p>\n

The dogs were installed on the roof again, with the decision then taken to place the new wolf statues at either side of the entrance to the Town House as part of its extensive refurbishment.<\/p>\n

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here<\/a> to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Highland Council is blaming a howling gale for a wolf sculpture\u2019s demise outside Inverness Town House. There was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,16338,913,56,54,55,7741],"class_list":["post-386616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-highland-council","tag-latest-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-update-me"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}