The excellent book, Coastal Walks around Anglesey by Carl Rogers, provides details of twenty two circular walks exploring the island, including lots of fascinating information about the area. We chose Walk 6 from Traeth Lligwy to Moelfre because having seen information about the most famous wreck, the 'Royal Charter', at Oriel Ynys Mon the previous day, thought it would be interesting to see the site where the ship went down with the loss of over 400 lives in 1859 off the coast at Moelfre.
I would recommend this walk, there were fabulous views from the coastal path and so many different things to look at and photograph along the way.
The walk starts at Lligwy beach, a vast expanse of sand
and then takes you along the Anglesey Coastal Path
past the stone memorial commemorating the loss of the 'Royal Charter'. The memorial apparently overlooks the rocks where the ship was pounded to pieces during hurricane force winds on 26 October 1859. The clipper used to run between Liverpool and Australia where people left this country to go to the goldfields, and apparently were on the return journey back to Liverpool laden with gold.
There are some great stone sculptures made of piles of stones at Porth Helaeth, the stony beach just below the memorial.
Further along the coast is a sculpture 'Bryn Wylfa' (Look Out) 'reflects the island's history of stone, slate and bronze with a modern contemporary twist in the stainless steel depicted in simplified arrangements of lines, shapes, textures and colours.' It was designed by Keith Shone and fabricated by Sam Holland.
A magnificent bronze memorial sculpture of Dic Evans,
celebrating the achievements of one of Moelfre Lifeboat’s famous men, to
represent the bravery, sense of duty and purpose of all lifeboat crews.
Below you can see half of the Royal Charter Memorial Sculpture at the Sea Watch Centre in Moelfre, it depicts the remarkable courage of the Maltese sailor, Giuseppi Ruggier, who swam
ashore and climbed the cliff with a rope - so he saved a lot of people
The other half of the inner part of the sculpture which depicts the clipper in huge seas, isn't so easy to see from the photograph, but can be seen if you click on the link.
All three sculptures are produced by Sam Holland, a fabulous achievement since they are so different, but wonderful.
From the coast, we walked into Moelfre, past a waterfall, and then inland where we walked along a quiet road until we reached a quarry and then followed directions through a field to another road where we came across Lligwy Burial Chamber
where we came across Lligwy Burial Chamber seen below. It's 5000 years old and was intended for the communal burial of the dead, and was probably covered originally by a mound of earth or stones.
From there we walked back to the road and along until we came across a sign indicating Hen Capel ruins on the right
It's possible to walk through the gate in the twelfth century chapel and look inside, the burial vault looked intriguing, but I didn't venture down there.
From the chapel, you can walk across the field, through a kissing gate and up a small hill to Din Lligwy, one of the most remarkable and best preserved settlements thought to date from the middle of the fourth century
I took several photos of what's left of the village on this half acre site
I like the circular structures best, but it's hard to convey what they're like in photos
I've included the photo below in an attempt to show the scale of the village
From there we walked back to the car park at Lligwy beach. It's a fabulous walk with so much to see along the way.
I would recommend this walk, there were fabulous views from the coastal path and so many different things to look at and photograph along the way.
From the coast, we walked into Moelfre, past a waterfall, and then inland where we walked along a quiet road until we reached a quarry and then followed directions through a field to another road where we came across Lligwy Burial Chamber
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