This year's Oor Wullie Bucket Trail was the biggest yet, with one of the statues going for more than £25,000

Scotland’s favourite comic book character has helped raise more than £1 million for charity.

More than 200 sculptures from the Scotland-wide Oor Wullie Bucket Trail have raised £1.29m at an auction for three children's charities.

Sculptures which were displayed in Dundee, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Inverness during the summer were auctioned off last week.

The money will be split between children’s hospital charities, with one of the designs - Metal Oor Wullie, designed by Jason Patterson – going for a whopping £25,000.

Scouts Scotland managed to win back their Scout Oor Wullie after a crowdfunding campaign and there was also good news for veteran fundraiser Tom Gilzean, as Central Taxis stepped in to commission another sculpture of the comic book hero. Gilzean’s family missed out on his original statue to a mystery bidder.

This year's bucket trail was the first time the event had been hosted across Scotland.

The 11-week event began in June and encouraged visitors to bag as many of the statues as possible with the help of a downloadable map and interactive app.

More than 200 sculptures were displayed, culminating in public farewell events where all of the statues were gathered together in the five host cities, ahead of the auctions.

Ellis Watson, executive chairman at DC Thomson Media, said: “When we started this project two years ago we dreamed of raising substantial sums of money to do life-changing things with, for every child in hospital care in Scotland. And by jings, we’ve done it.

“Teamwork at is best has delivered an incredible summer of fun for millions of people, and the brilliant public who got behind the trail have exceeded our expectations by raising a stonking £1,293,200. This money will go far, bringing smiles to the faces of kids in hospital when they need it most.”