One good Tern deserves another

  • 13 Apr 2010 |

A steel bird sculpture designed by Mor landscape architects has been unveiled on the cliff tops of the Durham Heritage coastline.

Little Tern sculpture

The sculpture celebrates the return of the rare ‘Little Tern’ seabird colony to the area and is sited along the improved coastal footpath at Horden. It was inspired by David Buurma of Mor and commissioned by Durham Heritage Coast Partnership. The Little Tern species arrives from the west coast of Africa in May each year and volunteers fence off the area to protect and reduce disturbance to the colony.

The sculpture is part of building up visitor awareness of the positive environmental qualities along the Durham coastline but also symbolises the new future of the former pit village, whose industrial character devastated the local natural environment in the 20th Century.

The new circular access path and artworks were officially unveiled with a community launch event. Local school children were invited to get involved by creating paper lanterns in which they then paraded along the new route after dark.

Along the coastal paths there is also new seating, artistic way marking and interpretation signs that have been created using illustrations and poetry from local school workshops.

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