Apparently standing at a pylon-threatening twenty-five feet tall, 'Horned Tripod' was one of the first works of Grizedale's second sculptor-in-residence, David Nash. In being only the second artist to work in the forest, Nash was met with some slight resistance (or perhaps a better word would be scepticism) from locals and some foresters, which he met head-on. In Peter Davies and Tony Knipe's excellent book 'A Sense Of Place: Sculpture In Landscape', Dr Stephanie Brown writes that due to the fact Grizedale is a working forest;

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"The pressure to work hard and consistently is probably greater than in a residency situation which works fixed hours. David Nash experienced this as one of the first sculptors at Grizedale when he felt he had to impress the less enthusiastic of the foresters and workforce and convince them of the validity of his presence. One way of doing this was through a self-imposed routine of exacting labour: 'To win the respect of the workforce I started work every day at 7.45am and worked on long after they had finished.'"

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David Nash therefore became a well-respected figure at Grizedale and his work (along with that of Richard Harris, who had enjoyed a residency the year before) went on to greatly influence the artists that would follow. In the same book, former Chief Forester Bill Grant shares his memories of Nash at work in the forest:

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"David, a born communicator, rapidly broke down the local opposition and demonstrated in a spectacular way that sculptors are not only creative but damned hard-working people, with integrity, vision and engineering skills in the use of natural forest materials.

Glancing out of my office window at 8am one morning I was amazed to see David driving past in his Morris Minor with a huge 30ft long tree strapped to the top - the sort of thing for which we would normally use a timber wagon."

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Said tree may well have formed the bulk of 'Horned Tripod', which adorned the top of the hill where 'Red Sandstone Fox' now sits. It is unclear how long it was there, but it can't have lasted too long in the face of the winds it must have endured in such an elevated, exposed spot. Some sources have it as being there until 1992, but I can remember walking the Grizedale Tarn route in around 1990/1991 and it definitely wasn't there then. David Nash spoke about the piece in the 1981 guide map:

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"Split a 25-foot oak trunk with wedges into three lengths, roped the pieces together to form a tripod. Chose a bleak, exposed site where three paths meet, pinned the structure with metal spikes to the ground."