The Green Trail - Aberdeen City Council

Beneath granite wallsSecret rivers flowWhere silent fishes swim& seagulls swoop & scream1/83/8Quines, Loons- Fresh slivers of silverStraight from the sea4/85/8AnotherPhantom grey winterThe friar’s rosary turnsHush!Take your seatsLet Thalia & MelpomeneBegin2/8Mind the lickOf the whip- Swift judgementAwaits6/8Listen!On wings of wavesThe callOf the Captain’s bellFeet on settsShort-cuts in stoneStill lives move 7/88/8Little boy lostFrom North-East lightGranite grey memory7 Site of the ‘Mannie’The Mannie in theGreen, 1934.Today the statue known as the Mannie sits in the Castlegate but for over a century it wasin the Green. The Mannie is the only example of leaden sculpture in the city. In 1706 workbegan on laying lead water pipes from outside the city to a new fountain in theCastlegate. The statue itself was added to the top of the fountain some time after 1710. Awooden statue had originally been planned but the carver never executed the work andso a lead sculpture was erected.The Mannie was originally located in the Castlegate, where the Mercat Cross sits today,but it was moved to the Green in 1852. It was not until the early 1970s that the Manniewas moved back to the Castlegate, not to its original location but to a new site across theroad from the Tolbooth. In fact when it was moved back to the Castlegate it and theMercat Cross had swapped positions. But for well over a hundred years the Mannie was akey part of life in the Green, and to this day the statue is affectionately known byAberdonians as ‘the Mannie in the Green’.1213