Isle of Anglesey on:  
[Wikipedia]  
[Google]  
[Amazon]
Anglesey (; cy, (Ynys) Môn ) is an island off the north-west coast of
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
. It forms a
principal area {{Short description, Formal legal term for a county in England and Wales
In England and Wales local government legislation, a principal area is one of the sub-national areas established for control by a principal council. They include most of the ar ...
known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes
Holy Island
Sacred space, sacred ground, sacred place, sacred temple, holy ground, or holy place refers to a location which is deemed to be sacred or hallowed. The sacredness of a natural feature may accrue through tradition or be granted through a bless ...
across the narrow
Cymyran Strait and some islets and
skerries. Anglesey island, at , is the
largest in Wales, the
seventh largest in Britain,
largest
Large means of great size.
Large may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Arbitrarily large, a phrase in mathematics
* Large cardinal, a property of certain transfinite numbers
* Large category, a category with a proper class of objects and morphisms (o ...
in the
Irish Sea
The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...
and second most populous there after the
Isle of Man
)
, anthem = "O Land of Our Birth"
, image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg
, image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg
, mapsize =
, map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe
, map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green)
in Europe ...
.
Isle of Anglesey County Council
The Isle of Anglesey County Council ( cy, Cyngor Sir Ynys Môn) is the local authority for the county of Anglesey, one of the principal areas of Wales. Since 2022 the council has 35 councillors who represent 11 multi-member electoral wards.
Hi ...
administers , with a 2011 census population of 69,751, including 13,659 on Holy Island. The
Menai Strait
The Menai Strait ( cy, Afon Menai, the "river Menai") is a narrow stretch of shallow tidal water about long, which separates the island of Anglesey from the mainland of Wales. It varies in width from from Fort Belan to Abermenai Point to from ...
to the mainland is spanned by the
Menai Suspension Bridge
The Menai Suspension Bridge ( cy, Pont y Borth, Pont Grog y Borth) is a suspension bridge spanning the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales. Designed by Thomas Telford and completed in 1826, it was the world's f ...
, designed by
Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotla ...
in 1826, and the
Britannia Bridge
Britannia Bridge ( cy, Pont Britannia) is a bridge across the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales. It was originally designed and built by the noted railway engineer Robert Stephenson as a tubular bridge of wr ...
, built in 1850 and replaced in 1980. The largest town is
Holyhead
Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...
on Holy Island, whose ferry service with Ireland handles over two million passengers a year. The next largest is
Llangefni
Llangefni (meaning "church on the River Cefni", ) is the county town of Anglesey in Wales and contains the principal offices of the Isle of Anglesey County Council. United Kingdom Census 2011 recorded Llangefni's population as 5,116 people, maki ...
, the county council seat. From
1974 to
1996 Anglesey was part of
Gwynedd
Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, and C ...
. Most full-time residents are habitual
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
speakers. The Welsh name Ynys Môn is used for the
UK Parliament
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremac ...
and
Senedd (Welsh Parliament) constituencies. The postcodes are
LL58–LL78. It is also a
historic county of Wales.
Name
![Anglesey OS map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Anglesey_OS_map.png)
The English name of the island may be derived from the
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
; either ''Ǫngullsey'' "Hook Island"
[Lena Peterson, et al]
Nordiskt runnamnslexikon
(Dictionary of Names from Runic Inscriptions), p. 116, May 2001. Accessed 6 June 2012. or ''Ǫnglisey'' "Ǫngli's Island".
[Adrian Room. ]
Placenames of the World
', p. 30. McFarland, 2003. Accessed 6 February 2013. No record of such an Ǫngli survives, but the place name was used by Viking raiders as early as the 10th century and later adopted by the Normans during their invasions of Gwynedd.[John Davies. ''A History of Wales'', pp. 98–99.] The traditional folk etymology
Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...
reading the name as the "Island of the Angles
The Angles ( ang, Ængle, ; la, Angli) were one of the main Germanic peoples who settled in Great Britain in the post-Roman period. They founded several kingdoms of the Heptarchy in Anglo-Saxon England. Their name is the root of the name ' ...
(English)"[The ''London Encyclopaedia''.]
