This is ride is open to all members of the group, but is also suitable for people who have not previously ridden with a cycling group, so that they can get experience of riding with a group and so we can assess their requirements and advise them on how to continue.

Don't worry that you haven’t ridden in a group before, there is nothing difficult; we will explain what we do and how riding in a group is different from riding on your own before we start.  And in particular, don’t be concerned about the pace of the ride and not being able to keep up; the ride leader will adjust the pace of the ride to suit the group as we go along.  And we always have an official back marker; so no one will get left behind.

Before the ride, check out the page on our website about taking part in one of our rides "Taking Part", and take a look at the Advice from Cycling UK on riding in a group.  If you are new to riding with a group, please arrive 15 minutes before the advertised start time, so that the ride leader can brief you on how to ride safely with a group of other riders. 


You must not join a ride if you or anyone in your household is experiencing any of the Covid-19 symptoms
or if you have been advised to self-isolate

(D) Tour of Wirral's Lighthouses (suitable for newcomers)

10:00 Wednesday May 29 2024

Current Participants: 2 space(s) available

    The grade D ride is 27 miles long, starting and finishing outside the Visitor Centre on Park Drive in Birkenhead Park.  The ride will begin at 10:00 and John Hampson, the ride leader, will be at the start from 09:45 onwards.  If you are a newcomer to Wirral Cycling Group please get to the start by 09:45, so that John can explain how we ride as a group.  The route will take us to all the lighthouses, past and present, in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and is due to finish at about 15:00.

    The ride is mostly flat but with two proper hills: one up to the Beacon in West Kirby Boundary Road and one up Bidston Hill at Bidston.  Don’t worry though; it is ok to walk up either hill.

    There will be ten stops on route:

    1. Woodside Lighthouse
    2. The One o’Clock Gun (not a lighthouse, but interesting anyway)
    3. New Brighton Lighthouse
    4. Upper Mockbeggar Lighthouse
    5. Lower Mockbeggar Lighthouse
    6. Lower Lake Lighthouse
    7. Upper Lake Lighthouse
    8. The Lighthouse at Red Rocks (also not a lighthouse)
    9. The Mariners’ Beacon at West Kirby
    10. Bidston Lighthouse

    Lunch will be at the Baked Cafe in Larton after 20 miles.

    You can view or download the planned route on GPX from Komoot: Wirral Lighthouses

     

     

    NOTES:

    Woodside Lighthouse

    The current lighthouse at Woodside Ferry Terminal is a replica of the original one built in 1840.  It is not actually a lighthouse, but just a beacon to guide the ferry.  In 1859 the area was redeveloped, land at the end of the pier was reclaimed, and a new floating landing stage was built in 1861. The Woodside Ferry Light was no longer needed, but remained in situ despite the alterations around it. 

    The One o’Clock Gun (not a lighthouse)

    Ships needed to know the exact time for accurate navigation and used to set their chronometers by watching for a time-ball that was dropped down a pole on top of the observatory at Waterloo Dock at 1 pm every day (they still do this at Greenwich Observatory).  But because of air pollution the Liverpool Observatory was moved from the Waterloo Dock to Bidston Hill on the Wirral, too far for ships to see the ball drop, so instead they installed a gun on the shore and fired it by electric signal from Bidston Observatory.  They pressed the firing button at 1 second to 1 pm and the gun fired on the next swing of the observatory clock’s pendulum.  It was last fired on 18th July 1969.

    The original one o’clock gun was a cannon from the Crimean War and was fired for the first time on 22nd September, 1867, and daily thereafter (except Sundays).  The gun on the gun house today is not that gun (it is in Albert Dock Maritime museum); no one seems to know where this one came from.

    New Brighton Lighthouse 

    A primitive wooden light known as a perch (a wooden tripod supporting a lantern) was first built here in 1683, hence its other name Perch Rock.  It marked the Black Rock to the North Channel of Liverpool Bay.  In February 1821 a pilot boat crashed into the perch and destroyed it.  Construction of a new stone lighthouse started in 1827 and it opened on 1st March 1830. It was decommissioned in October 1973

    Upper Mockbeggar Light

    Known as Leasowe Lighthouse, but actually not a lighthouse (it is a beacon) and not in Leasowe (but in Moreton).  It is one of a pair of lights that were built in 1763 to guide ships safely into the Port of Liverpool.  They were known as the Upper and Lower Mockbeggar lights.  When aligned these lights guided vessels through the Rock Channel, at the time the main route into Liverpool.  The lighthouse was the first in Britain made of bricks, using 660,000 handmade bricks and initially, the light was lit by coal, which had to be carried up the 149 stairs. But in 1772 oil lamps were installed along with a large reflector.   The lighthouse closed in 1908 because the Rock Channel had silted up and was no longer the main route into Liverpool.

    Lower Mockbeggar Light

    The lower light of the pair was ¼ mile off-shore at Mockbeggar Wharf (Leasowe Lighthouse was on the shore line at that time.  The lower lighthouse was made of wood and was destroyed by a storm after only six years in 1769 .  So they decide to swap the upper and lower lights, use the brick lighthouse as the lower light and build a new lighthouse / beacon on top of Bidston Hill, two miles away.

    Lower Lake Light

    There were also two beacons at Hoylake built in 1764 which, when aligned, marked the channel past the East Hoyle bank into the Hoyle Lake (a safe anchorage for ships).  Both lights were decommissioned in 1886, as the channel had silted up and the Hoylake was no longer suitable as an anchorage.  The Lower Lake lighthouse was demolished in 1908, and the land was then used for the Winter Gardens Picture House.  The site is just to the east side of the old Lifeboat station.

    Upper Lake Light

    The Upper Lake lighthouse was rebuilt in 1863 and included two houses for the two lighthouse keepers’ families.  The lighthouse and the houses were sold in 1909 and are now a private residence.

    The Lighthouse at Red Rocks

    Just a replica!  But it looks like a real lighthouse.

    The Mariners’ Beacon at West Kirby

    A windmill on top of Caldy Hill had been used for hundreds of years as a navigation aid.  But the mill was destroyed during a storm in 1839. So an 18 metre high sandstone column was built in 1841 to replace the mill.  A large stone ball was mounted on the top of the column and a millstone is set at the base of the column.

    Bidston Lighthouse

    The first lighthouse at Bidston was built in 1770, two miles inland from the lighthouse it replaced.  Again it was not a lighthouse, but a beacon to indicate the way into the Rock Channel at Meols.  There was also a signal station here which used moveable boards and flags.  It was the last in a series of 11 such stations between Holyhead and Liverpool.  On a clear day a message could be sent from Holyhead to Liverpool in under a minute.  This lighthouse is the second on the site and replaced the original in 1873.  It was closed in October 1913.

     

     


    Bookings no longer allowed on this date.