Islands around Anglesey

We’ve just returned from a holiday on Anglesey where we spent much of our time looking at even smaller islands.

Church Island

Church Island is in the Menai Strait, accessible on foot at all times by a causeway. The island is the home of St Tysilio's Church and graveyard and is delightful. This was my second visit – while the girls were looking at bookshops in Menai Bridge, I took Monty (our dog) and walked to Church Island.

Before the current causeway was constructed, the island was accessible only at low tide – and during services, a lookout was posted to warn churchgoers of the incoming tide.

Ynys Llanddwyn

Ynys Llanddwyn is a tidal island on the edge of Newborough Forest on the south of Anglesey. (Looking at the OS maps, it looks as if it’s only just an island at high tide. Perhaps it was more of an island in the past.)

As dogs aren’t permitted off the lead on the island, we went for a long walk along the beach to the north (allowing Monty to be off-lead for a while) before coming back through the forest and eating our picnic on the island. We also stopped for a while and watched seals and the seabirds.

The ruin of St Dwynwen's Church is situated on Ynys Llanddwyn, and according to the interpretation board, Dwynwen, the Welsh patron saint of lovers, lived here as a nun with a magical well of enchanted eels that told the fortunes of lovesick travellers.

After our walk, I fancied a cup of tea. The kiosk in the car park was very busy, so we drove to the café at Anglesey Sea Salt, where I had a very welcome cuppa and absent-mindedly ate a dog biscuit.

The Little Church in the Sea (St Cwyfan's Church)

We encountered St Cwyfan's by accident. On our last day, we went to Aberffraw for a walk, either around the dunes or along the coast. Studying the map in the car park, we saw there was a church on an island. And so, dodging the high tide, we set off to find it.

The church is lovely and is still used. A wedding was setting up as we got there (as we walked back, we could see the wedding party negotiating the still-wet causeway in all their finery). Apparently, there are about a dozen weddings a year.

As we headed back, I reflected on the appeal of building churches on small islands. It’s not just Anglesey – there’s St Cuthbert’s on the Farne Islands and Eynhallow in Orkney, and probably more. Were they built because it was so hard to do so and thus a sign of your devotion to God?

South Stack Lighthouse

We chose a sunny but windy day to visit South Stack Lighthouse. Luckily, it wasn’t windy enough to close the lighthouse – a couple of days earlier, the wind had been gusting at 40 mph, and they closed it to visitors.

Access to the lighthouse is down the cliff via innumerable steps, across a metal bridge, and then up onto the island. At least I was doing it in 2024, I reminded myself. I bet it wasn’t so easy when they started building it in 1809.

On the island itself, there’s a small exhibition indicating what life was like for the lighthouse keepers, the engine room (life can’t have been much fun with the generator running), and then a tour up to the top of the lighthouse itself.

While the guide told us about the lamp’s 24-mile range and the bath of mercury the optics sat on, I gazed out at the sea, watched gannets and wondered about Liminal ghost realms. Megan spotted a porpoise (it may have been a dolphin).

Ynas Dulas

We didn’t actually visit Ynas Dulas – it’s a bit far out. But we saw it when we went to Anglesey’s west coast (visiting the Din Lligwy ancient village). Rather splendidly, Ynas Dulas features a rescue tower (for stranded seamen) completed in 1824.

The tower drew my attention the first time we went to Anglesey, and I subsequently set a scene from The Aurors on it and wrote a Tale of Terror.