12 Dec 2025
I was joined once again on my walk today by my walking buddy Ian. We arrived at a parking spot near the village of Dwyran and waited for the number 42 bus to take us to Malltraeth. According to the bustimes.org website it was scheduled for 09:44 but it didn’t turn up. Ian checked the bus times on his phone but the timetable he found indicated that it had gone earlier than I thought. We made the decision to take the car to Malltraeth and use the bus at the end of the walk instead. Just as we were about to set off, the bus passed us ten minutes later than scheduled!
We set off from The Joiners Arms across the tidal gate and along The Cob next to the Malltraeth Pool nature reserve. For some unfathomable reason, there were dog poo bags placed at regular intervals along the side of the path. We reached the main road but at this point there was some works going on and the path was diverted along a bridleway through the forest. Back on the official path we continued for a long while through the forest to a point near Llanddwyn Island.
Although it isn’t on the path we decided Ynys Llanddwyn was too good to miss so we diverted onto the beach passing some pillow lava rocks and crossed the narrow gap between the Anglesey ‘mainland’ and the island. I knew high tide was due a few hours away but it was a neap tide, the distance was very short and I’d been here before and not been cut off. ‘We’ll be fine Ian’, I said!
Ynys Llanddwyn is a very beautiful small island and we walked anti-clockwise around it. We passed the ruins of St Dwynwen’s Church and the large cross to Tŵr Mawr Lighthouse at the tip of the island. St Dwynwen is the Welsh patron saint of lovers and is the Welsh equivalent of St Valentine celebrating on the 25th Jan. It was lunchtime so we had our lunch in the porch of one of the pilots’ cottages to get out of the wind. We returned to the end of the island near the shore and yes, you guessed it already, the tide had cut us off! It didn’t seem that deep though and after trying to walk across some rocks we waded through. It was deep enough to go over the top of our boots though and I ended up with wet feet again. Luckily, this time, I had packed some dry socks in my rucksack (although Ian wasn’t so lucky).
We rejoined the coastal path through the forest, passing through the large Newborough Beach car park, and continued along the edge of the forest to a car park at Pen-Lôn. The ground was very sodden here but our feet were wet anyway! At the car park is a large sculpture by artist Ann Catrin Evans. It depicts bundles of Marram Grass which were harvested locally. It was my original intention to walk to Dwyran but there wasn’t much daylight left and the final bit involved walking across the Afon Braint at Rhuddgaer via stepping stones. I felt sure this would be impassable due to the high tide but we had time to walk down to the river crossing and check it out. Most of the tops of the stones were out of the water but two towards the middle were submerged and I decided it was too risky to cross. We walked back to Pen-Lôn where there was a bus stop but had time to drop in at Y Marram restaurant and bar at Newborough Warren Caravan Park.
We only had 10 minutes before the bus arrived so we got two teas to take away. Cerys, who served us was outstanding. She lit the log fire so that I could dry my wet socks (before she knew we only had 10 minutes) and gave me a donation. We got to the bus stop and it wasn’t long before our bus arrived. At Malltraeth we regretted spending so little time at Y Marram so we went back there for a coffee before heading back to Chester. The staff there are fantastic and so friendly and laid back. I recommend you visit if you’re in the area.
10.27 miles