Hilbre Island

Three tidal islands lie off the Wirral Peninsula where the River Dee meets the Irish Sea. Hilbre, the largest, is about 1.6 kilometres from the mainland at Red Rocks. Middle Eye and Little Eye sit between them, all formed from red sandstone. The islands have no permanent residents and can only be reached on foot when the tide is low. A medieval chapel once stood on Hilbre, dedicated to St Hildeburgh, an Anglo-Saxon holy woman said to have lived there as an anchorite in the 7th century. Stone Age tools and Roman pottery have been found on the islands, showing they have been visited for thousands of years. The islands became a place of pilgrimage in the 13th and 14th centuries. Benedictine monks built a cell and church there around 1080, linked to Chester Cathedral. By the 16th century the islands had become a busy trading port with a custom house. A salt refinery and a beer house operated in the 17th and early 19th centuries, though trade declined as the Dee silted up. The last monk left in about 1550, and the islands passed through different owners before becoming a nature reserve. Visitors walk across the sands at low tide to reach Hilbre Island. A few houses stand there, some privately owned, while Middle Eye and Little Eye remain uninhabited. The Hilbre Bird Observatory monitors migrating birds as part of a national network. Two composting toilets and a rain shelter provide basic facilities. The islands offer wide views across the Dee Estuary and towards Wales, with shifting sands and tidal channels shaping the landscape.