Leasowe Bay is the long, open beach on the north coast of the Wirral, between Wallasey and Moreton. It doesn't have the crowds of New Brighton or the fame of Hoylake, but it packs in more genuine curiosities than either: a record-breaking lighthouse, a forest that grew before the sea arrived, and some of the best kitesurfing on the coast.
The beach and the sea wall
The bay is a flat expanse of sand and mud fronting the offshore sandbank known as Mockbeggar Wharf. Behind it runs the Wallasey Embankment, a 3.5 km sloping concrete sea wall that holds back the sea and keeps Leasowe, Moreton and Meols from flooding. The top of the embankment is a popular walking and cycling route, and there's a substantial belt of sand dunes behind the beach that's managed as a conservation area.
Britain's oldest brick lighthouse
Leasowe Lighthouse stands a little back from the beach, a tall, tapering brick tower built by Liverpool Corporation in 1763. It's widely cited as the oldest surviving brick-built lighthouse in Britain. It was coal-fired at first, later converted to oil, and was decommissioned in 1908 once the shipping channel it guided had silted up. One of its last keepers, Mrs Williams, was among the very few female lighthouse keepers of the age. It's Grade II listed and an unmistakable landmark on this otherwise low, flat shore.
The submerged forest
The strangest sight at Leasowe only appears at the lowest tides. Off Dove Point, the sand sometimes pulls back far enough to reveal beds of dark peat studded with ancient tree stumps, the remains of a forest that grew here thousands of years ago, before the sea claimed the coast. The stumps are chiefly oak and fir with some alder, birch and elm, and they've been written about since at least 1636. They're usually buried under sand, but big storms re-expose them, and catching them at a very low spring tide is a genuinely memorable thing. Time it with the Leasowe Bay tide times and aim for the lowest water you can.
Kitesurfing and watersports
When the wind's up, Leasowe comes alive. It's one of the Wirral's best-known kitesurfing beaches: shallow, flat water at high tide, plenty of space, and it works in most wind directions except easterlies. Several kitesurfing schools run beginner lessons here through the season, and on a breezy weekend the bay is dotted with kites.
Tides, safety and getting there
For all its quiet character, Leasowe shares the hazard of the whole Wirral coast: the flood across this flat sand is fast, and people do get cut off. Leasowe Bay is an RNLI-lifeguarded beach with seasonal patrols, with lifeboat cover from Hoylake to the west and New Brighton to the east. Watch for soft mud behind the sand ridges, and keep an eye on the time if you walk out. In an emergency, dial 999 and ask for the Coastguard.
By train, Leasowe station is on the Wirral Line, about a 10-minute walk from the bay via Pasture Road, with trains every 15 minutes in the daytime. By road, access is via Leasowe Road (A551), with the main beach parking at Gunsite Car Park. For the rest of the coast, see our guide to the Wirral's beaches.
Written by the HilbreTides team. We publish daily tide times for Leasowe Bay and the rest of the Wirral coast.