Two Islands in Anglesey 2014

Saturday 22nd February 2014

We set off in sunshine on a 2 hour car trip to Holyhead. Today we would try to walk out to the South Stack lighthouse built on Ynys Lawd, a small rocky island off the edge of Holy Island. As we passed the sea on the North Wales coast the sea and sky were a beautiful blue but as a snow-capped Snowdon drew nearer the clouds seemed to be gathering and there was enough drizzle to set the windscreen wipers going. The wind was growing stronger too. Before Holyhead the sat nav. took us up a meandering single track road where we had to stop twice for pedestrians. Eventually we arrived at the first of the three places to park. The wind was cold and even stronger so we decided to fuel up a bit first with early lunch from the café at the RSPB centre. It has a shop, toilets, activities for children as it was half term, and simple home cooked food. We sat watching the sea, now a slate grey. There were enough people to make us feel that perhaps this wasn't such a mad idea.
Off we set through the heather towards the RSPB observation post. Before reaching it there's a roughly stepped path off towards the lighthouse but then we found we had to walk on the road for a bit. There is a small car park where the steps go down the cliff. Here we saw that you need a ticket to go on the island. However being winter the lighthouse is closed. The velocity of the wind had accelerated as we walked and now as we started the 400 step descent to the bridge we held on the railings with both hands. We could see the bridge was closed- surely for safety reasons. The wind shouldn't have been anywhere as strong as this today according to the weather forecast!
I was taking it personally. Wales didn't seem to like us. The new years day walk was in horizontal rain and today we could hardly breathe and keenly felt our vulnerability on the steep cliff. I am sorry to say that we gave up fighting the elements. We couldn't go on the island anyway!
On the way back to the car we watched a helicopter circling a spot on the sea .It really looked like it was actually sitting on the sea for quite a while and we wondered if it was in difficulty. It was probably on an exercise from RAF Valley but in these wild conditions? It was with some relief that we eventually saw it rise from its low hover and fly off.

It was back in the car to the Menai Bridge where we parked in the Coed Cyrnol little car park. We paid 60 p for 2 hours. We were here to walk around Church Island and luckily seemed to have left the strong wind behind.
It was a lovely walk down through a wood to the causeway for pedestrians only. This was built by grateful Belgians during world War 1 as well as the Belgian promenade that leads to the town.
The church and churchyard surrounded by a stone wall take up most of the island. Through an iron gate the first thing of note is the enormous cypress tree with its sleigh- bell like cones. We thought it was a yew tree at first which seem synonymous with churchyards. Apparently it is a Californian Monterey cypress.
 There is a plaque beneath it commemorating 3 fellows who died during the Menai Bridge construction though it doesn't say how. The grave stones are fascinating. We were surprised how many were written in English or bi-lingual. Many epitaphs contained former addresses of the interred which seemed strange. The current church was built in the early 1400s though there is a sign over the rather low doorway saying 630AD. It was named after an obscure saint-Tysilio who may have been someone who just lived a good life. It is thought he was born at the end of the 6th century to a king of Powys. Volunteers keep the little church open and not every day as today it was closed. It can hold about 35 people. It would have been nice to see inside and read the leaflet about it's history. The churchyard is supposed to have signs of the druids. We didn't see any but the island with its fantastic views across the Straits and to the 2 bridges certainly had a magical feel to it. After exploring the churchyard we climbed the wall where it was obvious other people had gone before and walked the perimeter outside it. The tide was just right to do this. A tiny island, Ynys Welltog or grassy island had a gathering of gulls huddled away from the wind on Anglesey's side. Round the other side we could see the old suspension bridge built by Thomas Telford and the other tiny island. A rock-fall from the cemetery wall has become steps up to the churchyard as we had to retrace a bit in order to exit the island. The highest point and a good vantage point for views is the monument commemorating the local dead from the 2 World Wars. It stands magnificent in carved granite.

We happily drove back the 2 hours making a short stop at Penryn castle for a cup of tea after admiring the masses of snow drops in the gardens.