I’ve been banging on for years about how much I’ve wanted to visit Anglesey. I’d been thoroughly influenced by dreamy shots on Instagram of the romantic lighthouses at Llanddwyn Island and South Stack (the latter of which I’d managed to confuse with Strumble Head in Pembrokeshire, being rather disappointed with a perfectly good lighthouse when we arrived because it wasn’t that one). After about four years of nearly, nearly booking it and then ending up in Scotland instead (admittedly, we had wonderful holidays in Skye and Lochaber), we finally got down to Anglesey at the end of April. Better late than never, as they say.
Beyond the extensively well shared hot spots of Ynys Llanddwyn and South Stack lighthouse, I must confess that I didn’t really know what to expect from Anglesey. And, to my horror, the trusty Pocket Mountains guides that I buy for EVERYWHERE didn’t have an Anglesey guide. This was the first time in years that we’ve been away without one in our backpacks: all was not lost though, as I managed to pick up a few alternative guide books which saw us through the week. Phew!
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Porth Wen Brickworks
Non-stop rain meant that we wrote off the first day of the trip. No one enjoys freezing, sideways rain, so instead we spent the day perusing walk options for later in the week, and stocking up on supplies at the large and well provisioned Waitrose close to the Menai Bridge (we’re only posh when we’re on holiday!). Happily, the Sunday dawned much brighter, and we set off to explore a 4.5 mile route from our Ordnance Survey Short Walks on Anglesey guide.
With it being Easter Sunday I was a little worried about parking, but we got a space with no issues in Bull Bay just after 9am. The route followed the Anglesey Coast Path from Bull Bay to Porth Wen Brickworks, somewhere I’d never come across before flicking through the guide book. The path was up and down but never for too long, the main issue being the mud after such a rainy day on the Saturday. I was regretting wearing my trainers instead of my boots by the time we got to the brickworks!
As you round the corner, the brickworks suddenly come into view across the water and it’s like something out of a film set – for a story in a dystopian future. The site was only abandoned a hundred years or so ago, but nature is already well on its way to reclaiming the buildings, with roofs missing and foundations eroded. It’s an absolutely fascinating spot to wander around: just be very mindful of steep drops in places, especially at the bottom of the path leading down to the site.
For our return we opted to head inland in the hopes that it would be less muddy (which it was, hurrah). We didn’t get the same coastal views as we did on the way out (which themselves weren’t quite on the same scale as the coastal views in Pembrokeshire), but you can’t have it all!
Dog friendly rating: 2/5. This isn’t a hugely dog friendly route: while there was only one stile, we kept ours on leads all the way around due to sheer drops along the coast, and livestock (sheep and horses) on the return leg. Care is needed around the brickworks themselves to keep dogs away from drops, and you should also keep your eyes peeled for adders in warm weather.
Plas Newydd
At the time that I booked this trip, the timing of Easter totally passed me by. Fast forward to our first weekend and I was stressing a bit about busy beaches and dealing with Coal’s reactivity: bad planning on my part. Deciding to play it safe, we opted for a visit to the National Trust’s Plas Newydd, which we reasoned that even if it was busy, dogs would at least be on leads.
Once a Victorian party house, today the house is geared up for visitors to the island with both the house and gardens open to explore (although dogs are only allowed in outside areas, and not in the terraced gardens). There’s also a cafe, shop and playground, should you be so inclined. Families are very welcome here, and when we visited there was an Easter trail set up for kids – you could tell who was doing it by the paper bunny ears being sported!
We spent a few hours wandering around the paths and admiring the views across the Menai Strait to Eryri – and it was surprisingly not busy, despite the car park when we arrived. As National Trust members we got free entry (always a satisfying feeling), but I think we’d have felt a bit miffed if we’d paid the full entry prices.
Dog friendly rating: 4/5. Dogs on leads are allowed to join you in most places, except the house and terraced garden. There’s also options to go further afield into the woods, but we didn’t go too far, as there was rain forecast in the afternoon and we wanted to stay dry!
