Athene noctua - Assembly Rooms Bath UK
Posted on by Debbie

A hoot of a time in Bath

The Owls of Bath…..

The Parliament has landed!

Do you like Owls?  If the answer is yes, then get yourself to Bath for a hoot of a time 🙂

Have a hoot in Bath

On our latest visit to the beautiful city of Bath in Somerset UK, sadly our last for this trip, I was happily surprised to find all these colourful owls everywhere.

They are part of the Owls of Bath Sculpture trail with a flock of over 80 owls scattered throughout the city.

What is it all about?

Minerva’s Owls of Bath 2018 is a major public art sculpture trail featuring a giant flock of over 80 individually decorated, super-sized owl sculptures displayed across the World Heritage city of Bath and surrounding region from 25 June – 10 September.

Apparently you can get the official OWL app, a map of where they are located and you can even bid to buy your owl of choice at the end of the season.

You can also follow the Owls on Twitter @OwlsofBath. Each owl has its own profile with its name, where it can be found, some words from the sponsor and a description about the artist and their inspiration on the website. It was so interesting to read them all! Be sure to click on the links of the owls below to see what I mean.

The Owls are raising money for charities and in recent years they’ve had similar sculpture trails featuring pigs and lions! I think it’s a brilliant idea, what about you?? I just wished I lived closer.

Why Owls?  I asked the same question!

The Roman Baths temple, built in 1AD, was dedicated to Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, whose symbol was the owl. Minerva’s owl of wisdom can be seen carved into the Temple pediment displayed at the Roman Baths Museum.

I didn’t know that did you?? I also learnt that a flock of owls is called a Parliament, confirming once again that you’re never too old to learn new things 🙂

As we wandered around the city, one minute in brilliant sunshine the next in showery rain, I managed to photograph a few of the owls I found.  It became a bit of a game to find them as I hadn’t downloaded the app or the map. I thoroughly enjoyed the creativity that went into each of them. I’ve included my finds and have linked each one to their profile below the gallery.

Glimfeather near Waterstones in Bath
Madame Chouette - Cafe Rouge Bath
Athene noctua - Assembly Rooms Bath UK
Emily - The Royal Crescent Hotel Bath UK
The Wise Renewab-owl - 8 Union St (near Lush) Bath UK
Hoops - outside Bath Rugby shop
Cornucopi-owl - The Ivy Bath Brasserie
Having a hoot at work - Barthlett St (near Cafe Lucca)
Inkie Hoots - Roman Baths Pump Rooms
Speculo Owl- Bath Aqua Glass in Abbey Churchyard bath UK
Meet Hospit'owl Bath UK
Bird of Play - The Circus Bath UK
  1. Glimfeather – Waterstones
  2. Madame Chouette – Cafe Rouge
  3. Athene noctua – Assembly Rooms
  4. Emily – The Royal Crescent Hotel
  5. The Wise Renewab-owl – 8 Union St (near Lush)
  6. Hoops – outside Bath Rugby shop
  7. Cornucopi-owl – The Ivy Bath Brasserie
  8. Having a hoot at work – Barthlett St (near Cafe Lucca)
  9. Inkie Hoots – Roman Baths Pump Rooms
  10. Speculo – Bath Aqua Glass in Abbey Churchyard
  11. Snowy the Hospit’owl is temporarily taking the place of the owl that usually rests here which has gone back to Owl HQ for repairs.
  12. Bird of Play – The Circus

I had such fun learning about the Owls, their artists and appreciating the creativity that has gone into painting them as well as naming them!

I’ve included links to the website where I found all this information, so feel free to click on any of them to learn more.

I don’t know which one is my favourite but the Black Owl, Bird of Play, had a fun interactive take with its teleidoscope:

At first glance it’s rather understated however, look a little closer, through the eye of the Owl, and you will see an amazing colourful world in front of you. Through an award winning teleidoscope you will see Bath as you have never seen it before.

Bird of Play encourages you to play – create your very own teleidoscopic images by taking photos/videos through the Owl’s eye, and sharing them on social media via @birdofplaybath on Instagram. A unique way to showcase our creative community.

This is the view I captured through the eye.

Through the eyes of the Bird of Play in Bath UK
Through the eyes of the Bird of Play

Which one of my owls tickled your fancy the most – either the art work or the name? I’d love to hear what you think.

Bath is such a beautiful city to visit and it has great memories for our family as the Mathematician worked there for a year when we did a Teacher Exchange from Australia, many years ago.

If you’ve never been to Bath I highly recommend a visit soon, and try to catch the owls before the fly the coop! We’ll be back again.

Deb xx

UPDATE:  Soon after this post was written we received sad news from home which has upended our world – you can read about it here: A sad end to our amazing odyssey

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30 Replies to “A hoot of a time in Bath”

  1. Sorry to hear your great Odyssey is coming to an end. You have had a fab trip! Great city to visit and I love the owls. Our 2nd son has just got a job in Bath and after he is married (in 3 weeks time) he will be living in the city with his new wife, so no doubt we will be regular visitors! It’s only 21 miles away from us:-)

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  3. I love Owls, Deb and what a selection you have for us. I also enjoy that you try for a different angle when visiting a place. We all know that Bath is gorgeous and full of Jane Austen novels which I adore, however, the Owls of Bath Sculpture trail is very impressive and certainly not what you would expect Elizabeth and Mr Darcy to be visiting 🙂

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  4. Pingback: The Smallest City in England – WELLS – Global Housesitter x2

  5. I think Speculo – the blue guy with the girl on his chest is my favourite. They remind me of the painted cows we have in the SW of WA – only smaller and less obtrusive! A very cute idea indeed and I loved that you had several examples to share.
    #MLSTL 🙂

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    1. Thanks for joining in Leanne, I like that one too! It’s a great idea and although I haven’t seen the painted cows I have heard of them. There’s lots of creativity around isn’t there? I really enjoyed finding them and then researching them. 😊

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  7. HOW fabulous! We had a cow parade in Kansas City several years ago. Similar concept in that organizations would buy a plain white cow sculpture and paint it. Then for a few weeks, the cows were all around the city. Such fun! I wish I lived closer to Bath so I could go see the owls 🙂

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  8. I love owls as a symbol of wisdom, so I love all of these owls. We have something similar here in Madison Wisconsin. There are 80 Bucky Badgers (mascot of University of Wisconsin) situated throughout the city, and it has been fun spotting them around the city this summer.

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  11. Pingback: The Smallest City in England – WELLS – Life at No. 22

  13. These owls are a total “hoot” and a fundraiser. That seemed to be the trend a few years ago to have these sculptures and our city had pigs. Yes pigs — we have a huge meat processing plant here so I guess that is why. But they were cute pigs I will say. Bernie

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