Formby Beach

When you think of Manchester, beaches do not immediately spring to mind but you would be surprised to find the one of the nicest beaches in the UK, Formby is less than an hour away. Even Sam, the Hawaiian / SE Asia beach goddess admitted to its beauty (C’MON ENGLANNNNDD) and it is the perfect location to take an impromptu beach trip.

After a morning of football and Dim Sum we decided to take advantage of the mid-September sunshine (whilst it lasted) and hit the beach to watch the sunset. Formby is described by the National Trust as a ‘Glorious beach with dramatic sand dunes, surrounded by sweeping coastal pinewoods’ and is situated about 10 miles north of Liverpool. Formby is also famous as a red squirrel reserve, a indigenous species to the UK whose population has been devastated by the importation of the American Grey Squirrel (bloody Yanks). This is a useless fact I remembered from my Coastal module in 2nd year back at Uni.

We arrived just after 5pm when the parking at the National Trust site is free (usually 4.50) and made our way through the dunes onto the beach. After some exploration and general goofing around we set up camp within the dunes (to block out the wind) and pulled out the bottle of Rioja we had brought for the trip.

The sunsets on the west coast of England can be spectacular at times. With the backdrop of the Irish Sea and hundreds of off-shore wind turbines this was definitely a spectacle. We watched the sun set until our feet started to loose their feeling in the cold sand which signaled our time to return home but not before a portion of chips to accompany us on our trip back to Manchester.

Below are some other photos of the day as the sun set. NB. For some reason the ‘White Balance’ of the Go Pro’s single shots had been changed hence the blue hue. I am putting this down to trying to be a professional photographer during Manchester Pride a fortnight and manually changing these settings.