North Wales Tuesday 14th September 2010

Isle of Anglesey, Holy Island & South Stack

Once again we woke to rain and after breakfast the rain was pouring, so again we decided against getting soaked and abandoned any fancy ideas about going walking.

We decided to head for the Isle of Anglesey and visit the longest place name Llanfair.........goggoch (fill in the blanks).

In a way, this was a mistake, as after an hour of driving the weather faired, the clouds cleared and the sun appeared now and again.

We did the tourist thing and parked at the one large shop at Llanfair.... gogogch (fill in the blanks). We spent all of about fifteen minutes here as the shop was of little or no interest to us (apart from the whisky section, bought a Penderyn miniature to sample - Welsh whisky you know!!)

We did find some tourist leaflets, and one of interest was a place called South Stack - it was a RSPB site, cliffs, sea, views, what more could we want?

We headed off, across the Isle Of Anglesey, and then across to Holy Island, through Holyhead and after navigating a few narrow lanes parked up at South Stack.

The views immediately were stunning, we walked across the pathway leading along the cliff top to a white tower. This was the RSPB information centre but was closed for lunch.

However, we had noted a light house in the distance, and continued on and upward (you can see the white tower in the picture below at the bottom of the path we climbed). That's not a dirty speck in the middle of the pic by the way - it's a helicopter, plenty of them about in this area.

Time for a rest!!

The black sheep decided to form a circle and see what we were up to!!

We could see the lighthouse down below, and decided to go there, a bit of a trek down about 500 or so steps. Still it was a nice day now if quite windy.

Crossing the bridge to the lighthouse island!

We looked back at the path from whence we came!

We paid a nice man £4 each and he told us the light house tour would be in 15 minutes time.

There was a small museum of all things lighthouse to look around while we waited.

We then followed the guide up the spiral stairs to the top of the lighthouse.

Its only a 150W lamp, but I guess it's all in the glass optics!

It's automated and controlled from Harwich you know.

and... we saw dolphins!! No photos of them, they were way too quick to snap.

And then the weather started to turn, and after ascending the 500 or so steps up, we had a drink in the cafe near the car park and headed back, delighted that the afternoon had turned out very well indeed!!