A large sculpture inspired by Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s famous roses has been hoisted onto Glasgow’s iconic Finnieston Crane to mark the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
Games organisers said the artwork – which has a diameter of 10m – would serve as a tribute to Glasgow’s artistic heritage, and to the crane’s status as a landmark in the city.
The Titan Crane, pictured below, further down the River Clyde at Clydebank, is being left to rot and rust by West Dunbartonshire Council, which took over responsibility for it from the now defunct Clydebank Re-built regeneration company. It was intended initially to serve as a tribute to the skills of the
Local artist Emer Tumilty was tasked with creating a “reimagining” of the roses motif created by 19th-century architect and designer Mackintosh, that could then be suspended from the crane and provide an addition to the Clydeside.
A former WDC Labour councillor, the convener for Culture no less, is said to have questioned why St Augustine’s Scottish Episcopal Church in Dumbarton High Street was being included in a list of buildings of special interest.
Bailie Denis Agnew is said to have told community councillor Rose Harvie that he did not consider the fact that world-famous architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his artist wife, Margaret, of Dunglass Castle in Bowling, had been married there sufficient to merit its inclusion.
The Hill House in Helensburgh is presently in the latter stages of being restored and is a well-supported visitor attraction in the town.
The Finnieston crane was unveiled just before the opening ceremony of the Games at the OVO Hydro.
by Tumilty told BBC Scotland News the commission had been quite a challenge initially, due to the fame of the rose design, created by Mackintosh and his wife Margaret McDonald Mackintosh.
She said: “It was quite daunting at first, because the rose is an iconic symbol of Scottish culture, but I just started to enjoy the process and then be quite playful with it. Hopefully, if they were around today they would appreciate it.
“It’s really a reimagined rose for the Games.”
The sculpture was a collaboration between Tumilty – who studied at the School of Art in Glasgow and has lived in the city ever since – and the creative studio Newsubstance.
The studio’s Hannah Rozenberg said: “We were thinking what would be a good sculpture for the Games, and the crane is such a symbol of the city.
“We did not want to simply directly recreate something that is already existing, like the Mackintosh rose, but instead find a reinterpretation of it, done in a contemporary way.
“So it is a great pairing of two symbols, with the rose and the crane.”
The commission came about through the Glasgow 2026 Festival – a 10-week celebration of the city’s creativity, culture and communities that is running alongside the Games.
Both Rozenberg and Tumilty work digitally, which meant that when the sculpture actually began to be constructed, they were taken aback by the scale of it.
Tumilty said: “I can’t believe how big it is and I’m in awe of all the work and labour that has gone into making it.
“It feels like a lovely moment to showcase Glasgow, across all its culture and art. Hopefully the Games can help it come to life and share the best of what it has to offer. It’s really a celebration of the city and its people.”
Rozenberg added that one of the biggest challenges was making sure the artwork would be suitable for whatever varied weather conditions Glasgow throws at it in the next several days.
She laughed: “The crane is an amazing sight, but it also gets quite windy there. So we needed to create something that feels quite lightweight and visually very elegant but also robust for all kinds of weather.”
The Games began earlier, with the first set of bowls fixtures held before the opening ceremony itself.