How Not To Spot Any Red Squirrels At The Beach

When you've got a toddler, you clearly can't spend all your spare time working on renovation projects. In fact, you can't even spend most of your time working on renovation projects - and why would you want to, when the alternative is taking your toddler to Squirrel Beach on a Sunday afternoon?

Squirrel Beach is owned by the National Trust, and includes a picnic area in a pine forest with a red squirrel reserve, sand dunes, and several miles of lovely coastline. We visited at high tide, which meant you could actually get to the sea very quickly as opposed to trekking across the sand for hours.

Do you stick your tongue out at me, sir?

Walking through the pine forest. Funnily enough, we didn't see any red squirrels, even though Penny and Enrique strained away on their leads with distinct enthusiasm, on high alert for any sightings:

Toddling to the sea:

Enjoying the fresh air - there were dozens of other dogs on the beach, which meant we didn't feel so guilty about our poorly-trained, disobedient hounds rampaging hither and thither:

Walking a long-suffering Enrique:

They say that Manchester's got everything but a beach, but with this one so close by you can hardly complain about the absence of seaweed in the city centre. A grand old day out was had by all. Even if we did return home to wash off all that sand in a turquoise bathroom that at this rate isn't going to be renovated this decade :-)

PS It's not actually called Squirrel Beach. It's called Formby, or Freshfields, depending who you ask.