Monday, 13 February 2012

A (mini) Anglesey Adventure!

I was in Bangor and had an hour or so to spare and I had heard great things about the Anglesey Coastal Path so I thought I would go and experience just a little of it for myself. I thought this would be a more productive and satisfying use of my break- I had thought to go to the shops! I didn’t have time to do the whole path, or even enjoy a shorter section, so just to give you a flavour of what this incredible island has to offer, I condensed a few sights into my short time there.....


I firstly decided to be a bit of a tourist and go to the ‘town with a long name’! Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is one of the longest place names in the world, having used my favourite source (Google!) I have found it to be either second or third on the list, depending if the Thai name for Bangkok is counted. Whichever opinion you share, it is clearly quite a mouthful and the town is worth a visit, even if it is just to take your picture at the train station like myself!  From the town you can see ‘The Marquess of Anglesey's Column’, one can even walk up the 115 steps to the top, I imagine that the views from there are stunning, but alas no climb up the steps for me, unfortunately (or quite conveniently) I just didn’t have the time! The column was made in 1815 and the statue of Henry William Paget, Earl of Uxbridge, first Marquess of Anglesey was later added in 1860. He was second in command to Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo where he was unlucky enough to lose his leg.



Anglesey has incredible views and even when stopping at the side of road, the view of Menai Suspension Bridge is unbelievable. I actually stumbled across a scene being filmed for S4C’s ‘Rownd a Rownd’ when I parked up in a lay-by, not a bad spot to choose by the location manager there!  I was driving around the area to take some impressive snaps of somewhere new. On the journey I passed ‘Kate –rose’ the Waitrose supermarket where Kate Middleton was pictured shortly after the royal wedding, I popped in quickly but she wasn’t there, as Prince William is away in the Falklands I thought I could keep her company and take her for a quick drink at ‘The Bridge Inn,’ a lovely little pub by the bridge that I had come across.....oh well, her loss I suppose!
The film crew!


So back to the point in hand, as I was exploring the coastal path for a beautiful picture I struck gold. St Mary’s church has the perfect location looking over the estuary. During my time working for Walking North Wales and researching the area, from my Facebook photos (find our page- Walking North Wales), it seems that I have visited quite a few churches and graveyards recently, this has not been completely intentional but they just seem to have the most beautiful settings.



The view from the Graveyard

So my whistle-stop tour of Anglesey does not do it justice I’m afraid. I was not sure whether to write this blog post on it, however I hope that like me you now want to go back and see more!





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