Anglesey
. Tegg (London), 1839. Accessed 6 February 2013. may account for its Norman use but has no merit,[ as the Angles' name itself is probably cognate with the shape of the ]Angeln
Anglia (German and Low German: ''Angeln''; Danish and South Jutlandic: ''Angel''; ang, Engla land) is a small peninsula on the eastern coast of Jutland (the Cimbric Peninsula). Jutland consists of the mainland of Denmark and the northernmos ...
peninsula. All of them ultimately derive from the proposed Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...
root ''*ank-'' ("to flex, bend, angle"). Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries and into the 20th, it was usually spelt Anglesea in documents, a spelling that is still occasionally used today.
''Ynys Môn'', the island's Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
name, first appeared in the Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''Mona'' of various Roman sources. It was likewise known to the Saxons
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
as ''Monez''. The Brittonic
Brittonic or Brythonic may refer to:
*Common Brittonic, or Brythonic, the Celtic language anciently spoken in Great Britain
*Brittonic languages, a branch of the Celtic languages descended from Common Brittonic
*Britons (Celtic people)
The Br ...
original was in the past taken to have meant "Island of the Cow".[Davies, Edward. ]
The Mythology and Rites of the British Druids
', p. 177. Booth (London), 1809. Accessed 6 February 2013. This view is untenable according to modern scientific philology and the etymology remains a mystery.
Poetic names for Anglesey include the Old Welsh
Old Welsh ( cy, Hen Gymraeg) is the stage of the Welsh language from about 800 AD until the early 12th century when it developed into Middle Welsh.Koch, p. 1757. The preceding period, from the time Welsh became distinct from Common Brittonic ...
''Ynys Dywyll'' (Shady or Dark Isle) for its former groves and ''Ynys y Cedairn'' (Isle of the Brave) for its royal courts;[ ]Gerald of Wales
Gerald of Wales ( la, Giraldus Cambrensis; cy, Gerallt Gymro; french: Gerald de Barri; ) was a Cambro-Norman priest and English historians in the Middle Ages, historian. As a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops, he travelled widely and w ...
' ''Môn Mam Cymru'' ("Môn, Mother of Wales") for its agricultural productivity; and ''Y fêl Ynys'' (Honey Isle).
History
There are numerous megalith
A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea.
The ...
ic monuments and menhir
A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. They can be foun ...
s on Anglesey, testifying to the presence of humans in prehistory
Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...
. Plas Newydd is near one of 28 cromlechs that remain on uplands overlooking the sea. The Welsh Triads
The Welsh Triads ( cy, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, "Triads of the Island of Britain") are a group of related texts in medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in groups of three. The triad is a ...
claim that Anglesey was once part of the mainland.
Historically, Anglesey has long been associated with the druid
A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. Whi ...
s. The Roman conquest of Anglesey began in 60 CE when the Roman general Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, determined to break the power of the druids, attacked the island using his amphibious Batavian contingent as a surprise vanguard
The vanguard (also called the advance guard) is the leading part of an advancing military formation. It has a number of functions, including seeking out the enemy and securing ground in advance of the main force.
History
The vanguard derives fr ...
assault and then destroyed the shrine and the nemeta (sacred grove
Sacred groves or sacred woods are groves of trees and have special religious importance within a particular culture. Sacred groves feature in various cultures throughout the world. They were important features of the mythological landscape and ...
s). News of Boudica
Boudica or Boudicca (, known in Latin chronicles as Boadicea or Boudicea, and in Welsh as ()), was a queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe, who led a failed uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61. She ...
's revolt reached him just after his victory, causing him to withdraw his army before consolidating his conquest. The island was finally brought into the Roman Empire by Gnaeus Julius Agricola
Gnaeus Julius Agricola (; 13 June 40 – 23 August 93) was a Roman general and politician responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain. Born to a political family of senatorial rank, Agricola began his military career as a military tribun ...
, the Roman governor
A Roman governor was an official either elected or appointed to be the chief administrator of Roman law throughout one or more of the many provinces constituting the Roman Empire.
The generic term in Roman legal language was '' Rector provinciae ...
of Britain, in AD 78. During the Roman occupation, the area was notable for the mining of copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
. The foundations of Caer Gybi, a fort in Holyhead
Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...
