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Despite the bright autumn sunshine, the Cerne Giant – the naked, club-wielding figure cut into an English hillside – is looking a little faded, its chalky outline almost ready for its 10-yearly refresh.
The same could not be said of a second extraordinary giant that has been unfurled close by on the steep Dorset slopes, its vibrant colours and swirling shapes visible for miles around.
This temporary newcomer, a mythical beast called the Consequences Giant, is the result of a project involving scores of people including community groups and schools who have poured their imaginations into the figure.
After spending this weekend on the hill, the Consequences Giant, which has been created on four giant pieces of canvas measuring a total of 40 metres by 30 metres, will be packed away and resurface later in this month on two more West Country hills: Corfe Castle in Dorset and Summerhouse Hill in Yeovil, Somerset.
The mystery over the old Cerne giant remains: was he a Celtic god, some sort of ancient fertility symbol, a lampoon of Oliver Cromwell, or perhaps Hercules?
Becca Gill, who led the construction of the new giant, said this one was all about people uniting to make something huge, and forging closer links with England’s wonderful natural landscapes.
“It’s about belonging and creating something together which is bigger than the singular person, creating a big statement about who we are when we work together,” she aid.
The new giant emerged out of something akin to the old parlour game of consequences, with four sets of creators separately in charge of the head, body, legs and feet and getting on with their bit without knowing what the others have made. “None of them had seen the full giant altogether,” said Gill.
The finished result features some of the glorious flora and fauna that live on the hillside, such as the adonis blue and the Duke of Burgundy butterflies that flit across the chalk in the summer as well as nods to the area’s geology, ancient history and myths.
The giant has been created with natural pigments and inks made from the chalk and plants such as nettles, brambles and alder bark. Charcoal from wood gathered at the site has also been used, and the canvas is biodegradable.
Riggers who are used to heights (and to building tricky sets at the Glastonbury festival) unfurled and pegged down the Consequences Giant. Gill said they had been impressed by how the creators of the old 55 metre Cerne giant completed their monument without help from modern equipment. “What we have done feels like a massive feat. And they did it without the technology we have.”
An added poignancy is that the hillside where the new figure has appeared has just gone up for sale, a fact that has caused some concern among local people about access to the land above the village of Cerne Abbas.
The writer and campaigner for land access Nick Hayes, who has written a pamphlet on giants to accompany the project, said: “There’s no legal right for a community to access the landscape around it. It’s baked into the law that the owner has full dominion. That’s a concern.”
Young adults from the Yeovil-based group Able2Achieve, which works with people with learning disabilities, helped to make the legs of the 2025 giant. Joe Knights, learning manager, said: “Being part of something bigger with groups that don’t usually work with was a really nice concept to get our heads around.”
Sharon Chorley, work experience coordinator at Fairmead school in Yeovil, which helped to design the head, said it had enabled teenagers to look at the natural world in a different way. “There was no one process and there was no one idea. Each young person was very, very individual in their thinking.”
The Consequences Giant is part of Nature Calling, a national landscape project, aimed at encouraging new audiences to understand and connect with their local natural landscapes, improving wellbeing and inspiring a sense of belonging. Six of England’s National Landscapes have commissioned art projects and writers.
