Caldy put-in
This slipway sits on the Dee Estuary shore below Caldy on the Wirral peninsula, close to the Dee Sailing Club's launch track at the Caldy/Thurstaston boundary, looking across the water to the Welsh coast and the Clwydian hills beyond. The shore here dries to sand and mud at low water, so launching is generally only practical within about two hours either side of high tide. The estuary is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, Special Protection Area, Special Area of Conservation and Ramsar site for its wintering wading birds.
The Dee Estuary is a funnel-shaped, macrotidal estuary about 30 kilometres long and up to 8.5 kilometres wide at its mouth, dividing the Wirral peninsula from north-east Wales. From the Caldy shore the flats dry out for up to a nautical mile, with the water draining seaward through two channels: the Hilbre Swash close to the Wirral shore to the north, and the Welsh Channel around the Point of Ayr to the west. Upstream, a mud gutter runs along the shore past the Dee Sailing Club moorings toward Heswall and the Parkgate and Neston saltmarshes; downstream lie the Tanskey Rocks, West Kirby and the Hilbre islands at the estuary mouth.
The shore here is a platform cut in glacial till, with sandstone outcrops on the upper beach and fine sand and mud below. The cliffs behind rise to about 18 metres at Caldy; a revetment has protected them since 1980. Grey seals haul out on the West Hoyle Bank near the estuary mouth, with up to around 400 recorded there in August at low tide.
The estuary is registered as Ramsar site 298, designated in July 1985 and placed on the Montreux Record of sites under particular pressure since 1990. It ranks among the top ten UK estuaries for wintering and passage waterfowl, holding internationally important numbers of species including pintail, dunlin, knot, oystercatcher and both bar-tailed and black-tailed godwit.
Nearby
A cafe at the Wirral Country Park Visitor Centre on Station Road, Thurstaston, run by Bee Wirral CIC.
Within Wirral Country Park; welcomes both members and non-members and is normally open from April to October.
Conditions to check
Natural Resources Wales gives a spring tidal rise of about 8 metres near the estuary entrance, and the mean spring range at Hilbre Island is about 10 metres, one of the largest tidal ranges in Britain.
SourceIn Liverpool Bay the flood tide runs east for about five and three-quarter hours and the ebb runs west for about six and three-quarter hours, reaching a maximum spring rate of about 1.5 knots in the open bay, faster in the channels between sandbanks and within the estuary.
SourceThe shore dries out extensively off this stretch of the Wirral coast, with the limit of low-water navigation about a nautical mile offshore.
SourceRocky reefs lie south-west of Little Eye and around the Tanskey Rocks off West Kirby, with cockle shoals close inshore off the Caldy and Thurstaston shore.
SourceA drying causeway extends from below the Dee Sailing Club clubhouse; pilotage notes advise keeping at least a cable offshore to avoid it.
SourceYacht moorings are laid on the mudflats off West Kirby Sailing Club and off the Dee Sailing Club at Thurstaston, accessible only within about two hours either side of high water; sailing clubs place racing marks along this stretch of coast.
SourceLicensed cockle-gathering, sometimes using quad bikes or inflatable boats, works the estuary's cockle beds seasonally under a fishery order.
SourceOther launches nearby
2 launches within 316m- 162m east
- 316m east
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