At the mouth of the Dee Estuary off West Kirby, three small tidal islands run in a line out to sea. Hilbre itself is the largest; Middle Eye and Little Eye, closer to the mainland, are the stepping stones you cross on the way out. The crossing is on foot across the sands, about two miles each way, and Wirral Council names the Dee Lane slipway in West Kirby, via Little Eye and Middle Eye, as the only recommended route — not the shorter line some walkers take from Red Rocks.
The tide cuts the islands off for hours at a stretch, so check the times posted at the slipway and keep well inside the safe crossing window. On Hilbre, a stone telegraph building from 1841 once relayed shipping signals from Holyhead to Liverpool; the island is now part of a local nature reserve known for grey seals hauled out on the sandbanks and large flocks of wading birds on the Dee Estuary mudflats.
