28/07/11

Many beaches near where we are staying in Wallasey look out at wind turbines, essential for the environment they say, but not a great view. We needed a new beach to discover!

A little way around the coast is the town of West Kirby. A walk along the beach was what we were looking forward to....but the tide was out, just a 'little'.

It seemed that far out that you could walk over and almost touch North Wales!

We followed the steady stream of locals and came across a smallish hill called Little Eye. We continued past until we reached Middle Eye which is about 3 acres of windswept grass. As we clambered over we could see Hilbre Island, all 11 acres of it. Hilbre Island again had lots of grassy areas where people had picnic baskets and lots of rocky and sandy coves where children hid in and explored. At the end of the island were the ruins of an old lifeboat station where seals came to say hello!

The 3 islands are made of red bunter sandstone and are tidal islands, only reached by foot from the mainland at low tide. Upon Hilbre Island looking towards Wales, you can see as far as the Carneddau Mountains of Snowdonia and on a clear day, the Isle of Anglesey (where Kate and Wills live of course!) The round trip is about 6 and a half kms! But worth it!

It is quite a magical spot, especially when we came across this little cottage, with views back towards Liverpool. Shopping trips would have to be carefully planned around the tides .....but yep, I could live here, very comfortably thankyou!