Bryn Celli Ddu
Not quite done for the day, we managed to squeeze in a trip to one of Anglesey’s true hidden gems. Bryn Celli Ddu is a Neolithic chambered tomb not far from Plas Newydd, and being huge fans of holes in the ground (although we may have overdosed on them slightly on Orkney), this was firmly on our list from the moment I stumbled across it on the Cadw website. It’s arguably the most important prehistoric site on Anglesey, and is the only monument on the island to align with the summer solstice. Anglesey actually has a surprising number of scheduled ancient monuments: after we’d finished here we nipped down the road to the burial chamber at Bodowyr. Not quite as impressive, its mushroom shape is still very cool and reminded me of Chun Quoit in Cornwall.
You can park a short (10 minute or so) walk away from the monument. The car park is signed from the main road, then a good (flat) path runs between fields all the way to the tomb. Despite visiting in the middle of the day on a bank holiday we nearly had it to ourselves, with just one other couple appearing while we were there.
Fairly compact in size, there’s still a ‘presence’ here. Sam loves going into places like this, but I much prefer to admire them from outside – going in gives me the creeps! As it was such a lovely bright day I did feel brave enough to pop in, getting all the way into the middle (all of three steps) before wussing out and running out. If a 5,000 year old tomb doesn’t freak you out, you’re braver than I am!
Dog friendly rating: 5/5. Dogs are welcome to join you, please respect signs asking for them to be kept on leads. The route is stile free and fenced off, so you don’t need to worry about livestock.
Holyhead Mountain
High on my list of priorities was a trip to Holyhead Mountain. Diddly in comparison to its cousins across the water in Eryri, at 220 metres it’s still the highest point on Anglesey. We followed a circular route from our Countryside Dog Walks book: a cracking little guide with 20 stile free walks on Anglesey and the Llyn Peninsula.
The start point for the walk is also the parking location for South Stack lighthouse, so we made sure to get there early(ish) on Tuesday morning to get parked. Rather anti-climatically, we were one of the first cars there at 9.45am: perhaps everyone else was sleeping off the bank holiday fun. We paid the £7.50 parking fee, which while it seemed eye watering at the time, I reminded myself is much cheaper than going out for lunch and funds a good cause – in this case, the RSPB.
This was one of those walks where we just got a feeling as soon as we set off that it was going to be a good one. Cutting through coastal scrub, the path soon leads to South Stack lighthouse, one of Anglesey’s most iconic views. It’s been on my UK bucket list for a long time, and it was just as beautiful as I’d hoped for. After admiring the lighthouse for a while (the viewpoint for which, being early birds, we had to ourselves), we carried on our way.
From here the path became stonier and climbed up hill, although I don’t think it quite falls into the category of strenuous. Not long after we started climbing we got more good views of the lighthouse, before the trail levels on the approach to the summit. It looks rather rocky and imposing (and indeed we spotted a few rock climbers with ropes and harnesses taking a ‘direct route’ approach), but the route snakes around the side of the peak for one final short and steep, but manageable, ascent.
Holyhead is a major port for connections to Ireland, and the summit offers panoramic views over the harbour, as well as further afield over Anglesey. There’s a rather tidy trig pillar perched atop a small cairn too, if you like to bag your trigs. Don’t be deceived by the blue sky in the photos: there was a nippy wind which chased us down fairly quickly!
Here we made a rookie error, and deviated from the book route. We were enjoying ourselves so much we wanted to make the return a little longer, and could see plenty of public footpaths criss crossing their way down the opposite slope to the book’s route. Cut to 20 minutes later and re-joining the main route via a path half overgrown with gorse, where we were somewhat regretting our life choices. At least we weren’t wearing shorts…
Dog friendly rating: 3/5. This is a stile free route, and while we kept ours on leads due to cliff edges, we did see several people walking their dogs off lead a healthy distance away from the edge. Unfortunately with Merry there is no safe distance, as when he’s sprinting after a bird there’s no point where he thinks he’s too far away and comes back! In the warmer months, you also need to be mindful of adders, which can be found here.
We definitely spent the first few days aiming to explore some of Anglesey’s more obscure places with it being the bank holiday. Next week’s blog will cover the rest of the week, when we visited some of the more celebrated locations, as well as all of the information about where we stayed. See you there!
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