Formby

The old fishing village of Formby is completely buried by sand due to the receding Sefton coastline and over a mile of sand dunes now stand between the New Town and the sea. These dunes are home to all sorts of rare plants and wildlife and much of the area is National Trust owned.

Many coniferous trees have been planted to try and stabilise the dunes and these are now home to one of the few remaining colonies of red squirrels in the country. The squirrels are very tame and some of them can be hand fed.

A few miles north of the town at Ainsdale is a National Nature Reserve run by English Nature among the species that can be seen are sand lizard, natterjack toad, great crested newt, red squirrel and dune helleborine.