The Wirral's coast is studded with old lighthouses, and they're a reminder of just how treacherous these waters once were. Shifting sandbanks, fast tides and busy shipping lanes into the Dee and the Mersey meant ships needed every bit of help they could get. Several of those navigation lights still stand, and they make a good theme for a day exploring the coast.
Leasowe Lighthouse
The grand old lady of the group. Leasowe Lighthouse was built in 1763 and is widely cited as the oldest surviving brick-built lighthouse in Britain. It stands a little inland from the beach on the north coast, a tall tapering tower that was coal-fired at first and later converted to oil. It guided ships through the channels off the north Wirral until it was decommissioned in 1908, by which time the shipping route it served had silted up. It's Grade II listed and, unmistakable on that flat shore, the natural centrepiece of a walk at Leasowe Bay.
Perch Rock Lighthouse, New Brighton
The one everybody photographs. The white Perch Rock Lighthouse sits out on the rocks at the mouth of the Mersey beside Fort Perch Rock, built in the late 1820s and lit in 1830. It replaced an older wooden "perch" that marked the dangerous rocks here, hence the name. It guided shipping into the Mersey for well over a century before being deactivated in 1973. At lower states of the tide you can walk out to it across the rocks, which is part of its appeal, but keep an eye on the water, because the same tide that exposes the rocks comes back to cover them. See our New Brighton guide for the wider visit.
The Hoylake leading lights
Hoylake once had a pair of lighthouses working together as leading lights: line the two up from a ship and you were in the safe channel of the old Hoyle Lake. Both date originally from 1763, the same year as Leasowe. The upper light on Valentia Road was decommissioned in 1886 and is now a private house; the lower light was deactivated in the early 1900s and later lost. As the anchorage that gave the town its name silted away, the lights that served it were no longer needed, a small echo of the bigger story of the Dee. There's more on the town in our Hoylake guide.
Bidston Lighthouse
The odd one out, because it doesn't stand on the coast at all. Bidston Lighthouse sits up on Bidston Hill above Birkenhead, built in 1873 on the site of an earlier light. From that height it could be seen far out to sea, and it worked alongside the famous Bidston signal station, where flags once announced the arrival of ships into Liverpool. It was deactivated in 1913. Today it's a beautifully preserved private lighthouse that opens to visitors, and the walk up Bidston Hill gives some of the best wide views over the whole peninsula.
Why so many?
Four lighthouses in such a small area tells you how much shipping once funnelled through these channels, and how risky it was. The same sandbanks and fast tides that made the lights necessary are still here, of course, even though the big commercial traffic has long moved to the deep-water Mersey. The lighthouses survive as landmarks and as history, dotted along a coast whose tides are still worth taking seriously. If you're heading out onto any of these beaches, check the Wirral tide times first.
Written by the HilbreTides team. We cover the history, beaches and tides of the Wirral coast.