Sculpture chosen for baby ashes memorial

The bronze baby elephant will be created by Andy Scott, the man behind the Kelpies at Falkirk.

Published 25th Aug 2017
Last updated 29th Aug 2017

A bronze sculpture of a baby elephant will be placed in Princes Street Gardens in memory of the babies involved in the ashes scandal at Edinburgh's Mortonhall crematorium.

Affected parents chose the design which will be created by Andy Scott, who is also behind the Kelpies at Falkirk.

The scandal saw around 250 grieving mums and dads wrongly told there would be no ashes available after their child's cremation.

The practice lasted for decades.

Small footprints will be shown leading up to the elephant’s trunk, which is curved as if cradling an invisible infant.

The nature of the memorial will be simply described in an inscription along the plinth.

A memorial garden was opened at Mortonhall Crematorium in December 2015 but some parents felt they could not return so a second site in West Princes Street Gardens was identified.

Parents were asked to decide between the elephant design and a rocking horse design with the elephant being the popular choice.

Andy and his team will now work on the memorial which will take up to a year to create and install