EDINBURGH thrill-seekers have been warned that placing traffic cones on top of statues’ heads could “cause injury or present a road safety hazard.”

The statue of the Duke of Wellington bestriding his horse on Glasgow’s Royal Exchange Square has long been a target for the activity, with both horse and rider regularly sporting the colourful conical street furniture over the decades and the image now routinely used to promote the city.

Over recent days, however, it has spread to Edinburgh, with statues of Adam Smith and Sherlock Holmes targeted, as well as another Duke of Wellington statue which boasted a triple “coning” with one on the Duke’s head, his horse’s head and another on the horse’s raised foreleg.

While the activity, which spread to the US last month as the visiting Tartan Army crowning statues in both Boston and Miami, with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu even joining in, won the tacit approval of authorities, its arrival in Edinburgh has proven to be a cone too far for the city’s council.

In a dramatic intervention, the city’s  transport and environment convener, Councillor Stephen Jenkinson said: “While I’m sure these have been put up in good humour and with the best intentions, we need to consider the safety of the public above all.”

Making clear the council would be removing any new headwear added to Edinburgh’s statues, he urged citizens to resist the urge to go coning, adding: “Unsecured traffic cones could potentially cause injury or present a road safety hazard, which is why they’ve been removed.

“I think we can all agree that there is only one statue in Scotland that has truly immortalised the cone, so I’d urge people to not attempt any imitations.”