Hundreds attend Spean Bridge memorial service

A SERVICE was held at the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge, in the Highlands on Remembrance Sunday, as people across Scotland joined the two-minute silence to commemorate fallen servicemen and women.

Built between 1949 and 1951, the monument overlooks the training areas of the Commando Training Depot, established in 1942 at Achnacarry Castle.

Standing 17ft tall, the bronze sculpture is one of Scotland’s best-known monuments.

The monument is a memorial to the British Commandos who trained in the Lochaber region.

A nearby Garden of Remembrance is used by many surviving World War II commandos as the final resting place for their ashes.

Relatives of soldiers who have died in more recent conflicts, such as Afghanistan, Iraq and the Falklands, have also scattered ashes there in recent years.

The sculpture was created by Wick-born Scott Sutherland, who was schooled at Gray’s School of Art, Edinburgh College of Art and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.