For the first time in 15 years of The Times and Sunday Times Best UK Beaches, asked the readers, to nominate the nation’s best beaches, with persuasive arguments for more than 300 locations, they set about the 4,211-mile hop around the coast to  visit every one of them to find the best top seaside spots, and I am delighted to hear that Formby was nominated one of the Times 50 Best beaches on the UK!

And here is what they said…

Formby, Merseyside

“Formby has miles of pristine sand, dunes, pine forest, red squirrels, fossils and ocean liners,” Andrew Morris from Liverpool writes.

But that doesn’t quite prepare you for the scale of Formby beach: 500 acres of hilly dunes, backed by woodlands of Corsican, Austrian and Scots pine that are home not only to red squirrels but also crossbills — and then the great sand sea of the beach, where bands of petrified mud bear the footprints of prehistoric beachgoers both animal and human.

The red brick remains of the nation’s first lifeboat station are here too. The work of the former pirate turned Liverpool dock master William Hutchinson, it was built in the 1770s and crewed by volunteers who shared a guinea for each life saved off the shifting sands at the mouth of the Mersey.

It’s a wild and fascinating beach, and, as Andrew points out, “it’s just 28 minutes by train from Liverpool”.

Note, though, that the loos are half a mile back from the National Trust’s Victoria Road car park. For wheelchair access, use the Lifeboat Road car park.

Loos, dog-friendly, lifeguards, accessible. Water quality: excellent

To read the full article please click here.

Formby beach is only a stone throw from the simplyendo teaching centre, for directions, please ask a member of our team.