Faith, Hope and Charity statues come to final resting place

19th March 2011

The statues, Faith, Hope and Charity that once adorned the roof of an Inverness High Street draper's store and then spent over fifty years in the ownership of a private collector in Orkney have been installed this week on the banks of the River Ness.

The final piece of the project - the head of statue Charity - that takes centre stage was installed this morning.

Each of the nine foot statues weighs 4.2 tonnes and have been installed onto separate stone plinths with a stone facing at Ness Bank Gardens between Ness Bank and Castle Road next to Ness Church.

Welcoming the return of the statues to Inverness, Provost Jimmy Gray said: "The statues are a significant part of the heritage and amenity of Inverness. They not only provide links to the past history of the area but they also offer an additional asset to the future amenity of the River Ness area."

The £55,000 project was funded by Inverness Common Good Fund for the purchase, transport, conservation, planning, consultation with the public and installation of the statues.

Members of the Council's Inverness City Committee approved the purchase of the statues in November 2007. Results of a public consultation that ended in May 2008 identified the Ness Bank Gardens as preferred site for the statues.

Contractor to The Highland Council for this project has been Nicolas Boyes Stone Conservation Ltd. The company has carried out the complete works from uplifting the statues from Orkney to full restoration and then installation of plinth and erection of statues.

Nic Boyes said: "I am delighted that Nicolas Boyes Stone Conservation has taken the statues of Faith, Hope and Charity, on a journey of conservation and installation, from Orkney to Inverness via Edinburgh. The NBSC team were honoured to have helped return these cherished statues back to their rightful home after half a century away."

Local sculptor Andrew Davidson (1841-1925) originally created statues of Greek mythological figures, the locally known as 'Faith, Hope and Charity'.

The statues were initially located on the roof of a Corinthian columned building at the corner of High Street and Castle Street which housed Grant's Clan Tartan and Tweed Warehouse. The building later housed the YMCA and was then demolished in 1955.