You may know Scarborough as a blueprint seaside town, replete with donkey rides, amusement arcades and an aquarium. But it’s not all rock and ice cream shops. Scarbados (as it is affectionately known) is a haven for marine life, and one of the best places to view dolphins and porpoises in England.
Aiming to celebrate the region’s wildlife, and raise awareness of the need to protect it, Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller has created a marine life-inspired mosaic spanning the floor of a new seawatching station on Marine Drive. It’s all part of the local Wild Eye coastal art and nature trail, celebrating biodiversity in Scarborough and nearby Whitby.
Five other pieces by local creatives complete the trail, including sculpture and augmented reality artwork.
‘Roman Mosaic c 2025’, completed in collaboration with Yorkshire-based sculptor and mosaic-artist Coralie Turpin, features fan favourite Thor the Walrus, who charmed the internet when he pitched up on Scarborough Harbour on New Year’s Eve of 2022, had some fun, and wriggled back into the sea the next day. Also present are the aforementioned easy-to-spot dolphins, alongside seals, birds, crabs, lobsters, octopus, squid, fish and even a Roman wind god.
The design is a nod to Scarborough’s Roman history (there was briefly a Roman signal station on the headland), and inspired by mosaics found at Pompeii and Lod.
Speaking about his new wet and wild mosaic, Deller said: ‘Here in Scarborough, we are creating new ancient work about the sea and the creatures within it which also hints at the possibility of the past being still present, just beneath our feet and perhaps inclines us to think about what traces we will leave behind on the world.’
You can visit the new seawatching station from the April 26, and maybe even spy porpoises using one of its special telescopes. Thor is unlikely to make another appearance (he was last seen in Iceland, where he probably belongs), but the mosaic serves as a reminder of that thrilling NYE night on Yorkshire's coast.
Read about the UK's coolest beach towns here.
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