A trip to the Hilbre Islands Mark Reeves Pro Events Manager
Emerging rocks © Mark Reeves
The Hilbre islands form a small archipelago lying in the estuary of the River Dee which separates the Wirral (in NW England) from Wales. Once settled by Vikings, the islands comprise Little Eye, Middle Eye and Hilbre Island itself and at low tide they can be accessed on foot. The islands’ position at the mouth of the Dee where it meets the Irish Sea gives them their unique character. Open to the sea, and facing west, the islands experience more than their fair share of wild weather whilst, thanks to silt from the Dee, they now make a safe and popular walk for locals and visitors alike. Living locally, I was more than happy to share my knowledge of the tides and the islands with a small group of other photographers on a recent field trip. Being made of sandstone, the islands are subject to relatively rapid erosion by the sea and it is not uncommon to see evidence of land slips as the rock is continually undercut. Little Eye is really just a lump of rock now that barely qualifies for the status of island, whereas Middle Eye is about 100m long by 20m wide and Hilbre Island is about eight times the size of that.
Window (c) David Travis March 2022 Volume 7 Number 2
Hilbre Island was once inhabited and still features a number of old cottages as well as a now-disused telegraph station dating from 1841 24
