Grange put-in (West Kirby)
A Wirral Council slipway onto the Dee Estuary shore at the south end of West Kirby Marine Lake, known as the Sandy Lane slipway in the Grange and South Parade area of West Kirby. The shore dries extensively at low water, with the limit of low-water navigation around a nautical mile offshore on this side of the estuary, and launching here is generally only practical within about two hours either side of high tide.
The Dee Estuary here is a large, funnel-shaped, macrotidal system with a mean spring tidal range of seven to eight metres at Hilbre Island, and it is flood-dominant, importing sediment and building up its sandbanks rather than eroding them. About a kilometre offshore across drying sand sit the Hilbre Islands: Little Eye, Middle Eye and Hilbre itself. A Local Nature Reserve within the Dee Estuary SSSI, the islands are tidal and are cut off from the mainland twice a day.
The whole estuary is a Special Protection Area, Special Area of Conservation, Ramsar site and Site of Special Scientific Interest for its wintering and passage waterfowl and waders. A typical winter day holds around 30,000 duck and 100,000 waders, with recorded peak counts including over 41,000 Dunlin and 38,000 Knot.
The RNLI's West Kirby lifeboat station stands at Coronation Gardens towards the north end of South Parade; its inshore lifeboat crosses the sand by tracked vehicle to reach changing launch points rather than putting straight off a slipway into open water.
Nearby
A cafe on South Parade by Coronation Gardens, the closest food and drink outlet to the slipway.
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