Prehistoric Plasticine at Dunbeath
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A CERTAIN squidgy pink character of indeterminate sex was seen running around naked up Dunbeath Strath at the weekend searching desperately for a mysterious ancient tower.
No need to phone the police or have the "men in black" called in to look for space creatures, though, as this was all part of a PR stunt by the Caithness Broch Project to take a TV celebrity to one of the county's great archaeological treasures – the Dunbeath Broch.
Broch project co-director Kenneth McElroy said that he had spotted that Peter Lord – the creator of the popular children's TV character Morph – had been visiting Orkney over the past week and was taking photos of the Aardman Animations character wherever he went.
Kenneth reached out to Peter and Morph through Twitter when he realised what a great photo opportunity there was to be had.
"We didn't want Peter to just go whizzing back home through Caithness," Kenneth said.
"He'd clearly enjoyed visiting the archaeological sites of Orkney, and so I thought he might appreciate to see what we had here. Naturally, I suggested a broch."
Making a slight detour from the A9, Peter walked up Dunbeath Strath and took shots of his Plasticine creation on a wobbly suspension bridge crossing the river and then at the site of the 2000-year-old broch itself.
Morph was originally created for the BBC's Vision On TV series in 1977. The stop-motion animated plasticine figure was usually a comic foil to the late TV presenter Tony Hart and went on to have his (or her) own TV series called The Amazing Adventures of Morph.
Peter Lord had been visiting Orkney on holiday, amidst rumours that Morph is ready to make a comeback after 20 years off the TV screens. Perhaps a new series might have Morph living in one of the Lego brochs created for the broch project?
CBP also launched an exhibition of broch-inspired art at Lyth Arts Centre on Saturday for its annual Brochtober festival.
