Art installation will be handy if it rains (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Art installation will be handy if it rains

9:47am Wednesday 10th October 2012 in News

THE weather may be changeable, but that is not affecting visitors to one of York’s iconic attractions.

A new art installation at Clifford’s Tower, in York, is not only providing visitors with some fantastic photo opportunities – it’s also keeping them dry from autumnal showers.

Forty-five colourful umbrellas have been suspended within the historic walls of the castle keep.

Site manager Louise Wyatt said: “The idea came out of the rather damp summer that we’ve had, when someone joked that it would be wonderful to have a huge umbrella over the open courtyard.

“We then started thinking about what else could be done with umbrellas.

“We found some pictures of streets in Europe that had been covered with suspended umbrellas, and realised that the quatrefoil shape of Clifford’s Tower would lend itself to such a display fantastically.”

She added: “Although Clifford’s Tower doesn’t have a roof, we know that it had at least two floors and a domed roof supported by a central column in its heyday.

“Unfortunately, the tower was used as a store for gunpowder and munitions in the 17th Century, and on April 23, 1684, an explosion blew off the roof and the floors, leaving just the shell that you see today, so it has been more than 400 years since the tower last had any kind of roof covering.”

The Umbrella Sky will remain in place until October 21.