It is the start of a new year and the planning has begun in earnest for lots of new walks. We hope to move house this year, to a completely different area, and that should provide us with many opportunities. Until then, we look closer to home, and inspiration comes from a popular walking show on TV. We have walked and cycled aplenty in North Wales, but not on the Isle of Anglesey, so with the anticipation of a new adventure, we head south and west.
The walk we have chosen is a circular walk around the Holy Island taking in part of the coastal path. We begin at Porth-Y-Post, turning off the road almost immediately to head inland in the direction of Holy Mountain. A narrow lane takes us past a few houses before markers point us over a stile and into the fields. Although the trees and shrubs are mainly bare of their leaves and the ground is sodden, it is a beautiful day; still, with a light breeze and a clear blue sky. Before long the gloves and scarf are off and we are enjoying the trek across open farmland, listening to the birdsong. Shortly we meet another lane and the signage disappears - thank goodness for friendly locals! Following the path over another stile and into another field we are met with what can only be described as a ‘quagmire’; a vast swampland laid out in front of us and no way round. Thankfully we have worn full boots in anticipation of mud, but even so, we are up to our ankles for a good half hour. Once across, we cut across the road and traverse a patch of scrubland, covered in gorse, that leads first past a rocky ravine and then past a couple of farms until we begin to ascend on the path to the top of Holy Mountain. The path winds around the mountain in a spiral, climbing slowly. several paths running off right and left until we see one that seems to run to the summit, winding between boulders as the terrain becomes more rocky. As we near the top, we encounter people for the first time and several times stop to look back in the direction of Holyhead and the spectacular view of the pier zig-zagging out to sea. The views from the summit are quite spectacular: we can see the ferries leaving from the port at Holyhead, the Welsh mountains and the North and South Stacks. It takes us a couple of attempts to find a path down, and the descent is a lot steeper than the path up. We follow the rocky trail down until we meet the coastal path. We head left towards South Stack and follow the wide level path down to the headland, skirting the base of the mountain.
We spend a while wondering at the magnificent cliff views and watching the birds perched on the cliffs before continuing along the road down to Elin’s tower. From here, the path follows the road for a little while, although it has been considerately positioned above and to the side so that we don’t need to worry about the traffic. At the end of the path we pass through a kissing gate onto open heathland, following the main path around the coast all the way back to Porth-Y-Post.
This is a walk of two halves, and it is long, taking us about 7 hours in total. The first half takes you across open farmland, scrubland and then winding up to Holy Mountain and the second half takes you along the magnificent coastal path where the Irish Sea can be observed in its full splendour, crashing onto the rocks. We were lucky with the weather today; I can imagine a totally different walk in the wind and rain, and one not half as pleasant, but fortune favours the brave and we were rewarded with a glorious walk in a spectacular setting.
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