25 Nov 2025
Gwyn, very generously, picked me up from Holyhead Station and drove me to my start point at Breakwater Park. I walked past the quarry to a viewpoint at Porth Namarch where you can see the full extent of the zig-zagging breakwater. Port Namarch is of great interest to geologists. You can see the interactions between a Palaeozoic dyke and the Mona Complex showing that the dyke was intruded along the Namarch Fault complex! If, like me, you have no idea what any of that means, you can find out more on the GEOMÔN website. Anglesey has such special geology that it is recognised as one of over 200 UNESCO Geoparks dotted around the world. If you’re interested in geology, you can get leaflets and also a schedule of organised walks from the website.
The path climbs around the shoulder of Holyhead Mountain and from this height I got a good view of the Isle of Man to the north. The path passes a magazine which was used to store explosives for the quarry and then drops down to North Stack with its now redundant fog signal station. Canons were fired here at regular intervals and I passed the magazine building where the shells were stored. The canons were chucked into the sea after they became redundant but one was recovered by divers and is now on display at Breakwater Park.
From North Stack the path goes south and climbs steeply to a secondary summit about half a kilometer from the main summit of Holyhead Mountain. The sun was directly in my eyes here and I found it hard to spot the marker posts. I had to backtrack a few times. I reckoned I should have been able to see Ireland but there was a bit of haze near the horizon. I could see all the way down the Lleyn Peninsula though to Bardsey Island at the tip. I then descended towards some radio masts near Gogarth Bay and then walked past an old lookout building to the small car park near the lighthouse.
The path leaves the road and winds around the base of Elin’s Tower. This was a Victorian folly built for the Stanley family and from here I finally got a glimpse of Ireland through the binoculars. It’s also a good spot to view the ridiculously picturesque North Stack Lighthouse. From here, it’s a short walk to the RSPB visitor centre which is a good place to see Choughs but I continued along the coast and then inland towards the road. Here I hopped over a stile into a field to see the circular remains of some Celtic Iron Age huts.
I continued along the road for a while and then took the path along the spectacular rocky coastline to the South Stack Cliffs nature reserve. I stopped for lunch here and met Ffion and Michelle who live on Anglesey and were out for a walk. I gave them my details and they promised to mention my walk on Facebook. In some fields a bit further on there was a herd of sheep but they were unlike any I’d seen before. They were mostly black but had white bellies and white stripes round their eyes. I later found out they are called Torddu Sheep and they have a ‘photographic negative’ version called Torwen Sheep which have the opposite colouration.
After passing several little bays including Porth Dafarch I joined the road to Trearddur and passed the huge Craig-y-Mor house. It was built in the early 1900s as a holiday home and is a Grade II listed building. I don’t think it’s that attractive and would look good in a murder mystery or horror film. I arrived at the RNLI shop which was closed but there was a restaurant nearby so I treated myself to a drink and contacted Gwyn who picked me up and took me back to the station. Thank you so much Gwyn for your help today.
9.17 miles