Statue of pair runs against the grain

THEY are two of the most gruesome characters in Scotland’s history and their dastardly dealings in human flesh spread horror through 19th-century Edinburgh society.

Now the notorious murderers Burke and Hare have been commemorated in a new 12ft-high sculpture beside the Union Canal.

The images of the Ulstermen, who came to the Capital to work as canal labourers and ended up killing city residents to sell their bodies for medical research, have been carved from an old elm tree. But the wooden statue has raised eyebrows among some Edinburgh residents who say it is in dubious taste.

The work of art was commissioned by British Waterways, the body responsible for looking after the canal, from Edinburgh-based sculptor Robert Coia.

A spokesman for the waterways authority said murderers Burke and Hare had been chosen as the subject of the sculpture because the pair had originally worked on the canal as labourers, or navigators - men who later become known as navvies.

Simon Lievesley, partnership co-ordinator for British Waterways Scotland, denied there was anything distasteful about the sculpture. He said the idea for the work had come about when the company was clearing a patch of diseased elm trees.

He said: "We were aware of the other sculptures Robert Coia had done and this particular tree was getting on for 200 years old. When we looked, it had a split trunk and rather than chopping it down it seemed to be the obvious candidate for two figures."

Mr Lievesley said Burke and Hare had seemed the natural choice, but they were chosen not as murderers, but as canal workers. He said: "Burke and Hare came to Edinburgh as navigators and the sculpture is to commemorate all navigators."

And historian Owen Dudley Edwards, who has written a book about the pair, said he thought it was "extremely appropriate" to remember the two navigators.

He said: "They are the only navigators we know anything about and they hadn’t murdered anybody as far as we know at that stage of their lives."

He added that the Irish labourers who came to Scotland to work on the canals had played a very important part in the country’s history.

"Burke and Hare worked incredibly hard as navigators and the fact is that they lifted their faces above the great mass of people who did so much for Scotland.

"We are not apologising for their murders, but these are the two [navigators] that were known," he said.

But the idea of bumping into two larger-than-life murderers beside a peaceful waterside left some locals less than impressed.

Lee Ramsay, a 21-year-old care assistant from Murrayburn, who often walks along the canal on her way home, said she had liked the sculpture when she first saw it, but, after discovering it was Burke and Hare, was not so keen. "I thought it was nice, but I didn’t realise that’s who it was - you wouldn’t think it. It’s a bit gruesome," she said.

A spokeswoman for the Edinburgh Dungeon, where visitors see the characters of Burke and Hare in their better-known occupation of heartless murderers, said that their past as navigators was "irrelevant".

She said: "Whatever occurred in Burke and Hare’s early life is immaterial. They were vicious cold-blooded killers, and we are sure our visitors will find it bizarre to discover that the city of Edinburgh would choose to remember them in any other way.

"I think what surprises visitors to the Edinburgh Dungeon is that everything featured and recreated actually happened all those years ago and Burke and Hare are no exception."

However, others believe that whatever their crimes, the two men were an important part of the city’s history. Helen McDonaugh, of Longstone Community Council, said: "I don’t think many people will have known that they worked in our area. I didn’t know that was the case.

"It is part of our history and the guy that’s done the sculpture is fantastic."

And Moat councillor Andrew Burns said: "It’ll certainly make people look twice. I know that area well because not only is it on the edge of my ward, but I live close and often cycle along there.

"I think that anything that encourages people to use the route is to be welcomed and it is to the good if it draws people to the canal whether the sculpture is unusual or not."

Mr Coia said he thought most people would only view the sculpture as two canal workers.

"It’s them before they changed their profession," he said.