New Wick memorial remembers lost Highland seafarers

A new statue has been unveiled to remember lives lost off Scotland's north mainland coast.

The Seafarers Memorial in Wick commemorates deaths associated with boats with the town's WK registration.

Coastal communities linked to the registration stretch from Portmahomack in Easter Ross to Talmine in Sutherland.

Names on the memorial include those of 37 fishermen who died during bad weather at Wick in August 1848.

Wick charity Seafarers Memorial Group raised more than £100,000 to erect the bronze statue at the town's Braehead.

It was designed by Scottish sculptor Alan Beattie Herriot, whose other works include Wojtek - Soldier Bear in Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, and a statue in Aberdeen to footballer Denis Law.

The memorial was cast at Powderhall Foundry in Edinburgh and unveiled on Saturday.

The statue's figure represents the sea with one hand raised holding a haddock and the other pointing down to bronze plaques below.

Local Caithness stone was used for paving and benches, while Wick High School pupils were involved in the design of some of the five stainless steel lecterns surrounding the statue.

Seafarers Memorial Group chairman Willie Watt said: "It is a moving piece of art that captures the angst and the profound sadness that the loss of life the sea brings."