Wirral Country Park, Caldy and Thurstaston

Thurstaston Hill overlooks the magnificent Dee Estuary, a 30,000 acre expanse of mudflats and salt marsh and a vital feeding ground for migrating birds. Thurstaston Hill itself, a heathland covered in gorse, heather and birch, is only 298 feet (90 metres) high, but it provides some of the most spectacular views of the Wirral.

Wirral Country Park was one of the first country parks to be established under the 1968 Countryside Act and follows the line of the old Hooton to West Kirby railway, a section of the old Birkenhead Railway. Details of the area are provided at the Thurstaston Visitor Centre. Running through the park is the 12 mile Wirral Way, which for over half its length runs directly parallel with the Dee Estuary.

The first section of the Hooton to Parkgate railway was opened in 1866. The line was originally built to serve the Neston Colliery and there were plans to extend the line over the Dee Estuary to Flint on the Welsh coast. It was closed in 1956 and the track bed removed in 1962. Today the old line provides the backbone of the country park, but you can still see the old station platforms, bridges, railway cuttings and embankments.

At various places along the Wirral Way there are viewing points across the Dee Estuary. At low tide you can see the great expanse of mud and sandbanks, which in late summer and autumn become the home of great flocks of migratory birds including oystercatchers, shelducks, Canada geese and cormorants. During the winter months it is also a feeding ground for waders and ducks.

Caldy is an affluent, most sought after village on the Wirral. Caldy Hill, a delightful sandstone ridge shaded by Scots pines affords superb views over the estuary to the Island of Anglesey and on to the Great Orme headland of Llandudno. On the summit of Thurstaston Hill stands a stone viewpoint depicting a map of the surrounding coastline. From here, across the estuary are Wales, the Clwydian Hills and Snowdonia's Carnedd Llwelyn, while across the Eorral Plain lies Liverpool. Further north, on a clear day, it is possible to see Blackpool Tower and the Black Combe in the Lake District.

Thurstaston village,built around a green, is now a conservative area. The records of the church go back to 1125 but the present red sandstone church is Victorian, built in splendid Gothic style in 1866. A plain stone tower of an earlier building still stands in the church yard. Next to the church stands Thurstaston Hall, which is reputedly haunted by an old lady, a previous occupant of the building.