Back on the Welsh Coastal Path: A Walk on Anglesey. . .

Anglesey is an island on the north west coast of Wales.  The town of Holyhead is where you catch the ferry to Dublin as I did over twenty years ago.  I hadn't been back since, but tagged along with the Liverpud as he did a recce for an upcoming walk.

We started at Breakwater Country Park where you can quickly access the Welsh Coastal path.  Here it is quite rocky, but the views are lovely.

What I can't convey in this post is the cacophony of seabirds that you hear continuously all along the coast.  They breed on outcrops such as this one.

Not far along the walk and you get your first glimpse of South Stacks and its famous lighthouse.

But first we turned inland and climbed Holyhead Mountain.

Here's the view from the top looking east.  You can see the mysterious outlines of the Snowdonia hills in the distance.

And to the south you can see the headlands that we'll be going along towards the end of the walk.

But first it's off to South Stacks.

As you descend the steps towards the lighthouse you see lots of different breeding grounds.

And the most amazing striations of colour and texture in the cliff faces.

The lighthouse is still a working one and we got the chance to climb up to the top.

And see the light itself.  The lighthouse has been in operation since 1809.

A view of the 400 steps we'll need to climb back up.

Here are some closeups of the birds - I believe these are guillemots, though there are also puffins and razorbills nearby.

Further along the path is this look-out tower run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)

I had despaired of coming across any sheep on this walk, but then we entered this field full of Black Welsh Mountain sheep.

They look a bit fierce but although curious, they quickly scampered away from us.

The last bit of the walk was along the headlands on the way back to Holyhead.  From the top of the mountain, they looked fairly tame, but there was still some spectacular cliffs and hidden coves to be seen.

And there was some beautiful moorland to walk past once we headed inland.

I enjoyed the walk, although I do think there are far more spectacular coastal walks in Wales.  Perhaps the day was dampened by having to walk several miles through rather blah and grey housing estates in Holyhead to get back to the car park.  If you are a twitcher though, you'd love this part of the coast.