An iconic statue of the Duke of Wellington with a traffic cone on his head has turned partly green due to a mysterious algae.
Tourists were left puzzled after parts of the famous statue appeared to turn green overnight.
Now experts have been called in by Glasgow City Council to work out what caused the algae to appear.
Read more: Prince Charles's car collides with deer on Balmoral estate
The A-listed Duke of Wellington statue, which stands guard outside the city's Gallery of Modern Art, is famous for the traffic cone that sits on the Duke's head.
But after the mysterious green algae covered part of one flank of the horse and an area of the plinth it sits on, experts were called in to determine the cause.
Until it is known what caused the algae to appear on the statue, it will not be cleaned.
A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: "We have called in experts to look at the statue to find out what caused the problem."
That won't stop tourists visiting the city taking pictures of the famous statue however, with it being one of the most famous images of Glasgow.
In 2011, the Lonely Planet guide included the statue of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, in its list of the top 10 most bizarre monuments in the world.
Read more: Prince Charles's car collides with deer on Balmoral estate
The statue has been topped with a traffic cone since the first half of the 1980s and it has become an extremely popular fixture in the city.
In 2013, the council was forced to withdraw plans to double the height of the plinth after widespread public opposition.
A Facebook campaign called Keep the Cone attracted more than 72,000 likes within its first 24 hours.
The statue has proven to be a firm favourite on TripAdvisor where it has a rating of four and a half stars.
One tourist wrote: "You just have to view this and try to understand why a very old statue of a Duke has a traffic cone on its head. This is Glasgow humour at its best."
Read more: Prince Charles's car collides with deer on Balmoral estate
Beth Stevens, from Louisiana, USA, said: "I am not sure why he wears a traffic cone but it is a sight to see."
A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: "The statue will be inspected today (Thurs) and there will follow a course of action dependent on the inspection.
"The damage may have come about because it was a wet summer but it also appears that someone put a cone on the rear of the horse.
"The absence of direct sunlight added to the weather may have affected the overall statue and resulted in the green stuff being there.
"By the looks of it, it may not actually be algae but we will have to await the result of the inspection."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel