NINE years after it was first installed, a much-loved sculpture at Kielder Water & Forest Park has finally grown a pair of ears.

The giant, all-seeing and all-hearing Silvas Capitalis, a play on the Latin for ‘forest head’, is an artwork in the form of a large head that is big enough for walkers and cyclists to get inside and take shelter from the elements.

Visitors enter through its mouth and climb upstairs for a different perspective on the surrounding countryside.

A recent upgrade to the sculpture has seen the addition of ‘ear trumpets’ so that as well as looking out through the eyes, visitors can also now sit and listen to the amplified sounds of the forest.

Visitors will find small seats inside the head, to make the experience of looking and listening more comfortable.

Kielder Art and Architecture curator Peter Sharpe said: “The addition of the ears will provide an enhanced experience of the sounds of the forest - the rustling of leaves, murmur of wind in the trees and the calling of birds and wildlife.”