Sans façon and OSA say their new artwork, entitled ‘My Ness’ and sited at the Little Isle Pool, Fisherman’s Car Park, will provide “a focal point for people to gather, linger and enjoy an area of great natural beauty in the centre of the city”.

It will reference circular amphitheatre, with elements on both banks to ‘frame’ the river, incorporating an elegant walkway, seating area and viewing point projecting over the water between the existing trees.

The previous vision for a riverside artwork in Inverness caused controversy in the city.

Officially titled the Gathering Place, it was nicknamed the “tilting pier” because of its design which allowed it to tilt over the river as a viewing platform.

But the plans were dropped nearly two years ago after a public backlash against it.

The ‘My Ness’ design has been developed through extensive consultation with those who know, use and love the river. Last autumn, the artists set up a large screen in Inverness Railway Station to show a specially commissioned film of the river and invited people to come and share their stories, views and reminiscences.

Tristan Surtees of Sans façon said: “The work aims to complement the river and people’s relationship to it, to frame and invite others to appreciate it.

“A thin ribbon of stone frames the Ness, starting as an access, becoming a path to run along for a child, a bench for reading a book, a viewing point up and down the river, a back-rest for looking across it. In its upstream portion it weaves through the trees and bushes to offer a unique view up the river or back to the Castle and Cathedral.”

The illustrations are artists’ impressions of the concept and not the detail design, as artists still have to do costings, engineering, planning for the final artwork piece.