WILL MACLEAN  
         
 

 

Installations

2019

In the early hours of 1 January 1919, the naval yacht Iolaire was carrying home hundreds of sailors after the end of World War One, when the vessel was wrecked on a reef called the Beasts of Holm close to Stornoway harbour.

Commissioned by An Lanntair Arts Centre, this significant and much called for commemorative sculpture and its open air setting was designed by Will Malcean, Marian Leven and Arthur Watson. Installed in Holm looking out to where the Iolaire sank, the sculpture bears the names of those lost and the communities they came from. Also featured is a bronze depiction of the coiled heaving line referencing the heroism of John Finlay Macleod who swam ashore with a rope to rescue 40 of the 79 men who were saved, but 200 others tragically lost their lives. On the wall is a bronze wreath composed of maritime insignia, and wooden benches for quiet contemplation and healing are inserted into the stone.

100 years later to the day, the solemn unveiling took place in the presence of Prince Charles, Nicola Sturgeon and Rear Admiral John Weale, among invited guests, including the artists and the families of the survivors and those lost. A gathering of school children from the western isles were brought to witness the service and ceremony from a boat anchored at the place where the Iolaire sank and from where they threw symbolic red carnations into the sea.

 

  The setting
  Names and Parishes in bronze
  The wreath
  Where the Iolaire sunk
  Opening ceremony

 

2013 Waterlines, a sculpture in Kilkenny blue limestone commissioned from Will Maclean and Marian Leven by the University of Aberdeen for the area in front of the new library Will Maclean
2013

An Suileachan, close to Uig on the West Coast, Isle of Lewis, conceived and designed by Will Maclean and Marian Leven, which won the Saltire Arts and Crafts in Architecture Award.  This Cairn, like the three earlier monuments, is openly political, serving the community to reconfigure the history underlying their cultural worlds

 

2008

Completion of Cairngorm View Point Commission with Arthur Watson

2006

Completion of Crannghal, in bronze and granite by Will Maclean and sculptor Arthur Watson, for Sabhal more Ostaig Gaelic College, Isle of Skye

 

The trilogy of Lewis Monuments (or Cairns) were designed and overseen by Will Maclean and built in stone by Jim Crawford. The team were awarded the Scottish Natural Heritage Supreme Award for all three structures.

1996

Completion and opening of the Memorial Sculpture at Aignish, Isle of Lewis (scene of the Land Uprising in 1888)

1996

Memorial Cairn to the Grias & Col Raiders, March 1919 (scene of the encounter between Crofters and Lord Leverhume at Gress Bridge)

1994

Completion and opening of Cuimhneachain Nan Gaisgeach Memorial Cairn, Balallan, Isle of Lewis (scene of the Park Deer Raid 1887)