With 70 miles worth of water, there's plenty of room for plenty of islands along the River Mersey, but the river boasts only a conservative five and if you're not a Liverpool local you might not have even heard of them all, let alone stepped foot on their shores.
Yet, each has its own unique history, despite some being more famous than others. One of them is man made, one of them is inaccessible, one of them was once home to a community of monks and another often finds itself hosting a community of seals.
They all have their own story. However, they aren't stories everybody has heard.
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Spike Island
Spike Island is perhaps the most famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask) of the bunch, thanks to a contentious Stone Roses gig that defined their attitude as much as it defined their generation. Yet, the land there hasn't always been an island.
An extension to the Sankey Canal created Spike Island, by splitting a section of the Widnes from the rest of the town. The island has been credited with allowing Widnes to become the epicentre of Britain's 19th century chemical industry, thanks to the first rail-to-ship facility being built on the island in 1833.
Yet, with a ton of industrial, chemical-creating infrastructure being left behind from this boom, the island had faded to relative obscurity by the 1970s. That was until Manchester's Stone Roses brought the attention of the country- perhaps even the world- to the island with a gig that one journalist called 'one big group hug' where 'rock meets rave', and the rest is (recent) history.
Hilbre Island
Hilbre Island, which sits near the mouth of the Mersey on the River Dee, near West Kirby, has been called 'the most tranquil place on Merseyside' and all it takes it a quick glance at a photo of the place to see why. That's perhaps why it gets thousands of visitors each and every year.
Yet, there are some times when the island seems entirely empty. As if the only living things there are you and the seals who play in the water just off the shore.
However, Hilbre island is not just an island but one of three in an archipelago, that includes two other, much more minute, islands.
Although Hilbre island, as well as Middle Eye and Little Eye, are in the Dee Estuary, both can be seen off the Merseyside coast.
Middle Eye
Middle Eye could be considered a sort-of Hilbre Island Junior. Yet it's not the smallest of the three, the smallest being the aptly named Little Eye, which is further southeast from Middle Eye, which is itself already southeast from Hilbre Island
Little Eye
Little Eye's history is tied up in that of the archipelago, where there was once a monastery until the religious stillness of the islands was tainted by the noise of new commerce as trade increased through the Mersey, causing the last two monks to leave in 1550. The archipelago was sold to Hoylake council, which then became part of the Wirral council in the late 20th century.
Stanlow Island
Stanlow Island has a similar past to Hilbre island, in that they were both inhabited by monks at some point. Yet, Stanlow faces a much different present, and is now effectively part of the Essar oil refinery complex near Ellesmere Port.
Yet, after the monks but before it took its current shape, Stanlow was home to a small community that left in the 1980s. The island now welcomes hundreds of ships as part of the refinery's operations and features a ferry for that same purpose.
People wanting to visit the island must get permission from Essar. Among those to have visited it in recent years include a group of bird counters, who get permission to cross the canal to count the birds on the estuary as part of a nationwide survey.