, are Roman, and the present road from Holyhead to Llanfairpwllgwyngyll
Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, or Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll (), is a large village and local government community on the island of Anglesey, Wales, on the Menai Strait next to the Britannia Bridge and across the strait from Bangor. Both shortened (Llanf ...
was originally a Roman road
Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...
. The island was grouped by Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...
with Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
("Hibernia
''Hibernia'' () is the Classical Latin name for Ireland. The name ''Hibernia'' was taken from Greek geographical accounts. During his exploration of northwest Europe (c. 320 BC), Pytheas of Massalia called the island ''Iérnē'' (written ). ...
") rather than with Britain ("Albion
Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than 'Britain' today. The name for Scot ...
").
British Iron Age
The British Iron Age is a conventional name used in the archaeology of Great Britain, referring to the prehistoric and protohistoric phases of the Iron Age culture of the main island and the smaller islands, typically excluding prehistoric Ire ...
and Roman sites have been excavated and coins and ornaments found, especially by the 19th-century antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...
William Owen Stanley
Hon. William Owen Stanley (13 November 1802 – 24 February 1884) was a British Liberal Party politician.
Life
Stanley was the son of John Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley, and Lady Maria Josepha, daughter of John Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sh ...
. After the Roman departure from Britain
The end of Roman rule in Britain was the transition from Roman Britain to post-Roman Britain. Roman rule ended in different parts of Britain at different times, and under different circumstances.
In 383, the usurper Magnus Maximus withdrew tr ...
in the early 5th century, pirates from Ireland colonised Anglesey and the nearby LlÅ·n Peninsula
The LlÅ·n Peninsula ( cy, Penrhyn LlÅ·n or , ) extends into the Irish Sea from North West Wales, south west of the Isle of Anglesey. It is part of the historic county of Caernarfonshire, and historic region and local authority area of Gwynedd. Mu ...
. In response to this, Cunedda ap Edern, a Gododdin
The Gododdin () were a Brittonic people of north-eastern Britannia, the area known as the Hen Ogledd or Old North (modern south-east Scotland and north-east England), in the sub-Roman period. Descendants of the Votadini, they are best known ...
warlord from Scotland, came to the area and began to drive the Irish out. This was continued by his son Einion Yrth ap Cunedda
Einion ap Cunedda ( – 500;; – 480s), also known as Einion Yrth ( Welsh for "the Impetuous"), was a king of Gwynedd. He is claimed as an ancestor of the later rulers of North Wales.
One of the sons of Cunedda, he travelled with his father ...
and grandson Cadwallon Lawhir ap Einion; the last Irish invaders were finally defeated in battle in 470. Anglesey as an island had a good defensive position, and so Aberffraw
Aberffraw is a village and community on the south west coast of the Isle of Anglesey ( cy, Ynys Môn), in Wales, by the west bank of the Afon Ffraw (Ffraw River). The community includes Soar and Dothan. Located near the A4080 and the nearest ...
became the site of the court, or ''Llys'', of the Kingdom of Gwynedd
The Kingdom of Gwynedd (Medieval Latin: ; Middle Welsh: ) was a Welsh kingdom and a Roman Empire successor state that emerged in sub-Roman Britain in the 5th century during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.
Based in northwest Wales, th ...
. Apart from a devastating Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
raid in 853, it remained the capital until the 13th century, when improvements to the English navy made the location indefensible. Anglesey was also briefly the most southerly possession of the Norwegian Empire
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
*Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
*Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including the ...
.
After the Irish, the island was invaded by Vikings
Vikings ; non, vÃkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
— some raids were noted in famous saga
is a series of science fantasy role-playing video games by Square Enix. The series originated on the Game Boy in 1989 as the creation of Akitoshi Kawazu at Square (video game company), Square. It has since continued across multiple platforms, ...
s (see Menai Strait History) — and by Saxons
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
, and Normans
The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Fran ...
, before falling to Edward I of England
Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassa ...
in the 13th century. The connection with the Vikings can be seen in the name of the island. In ancient times it was called "Maenige" and received the name "Ongulsey" or Angelsoen, from where the current name originates.
Anglesey (with Holy Island) is one of the 13 historic counties of Wales
The historic counties of Wales are sub-divisions of Wales. They were used for various functions for several hundred years,Bryne, T., ''Local Government in Britain'', (1994) but for administrative purposes have been superseded by contemporary ...
