Is spring here at last? Kind of. Bright sunshine, hailstorm, then sunshine again. I thought our hopes of getting out and
about today were in tatters when the hailstones were bouncing around the garden, but the return to winter was shortlived.
I can’t get enough of Prestwich Clough at the moment, I’m having to find increasingly long running loops due to my London Marathon training and I love to include this beauty spot. When the sun made its welcome reappearance this afternoon I decided it would be the ideal time to introduce CJ to my new favourite haunt.
If your knowledge of Prestwich only extends as far as being stuck in traffic on Bury New Road, then these photos must come as a surprise. A couple of minutes walk from the traffic logged A56 and you are in another world. Bridges crossing a babbling brook, birdsong in surround sound, criss crossing branches casting shadows on the leaf strewn ground. Everything golden, from the winter leaves to the oddly orange coloured stream.
If I’m on my own and running, I’ll access the clough from the bottom end of Philips Park, exit through the gate into St Mary’s Flower Garden and run back onto Bury New Road. If I was in the clough without my daughter and not running, I would definitely make a detour to my favourite local pub The Church on 
Church Lane, Prestwich – just cut up from the clough when you see the graveyard.
A circular walk just around the clough with CJ tootling along on her balance bike took us about an hour today. That included time to stop and look at the stream tinkling along and time to sit on a bench on the top path, peer through the trees and watch the trapeze artist squirrels.
I’ve wasted time not discovering the hidden beauty of Prestwich Clough until recently. From now on I’ll be making up for lost time and I already have Prestwich Clough Day highlighted in my diary.
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You’re preaching to the converted here – I LOVE trees. I’ve even blogged about my love of trees and had everyone doing a ‘what the?’ at me.
But I totally agree with you, I think trees are just wonderful – no matter what the season x
lovely idea for a blog! a great way to promote nature, and get people to enjoy what’s around them.
Thankyou! There’s so much to enjoy out there, it’s surprising what you find when you start looking. I’ve found so many new (to me) green spaces from doing my marathon training, I feel a bit ashamed that I didn’t know of before!
I wondered how long it would be before Tara spotted the trees 🙂
Lovely pics 🙂
Thanks Nickie!
Must get over to your part of the Northwest to some parks, not that I’m running put of places in Manchester any time soon!
Oh I love me some trees 🙂
I like to ponder how long they’ve been there & what they’ve seen.
Lovely pictures.
Thanks. These are ancient woods apparently, and I often find myself contemplating that once upon a time this must have been what the whole of my local area looked like. Strange thing when you look at the urban area its become!
It’s a lovely place, I’m not surprised you managed to take such beautiful photographs of it all.
CJ xx
No, it wasn’t too challenging, especially when the light was so beautiful! I just love the place. It sounds like you know it CJ? I know you’re from Manchester originally.
Fabulous. Im a tree lover too xx
What a fabulous place! Great photos.
It is fabulous! We’re lucky to have so many green spaces near us and yet only be 5 miles from the centre of Manchester. Best of both worlds!
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