The 10ft temptress, who sits atop a rock in the sea, is proving to be a huge attraction in the normally quiet Seaboard village with folk coming from far and near to view the bronze created as part of a local sculpture trail.

She was sculpted by artist Steve Hayward of Hilton, Easter Ross, who recently carved two giant wooden replicas of the Lewis Chessmen for the community of Uig in Lewis. The mermaid forms part of the Seaboard Sculpture Trail which also includes three giant salmon in the sea, and three slate monuments sited in a Sculpture Park on the land.

The people of the three Seaboard villages – Balintore, Hilton and Shandwick – have for centuries relied on the sea and the sculptures were created to celebrate those strong links.

Will Aitken, project co-ordinator, said: "We had about 200 people here at the official opening on Monday night and we've had a steady flow of folk coming to visit her since then.

"What's amazing is the range of people coming. From pensioners to kids, everyone wants to see her and it's not just local folks – they're coming from all over.

"People are quite delighted with it, and I would say it's probably the best received project we have done down here."

Sculptor Steve Hayward and Will Aitken, sculptures project co-ordinator, with the Balintore mermaid. Andrew Smith

Will said the sculptures were visible at nearly every stage of the tide although the salmon were submerged for around two hours at particularly high tides.

He said: "The statues will be affected by every tide and every change in the weather, so people will have a different experience each time they come."

Artist Steve Hayward the most difficult part of creating the mermaid had been getting the scale correct as the mermaid had to fit the rock, an unusual large pink granite glacial erratic rock left over from the ice age.

Said Steve: "We had a fitting beforehand just to make sure we had her right. She's really difficult to handle and the rocks were very slippery so we had a bit of a struggle to get her in place! It also took a lot of drilling to get the holes in because the rock was very hard. But hopefully she will now be there for many years to come. We've been really amazed at the reaction we have been getting and the sculptures really seem to have taken people's imagination."

The project was funded by organisations including the Heritage Lottery Fund, Highland 2007 and the Highland Council along with grants from the Scottish Executive.

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