A CHILDREN'S nature trail lasted less than two days before being vandalised by teenage thugs.

Grow 73 launched its new Ruglen Ropewalk sculpture trail last Wednesday, as told in the Evening Times.

But by Friday one of the artworks - a "pech" - had been pulled to the ground and stamped on.

Louts tried to rip other sculptures from the ground and tried to yank an artwork from a tree, bending it out of shape.

Grow 73’s Eugenie Aroutcheff told the Rutherglen Reformer: “We expected something like this would happen but 48 hours is really depressing.

“In hindsight we should have known the school leavers day (for study leave) was coming up and a lot of them would be about.

“The main figure is quite heavy so it must have taken them real effort, maybe about three or four of them, to kick it to the ground.

“The saddest thing was having to tell the primary schools, who had worked on it, what has happened.

“Some of the children were quite upset.

“But what good does it do us to be frustrated? We will engage more with secondary schools, and we need to work closely as a community so that they don’t destroy the efforts of other people in the community."

The £12,000 project is intended to help people get to know more about the park and celebrate the history of the area.

Funding came from Tesco’s Bags of Help grant scheme.

Nine different primary schools were involved in creating the trail, while Grow 73 collaborated with storyteller Amanda Edmiston, who has written stories on the map that accompanies the woodland walk.

They then approached Rob Mulholland, known for his ‘mirror men’ designs, to craft the sculptures.

Police were made aware of the incident at 4pm on Friday and said they confiscated alcohol from underage drinkers that afternoon.

Anyone with information that could assist inquiries is asked to contact 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.