6.Anglesey Coast Path - 1st April - 15th April, 2016: PART Six- 14th-15th

Thursday 14th April - Rhosneigr to Aberffraw
Enjoyed good seafood meal at the Oystercatcher restaurant at Rhosneigr last night. The morning was bright and cheery as we set out.

There was a bit of a black cloud above but I wished for it to stay away - and it did! Don't say wishes don't work - often they do! We seemed to stay under the "tongue" of cloud much of the day with blue sky at each side, but that was fine, the cloud kept its water to itself! We crossed the Rhosneigr beaches.

The first, Traeth Llydan with its river flowing through it but we could cross it today with the tide out! Then crossing the rocky rocks -

some of them most definitely the volcanic pillow lava we came to Porth Nobla where a group of surfers were enjoying the waves!

We could look back to Silver Bay and Rhoscolyn ....

and ahead - you guessed it! - the Llŷn, looking very magical today! The wind was dashing the waves into the rocks....

Leaving the beach we spotted a group of martens flying around the cliff! Can summer be far behind? And we headed up to the chambered cairn of Barclodiad y Gawres, the giantess's apron, a neolithic burial chamber, today under repair so we couldn't get near it for workmen, not working. It could be that there had been more damage here as on our last visit, it was closed because of some damage by hooligans - so sad! So into the nearby cove of Porth Trecastell - apparently there will soon be a parking pay meter here which we thought a good idea to put off the overnight campers (and maybe some hooligans!). We continued around the coast - great views in all directions and passing many coves. Bluebells ...

and celandines here and there...

Oyster catchers, gulls, cormorants and even the odd butterfly today. And bees have been around the past 2 weeks when the wind has allowed. We approached obvious ex military land on the headland above which is now part of the Anglesey circuit, Trac Môn, which we now had to walk around...motor bikes were having a track day today.

And then we dropped back to the coast at Porth Cwyfan with its picturesque church on its island.

The island is called Cribinau.

Although the tide was out, we decided not to go across to the church this time. We rounded the beach with its boulder clay and pillow lava - and oyster catchers!

The views to the Llŷn got better and better! The colours today were fantastic...so difficult to catch on a photograph.

We found a good place to sit on the rocks and eat lunch - just wondrous, watching a fishing boat in the sea in front of us.

........Snowdonia, the Llŷn and Llanddwyn as a backdrop -

could we stay here forever? Well it was getting a bit chilly too...We could pick out the hillfort on the Bodorgan headland, Pen y Parc. We sat and watched, and listened to the tide coming in with the seabirds entertaining us.

Then up and off around the headland. It was quite funny looking at this next picture - I had caught Chris with a signpost alongside him - was it a wooden leg? He he!

 The path was now a bit muddy again as we approached Aberffraw and its massive dunes - the long beach peeping around the headland.

The path here was full of flowers, violets,

squill, thrift, and celandines, now giving way here and there to dandelions. It became a squelchy walk up the estuary of the Ffraw. Egrets ......

and redshanks,

and oyster catchers were feeding in the muddy river as we approached the little bridge! Another perfect day, 7 more miles!

Friday 15th April - Llyn Rhos Ddu to Moel-y-Don
A bit of an autumnal start this morning - damp and misty so no Snowdonia to see through the window! Leaving the little car at Moel-y-Don, just hard to believe it's 2 years since we were last here. So back to Llyn Rhos Ddu ready to start the last day. Bit sad really....

We went down the lane alongside the now for sale model village. The owner here had really helped us out with parking on our last walk when the car park had been closed. It can be difficult to arrange transport on these long distance walks and we don't feel we would like to rely on buses, especially as then it would be pressure to get to a bus stop on time. Down the lane we went to the riverside ...and its stepping stones!

 I had really tried to prepare myself to just hope across the huge stones which I of course had been anticipating...but I just couldn't do it! Don't know why they out-psyche me these days - so Chris had to aid and abet!

It was then a VERY MUDDY walk along the riverbank, the river Braint. We crossed fields and lanes, listening to thrushes, seeing goldfinches, almost getting lost passing a house with an unwelcoming rope across the drive we needed to go down... Then we walked along surfaced lanes for quite a while before passing some holiday homes where a cat wanted to adopt us - it was very cute! We passed a huge house, Tal y Gwynedd, there are a lot of big properties on this island, before dropping down to the shingle beach of the Menai Straits! Caernarfon across the water was lost in the mist.

We came to the waterside at Ty Bach - little house, which had been the home of some drunken ferryman. The ferry here, Tal y Foel, was very popular right from the 15th century until 1952 - and it has been a site for habitation as far back as 9,000 years.

Today there was no sign of Yr Eifl hills across the water -

we could see Caernarfon and its Edward I's castle in the mist across the Straits.

We passed tthe ex-Mermaid Inn, now a private house

and the nearby Menai Hotel, also now a private house.

