|
Anglesey Coastal Path |
We started the walk on a late April Saturday after travelling to Holyhead by train from Derby that morning. Following a dreadful wet summer and autumn in 2012 and an unsettled winter and even snow just a week or two before we set out the weather had miraculously improved during the few days prior to our start date. We were surprised and delighted to be setting out on a bright, sunny and clear but still rather cold afternoon.
The curvy steel structures at Holyhead rail and sea terminal positively glittered in the sunshine
Neither of us had been to Holyhead before and we were impressed by the very stylish, curvy stainless steel walkways and bridges leading to the town centre. Everything shone and glittered in the bright sunlight.
St Cybi's church didn't quite look its best at that moment but at least it was colourful!
The walkway into the town led directly onto the main shopping street and, turning right, it was a short walk uphill to St Cybi’s Church which is the official start and finish point of the trail. It was a bit of a shame that the famous church had its tower encased in scaffolding and blue, red and white polythene sheeting so didn’t really make the ideal backdrop for the customary ‘here-we-go’ photo. There was nobody around at that moment to take it for us anyway so we moved on without one!
The Promenade shelter (on the right hand edge of this pic) was a very welcome lunch venue as the sea-breeze was bitterly cold
A short stretch of town streets and houses took us to the sea front and pretty soon views of the large bay opened up to the right and it definitely felt like the start of a coastal path walk. Despite the strong sunshine there was a very brisk, cold wind blowing in off the sea and we headed for the shelter on the promenade near the maritime museum to eat our packed lunches, jackets zipped up and gloves on!
We saw quite a few examples of gates made in this curvy, almost fairy-tale rustic style. A nice touch.
At the far end of the bay the main road headed inland and a side road took a twisty, up-and-down route that gradually climbed to a higher headland track with fine sea views (something that would soon become the norm for us) on the way to Holyhead Mountain. At some point we must have missed a turning because we ended up in the Breakwater Country Park but that was no problem as they had an ice-cream shop – I must admit we rarely miss the chance of an ice-cream while walking on sunny days! Luckily it was just a short stroll down a signed path back on to the proper route and onwards and upwards around the mountain.
Looking back at the long harbour wall from near North Stack
The next couple of miles were surprisingly heavy going to be honest; we’d barely warmed our leg muscles up after a morning of train travel and these paths were getting quite steep in places! There were a fair few other people on the hill but nobody else was carrying much more than a tiny daysack so we soon found ourselves being overtaken by just about everybody!
The gleaming white house above North Stack is obvious from all around but the huge Parliament House Cave is easy to miss from the main path
After the North Stack area the path took a turn straight up towards the summit but fortunately there were several choices waymarked so we didn’t have to go right over the top. The sun was pretty strong for late April and now the hill was sheltering us from the wind we were both beginning to overheat so we had a few minutes break and took off our jackets. My legs felt surprisingly weak as we set off again so Mel agreed she didn’t mind skipping the trig point – I think she was secretly struggling too! I’d been there before anyway so promised to show her my photos sometime if she felt deprived.
Peat bogs were pleasantly absent on this trail and even the few we did encounter generally weren't on our path!
The landscape opened up on the south side of the mountain and wide peat moorland slopes took us down to South Stack and on to the road that then led southwards to a long series of glorious cliff top paths.
The iconic South Stack Lighthouse
I could have quite enjoyed a closer look at the South Stack lighthouse but we were well into the afternoon and still had a fair way to go so couldn’t really spare the time. One for a future visit maybe.
Trearddur comes into view across the bay with Snowdonia looming in the distance behind
The rest of the day’s route hugged the coast in an almost continuous sequence of superb aerial views down into narrow coves from the top of the cliffs. It is a particularly rugged, rocky stretch with little in the way of beaches until Trearddur Bay itself, where we had our first real walk on sand.
A fine beach walk concludes the first day's route
It was actually just the first of many seashore sections but in common with almost all of the beaches that we encountered over the ten days, we crossed it at a point in the walk where we couldn’t really stop for a boots off paddle! Our target campsite – Bagnol Caravan Park – was right on the path on the south side of Trearddur so we followed the coast road round and didn’t go into the main settlement itself. Because of our late start it was more early evening than late afternoon when we reached the site and the reception office had closed.
Gentle evening sunshine lights up a reed bed near the campsite entrance
After wandering around a bit a man walking his dog through the site advised us that we wouldn’t find anyone to pay at that time so we might as well just pitch in the tent field anyway and settle up in the morning, so that’s what we did. Luckily the facilities weren’t locked so we were able to freshen up once we’d pitched and then headed off to find a place to eat. As we were in danger of missing the food serving deadline we went in the first place we found – The Seacroft, just down the road from the campsite. We would normally have been put off by the 5 star billing on the signboards (we prefer cheap and cheerful when trail walking) but we didn’t really have much choice. As it turned out it was a nice place; comfortably busy and not actually too expensive and the food and beer was really good.
So, we’d got off to a good start – day one was a success despite the rather tight timetable and we returned to our tents hoping (but not expecting!) that the amazing weather would continue for at least a few days.