Blue plaque to honour Dolly the Sheep

Dolly the sheep, who is to be honoured with a Blue Plauqe at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh. Pic: PA/Ben Curtis.

DOLLY the Sheep is be honoured with a blue plaque in memory of her life in the Capital.

The plaque - which will be unveiled at Edinburgh University’s Roslin Institute during a gathering of scientists on Wednesday - will mark Dolly’s links with the city where she was born and raised as the world’s first ever cloned mammal.

It will read: “Dolly the Sheep, 1996-2003. First mammal to be cloned from an adult cell.”

Dolly’s award is part of a scheme by the Society of Biology to celebrate ten “unsung heroes” of science across the UK.

Mark Downs, the society’s chief executive, said they wanted to honour not just the sheep but the team behind the project which created her.

Dolly was put down in 2003, at the age of six, after falling ill with progressive lung disease.

She is not the first animal to be honoured with a blue plaque - Nipper, the black and white HMV dog, was immortalised with a blue plaque in Piccadilly, central London.