When I first wrote notes on the Dee Estuary for Bulletin no 12, I began by stressing its ever changing nature. This explains why I need make no apology in rewriting the article to bring it up to date. I do not know of any published chart or account which gives a true guide to its banks and channels. The latest Admiralty chart is some improvement on earlier ones: I think they have taken advantage of the Ordnance Survey’s aerial mapping. This, as usual, is the most up to date and detailed version — but not even it can keep pace with constant changes. Neither are the maps intended for navigation; and they show channels at half-flood, not at low water. Yachtsman’s guides to the coast give a very scanty account, and appear to know nothing of the fairly active sailing centres on the Wirral shore. The Cruising Association handbook must have been written for cruising liners — it suggests as an anchorage the exact position of a nasty little local tidal race, and believes that to buy stores one should take one’s dinghy to West Kirby at high water. In fact, of course, one can walk over two miles of sand to West Kirby for eight hours out of every twelve, from this spot which is the nearest they suggest anyone dare venture to the Wirral shore. One might even get a lift in the local jeep. The truth is, of course, that anchorages on the Dee dry out — and none the worse for that, if one likes exploring sandy estuaries. Dinghies are at an advantage here.

One sees few cruising dinghies, however. This is partly because of the bad reputation the estuary seems to have — chiefly because pilots intended for deep draught boats have little use for it. A more genuine reason is that, in common with most west-coast sailing areas, it is open to the prevailing westerly winds. Small boat sailing, particularly dinghy sailing, in the seaward part of the estuary is limited to periods of reasonable weather. In most seasons there are many such weeks. 1977 was one of the unlucky years. However, the Dee still has some advantages to offer. There is no bar limiting access to and from the sea — both entrance channels are deep (for small boats) and the West Hoyle Bank, which stretches right across the mouth of the estuary, provides some shelter at all except high water. If one runs aground anywhere in the estuary itself, one sits on fairly firm mud or sand, and can usually walk ashore. Another great advantage is the almost complete absence of commercial traffic. And, of course, we have never heard of harbour dues or mooring fees.

The Admiralty chart gives a correct account of the entrance channels and off-lying banks. I have an eighteenth century chart which seems to show that these banks and channels have kept a far more constant shape than those further up the estuary. There are two main entrance channels, Hilbre Swash and the Welsh Channel, the Swash from the north, coming in a dog-leg to Hilbre Island at the corner of the Wirral, and the Welsh Channel along the Welsh coast.

The two channels are linked by Welshman’s Gut, rather narrow at low tide where the corner of the West Hoyle Bank runs south, but always with plenty of water for yachts. On this corner of the Hoyle live the grey seals. One can land there at low tide and visit them. Both these entrance channels are well buoyed, and are used by the occasional coaster. To reach Hilbre Swash from the Mersey, come through the Rock Channel from New Brighton, and make for the pair of buoys at the dog-leg corner of the Swash, HE1 and HE6. It is quite deep enough except at low water springs to sail across the corner of East Hoyle Bank from the Horse buoy.

Hilbre Island is the most attractive place to visit on the Dee. Its red sandstone is a pleasant contract to the surrounding mud and sand. It is the largest of three rocky islets which are the highest points on a curving ridge which runs out from West Kirby, and which is dry except for two or three hours at high water. The walk out from the town is a popular one at weekends, and a jeep track negotiates the rocky outcrops. Nearest to the land is Little Eye, then Middle (or Little) Hilbre, then Hilbre Island itself. There are houses on Hilbre, one of them the warden, and the others holiday bungalows. The owners of these bungalows fly their special versions of International Code flags to show they are in residence. The warden has a surprising vegetable garden — an earlier holder of the post used to sell cabbages to us. The island is a bird sanctuary, with a ringing station, and the warden is also a daytime coastguard. There is a light, and a beacon, and storm signals are flown. Strictly, the local council should be asked for permission to land, but no one seems to bother much about this. The anchorage is in the drying gutter to the east of the island, which can be entered at half-tide. It is uncomfortable in northerly winds. The Swash, opposite the northern end of the island, can be very rough when wind is against tide, and a small race forms. The passage between the Little Eye and the shore can only be negotiated at high water. Camping is possible on Little Eye and Middle Hilbre.

