Amlwch Port to Moelfre

25th March 2019

After Saturday’s long walk we decided to have a rest day on Sunday (well my feet decided it really) so instead we ……went for a walk in a forest hunting red squirrels (and found only one). Well it wasn’t a coastal path walk at least, although that didn’t make much difference to the feet.

But Monday was a new day and the feet felt up to doing a walk again, so after planning various options and changing our minds we decided on around 12 miles of walking from Amlwch to Moelfre which had the advantage of being the next walk in the book and kept the flow going nicely around Anglesey in an anti-clockwise direction. So we drove to Moelfre, parked up and got the bus to Amlwch. At the bus stop we met the same people we had seen on 2 previous days – they were getting off the bus at Moelfre and walking back to Amlwch, so we knew we would see them again at some point in the day provided we didn’t get lost.

The bus at Amlwch left us with a short walk to the port, our starting point, and the first task of the walk was to undertake the obstacle course.

The path then took us around the edge of the port…

After the port the walk soon changed to one of rugged coast line with outcrops ahead of us to aim for.

The first landmark in site was the Trwyn Eilian Lighthouse, which actually looked like a regular house from the back. But first there were more hills and streams to cross.

Just before Porth Eilian is an ancient well called Ffynnon Eilian.

And then up the other side of the hill via some steps.

But the climb was worth it when you get this sort of a view.

We didn’t detour off the path to go up to the lighthouse as we weren’t sure if it was even open.

The next landmark to aim for was Ynys Dulas, which is a very small island just off the coast. Legend has it that the Lady of Llysdulas Hall used to row out to the island and leave food, so that when sailors got shipwrecked on the island they could eat.  Unfortunately the current owners of Llysdulas Hall aren’t quite so obliging and the coastal path had to take a detour inland across some fields at this point to avoid going across their land.

After crossing the fields we met the walkers from the bus this morning – they had got further than us, but they did have a head start. With hindsight the rest of the walk proved to be flatter than the part we had completed as well. We shared a few stories of our parts of the walk and said our farewells – they had already completed the whole of the mainland Wales coastal path and just had Anglesey to go during a 2 week holiday.

A road took us down to Dulas Bay – and although the other side of the Bay was tantalisingly close we knew we had to go inland across the marshland again to get around the bay.

The Bay narrowed enough for a bridge to get us over the river which feeds it “Afon Goch”, and by now we had eaten all our rations and were looking for food.

We found a pub on the hill (the Pilot Boat Inn), but unfortunately it was closed, so we used their picnic bench as a chance to change our socks and drink the last of our coffees.

Then up the hill past the sheep and we came to Traeth yr Ora, not sure if is related to Rita Ora?

After some smaller hills the path took us down onto the beach, Traeth Lligwy, and hope of some food at the cafe.

But unfortunately the cafe was closed and being painted.

The lifeboat station came into view, and then the lifeboat cafe, but at 4.28pm it had shut 2 minutes early.

The coastline around here had large steps in places, which are man made due to extensive quarrying of the limestone directly from the cliffs.  This area is also famous for the Royal Charter passenger clipper which was shipwrecked here on its way back from Australia in 1859. 459 people lost their lives, only 40 survived and large amounts of gold were recovered on the beach from passengers returning with personal hoards from the gold mines.

We rounded the corner and there was the end point to our walk in the Porth Moelfre.

And there was a pub in the Port, no food being served for an hour but at least we got a very nice coffee, and they were dog friendly for Bonnie as well.  So well done to the Kinmel Arms for being so friendly and welcoming.

And that was our walk. 12.9 miles completed today and 1308 feet of height, at a very slow 6 hours and 21 minutes, but that was always going to be the case with my blisters. This takes our total up to 470.8 miles completed and 404.4 miles to go. A short walk tomorrow before we head for home.