The story of Nowanois
The three Giants of the Sperrins were unveiled on 4 July 2023 as the centrepiece of a new tourism trail spanning the Sperrin hills. They are the work of Thomas Dambo, the Danish artist behind the Trail of a Thousand Trolls, who has installed more than 100 large recycled-wood sculptures around the world. Nowanois, set in the Glenelly Valley near Cranagh, joins Darach the Guardian at Mullaghcarn and Ceoldán the Stargazer at Davagh Forest to represent the past, present and future.
Nowanois is the Seanchaí, the traditional Irish storyteller and keeper of local heritage. Dambo shows him as an elder pointing to the sky, sharing tales with his younger self about the stars and the ancestors who once marvelled at the same heavens. The idea draws on real prehistoric remains nearby, including the Goles Stone Row, and on the long tradition of carrying folklore, songs and history forward by word of mouth.
The giant is built to endure. Dambo usually works with recycled pallets, but a 60-year design life called for oak heartwood, chosen with technical advice from Design ID and treated with Swedish preservative oils. The oak came from offcuts left by Danish furniture makers, and the rope used for the hair and beard was salvaged from the harbour beside Dambo's Copenhagen workshop, keeping the whole piece true to his recycling roots.
Nowanois stands on the site of the former Sperrin Heritage Centre, giving the old visitor site a new purpose. The wider trail was funded under the Rural Tourism Scheme of the Northern Ireland Rural Development Programme 2014 to 2020, backed by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs and the European Union, in partnership with three local councils.