No Oor-dinary statue: Murrayfield’s Oor Doddie gets a repaint ahead of the summer

17 July 2025

If you’ve been to Scottish Gas Murrayfield in Edinburgh recently, you may have noticed Oor Doddie’s absence from his usual spot. Since arriving at Scotland’s largest stadium back in 2019 to help raise awareness of My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, thousands upon thousands of visitors have taken a seat with and posed for photos with the beloved statue.

As such, Oor Doddie has been with the original artist Graham Farquhar for a bit of TLC ahead of the summer period. 

It was the base of the statue which required the most attention. To begin the repairs, the concrete plinth was stripped down, the holes were refilled and levelled off, and then it received a fresh lick of paint. 

As for the statue itself, there was a small hole in the fibreglass of one of the boots, which Graham repaired, along with meticulously touching up some of the paintwork on Oor Doddie’s face, boots and socks. However, despite the amount of footfall Murrayfield has seen over the past six years since Oor Doddie’s arrival there, as well as the full spectrum of Scottish weather, Graham said that the statue required very little touch up work: “It only took me about a couple of hours to do the touch up painting and even then I was struggling to find any other marks or scratches on Oor Doddie.”

Statue owners Graham and Fiona Burke, who own Oor Doddie together with John and Fiona Scott, are delighted with the work on the statue, with Graham Burke adding: “It was remarkable how little it actually needed doing to it - but it looks better for doing it now!”

The statue was originally created as part of the ‘Oor Wullie’s BIG Bucket Trail’, which took place across Scotland during the summer of 2019. The 11-week trail brought over 200 human-sized sculptures of Oor Wullie - ‘Scotland’s favourite son’ - to the streets of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness, each decorated by different artists to reflect Scotland’s cultural identity.

It was artist Graham (F) who proposed painting one of the sculptures as Doddie, and fortunately, his idea was accepted: “I don’t have a connection with the Foundation although I do support entirely what Doddie set up. One of the main reasons I wanted to do the statue was to help raise awareness of MND and how we need to do more to help combat this condition.

“Like Doddie, I was a rugby player in my younger years and the spirit you gain when playing in a team sport like rugby, the friendships you make, do make a difference to you and the bonds last. To me it was only right that I try and help the Foundation by doing this figure, whilst also helping the BIG Bucket Trail as well.”

Detail was of the utmost importance to Graham (F) when creating Oor Doddie, and the painting process took around 70-80 hours: “In painting Oor Doddie originally, I used acyclic paints and brushes. I’m quite old school when it comes to doing artwork and my technique is to try and make the figure look as realistic as possible. I did quite a lot of research on making sure the rugby strip was accurate, even down to the type of boots. I also referred to photographs which helped me get the creases and folds in the strip as well.”

When the bucket trail came to an end after the summer, the statues were auctioned off to support three children’s hospital charities (Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity, ARCHIE Foundation and Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity), raising over £1.29 million. Oor Doddie’s auctioned funds went towards the ARCHIE Foundation, with the winning bid placed by Graham and Fiona Burke and John and Fiona Scott.

Reflecting on the moment, joint statue owner Graham (B) recalls: “It was a spur of the moment thing, really. I had a vision that it could raise even more money going forward.

“I didn’t go with the intention of necessarily coming home with it, I was just going to see what it made. But I’m ever so glad I did buy it, especially with the profile it’s risen now too.

“Once I bought it, the phone call the next morning was to the SRU (Scottish Rugby Union), because I wanted it to have its permanent home at Murrayfield - and that’s where he should be, as far as I’m concerned.” 

Graham (F) agrees: “I was delighted when it was announced that Oor Doddie would go to Murrayfield as it seemed the natural ‘home’ for him. It reminds people of the personality that Doddie was, the memories he created on and off the rugby field, and it also brings awareness of the disease that took him from us.”

Now, in the years since Oor Doddie has been stationed at Murrayfield, thousands of people, and not just rugby fans, have visited the stadium and had their photo taken with the statue.

“It’s bringing a smile to a lot of folk, that’s what it does,” Graham (B) says. “The smiles - that’s what Doddie would want, that’s the kind of character he was.”

“Every time I’ve been to Murrayfield I do go and see Oor Doddie and watch people’s reactions when they are taking selfies or photographs with family or friends,” Graham (F) adds. “To see their smiles and laughter means so much to me, and it’s also an acknowledgement of the impact Doddie had on people’s lives.

“I would hope that people will still contribute to the Foundation on seeing Oor Doddie at Murrayfield, and help carry on the vital work Doddie started.” 

Keep an eye out for Oor Doddie if you’re at Murrayfield over the summer - and don’t forget to snap a photo with him!