THOUSANDS of pounds has been raised for charity as the Buzzin’ Oor Wullie statue that stood in Barrhead was auctioned off for £16,000.

Last week, the hand-painted sculptures of the much-loved comic book character, which had been placed in more than 200 locations across Scotland were put under the hammer, bringing in £419,500 for the Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity.

And the second biggest earner from across Scotland was the Barrhead “Buzzin’” statue, which sat near Allan’s Corner roundabout. 

Buzzin’ was designed and painted by local artist Bronwyn Gilgallon to encourage people to “save the bees”.

Andy Dunlop, All About Barrhead manager, led a bid to try to keep the statue in the town but, sadly, missed out.

Although he was gutted to see Buzzin’ go, he was delighted with the amount raised.

He told the Barrhead News: “It was great to be part of the trail and it was exciting to see something that was in Barrhead become the second most expensive sculpture.

“When we sponsored the sculptures we were given two mini sculptures. 

“One will go to the Include Me 2 Club as they designed and painted one of them and the other will probably be placed at the Barrhead Foundry.”

The gold-dipped Oor Wullie that was outside Barrhead train station was auctioned for £5,400.