Irwell Valley Sculpture Trail Day 1

 

Bacup to Ramsbottom

Sunny and warm

On route 17 miles, total about 20

Lost water bottles: 1

Injuries 3

Shoes: filthy

Today's walk was considerably more strenuous than I expected for a sculpture trail.

We caught a bus from Shaw to Rochdale, then to Bacup and then up on the moors to Weir. The source of the River Irwell is in the middle of a field, so we went across to start close to it. There were some fluffy Galloway cows and the grass looked nice and short and it all looked fine but soon turned into an adventure of grazed shin, wobbly grass tussocks, bog filled boots and slow going. 

We made it over to a reasonably solid grass path and on to the Rossendale Way, which led along lanes by farms and a wet rocky path to the first sculpture The Sentinel. 

Through Bacup town centre to "Birds" which is a series of three metal birds rising alongside a quite busy road. There looks to be a nice path along the side of the hill, but we didn't walk along it because we weren't sure if you could get down at the end. You can.

The next sculptures are in Lee Quarries, up a short steep track/MTB trail into the quarries. The Frond and Ferroterrosaurus are very impressive in their settings. The path down the hillside had a warning sign strongly recommending finding an alternate path down so we turned back and crossed the stream higher up, heading up and on to the moors - with more bog, wind turbines,  highland cows and lapwings.

Coming out of the quarry down a narrow wall lined path, which turned into a cobbled path blocked by a fallen tree so we detoured through some housing to the main road. The tunnels into Rawtenstall contained lunatics on horseback, plus one very embarrassed rider bringing up the rear.

The trail goes through industrial units alongside river, with the Spaces 9.XXXV'94 around the back - looking less mystical more destitute.

In Haslingden we called in at the Lidl for a replacement bottle of water ( there had been an incident as we were getting off the bus) and had a sit down.

Passing the Gateway 1 sculpture near to East Lancs railways line, we walked out of town and on to a pleasant path beside river, hearing chiffchaff and a woodpecker, thrushes and songbirds. The path alongside river quite muddy and washed away in places, we stopped for some foot faffing and then followed the path under railway line onto grassy path at edge of moorland. Here we went up a grassy slope to the Remnant Kings sculpture and had a sit on a very rickety bench.

The footpath has been fenced off by a couple of big fancy new houses with a big new pond and it was muddy and brambly and all the trees on the riverbank had been chopped down. Thankfully it wasn't long before we were into woodland and then a small park. On the OS map there are trails marked on both sides of the river here, but the path disappeared into someone's garden on our side and the nearest crossing to the other side was miles back, so walked up the road into Ramsbottom. The Tilted Vase sculpture is enormous in the village square and we sat beside it before catching the bus to Bury.