Whale Sand Sculptures

Visual artist Sam Gare has been undertaking research within the historic cetacean collection housed at the Natural History Museum (London). During this research she discovered plaster cast moulds taken from stranded animals, that were used to create the cetacean models on display at the museum. Sam will be creating new wooden moulds inspired the long-finned pilot whales models. We will invite the public to Traigh Mhor on 12 July 2025 to use these moulds to cast individual whales in sand along the beach.  Not only will this act as a process of resurrecting animals locked within scientific specimens ,but it will also offer a therapeutic process that allows for closure via the symbolic ‘return’ of the whales to the sea, as the sand whales are slowly washed away by the tide.