My Map Pins (9): Parkgate, Cheshire (Posted February 2021)

 

This is Parkgate. Sue and I moved here in 2017 to a rambling, old house on the Parade, and I guess this means we now call this town our home. It is a hauntingly beautiful place. People visit Parkgate for the scenic walks, for birdwatching, for ice creams, and for fish and chips. Once upon a time it was a seaside and a busy port, and it still retains echoes of those days. It is a popular promenade – even though the ships and the sea and the beaches have all gone.  Back in 1928 someone had the bright idea of planting spartina grass to control the dunes; the grass invaded the estuary and turned it from ocean into marshland. Now it is an RSPB sanctuary for wading birds and raptors.  As I write, I look out over forty square miles of wilderness towards the North Wales coast. I can see egrets and pink footed geese. Often there is a hen harrier or a short eared owl. You can hear the haunting calls of curlews. Once or twice a year we get a spring tide that brings water all the way up the sea wall as a reminder of Parkgate’s glory days, but these tides also bring silt and vegetation and so, in small increments, the level of the marshes rise. The dog in the picture is Poppy, now 13.  

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