Coastwalk , Sculpture

Hightown → Liverpool

Distance: 10.1 miles
Ascent: 167 metres
Duration: 3 hours 44 minutes

Any old iron
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Just beyond the prom on Waterloo beach one hundred men stare out towards the windfarms of the North Wales coast. This is what we've travelled two hundred miles to see. It's our last chance before Another Place is uprooted and the Iron Men move on.

The work is more complex than Still Falling, Gormley's Portland carving. There the subject is beyond help, but here the state of the tide provides one hundred different experiences to empathise with. (It's like a prototype Blob Tree picture: are you the one being dressed up by a group of middle-aged daytrippers? Are you feeling the full force of each wave crashing on you? Are you about to take your last breath before finally succumbing to the tide?)

Beyond the Iron Men we walked the dock road into Liverpool, John Davies providing the local context.

On the docks huge piles of scrap metal lay waiting to be taken away to far-off places. (Do you think the Men are jealous?) Nearer the town centre the working docks gave way to derelict buildings waiting their turn to be transformed into luxury apartments.

I get the feeling that little stands still in Liverpool. Maybe that's why the Iron Men have proved so popular: a reminder that static is a viable option.