Bringing Bella the Beithir to life

Readers of North News may remember learning about three local schools (Saracen Primary, St Teresa’s Primary and Broomlea Primary) coming together to create colourful mosaic tiles for Bella the Beithir, a 120-metre-long mythological creature at Stockingfield Bridge in our Summer 2025 issue.

With support from ng homes, Make It Glasgow and artist Nichol Wheatley, the first six ‘pods’ have now been completed and installed on Bella’s body. The creative work continues, with three more pods now underway. Pupils from Barmulloch Primary, Balornock Primary and Elmvale Primary have started designing and making their own tiles, helping to grow this fantastic community artwork.

Artist Nichol Wheatley said, “Bella the Beithir is a huge community sculpture being made with and for the folk of North West Glasgow. I’m delighted that ng homes have again supported this project, allowing hundreds of primary school children to make a permanent mark on this sculpture, which will be there for the next hundred years or more!”

Ruth Impey, Co-Director of Make it Glasgow, added, “Receiving more funding from ng homes has allowed us to expand the school pods to primary schools who have not come across Bella before. The pupils at Barmulloch Primary were captivated by her story and mosaics and excited to find out more about Glasgow’s ceramics history, as well as making their own clay tile.

 More on the Beithir

The Beithir is a large public artwork by artist Nichol Wheatley, created as a partner piece to The Kelpies. The project is made up of several design elements including illuminated spines, handmade ceramic scales, and school pods. The school pods are mosaic sculptures created by local schoolchildren.

Each ‘pod’ is a school of fish forming a larger fish. The ‘eye’ of the large fish is the crest of each individual school made up of fish designed by individual classes. It is hoped that these pods will allow students to find their school, their class, and their contribution to the project.

The Beithir sits next to Stockingfield Bridge and, by the time it is finished, will feature artwork and contributions from communities across Glasgow.

This project was commissioned by Scottish Canals and has been funded by ng homes, Glasgow City Council, Sustrans, EB Scotland and others.