Then passed he Farm and the Sea Zoo - which exports the water from here to other zoos as it's so unpolluted!

And then passing Halen Môn where we had topped up our salt supply yesterday.

 A man on the shore was harvesting seaweed. So at the end of the shingle beach we left the coast once more, crossing fields, some of them big ploughed fields..

 and then through a wood where we could see Brynsiencyn just up the road.

We dropped through a field at Llanidan stud - where a couple of horses and some belted Galloway cattle were grazing then passed the ruins of the Llanidan church - St Riden having founded the original church here in the 6th century.

The Ransoms garlic just beginning to flower here - lots of it too!

Then down to the shingle beach again across from the outdoor centre of Plas Menai which we remembered as  the end - and start - of a previous walk!

Yr Eifl was beginning to appear through the mist as we crossed the beach and at an old stone quay we saw a cormornat hanging out and a heron - oyster catchers and their piping never far away! Going to miss them! So back across fields again - a private house here obviously - then down lanes to Moel-y-Don.

We were missing out the walk to Bryn Celli Du, a really fantastic prehistoric site which we did walk past last visit. The coastal path is all inland here and along the busy roadside - albeit on an enclosed path, just to go around Plas Newydd - the ex-home of the Marquess of Anglesey, now a National Trust property. We didn't think this was needed this time round. We lunched (a bit late) at Moel-y-Don, looking across to Port Dinorwic..

 alongside the village of Y Felinheli. A ferry from here had taken workers to slate quarry workers across in times past.

Had intended to head to the Britannia Bridge and have another look for the lions but decided it would be seriously muddy down there ....

We had done another 8 miles today so in our 15 day walk we had now completed 100 miles, and for us that is the Anglesey coast path, 2016! What a great time!

Time to pack now - until next time!

PS on the way home, we stopped at the Caernarfon vineyard, Pant Du - have a look at that blog if you have time....
Bit sad that we missed the vineyard at Dwyran, Ty Croes, just 2 miles up the road from the holiday house.....sounds like another reason to go back.....

And if you would like to donate to my fundraising page, it would be much appreciated...
Walking for Velindre 2016

5.Anglesey Coast Path - 1st April - 15th April, 2016: PART FIVE- 12th-13th

Tuesday 12th April - Holyhead to Trearddur Bay

Wow! Anglesey does us proud! Another lovely day on this lovely island! It was very misty and cloudy as we set out after the very wet day yesterday which just got wetter and wetter. And so back to another new formulation...we had decided that as we had lost some time due to the weather mostly, we would now review our route. Looking at the map we thought it would be reasonable to miss out the parts of the path which are inland detours and in this muddiness could well be not very pleasant walking. to the purists amongst you, maybe this is a bit of cheating but we thought well with the benefit of having walked the path before, we should use that knowledge to make the most of our walk. So we are missing out the walk at the south of the "big" island around the Alaw estuary into Holyhead, the walk from Silver Bay to RAF Valley and the short stretch from Aberffraw to Newborough which has to bypass Bodorgan. So today was to be Holyhead to Trearddur. Parking at Breakwater Country Park, off we set into the mist heading up Mynydd y Tŵr - Holyhead mountain.

Passing the reminders of the earlier industrial heritage - the quarrying here provided the rock for the 1.7 mile long breakwater, the longest in the UK, wiggling its way to the sea.

This was opened in 1873, taking 28 years to build. It was built at a time when the railways had opened up travel extensively and so trade across the sea had also increased. The UK government had decreed that there should be more sheltered harbours provided in view of so many tragedies at sea. We couldn't see  across to Carmel Head on the "big" island as we set out, but we watched ferries coming in and out.

We walked around the edge of the coast with North Stack peeping ahead of us, now a redundant fog station.

We decided to drop down to it today which we hadn't done last time around. AS we descended the track, the RSPB warden with her little dog was heading down too to see what birds were there. She told us that not many seabirds are arriving at South Stack just yet but she has seen wheatears passing through and some choughs. We didn't quite get down to the station - we decided we would only have to climb back up!! - so headed back to the path, this time not choosing the summit alternative.

We have done that before in much clearer weather when the views were marvellous - today it was still too misty and we couldn't see the Llŷn - yet!

We headed down to the lookout station and peeped over at South Stack, much quieter than last time when the cliffs all around here were full of birds, and proceeded down the steps towards the lighthouse and Ellin's Tower - now the RSPB information office.

We followed the path right at the edge of the coast and the flowers here were lovely - more squill,

thrift coming out,

white campion, primroses, marsh marigolds here and there - and a yellow one I haven't yet identified. And still lots of the white saxifrage - and celandines of course. And the views here were great with the waves bashing into the rocks below. Across the road then to the Ty Mawr huts, also known as Cytau'r Gwyddelod or the "Irishmen's huts" which we hadn't had time to divert to on our last walk here.

