Wirral Country Park

A spectacular stretch of beach, stunning views and the chance to see some of our rarest birds of prey. Throw in a few organic apples, a great pint of beer and ice cream to die for, and I think it's safe to say there's something for everyone at Wirral Country Park.

We kicked off at Church Farm, just off the A540 at Thurstaston. They've got a great organic shop and café, where we stocked up on some excellent apples for the walk ahead and a kilo of best chestnuts - destined for the oven later that evening. Pausing at 'kids corner' we met goats and a couple of pretty rowdy roosters.

About a mile down the hill from the farm is Wirral Country Park. Believe it or not, when it opened in 1973, Wirral was the first country park in the UK. It's got a great visitor centre - with toilets and a small shop - and they run regular kids' activities too, although you do need to book in advance, so check out their website www.wirral.gov.uk/er/wcp.htm

Scoffing our picnic, basking in the wintry sun we watched parascenders boldly throw themselves off the cliffs, only for thermals to bring them up and back into view, moments later.

Here there's loads of walks to choose from, three signposted from the visitor centre - a map is just 20p. There are others listed on the website but we had the kids in tow so we took the easy, two mile green walk.

Taking the steep steps the ivy and hart's tongue ferns dripped from the cliff face giving everything a mystical even prehistoric feel - parascenders swooping overhead like day-glo pterodactyls.

You should have seen the kids' faces when the path finally ended up on the beach and the sight of the looming cliffs made of sticky boulder clay. The dogs were pretty pleased too, and tore off towards the Dee Estuary.

A myriad of little shells crunching under foot, we followed the beach for half a mile taking the slipway of the Dee Sailing Club back up the cliff. We picked up the green waymarkers again, across some scrub land to the Wirral Way - once the railway line that connected Hooton with West Kirby. By the way, if your dogs like sheep then best put them on the lead here as the bleating may prove too tempting.

Nearly 3 o'clock, the sun was low, glinting through the thick hawthorn hedges and picking out the red berries. We spotted three curlews fly over head, whistling away for all they were worth.

We jumped in the car to catch the end of a raptor watch at the RSPB reserve in Parkgate - about a five mile drive. There's something going on most weekends (www.deeestuary.co.uk) but for sheer excitement you can't beat this monthly treat.

Around 100 Twitchers spread across the car park, binoculars trained on the salt marsh hoping to catch a raptor coming home into roost. They seemed quite happy to let inquisitive young eyes peer down their expensive telescopes and get a better view of some of our most elegant birds including a merlin!

By now it was dark but a promise is a promise, so it was off to Nicholls of Parkgate, purveyors of fine ice cream. The kids went for chocolate while Grandpa and I opted for a pint of Bombardier in the Red Lion next door.

Parkgate's an incredible collection of black and white timbered buildings, a mish-mash of small cottages, enticing pubs and Victorian villas. By now the coals fires were burning and the air was thick with that unmistakable smell. We could have chosen to eat here too - the Marsh Cat is considered one of the Wirral's finest restaurants - but it had been a long day. And we still had a bag of chestnuts to roast.