Designating the remnant of the Gulliver Sculpture, Edinburgh

From 20 April to 11 May 2023, Historic Environment Scotland (HES) sought views on our proposal to designate the remnant of the Gulliver Sculpture in Edinburgh at category C.  

The left foot of the Gulliver Sculpture is among the last remains of an enormous concrete human figure play sculpture, conceived and completed between 1976 and 1978 for the Craigmillar Festival Society. Gulliver was largely demolished in 2011. It is an important example of community-led public art in Scotland and a rare surviving marker of the work of the influential grass-roots regeneration initiative known as the Craigmillar Festival Society (1962-2002). 

We received no responses to the Citizen Space consultation.  

Following direct consultation to interested parties, we received comments from The Twentieth Century Society and Docomomo Scotland. Both were in favour of listing.

The Twentieth Century Society noted their previous application to list, and made the following points:

• The Craigmillar Festival Society was one of the most significant community-led regeneration schemes of its time.
• Designed by Jimmy Boyle, later a sculptor and author, Gulliver was constructed under the Festival’s job creation scheme.
• It has both historic and cultural significance as a physical symbol of this important period of community action.
• Despite its denuded state, the sculpture still retains its significance as testament of the importance of the community in Craigmillar, and as a result is of national importance.
• Retention will help to tell the story of the sculpture from a widely used play structure to a neglected, and then almost lost, monument.

Docomomo Scotland commented that the remnant of the sculpture was ‘A rare reminder of the Craigmillar Festival Society and its work.’

The local authority had no substantive comments. They noted no issues regarding the proposed listing from a planning perspective, and no relevant development proposals affecting the site.

We have now listed the remnant of the sculpture at category C. The listed building records are available on our Heritage Portal, where the final Report of Handling is also available.     

Our historic environment is always changing. Listing does not prevent change, but it does allow for a structure’s special character to be taken into account when changes are proposed.