Two wonders of nature I try not to miss every year are bluebells in the spring and heather in the late summer. When I lived in Hertfordshire I had a small bluebell forest on my doorstep, but certainly no heather. In the whole of Cheshire there are only two sites where lowland heather can be found; one is Bickerton and the other is Thurstaston Hill on the Wirral Peninsula. I combined a Wirral Way walk from West Kirby to Wirral Country Park with a visit to Thor’s Stone, which is a giant red sandstone landmark, some say a place of Viking worship.

I should have gone there before August BH, rather than in the beginning of September, just as the heatwave began. At least there was some nice breeze coming from River Dee Estuary. I found most of the heather was faded, but there were still some pockets of lively purple and blue-ish flowers among yellow gorse. And there was a Thor’s Stone itself, overrun with excited children 😉 I remember when I first came to the northern England and saw all the red buildings in Penrith, thinking they were made of brick, but it was in fact a red sandstone, unique to this part of the country. Sandwith cliffs in west Cumbria are made of it as well. It is quite soft hence all the carvings:

Thurstaston Hill sits just 90 m above the sea level but the views are still pretty nice: towards River Dee, North Wales and Liverpool – I could swear I even saw what seemed like hills beyond Liverpool.

I also stopped at Wirral Country Park but did not go down to the beach because the tide was still low. This changed quickly as I walked back to West Kirby and the whole estuary looked like a sea again by the time I got back to town. I circled around the Marina and headed back to the station to catch my Chester train.

The Wirral Way section between West Kirby and Wirral Country Park is OK but a bit boring in parts, and some bits had no shade at all which in a 28 degrees humid heat was challenging 😉 Then there was a 20 min walk to Thurstaston Common. Still a good day out, but I was too knackered afterwards to do anything in West Kirby. I kept reminiscing about my childhood days in Poland when I used to spend a big chunk of my summer school holidays on the outskirts of Kielce city, in close proximity to heather covered hills and pine forests. I have fond memories of picking heather and bramble berries, of long, hot, carefree summer days. And of my Gran too.