At the north west end of the Dee estuary, where the Welsh coast turns the corner towards Liverpool Bay, a striped stone tower stands on the beach at Talacre with the tide washing round its base. It is the Point of Ayr lighthouse, the oldest in Wales.
It was put up around 1776. In October of the year before, a storm had wrecked a number of ships in the approaches to the Dee, including two brigs out of Parkgate, and a light was put up by private trustees to guide ships safely into the estuary. The tower was knocked about by a storm in 1818, taken over by Trinity House the next year and given a stronger lantern that shone in two directions only, west along the coast and north across the estuary. In 1844 it was replaced by a light on piles further out, and later by a lightship, and the old tower was left standing on the sand.
People walking on the beach have said they have seen a figure on the gallery that runs round the top, a man dressed in clothes of the 18th century, looking out to sea. Dogs, walkers say, will not go near the tower. A paranormal group that investigated said they made contact with a keeper called Raymond, who had died of a fever while tending the light, and mediums have spoken of a man with a broken heart and of great sadness about the place.
In June 2010 the lighthouse owner installed a seven foot stainless steel figure on the balcony, looking out to sea, and called it The Keeper in honour of the ghost; it has since been taken down. None of the ghost details can be traced to a named keeper in the records used here.
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