. In medieval times, before the conquest of Wales in 1283, ''Môn'' often had periods of temporary independence, when frequently bequeathed to the heirs of kings as a sub-kingdom of Gwynedd
Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, and C ...
. The last times this occurred were a few years after 1171, after the death of Owain Gwynedd
Owain ap Gruffudd ( 23 or 28 November 1170) was King of Gwynedd, North Wales, from 1137 until his death in 1170, succeeding his father Gruffudd ap Cynan. He was called Owain the Great ( cy, Owain Fawr) and the first to be ...
, when the island was inherited by Rhodri ab Owain Gwynedd
Rhodri ab Owain Gwynedd ( 1147 – 1195) was prince of part of Gwynedd, one of the kingdoms of medieval Wales. He ruled from 1175 to 1195.
On the death of Owain Gwynedd in 1170, fighting broke out among his nineteen sons over the division of hi ...
, and between 1246 and about 1255, when it was granted to Owain Goch as his share of the kingdom. After the conquest of Wales by Edward I, Anglesey became a county under the terms of the Statute of Rhuddlan
The Statute of Rhuddlan (12 Edw 1 cc.1–14; cy, Statud Rhuddlan ), also known as the Statutes of Wales ( la, Statuta Valliae) or as the Statute of Wales ( la, Statutum Valliae, links=no), provided the constitutional basis for the government of ...
of 1284. Hitherto it had been divided into the ''cantref
A cantref ( ; ; plural cantrefi or cantrefs; also rendered as ''cantred'') was a medieval Welsh land division, particularly important in the administration of Welsh law.
Description
Land in medieval Wales was divided into ''cantrefi'', which were ...
i'' of Aberffraw
Aberffraw is a village and community on the south west coast of the Isle of Anglesey ( cy, Ynys Môn), in Wales, by the west bank of the Afon Ffraw (Ffraw River). The community includes Soar and Dothan. Located near the A4080 and the nearest ...
, Rhosyr
Rhosyr is a community in the far southern corner of Anglesey, Wales. It includes the villages of Dwyran and Newborough, Llangeinwen and Llangaffo.
The community population taken at the 2011 census was 2,226. and includes Llanddwyn Island a ...
and Cemaes
Cemaes () is a village on the north coast of Anglesey in Wales, sited on Cemaes Bay, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty which is partly owned by the National Trust. It is the most northerly village in Wales (excluding the nearby hamlet of L ...
.
20th century
The Shire Hall in Llangefni was completed in 1899. During the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the Presbyterian minister and celebrity preacher John Williams
John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who wa ...
toured the island as part of an effort to recruit young men as volunteers. The island's location made it ideal for monitoring German U-Boats
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...
in the Irish Sea
The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...
, with half a dozen airships based at Mona. German POWs
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...
were kept on the island. By the end of the war, some 1,000 of the island's men had died on active service.
In 1936 the NSPCC
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a British child protection charity.
History
Victorian era
On a trip to New York in 1881, Liverpudlian businessman Thomas Agnew was inspired by a visit to the New Yor ...
opened its first branch on Anglesey.
During the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Anglesey received Italian POWs
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...
. The island was designated a reception zone, and was home to evacuee children from Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
and Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
.
In 1971, a 100,000 ton per annum aluminum smelter
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...
was opened by Rio Tinto Zinc Corporation
Consolidated Zinc was an Australian mining company from 1905 to 1962.
History
The company's initial operations focused on extracting zinc from mine tailings of the Broken Hill Ore Deposit at Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. The company w ...
and British Insulated Callender's Cables
British Insulated Callender's Cables (BICC) was a 20th-century British cable manufacturer and construction company, now renamed after its former subsidiary Balfour Beatty. It was formed from the merger of two long established cable firms, Callen ...
with Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation
Kaiser Aluminum Corporation is an American aluminum producer. It is a spinoff from Kaiser Aluminum and Chemicals Corporation, which came to be when common stock was offered in Permanente Metals Corporation and Permanente Metals Corporation's ...
as a 30 per cent partner.
In 1974, Anglesey became a district of the new county
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
of Gwynedd
Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, and C ...
