Birchfields Park was created as a public park and opened by Prince Albert in 1888. One of Manchester's first circular bowling greens was sited in Birchfields Park, today it is home to a stone garden and natural habitat. A prominent fixture and a local mystery is the huge boulder weighing in at 13 tonnes. This boulder was uncovered during excavations by a building contractor on the local estate and was presented to the park as an object of curiosity.