Ynys Môn (Anglesey)
I don’t know if it’s the mystical attraction involving the cult of the Druids or my family roots, but the need to visit the island was massive.
Connected from the mainland Wales, crossing (spanning) the Menai Strait is the Menai suspension bridge, an impressive sight today, but originally a wooden construction, completed in 1826.
It was mentioned by Lewis Carrol, in Through the Looking Glass:
White Knight says to Alice,
'I heard him then, for I had just completed my design.
To keep the Menai Bridge from rust.
By boiling it in wine.'
The other bridge that crosses the strait is the Britania bridge, plans were drawn up for a new bridge by Robert Stephenson, son of the locomotive pioneer George Stephenson, and completed in March 1850. It’s not as impressive to look as the suspension bridge, but worth crossing on, as you can see the Menai suspension bridge. What you can’t see, if you’re travelling by car, are the train lines underneath, that link Wales to Holyhead. (pronounced holly-head) and on to Ireland.
The Britania bridge was reconstructed after a disastrous fire in 1970.
I can’t find out why Holyhead is pronounce holly-head, but it’s the largest town, but officially not on Anglesey. It’s connected by a 4 mile bridge (yes it is 4 miles long) and is on Holy island, a major ferry port to Ireland.
The Romans were attracted by the rich amounts of copper & the foundations of Caer Gybi, a fort at Holyhead are Roman and the road (the A5- probably an old Roman road) from Holyhead leads to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
(yes that’s all one word and is the longest official place name in the U.K.) But
it’s Llanfair pg for the non Welsh speakers.
On the east side of Anglesey is Beaumaris, 'beautiful marsh' translated from Norman French workers.
The castle actually stands mostly within in a different and much older town, called Llanfaes,
In the 1290s, when King Edward I of England moved to suppress the rebel Welsh on Anglesey, he naturally targeted Llanfaes. Not only did he conquer it, he removed it!
Edward uprooted all the village's residents and forcibly moved them across the island, to a brand new village the English called Newborough. Then he started to work on the castle.
A short distance from Beaumaris is Bryn Celli Ddu (the mound in the dark grove) a prehistoric site, with a burial chamber. Visitors can now enter the chamber, filled with patterned stones, a mysterious pillar, sinuous serpentine deigns, carved into the stone. The site was once a henge with a stone circle, constructed around 3000 BC.
Either going to, or coming from Anglesey, it’s worth going to Conwy, a walled market town on the north coast of Wales. It faces Deganwy, across the river Conwy and it also has a castle.
Also built under the instruction of Edward the 1st, between 1283 and 1289. No villages where removed then.
It is also where the smallest house in Britain is. It’s in the Guinness book of world records and stands on the harbour of Conwy. The house was lived in until 1900, the owner was Robert James, a 6’ 3” fisherman, who couldn’t stand up fully in the house. He was forced to move out, as the council declared the house unfit for human habitation.The house is still owned by his descendants and for a small entrance fee, you can go inside.
I couldn’t write about all the places to visit, I didn’t mention the beaches, mountain or coastline walks, there is so much to do on this historic island, I hope you can find the time to visit, you won’t regret it!
Chris.