. The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994
The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 (c. 19) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which amended the Local Government Act 1972 to create the current local government structure in Wales of 22 unitary authority areas, referred to as ...
abolished the 1974 county and the five districts on 1 April 1996, when Anglesey became a separate unitary authority
A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...
. In 2011, the Welsh Government
The Welsh Government ( cy, Llywodraeth Cymru) is the Welsh devolution, devolved government of Wales. The government consists of ministers and Minister (government), deputy ministers, and also of a Counsel General for Wales, counsel general. Minist ...
appointed a panel of commissioners to administer the council, which meant the elected members were not in control. The commissioners remained until an election
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
was held in May 2013, restoring an elected Council. Before the period of direct administration, there had been a majority of independent councillors. Though members did not generally divide along party lines, these were organised into five non-partisan groups on the council, containing a mix of party and independent candidates. The position has been similar since the election, although the Labour Party has formed a governing coalition with the independents.
Brand new council offices were built at Llangefni in the 1990s for the new Isle of Anglesey County Council
The Isle of Anglesey County Council ( cy, Cyngor Sir Ynys Môn) is the local authority for the county of Anglesey, one of the principal areas of Wales. Since 2022 the council has 35 councillors who represent 11 multi-member electoral wards.
Hi ...
.
Geography
Anglesey is a low-lying island with low hills spaced evenly over the north. The highest six are Holyhead Mountain
Holyhead Mountain (''Mynydd Twr'' in Welsh: from ''(pen)twr'', meaning "tower") is the highest mountain on Holy Island, Anglesey, and the highest in the county of Anglesey, north Wales. It lies about two miles west of the town of Holyhead, and s ...
, ; Mynydd Bodafon
Mynydd Bodafon (Bodafon Mountain) is a small collection of peaks including the Arwydd (The Sign or signal) which is the highest point on the island of Anglesey (although not in the county of Anglesey — see Holyhead Mountain). It lies about 2 ...
, ; Mynydd Llaneilian, ; Mynydd y Garn, ; Bwrdd Arthur
Bwrdd Arthur (meaning "Arthur's Table"), also known as Din Sylwy, is a flat-topped limestone hill on the island of Anglesey, in Wales. Located on the eastern end of Red Wharf Bay, some 3 kilometres north west of Llangoed, it is noteworthy from ...
, ; and Mynydd Llwydiarth, . To the south and south-east, the island is divided from the Welsh mainland by the Menai Strait
The Menai Strait ( cy, Afon Menai, the "river Menai") is a narrow stretch of shallow tidal water about long, which separates the island of Anglesey from the mainland of Wales. It varies in width from from Fort Belan to Abermenai Point to from ...
, which at its narrowest point is about wide. In all other directions the island is surrounded by the Irish Sea
The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...
. At , it is the 52nd largest island of Europe and just smaller than the main island of Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
.
There are several scattered small towns that even out the population. The largest are Holyhead
Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...
, Llangefni
Llangefni (meaning "church on the River Cefni", ) is the county town of Anglesey in Wales and contains the principal offices of the Isle of Anglesey County Council. United Kingdom Census 2011 recorded Llangefni's population as 5,116 people, maki ...
, Benllech
Benllech (; ) is a large village on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales. It is in the community of Llanfair-Mathafarn-Eithaf, which has a population of 3,382, making it the fourth largest settlement on the island of Anglesey. The name of Benllech v ...
, Menai Bridge
Menai Bridge ( cy, Porthaethwy; usually referred to colloquially as Y Borth) is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in north-west Wales. It overlooks the Menai Strait and lies by the Menai Suspension Bridge, built in 1826 by Thomas T ...
, and Amlwch
Amlwch (; ) is a port town and community in Wales. It is situated on the north coast of the Isle of Anglesey, on the A5025 which connects it to Holyhead and to Menai Bridge. As well as Amlwch town and Amlwch Port, other settlements within t ...
. Beaumaris
Beaumaris ( ; cy, Biwmares ) is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, of which it is the former county town of Anglesey. It is located at the eastern entrance to the Menai Strait, the tidal waterway separating Anglesey from th ...
(Welsh: ''Biwmares'') in the east features Beaumaris Castle
Beaumaris Castle ( ; cy, Castell Biwmares ), in Beaumaris, Anglesey, Wales, was built as part of Edward I's campaign to conquer north Wales after 1282. Plans were probably first made to construct the castle in 1284, but this was delayed d ...