They are really clear to see - around 10 or more of the round huts, the site probably bigger than that at Din Lligwy. All amazing to see - the settlement here is assumed to have been here since the Stone Age with the existing ruins being Iron Age.

There are other sites near Holyhead of other "Irishmen's huts" at Porthdafarch and Plas Meilw. Then down the roadside we went - now with the sun shining! Holyhead mountain summit was now clear to see.

And then crossing the road back to the coast, we passed through a field full of Soay sheep which were also balancing on the wall close to the cliff edge!

We could still see South Stack lighthouse flashing as we walked on.

The rocks along here are phenomenal - in size and colour and formation.

Interesting to see the landward side of the coves were all smooth whilst the seaward/windward side was all craggy and worn! It was such a lovely walk around here - Abraham's Bosom as it is known apparently. We sat here and enjoyed lunch - Provosts jets from RAF Valley flew overhead.

We were beginning to hear - and see - more of them as we came around towards the airfield of course. It was also becoming a bit boggy in parts but not too bad. No rare blue butterflies today - must too cold yet but we had skylarks - and even thought we spotted a pair of choughs....my photo today...

....and a real one....

We also passed a group of coasteers - hanging over the sea!

Could have done it once maybe but not any more! We passed the lovely little cove where we had lunched on our last walk, today with a waterfall shooting down into it. Then we passed the "almost island" ...

with its natural arch ....

and so around to Porth Dafarch with its lovely poem....and its limekiln!

Quite a few people were playing on the beach here as we headed over the headland and then down the road for a little way before reaching Porth y Post and its fisherman - and more mud!

And so we came round to Trearddur passing the huge "haunted house" and then back to the little car. The little Porths across the Bay...

..and Rhoscolyn which we had caught glimpses of ahead waiting for us to pass tomorrow.

Another 9 miles down - and it was then a beautiful, sunny evening.

Wednesday 13th April - Trearddur Bay to Silver Bay
Think this walk was getting better and better - and maybe we were fitter and fitter too! It was a lovely morning as we set off.

It was quite exciting finding a place to leave the car on the small lanes around here. It was so calm and clear as we set off - the sea like a mill pond with the tide out. The views were stunning as we walked around the coast passing Porth Diana and Porth Castell. We could see across the bay to Holyhead mountain.

Leaving the bay behind, we headed over rough ground, Snowdon and the Llŷn ahead of us. ...

We passed a caravan park and then walked around the bay with huge, rocky rocks - the only way I can describe them!

And with those chirruping oyster catchers  all along the coast..

Then the view in front was across the water to Bwa Gwyn - the white arch,

with the big white house standing above complete with its cannon still!

Lambs were lazing in the sunshine and Provost jets were overhead. Oyster catchers and gulls were also enjoying the calmer weather.

We passed Bwa Du - the black arch - natural arches really are spectacular.

And the views from Bwa Gwyn back to Holyhead were superb.

All the coves along this coast are so amazing - the colours and shapes are just unbelievable. Here with pink rocks and stack...

We didn't see them today but another couple told us they had seen the goats on the rocks again here as we had last time, and they had watched a peregrine on its nest. And as we came around the headlands, here with the primroses (and Chris!) looking good..

The coasteers were on the rocks again, and the Llŷn was looking magnificent - it really transfixed me today!

 We soon passed St Gwenfaen's well - and had a little rest and a wish!

Then up and around the coastguard station at Rhoscolyn overlooking Rhoscolyn beacon and the Llŷn in a twinkling sea.

We dropped down into Rhoscolyn ...

and walked around the beach, Borthwen, where we sat in the shingle and ate lunch

 - how perfect was that for a lunch stop? As we left, the tide was coming in and the breeze getting stronger but not too strong. We had decided that we would extend the walk around to Silver Bay but had been unable to park as it is a private caravan park (!) there so we just continued our walk around there...

 and would just have to retrace our steps - not a hardship at all on this wonderful day! The views across the water were just so lovely and the waves were now bouncing on the rocks.

Provosts, oyster catchers, gulls and canoeists....

.....kept us amused. We reached Silver Bay where there was a little cafe - so coffee was enjoyed! The sparkling sea and Snowdon watching over us -

and the gulls...

 and Provosts!

This bay, Cymyran, stretches right around to Rhosneigr to the south taking in the beach at RAF Valley - there is a river running through it though so it's not possible to cross it entirely which was why this was one of the places we had decided to cut out as the path here crosses inland for quite a distance.

The rocks out there have again been the scene of any tragedies. In fact it it reputed that the people of Rhosneigr did in fact cause some of the wrecks! A most notable wreck was the sister ship of the Cutty Sark, the Norman Court, which foundered here in 1883. And so the walk was almost complete for today. We headed back to Rhoscolyn....it had been a special day!

7 and a half really lovely miles....told you I was a fair weather walker!