Artist Mary-ann Orr beside an Angus community’s tribute to Scotland’s frontline heroes. The heart-shaped stone feature at Auchmithie has a memorial marker to each of the nation’s Covid-19 victims. Picture: Dougie Nicolson.

PROJECT: Stone artwork thanking NHS workers doubles as poignant memorial

A community tribute to Scotland’s coronavirus frontline heroes has been completed with the poignant inclusion of a memorial marker to each of the nation’s Covid-19 victims.

In what could become a lasting public art reminder of the pandemic, villagers in Auchmithie have spent the past several weeks filling a large loveheart outline with heart-shaped pebbles plucked from the foreshore a few miles north of Arbroath.

In a project instigated by local artist Mary-ann Orr, the last stones were laid as the nation completed what could be the last Clap for Carers on Thursday night.

And in a quirk of fate, the final total of 2,319 stones inside the heart was almost exactly the number of Scottish coronavirus deaths to date since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Art tutor Mary-ann, who normally works with inmates at HMP Glenochil, has been diligently counting and placing the stones left in a bucket beside the heart outline since the project began.

She said: “We placed the stones in the heart on Thursday night, which was coincidental and auspicious as it was the last ‘formal’ clap for the NHS.

“There were exactly 2,319 stones placed in the heart and 2,316 deaths had been recorded.

“It is amazing that it is has turned out to be one heart for every person who lost their life in the period that this heart was put together.”

Mary-ann added: “It’s been a wonderful project that has meant quite a lot to the community and people visiting Auchmithie.

“Some of the heart-shaped stones were taken away and personalised by people before being brought back and placed in the heart – memories of loved ones lost.

“The intention is to leave it there, not to fix it in any way, but just to let it remain and if it changes in any way then that itself is a reflection of how life happens.

“The response has been so unexpected but it has come to mean so much to many people, and I hope it is seen as the village’s way of saying ‘thank you’ to those who have so selflessly done so much during this, and as a memorial to those who have lost their lives.”

Pictures: Dougie Nicolson. Artist Mary-ann Orr beside the stone loveheart tribute to NHS workers close to the harbour at Auchmithie.

Mary-ann said some of the stones have been taken away and personalised by people before being brought back.