An 'urgent appeal' has been launched after the Duke of Wellington's traffic cone disappeared off his napper in the past few days.
The cone has become the bona fide symbol of the city in the past few decades in its position on the head of the statue outside the Gallery Of Modern Art in Royal Exchange Square.
Normally, like some sort of Glasgow-wide alarm, it is swiftly replaced by good (and quite possibly shandy-fuelled) samaritans in the dark of night if when the Duke finds himself in the unfortunate position of being without the headwear for which he is best-known.
The bizarre sight of the cone-less statue was spotted by a member of the public earlier this week while they made their way through what has become a largely deserted city centre amid the ongoing covid pandemic.
They tweeted: "Urgent Appeal anyone from Glasgow will understand!!!
The appeal reminds of a weekend back in July of 2018 when the Duke reached new 'heights' when the statue was decked out in no less than 10 traffic cones - with some suggesting it was the work of boozed-up revellers returning from TRNSMT on Glasgow Green.
While others thought it merely the work of generous Glaswegians keeping the Duke shaded from the sun amid a heatwave that made its presence felt in the city.
And while a return to a 10-cone Duke is something that would no doubt see police or council called to reduce the number of cones, we at least hope one cone can again be given pride of place on the Duke's head!
