OOR Wullie has arrived in East Lothian as the iconic comic strip character spends his summer on tour across Scotland.

A total of 200 sculptures capturing Scotland’s favourite scamp are scattered across a nationwide arts trail for 11 weeks for charity.

And the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick has given one of them a home for the next three months.

Seabird Spotting Wullie is sponsored by the Jess Mackie Memorial Fund and all donations made on its behalf go to Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity.

The memorial fund, set up in memory of Gullane schoolgirl Jess, who died last year, raises money to support music therapy at the hospital.

The sculpture was painted by artist Hannah Sanguinetti and features Oor Wullie pretending to be a sea cliff, with seabirds sitting on him. Written on the back of his bucket are lists of the types of seabirds and marine life which can be spotted locally.

The 2019 Oor Wullie BIG Bucket Trail builds on the success of a similar trail in Dundee three years ago which raised nearly £900,000.

This time round, sculptures of the national treasure will be seen on the streets of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness and surrounding communities.

DC Thomson, which has published Oor Wullie cartoon strips and Christmas annuals featuring the character and his family since the late 1930s, has teamed up with three children’s hospital charities to share funds raised by the latest trail: Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity, ARCHIE Foundation and Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity.

Primary schools have also been able to get involved, with a number receiving miniature sculptures of their own to decorate. The results are being put on display around Edinburgh at locations including the National Portrait Gallery, Museum of Childhood and Ocean Terminal.

Charlotte Bray, fundraising manager at the Seabird Centre, said: “As a marine conservation charity the design was spot on and is a fun representation of the local wildlife.

“The Jess Mackie Memorial Fund have sponsored the sculpture, which gives it a special relevance for the local community.

“Jess was a pupil at North Berwick High School and her family have done an incredible job of fundraising for ECHC in her memory.

“We are very happy to be involved in such an exciting nationwide art trail.”

The trail has been organised in association with Wild in Art and supported by DC Thomson Media.

The sculptures were officially unveiled on Monday and will remain until the end of August.

A mobile app can be downloaded, with people encouraged to take on each or all of the trails recording each sculpture as they come across it. It also shows a map of each trail and where the sculptures can be found. See oorwullie.com