Keir Smith – Breasty Haw – 1980
Material: Wood
Trail: Bogle Crag Trail
Theme: Landscape
Form: Representational – Coniston Old Man Mountain
Maps Featured on: 1981 – 1999
Status: Removed, no remains
Quote from the artist – “The work is in two parts, a pallisade of larch logs cut to the shape of the mountain, and, in front of this, a row of seven ‘rocks’, carved from wood… The reaming rocks have implement shapes cut into their top surfaces. On the right of the Quarry Stone, axe, nail and sickle, on the left, spear, sword and arrow. One rock, the largest, contains a deep reservoir filled with metal powder. This Quarry Stone refers to the metal working in Coppermines Valley which leads to the summit of the Old Man. “
(Click on the thumbnail above to read what the artist said about the sculpture.)
This initial proposal contained two mountains, mimicking the real ones behind. Instead of the stones this sketch shows there was to be something placed in between the two mountains.
The shape is meant to mimic The Old Man of Coniston, a mountain which is behind the sculpture. Weirdly the sculpture was created at a time when the trees were fully grown, meaning the view of Coniston is extremely limited. The trees were felled in the mid 90s. Not long after this the vertical wooden posts were removed leaving only the wooden stones.
“Both sculptures were made on site, to which I travelled every day by bicycle. It was my first experience of making sculpture outside the studio, and indeed of siting work in the landscape. Grizedale was the place I worked out what sort of artist I wanted to be, eclectic and variable certainly, but, hopefully not devoid of interest.” – Quote from the artist
Photograph taken by Robzet approximately 1996
I stumbled upon the remains of the work in around 2000. The ‘stones’ themselves were never attached to the floor, they were relatively large lumps of wood but they could be moved, luckily no one did and they stayed in place until the mid to late 00s.
Photograph taken by Karl & Ali, December 2016. Original Photograph Location Here.
Positioned about a third of the way along on the path that crosses Breasty haw from Bogle Crag across to Taking a wall for a walk. The platform the sculpture stood on and the physical stones the wooden ‘stones’ once sat on can still be seen on the floor.
Artist’s other work in Grizedale –
Enclosure. Realm of Taurus & Stag Pit – 1979
Last Rays of an English Rose – 2009
Exhibition – 2011
A Flower in Flower – 2014
Running from Eden – 2022
Page last updated April 2020
Grizedale Forest Sculpture An Unofficial Archive 