Breakwater Country Park

Thursday 28 December, and we started off from Newry Beach in Holyhead. Actually, we started with lunch. This was at the Harbourfront Bistro (which is attached to the Holyhead Maritime Museum, the museum itself being closed at the time). The baguettes were good but more filling than we had planned.

We walked west along the Coastal Path. Despite it being late December, there were periwinkles in flower by Porthyfelin House.

Ascending after the quarry, we reached roughly where our earlier North Stack walk had taken us, turning back here as the sun had set behind the mountain. We returned through Breakwater Country Park, then wandered along a footpath inland towards Llaingoch and the town of Holyhead.

Weather mild for the time of year, blue skies all around but a hazy sea. There were lots of people out on the path and at the country park.

Afon Braint

A family Boxing Day walk took us back to the Coastal Path again. Starting at the roundabout just outside Newborough, we followed the path towards Afon Braint.

The stepping stones across the river, close to its mouth, are quite remarkable in being so straight, flat and evenly spaced. Crossing close to high tide made it more dramatic than most of the pictures we had seen.


It was a good job we had the guidebook with us for parts of this walk, for there were times when we were unsure whether this really was the Coastal Path. It was more muddy than coastal.

At last we reached the beach just before Tal-y-Foel. The geological map here refers to 'Glacial Gravels on Red Measures' and both could clearly be seen in the eroded cliff.