Bidston Hill

Bidston Hill is about 100 acres that contains historic buildings and ancient rock carvings. It is located on the Wirral Peninsula, near the Birkenhead suburb of Bidston, in Merseyside, England. With a peak of 231 feet, Bidston Hill is one of the highest points on the Wirral. The land was part of Lord Vyner's estate and purchased by Birkenhead Corporation in 1894 for use by the public. Ref Wikipedia

GPS Tracks and Waypoints to Bidston Hill   LINK
Note:  When you click on the link above you will have access to two files that can be downloaded.  One file is in the format that can be downloaded and entered into your GPS software and the other file can be downloaded and opened in Google Earth.

View of Liverpool from Bidston Hill

In order to get to Bidston Hill from Liverpool I traveled by Merseyrail from the James St station to the Bidston station which is about 1/2 mile from the northern entrance of the park. Alternately it is possible to drive to the park where there is parking at the east side of the park at Tam O'Shanter Farm or by taking the 437 bus that passes every 15 minutes. The bus stops are at the south end of the park on Upton Road. I entered the park from the north where I followed a road at the base of the hill that passed several residences which joined a trail leading to the top of Bidston hill. At the top of the hill I first came to the Bidston Lighthouse and Bidston Observatory. Walking a little further is a restored windmill located a short distance from the lighthouse. There is a spectacular view of Liverpool to the east and to the west there is a not so clear view of the bay that the Mersey empties into. The lighthouse sits about 2 miles from ocean. At first it seemed odd that the lighthouse was so far inland however with it sitting so high this made it easier for mariners to locate it from further than if it was located at sea level.

There are a number of trails throughout the park however I decided to walk the length of the park and exited at the south end of the park where I took the return bus to Liverpool.

The trails are easy walking particularly if entered from the south as it would not be necessary to do much uphill climbing. Entry from the north is an easy uphill climb. Although there is a parking area at the eastern side of the park for those who choose to drive. I did not actually explore that area.

There has been a lighthouse on Bidston Hill since 1771. Being more than two miles from the sea, it depended on a breakthrough in lighthouse optics, which came in the form of the parabolic reflector, ...... The reflector at Bidston Lighthouse was thirteen-and-a-half feet in diameter, and the lamp consumed a gallon of oil every four hours. The present lighthouse was built in 1873 and was operational until sunrise on 9 October 1913. Bidston and Leasowe Lighthouse together formed a pair of leading lights enabling ships to avoid the sandbanks in the channel to Liverpool.

The Bidston Lighthouse

The Bidston Windmill replaced a wooden mill that was destroyed by fire in 1791, and was used to grind wheat until about 1875. However it is believed that there has been a windmill on this site since 1596. After falling into disuse it was bought and restored from 1894

The Bidston Windmill

The Bidston Observatory sits on the ridge of the hill watching over the Windmill, Park Wood and Bidston Village. The Observatory was built in 1866 when Liverpool Observatory had to relocate due to the expansion of Waterloo Docks. The building is made using the stone mined during the creation of the cellars. Bidston Observatory was important during the Second World War and predicted the tides for the D-Day landings amongst other things. The telescopes housed in the observatory, were used to watch planetary bodies in order to calculate the exact time. The exact time was needed for nautical navigation and was transferred to ships in the dock by the firing of the one o’clock gun.

Bidston Observatory