The man behind the Three Legs of Mann artwork on the face of North Barrule says he is ‘gutted’ after ‘watching it disappear’.

Local builder Bryan Callister created the 30m diameter ’art installation’ in 2019 using stones.

He followed it up with a planning application to paint it white, then withdrew the application but went ahead anyway, prompting a number of objections.

However, since the work has been in place, a large number of people have expressed a desire to see it remain.

But the impressive hillside piece has now ‘disappeared’ from view.

Over the weekend, a mysterious email was sent to Media Isle of Man which read: ‘North Barrule’s Three Legs of Mann has been returned to a natural stone colour. Old rope and rusting metal rods left behind after its creation have also been removed.

‘This was an effort to return the view to nature, but if we’d like to paint the lily, there is always Manx democracy to help us decide the colour.’

The post was accompanied by a picture of verse written on paper at the site which says: ‘To be Manx is to cherish the view, the hills, the skies, the water blue. A beauty wild, ancient, free, in this, there’s pride enough for me.’

Mr Callister told Media Isle of Man he has not been back up to the artwork since creating it but is disappointed to see it go.

He said: ‘I have not been up there for five years because of my disability so I don’t have much information about what has happened.

‘I realised something was happening as I can see it from my house and I watched it disappear. It is invisible now.  I believe the stones have been painted but I don’t know anything else.

‘I am gutted to see it go. You can’t imagine what I went through and then all that work just disappears.’

In 2019, Mr Callister  spent 12 weeks on North Barrule shifting hundreds of rocks to create the 100ft Three Legs of Mann.

The stonework has been mired in controversy but, for many, it has become an accepted landmark.

The problem lay in the fact it had been painted white which made the triskelion visible for miles around.

Had the three legs been left in the natural stone colour, it would not have contravened planning regulations and would have blended into the landscape.

If steps were taken to re-paint it in the future an ecological impact assessment would be required, as it would involve disturbing the stones and therefore the vegetation that had grown on and around the stones.

’It took me 33 days moving over 100 ton of stone over a 12-week period in horrific winds, fog, drizzle with only five nice days in that period,’ Mr Callister told the Examiner at the time.

The idea for the project came to him during Easter 2018 on a family hike. He wanted to encourage people to get out and appreciate the island’s landscape.

On the Ramsey Community Pinboard Facebook page there was a lot of anger from people about the decision to remove the artwork which many enjoyed although some branded the three legs ‘an act of vandalism’.