, built by Edward I during his Bastide
Bastides are fortified new towns built in medieval Languedoc, Gascony, Aquitaine, England and Wales during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, although some authorities count Mont-de-Marsan and Montauban, which was founded in 1144, as the f ...
campaign in North Wales
, area_land_km2 = 6,172
, postal_code_type = Postcode
, postal_code = LL, CH, SY
, image_map1 = Wales North Wales locator map.svg
, map_caption1 = Six principal areas of Wales common ...
. Beaumaris is a yachting
Yachting is the use of recreational boats and ships called ''yachts'' for racing or cruising. Yachts are distinguished from working ships mainly by their leisure purpose. "Yacht" derives from the Dutch word '' jacht'' ("hunt"). With sailboats, t ...
centre, with boats moored in the bay or off Gallows Point. The village of Newborough (Welsh: ''Niwbwrch''), in the south, created when townsfolk of Llanfaes were relocated for the building of Beaumaris Castle, includes the site of Llys Rhosyr, another court of medieval Welsh princes featuring one of the United Kingdom's oldest courtrooms. The centrally localted Llangefni
Llangefni (meaning "church on the River Cefni", ) is the county town of Anglesey in Wales and contains the principal offices of the Isle of Anglesey County Council. United Kingdom Census 2011 recorded Llangefni's population as 5,116 people, maki ...
is the island's administrative centre. The town of Menai Bridge
Menai Bridge ( cy, Porthaethwy; usually referred to colloquially as Y Borth) is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in north-west Wales. It overlooks the Menai Strait and lies by the Menai Suspension Bridge, built in 1826 by Thomas T ...
(Welsh: ''Porthaethwy'') in the south-east, expanded to accommodate workers and construction when the first bridge to the mainland was being built. Hitherto Porthaethwy had been one of the main ferry ports for the mainland. A short distance from the town lies Bryn Celli Ddu
Bryn Celli Ddu is a prehistoric site on the Welsh island of Anglesey located near Llanddaniel Fab. Its name means 'the mound in the dark grove'. It was archaeologically excavated between 1928 and 1929. Visitors can get inside the mound thr ...
, a Stone Age
The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...
burial mound.
Nearby is the village with the longest name in Europe, Llanfairpwllgwyngyll
Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, or Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll (), is a large village and local government community on the island of Anglesey, Wales, on the Menai Strait next to the Britannia Bridge and across the strait from Bangor. Both shortened (Llanf ...
gogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, and Plas Newydd, ancestral home of the Marquesses of Anglesey
A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman w ...
. The town of Amlwch
Amlwch (; ) is a port town and community in Wales. It is situated on the north coast of the Isle of Anglesey, on the A5025 which connects it to Holyhead and to Menai Bridge. As well as Amlwch town and Amlwch Port, other settlements within t ...
lies in the north-east of the island and was once largely industrialised, having grown in the 18th century to support a major copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
-mining industry at Parys Mountain
Parys Mountain ( cy, Mynydd Parys) is located south of the town of Amlwch in north east Anglesey, Wales. It is the site of a large copper mine that was extensively exploited in the late 18th century. Parys Mountain is a mountain in name only, bei ...
.
Other settlements include Cemaes
Cemaes () is a village on the north coast of Anglesey in Wales, sited on Cemaes Bay, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty which is partly owned by the National Trust. It is the most northerly village in Wales (excluding the nearby hamlet of L ...
, Pentraeth
Pentraeth (; ) is a village and community on the island of Anglesey (''Ynys Môn''), North Wales, at . The Royal Mail postcode begins LL75. The community population taken at the 2011 census was 1,178. The village itself having a population of ...
, Gaerwen
Gaerwen () is a village on the island of Anglesey in the community of Llanfihangel Ysgeifiog. It is located in the south of the island west of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and southeast of Llangefni . The A5 runs through the village, and the A55 r ...
, Dwyran, Bodedern
Bodedern is a village and community in the west of Anglesey, Wales.
At the 2001 census, it had a population of 1,074, decreasing slightly to 1,051 at the 2011 census. The community includes the settlements of Llanllibio and Pen-llyn.
Location ...
