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Wallace Tower to light up red as South Ayrshire remembers

The Wallace Tower on Ayr High Street will be bathed in a sea of poppy red from 6pm on Friday 9 November as part of South Ayrshire Council's programme of events to mark the centenary of Armistice Day this weekend.

The uplighting on the Tower was recently replaced with modern, compact, low-energy colour changing LED lighting, providing the opportunity to illuminate the prominent building on Ayr High Street at night – and change the colour of the lighting for special occasions.


Remembrance weekend will be the first time the new lighting system has been put into operation – following successful tests earlier in the week – with the building staying red throughout Armistice Day until the early hours of Monday 12 November.

The lighting up of the Wallace Tower is just one of a number of ways the centenary of Armistice Day is being marked across South Ayrshire.


Services of Remembrance will take place in towns and villages throughout the area.


The Auld Kirk in Ayr – which will host a church service on Sunday morning before a parade to the War Memorial in Wellington Square – will be decorated with a stunning poppy banner featuring more than 4,100 knitted, crocheted and handmade poppies created by people across South Ayrshire.


Community organisations and groups, churches, knitting groups, day care centres and individuals across South Ayrshire all took up the call to action to contribute poppies for the banner – significantly exceeding the target of 2,018 poppies to mark the centenary year. And many others, such as schools and Council staff, took the time to help tie donated poppies on to the banner, so they could be displayed in all their glory.


South Ayrshire has also been selected to take part in a national commemoration to mark the 100 years since the end of the First World War. Ayr beach has been chosen as one of a handful of locations in Scotland for the national Pages of the SeaExternal link project, which is a UK-wide initiative – led by film director Danny Boyle – to pay tribute to all those who left our shores during the war.


The project is based around the creation of stunning sand portraits of individuals who lost their lives during the First World War – for Ayr, the portrait will be Second Lieutenant Walter Tull.


Pages of the Sea is very much a community event and people are invited to come along between 8.30am and 11am (when the tide will start to wash the portrait away) and pay tribute to all those who left our shores during the war. There will also be a change to recite a poem written especially for the event.


Guided tours of Rozelle Remembrance Woodland and its incredible wood carvings of characters and features associated with our armed forces and previous battles will also be provided over the weekend, starting from Rozelle House at 2pm on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 November.


The tour will include the chance to see a brand-new carving marking the centenary of both the RAF and Armistice Day and the opportunity to place remembrance poppy crosses or long-stemmed poppies (for a donation to the Poppy Pledge) in the woodland in memory of loved ones and all those lost in battle.

Rozelle House is also showcasing a small Armistice Day Centenary Exhibition, which runs until Monday 24 December. Commemorating local involvement in the Great War, the exhibition details the impact of the war on local people and features poetry inspired by the Remembrance Woodland. 

Full details of all Remembrance events in South Ayrshire can be found at www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/remembrance

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