The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage has partnered with Limerick City and County Council to create Wonder Wander Walking Trails.  The Wonder Wander Walking Trails have been developed in collaboration with the local communities.  In addition to well-known public buildings, each trail shines a light on some of the lesser known architectural details and the stories that are associated with these unique places.

The Wonder Wander Walking Trail for Newcastle West showcases a wide range of architectural details which might otherwise be overlooked including a bootscraper in North Quay, a “crow’s foot” benchmark in The Square and portraits in the keystones of the Bank of Ireland.  A sculptural group in the town centre, Cailín Deas Crúite na mBó (2005), remembers the butter and cattle markets which traditionally supported the local economy while a more conventional memorial, a cast-bronze plaque on the old Munster and Leinster Bank, commemorates the Newcastle West-born aviator, Sophie Pierce (1896-1939), who is on record as the first woman to make a public parachute jump from an aeroplane (1926) and who was the first pilot, male or female, to make a solo open-cockpit flight from Capetown to London (1928).