TWO large stone blocks have been hacked out of the 100ft high plinth on the statue of the Duke of Sutherland at Golspie.
Police yesterday launched an inquiry into what is believed to have been an attempt to destroy the statue on the summit of Ben Bhraggie.
They say they will closely monitor the statue in case the vandals return.
During the last two months, two separate attempts to have the statue removed and replaced by a Celtic cross have been rejected by Highland councillors.
One of the main campaigners to remove the statue yesterday condemned the vandals.
SNP activist Ron Gibson said: ``I cannot condone this sort of action and it will not help our campaign. However, it is understandable that if the democratic process thwarts such an emotive issue then some hotheads might take direct action.''
Mr Sandy Lindsay, whose name appears on the applications to remove the statue, said: ``I am very sad to hear that someone has tried to vandalise the statue.
``We intended to keep the plinth but resite the statue in the grounds of Dunrobin Castle, the Sutherland family home, and replace it with a Celtic cross as a memorial to the thousands of people thrown out their homes by this man.''
Two 3ft high corner stones from the south-east and south-west sections of the plinth were levered out and left lying broken nearby.
On Thursday afternoon Mr Gibson noticed the damage while filming an interview with television presenter Kirsty Wark about the statue for her One Foot in the Past programme, but assumed the blocks had been removed for a repair.
It was only when a Sutherland Estates employee saw the damage that the police were informed.
The first Duke of Sutherland became notorious during the early nineteenth century because of the methods his factors used to evict 15,000 tenants to make way for sheep.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article