Irwell Sculpture Trail Day 3

 Prestwich to Salford Quays

Distance 13.4 miles

We got the tram to Prestwich and went through Gardner Park passing the allotments down into Prestwich Clough to meet up with the Sculpture Trail. In the woods we heard nuthatches and chiffchaffs, and also a buzzard and an owl. There were grey wagtails and mallards on the river, which is wide and slow moving here.

At a roundabout we crossed over the river to walk on the side which had a nice looking path beside a cemetery rather than going through a new housing estate, but after a while it looked nicer on the other side and there was regret.

A very arch-y bridge took us into Kersal Wetlands, which is a nature reserve on the site of the old Manchester racecourse. Here there were goosander, tufty ducks, little grebe, very talkative black headed gulls, grey heron and parakeets. Walking over the embankment, we went back to the riverbank and woodland passing the Cliffs and headed into Salford. Coming out on to a busy road we crossed over and followed the pavement between the river and housing, and were pleasantly surprised to see a kingfisher.

As we entered Peel Park, which is next to the university and very busy, there was a treecreeper. There are a few sculptures here in the park, including the Tower and Fabric of Nature, but we most admired the map on the paving next to the memorial obelisk to the flood of 1866, which shows the route of the River Irwell and the Sculpture trail. I tried to take a photo but it did not come out well.

After the park we followed the river though the city centre the ongoing regeneration made navigation a bit tricky through some of the new buildings and roadworks.

The trail includes sculptures at Ordsall Hall and Salford Quays, we saw Four Corners, Where The Wild Things Are, Factory Girls (now located on the opposite bank), Erie's Rest is not there and Nine Dock has been replaced by Through No.4.

We also saw the Blue Peter Garden and a great crested grebe, before catching the tram home.