Helix Day

Being a dog owner I spend more than my own fair share of spare time in public parks. This gives the dogs a chance to have a run and sniff around on their own and is also a chance for me to stretch my legs and get some fresh air (well, in between cleaning up after the dogs). I always seem to have been fortunate enough to live close to a decent park – I often walked through Jesmond Dene when I lived in Newcastle and my house backed on to Roath Park when I lived in Cardiff. For many years I lived not far from Birkenhead Park – Britain’s first public park and one of the inspirations for New York’s Central Park. Falkirk does pretty well for public parks with the likes of Callendar and Dollar Park but we are getting a new one, The Helix, and yesterday was its (sort of) opening day.

I suppose the concept of a public park is rather a 19th Century idea rather than a 21st Century one but I rather like the thought that some old waste industrial ground should be turned into a public space rather than used for high density housing or “retail outlets” as pretty much every bit of free land in this country seems to be appropriated for. Helix Day was  touted as the opening day for the park although it is still very much a work in progress. However, the day itself was very well attended (read “mobbed”) and Falkirk Stadium car-park, which was meant to house all the visitors, was soon overrun. If only Falkirk football club could attract this many people? The one problem with this was that it was actually quite difficult to see the park for the entire population of Stirlingshire thronging about.

There were quite a few activities taking place including this oddball take on gardening: mixing wild flower seeds with papier-mâché and flinging them hither and thither with a giant catapult. It could almost get me into gardening again.

The Helix is actually a huge expanse which will run from Grangemouth to Carron (almost as far as Stenhousemuir). It also runs alongside the Forth and Clyde canal so it should be possible to walk or cycle to the Falkirk Wheel.

I think what should mark out The Helix as a truly modern park are the works of art. The most imposing of these will be The Kelpies. They are currently under construction but will be 30 metre / 100 feet tall steel horse-heads. I’ve seen the 1/10th scale models and even these are impressive but the real thing is just as astonishing as an engineering feat as they are for their artistic merit. To give some sort of idea of the scale there is a man working in the cradle at the top of the crane and the mass of metal that is dwarfing the VW Transporter will be one of the creature’s ears.

I walked back with the kids to Carron Phoenix Works were the North part of the Helix ends. Along the way there are a couple of other works of art. One of these is a human sun dial. It works by standing in the centre next to the current month and seeing which way one’s shadow is cast. It probably works better if you are taller than this. It also works better if you live in a country with a bit more sunshine. There wasn’t on this occasion although we probably do get more than on the West coast. There are people in Greenock that will hurl stones at the fearful ball of fire in the sky if the sun comes out. I jest, of course - no-one has ever seen the sun in Greenock.

After the sun dial I expected to see a chocolate tea-pot. In fact what I found was this curiosity called “Love and Kisses”. I think the idea is that from one end it looks like a giant heart (the symbol of love, that is, not the internal organ). From the side, I think it is meant to represent a giant pair of lips and not, as I first thought, a giant iron turd.

Overall, I think the Helix is shaping up to be something quite special. I can also see it becoming quite a tourist attraction, particularly when the Kelpies are finished. But for me, it will be somewhere else to walk the dogs.