When Spurtle reader Ian Mountford passed through St Mark's Park first thing this morning, he soon realised something was wrong. The Antony Gormley sculpture in the Water of Leith which he had passed at 6.00pm the previous evening was gone.
He emailed us the startling news and we contacted the National Galleries of Scotland. There, a surprisingly calm spokeswoman said that the Gormley in Bonnington had disappeared too, but there was no concern for alarm.
The reason: all the riverbed-mounted sculptures are designed to topple over when water pressure upon them reaches too high a level. The two Gormleys were therefore presumed safe beneath the waves, invisible because of the depth and turbidiity of recent downpours still working their way downstream. Met Office sources say 42mm of rain fell at Edinburgh Airport on Wednesday, with 9mm falling between 6pm last night and 6am this morning.
Gallery staff were arranging for a frogman to investigate the sites once conditions had moderated a little. 'We're rather pleased,' said Patricia Convery. 'It shows the design works.'[img_assist|nid=948|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=200|height=150]
Spurtle wondered if NGS staff were really sure the Gormleys had been half-drowned rather than half-inched. The same spokeswoman laughed a trifle uneasily: 'Given the huge effort it took to put them in there in the first place, each one taking a day, I'd be amazed if anyone managed to get two of them out overnight in the middle of a flood.'
In a related incident just downstream from Powderhall, as yet unconfirmed reports suggest that the Water of Leith rose over the wall close to the weir at Redbraes, causing damage to property.[img_assist|nid=949|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=200|height=150]
Passers-by told Spurtle they had witnessed a distraught couple bitterly regretting the day they overcame doubts and chose to move into the area. It last flooded in April 2000, in what experts described afterwards as a 'once in 200 years event'. We are looking into the story and will report back as and when we have details.
In the meantime, the latest official document on the Water of Leith Flood Prevention Scheme is available by clicking on the pdf below.