The channel running up the Wirral side of the estuary is quite wide and deep along the bank south-west of the Hilbre islets, although care must be taken to stay well out from the shore, as the bank runs out beyond Little Eye. There are three buoys to pick up, after Welshman at the entrance to Welshman’s Gut. These are Seldom Seen, East Bar and Cawdy. Opposite East Bar, the moorings of West Kirby Sailing Club dry out on mud which it is best not to try to walk over. There is a launching slip near the clubhouse, just south of the Marine Lake, which can be used at high water.

Near Cawdy Buoy there is another set of moorings, and at low tide this is a quiet pool where one may lie afloat. There is a slip belonging to the Dee Sailing Club, which organises its dinghy racing here as there is now so little water at Heswall, where its clubhouse is. There is only just enough water for a dinghy to enter the pool from seaward at low tide. The sands here are always shifting, and it may not be possible to walk ashore if one dries out just above the pool. There is quite good landing, however, near the slip.

Upstream of this point the channel dries out. It passes at present well offshore from the white cottage at Thurstaston (known as Sally’s to those who remember Sally, who used to live there). It is nearer the shore along the clay cliffs between there and Heswall. A beacon marks the end of a sewer pipe as one reaches the Heswall moorings. Here the starboard hand bank of the channel becomes green with the ever-growing marshes. The beacons which used to mark the edge of the marsh are now embedded in it, and the gutter is narrow even at high water neaps. It is not possible to sail up to Heswall until about one and a half hours before high water, or to leave it much more than two hours after high water. It remains quite a popular anchorage, very sheltered now that the marsh gives it protection even at most high tides. (This is the trouble with Cawdy, which seems such a desirable anchorage on a quiet day — it is very exposed when the banks are covered, and can quickly become very rough). At Heswall there is Morris Evans’s yard, and he will keep an eye on your boat for a modest fee, or do any maintenance or repair jobs you can’t manage yourself. There is also a slip, though it is rather narrow, and a car park with water and toilets. It is possible to camp between the car park and the shore (though if many people did so, perhaps the local council might think of stopping this).

Above Heswall, one can sail at high water up to Gayton or even, on high springs, to Parkgate, once a seaside town and fishing village, but now lost in the marshes.

The other side of the estuary would seem to be the sheltered one. Indeed it is so, but it is not much used by yachts. The shore is of sticky mud, making landing more difficult than along the Wirral shore, and access has to be through the few ways across the railway line which passes along the whole of the Welsh side of the estuary. There are no launching slips along this shore, but a light boat may be lifted in from the sea wall at many places.

Coming in from the Welsh Channel, one makes outside Mostyn harbour retaining wall. The stretch from Point of Ayr, just off the colliery, is called Wild Road. It is an anchorage sometimes used by commercial shipping waiting for water. A gutter runs into the colliery, but I don’t think yachts are encouraged. Before Mostyn, the main channel of the Dee bends out to begin a series of curves taking it right up the estuary away from the shore until Flint is reached. It is marked by its own individual type of numbered buoys. Along the shore is a drying gutter. One can anchor conveniently in the bay formed upstream of Mostyn Harbour, on sticky mud. The iron works owns the shore, and the harbour has no room for yachts. Farther on is Llanerch-y-Mor, the nearest anchorage on the Dee to a pub. A track leads along the gutter draining in here, to the road just opposite this inn. One dries out in the channel, on mud which can just be walked over. I believe there was some attempt to encourage yachts to moor here, but not much came of it. There are a few fishing boats.

If one follows the middle channel of the Dee, one comes to Flint and to Burton Marshes, interesting to bird watchers and wildfowlers. They are riddled with gutters, but these can only be entered by boat at high water springs. Then comes the embankment running out from John Summers ironworks, built on the marshes at the head of the estuary. From Connah’s Quay (really a quay — one may land here) the Dee is canalised up to Chester. This was done in the seventeenth century, when the marshes between Shotwick and Chester were reclaimed for agriculture. Boats are moored off John Summers, whose employees have a sailing club, and further up at Hawarden Bridge.

These are the main channels, but of course a dinghy can cross the banks at high water. Just where it is advisable to do this one discovers by trial and error. The rise on a high spring is well over thirty feet at Liverpool, so the run of the tide can never be forgotten. It can come in with quite an alarming bore on the Welsh side, and one needs plenty of wind to have any hope of tacking against it in either channel. It is an interesting estuary to get to know, and as it is different at every hour of the tide, and changes annually, one can never be too familiar with it.