, Malltraeth and Rhosneigr
Rhosneigr (; ) is a village in the south-west of Anglesey, north Wales. It is situated on the A4080 road some 10 km south-east of Holyhead, and is on the Anglesey Coastal Path. From the clock at the centre of the village can be seen RAF V ...
. The Anglesey Sea Zoo
The Anglesey Sea Zoo ( cy, Sw Môr Môn) is an aquarium and independent research and marine education centre on the south coast of Anglesey island in North Wales. Located just outside the village of Brynsiencyn, Anglesey Sea Zoo claims to be the ...
is a local attraction offering looks at local marine wildlife
Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animal species (biology), species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous ...
from common lobsters to conger
''Conger'' ( ) is a genus of marine congrid eels. It includes some of the largest types of eels, ranging up to 2 m (6 ft) or more in length, in the case of the European conger. Large congers have often been observed by divers during t ...
s. All fish and crustacean
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...
s on display are caught round the island and placed in habitat reconstructions. The zoo also breeds lobsters commercially for food and oyster
Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not al ...
s for pearls, both from local stocks. Sea salt (''Halen Môn'', from local sea water) is produced in a facility nearby, having formerly been made at the Sea Zoo site.
There are a few natural lakes, mostly in the west, such as Llyn Llywenan
Llyn Llywenan (English: ''Yew Tree Lake'') is a lake in western Anglesey, Wales found just over north of the village of Bodedern and east of the town of Holyhead. At a maximum length of and breadth of it has a surface area of only . This make ...
, the largest on the island, Llyn Coron, and Cors Cerrig y Daran, but rivers are few and small. There are two large water supply reservoirs operated by Welsh Water
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...
. These are Llyn Alaw
Llyn Alaw (meaning: ''Lily Lake'') is a man-made reservoir on Anglesey, North Wales managed by Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water. It is a shallow lake and was built in 1966. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a destination for over-wintering ...
to the north of the island and Llyn Cefni
Llyn Cefni is a small reservoir in the centre of Anglesey, Wales which is managed by Welsh Water and Hamdden Ltd, while the fishery is managed by the Cefni Angling Association. The reservoir is located just northwest of the island's county town ...
in the centre of the island, which is fed by the headwaters of the Afon Cefni
Afon Cefni is one of the major rivers on the island of Anglesey, Wales. It is long. Its source is near to the village of Capel Coch, before flowing through Bodffordd and into Llyn Cefni in the centre of the island. It continues to run south th ...
.
The climate is humid (though less so than neighbouring mountainous Gwynedd
Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, and C ...
) and generally equable thanks to the Gulf Stream
The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension the North Atlantic Current, North Atlantic Drift, is a warm and swift Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows through the Straits of Florida a ...
. The land is of variable quality and has probably lost some fertility. Anglesey has the northernmost olive
The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...
grove in Europe and presumably in the world.
Coastal path
The coastline is classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of ...
, with many sandy beaches, notably along its east coast between Beaumaris and Amlwch and west coast from Ynys Llanddwyn
Ynys Llanddwyn (also known as Llanddwyn Island) is a small tidal island off the west coast of Anglesey (Welsh language, Welsh: Ynys Môn), northwest Wales. The nearest settlement is the village of Newborough, Anglesey, Newborough.
Geology and g ...
through Rhosneigr
Rhosneigr (; ) is a village in the south-west of Anglesey, north Wales. It is situated on the A4080 road some 10 km south-east of Holyhead, and is on the Anglesey Coastal Path. From the clock at the centre of the village can be seen RAF V ...
to the bays around Carmel Head. The north coast has sharp cliffs with small bays. Anglesey Coastal Path outlining the island is long and touches 20 towns and villages. The starting point is St Cybi's Church, Holyhead.
Economy
Tourism is now the major economic activity. Agriculture comes second, with local dairies being some of the most productive in the region.
Major industry is restricted to Holyhead (Caergybi), which until 30 September 2009 supported an aluminium smelter
Aluminium smelting is the process of extracting aluminium from its oxide, alumina, generally by the Hall-Héroult process. Alumina is extracted from the ore bauxite by means of the Bayer process at an alumina refinery.
This is an electrolyti ...
