Dee Estuary in the context of "Saltney Ferry"

Merseyside (/ˈmɜːrzisaɪd/ MUR-zee-syde) is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Welsh county of Flintshire across the Dee Estuary to the southwest, and the Irish Sea to the west. The largest settlement is the city of Liverpool.

The county is highly urbanised, with an area of 249 square miles (645 km) and a population of 1,475,541 in 2024. Liverpool is located in the centre of the county on the east bank of the Mersey Estuary, and Birkenhead opposite on the west bank. St Helens is in the east of the county, and Southport in the north. For local government purposes the county comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and Liverpool. The borough councils, together with that of Halton in Cheshire, collaborate through the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

Cheshire (/ˈtʃɛʃər, -ɪər/ CHESH-ər, -⁠eer) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shropshire to the south; to the west it is bordered by the Welsh counties of Flintshire and Wrexham, and has a short coastline on the Dee Estuary. The largest settlement is Warrington.

The county has an area of 905 square miles (2,344 km) and had a population of 1,139,884 in 2024. The areas around the River Mersey in the north of the county are the most densely populated, with Warrington, Runcorn, Widnes, and Ellesmere Port located on the river. The city of Chester lies in the west of the county, Crewe in the south, and Macclesfield in the east. For local government purposes Cheshire comprises four unitary authority areas: Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton, and Warrington. The county historically included all of the Wirral Peninsula and parts of southern Greater Manchester and northern Derbyshire, but excluded Widnes and Warrington.

North East Wales (Welsh: Gogledd-Ddwyrain Cymru) is an area or region of Wales, commonly defined as a grouping of the principal areas of Denbighshire, Flintshire, and Wrexham County Borough in the north-east of the country. These principal areas comprise most (excluding Colwyn, and parts of Glyndŵr) of the former administrative county of Clwyd. It is bordered by Conwy, and Gwynedd, in North West Wales to the west, Powys, in Mid Wales to the south, the English counties of Cheshire, and Shropshire to the east, and the Irish Sea, and Dee estuary to the north. It is the more urban, densely populated, and industrial part of the north Wales geographic region, centred on the city of Wrexham and the towns of Rhyl and Prestatyn, and the conurbation of Deeside. The region's close links with North West England in general and Merseyside in particular (together as the "Mersey-Dee" economic sub-region) are crucial to the region's economy.

The Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is located in the region. Other attractions include historical buildings such as Chirk Castle, and Erddig in Wrexham, valley towns such as Corwen and Llangollen, and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal World Heritage Site.

Flintshire (Welsh: Sir y Fflint) is a county in the north-east of Wales. It borders the Irish Sea to the north, the Dee Estuary to the north-east, the English county of Cheshire to the east, Wrexham County Borough to the south, and Denbighshire to the west. Connah's Quay is the largest town, and Flintshire County Council is based in Ewloe.

The county covers 169 square miles (440 km), with a population of 155,000 in 2021. After Connah's Quay (16,771), the largest settlements are Flint (13,736), Buckley (16,127) and Mold (10,123). The east of the county is industrialised and contains the Deeside conurbation, which extends into Cheshire and has a population of 53,568. The adjacent coast is also home to industry, but further west has been developed for tourism, particularly at Talacre. Inland, the west of the county is sparsely populated and characterised by gentle hills, including part of the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB. The county is part of the preserved county of Clwyd.

The Wirral Peninsula (/ˈwɪrəl/), known locally as the Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about 15 miles (24 km) long and 7 miles (11 km) wide, and is bounded by the Dee Estuary to the west, the Mersey Estuary to the east and Liverpool Bay to the north.

Historically, the Wirral was wholly in Cheshire; in the Domesday Book, its border with the rest of the county was placed at "two arrow falls from Chester city walls". However, since the Local Government Act 1972, only the southern third has been in Cheshire, with almost all the rest lying in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside. An area of saltmarsh and reclaimed land adjoining the south-west of the peninsula lies in the Welsh county of Flintshire.

Ness Botanic Gardens are at Ness, Cheshire in the Wirral Peninsula. This is near the cities of Liverpool and Chester and close to the English-Welsh border. They occupy a site of 64 acres overlooking the Dee Estuary. The Ness Botanic Gardens were created by Arthur Kilpin Bulley (1861-1942), a wealthy cotton trader from Liverpool and benefited from collections by many plant hunters including George Forrest and Frank Kingdon-Ward.

Arthur Bulley began to create the garden in 1898. In 1948, a few years after his death, his daughter Lois Bulley gave the garden to the University of Liverpool, under a Conditional Trust. One condition of the Trust is that the gardens must remain open to the public. They are on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens and are Grade II. The gardens have many fine specimen trees and flowers. Magnolias, rhododendron, witch-hazels and camellias are some of the notable plant-hunted species in the garden. Snowdrop walks are conducted during the flowering season.

The River Dee (Welsh: Afon Dyfrdwy, Latin: Deva Fluvius) flows through North Wales and Cheshire, England. The majority of the river is located in Wales, with the stretch between Aldford and Saltney within England and two other sections forming the border between the two countries. The length of the section from Bala to Chester is 113 km (70 miles).

The river rises on Dduallt in Snowdonia and flows east through Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake), Corwen, and Llangollen. It turns north near Overton-on-Dee and forms part of the England–Wales border before fully entering England near Aldford, north-east of Wrexham. It flows through Chester then re-enters Wales near Saltney; the final section is canalised and discharges to the Irish Sea via an estuary 23 km (14 miles) long.

Holywell (/ˈhɒliwɛl/ HOLL-ee-wel; Welsh: Treffynnon) is a market town and community in Flintshire, Wales. It lies to the west of the estuary of the River Dee. The community includes Greenfield. In 2011, it had a population of 8,886.