Jill Dinsdale

Bessborough Scars was produced as a direct response to the findings of the fifth interim report from the Mother and Baby Homes Commission.

The commission confirmed in the report that over 900 children died in Bessborough or in hospital after being transferred from Bessborough. However, despite “very extensive inquiries and searches” over the past five years, the commission could only find the final resting place for 64 children.

Bessborough Scars is constructed from the ‘unwanted’ offcuts from a sawmill. A series of grooves are made into the blackened timbers - one scar for each mother or child who died in Bessborough.

At the centre of the circle lies a hollowed timber cradling 906 white pebbles.