, and the Amlwch
Amlwch (; ) is a port town and community in Wales. It is situated on the north coast of the Isle of Anglesey, on the A5025 which connects it to Holyhead and to Menai Bridge. As well as Amlwch town and Amlwch Port, other settlements within t ...
area, once a copper mining town. Nearby stood Wylfa Nuclear Power Station
Wylfa nuclear power station ( cy, Atomfa'r Wylfa) is a Magnox nuclear power station undergoing decommissioning. Wylfa is situated west of Cemaes Bay on the island of Anglesey, off the northwestern coast of Wales. Construction of the two 490MW ...
and a former bromine
Bromine is a chemical element with the symbol Br and atomic number 35. It is the third-lightest element in group 17 of the periodic table (halogens) and is a volatile red-brown liquid at room temperature that evaporates readily to form a simila ...
extraction plant. With construction starting in 1963, the two Wylfa reactors began producing power in 1971. One reactor was decommissioned in 2012, the other in 2015.
Anglesey has three wind farms on land.[Anglesey Today: Energy]
accessed 15 April 2014 There were plans to install tidal-flow turbines near The Skerries off the north coast, and for a major biomass
Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bi ...
plant on Holy Island
Sacred space, sacred ground, sacred place, sacred temple, holy ground, or holy place refers to a location which is deemed to be sacred or hallowed. The sacredness of a natural feature may accrue through tradition or be granted through a bless ...
(Ynys Gybi). Developing such low-carbon-energy assets to their full potential forms part of the Anglesey Energy Island project.
When the aluminium smelter closed in September 2009, it cut its workforce from 450 to 80, in a major blow to the island's economy, especially to Holyhead. The Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
station RAF Valley
Royal Air Force Valley or more simply RAF Valley ( cy, Llu Awyr Brenhinol Y Fali) is a Royal Air Force station on the island of Anglesey, Wales, and which is also used as Anglesey Airport. It provides both basic and advanced fast-jet training ...
(Y Fali) holds the RAF Fast Jet Training School and 22 Sqn Search and Rescue Helicopters, both units providing employment to about 500 civilians. RAF Valley is now the 22 Sqn Search and Rescue headquarters.
The range of smaller industries is mostly in industrial and business parks such as Llangefni
Llangefni (meaning "church on the River Cefni", ) is the county town of Anglesey in Wales and contains the principal offices of the Isle of Anglesey County Council. United Kingdom Census 2011 recorded Llangefni's population as 5,116 people, maki ...
and Gaerwen
Gaerwen () is a village on the island of Anglesey in the community of Llanfihangel Ysgeifiog. It is located in the south of the island west of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and southeast of Llangefni . The A5 runs through the village, and the A55 r ...
, notably an abattoir
A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility.
Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...
, fine chemical
In chemistry, fine chemicals are complex, single, pure chemical substances, produced in limited quantities in multipurpose plants by multistep batch chemical or biotechnological processes. They are described by exacting specifications, used f ...
manufacturing, and factories for timber production, aluminium smelting, fish farming and food processing. The island is on one of the main road routes from Britain to Ireland, via ferries
A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water tax ...
from Holyhead
Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...
on Holy Island to Dún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire ( , ) is a suburban coastal town in Dublin in Ireland. It is the administrative centre of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown.
The town was built following the 1816 legislation that allowed the building of a major port to serve Dubli ...
and Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
Port.
Abandoned nuclear plan
Plans were offered in 2013 by Horizon
The horizon is the apparent line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This line divides all viewing directions based on whether i ...
, a subsidiary of Hitachi
() is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...
, to start production in the 2020s. Though enthusiastically endorsed by Anglesey Council and Welsh Assembly members, protesters raised doubts about its economic and safety claims, and in January 2019 Hitachi announced it was putting development on hold.
On 17 January 2019, Hitachi-Horizon Nuclear Power announced it was abandoning plans to build a nuclear plant on the Wylfa Newydd site in Anglesey. There had been concern that the start might have involved too much public expenditure, but Hitachi-Horizon say the decision to scrap has cost the company over £2 billion.
Ecology and conservation
Much of Anglesey is used for relatively intensive cattle and sheep farming, but several important wetland
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...
sites have protected status and the lakes all have significant ecological interest, including a wide range of aquatic and semi-aquatic bird species. In the west, the Malltraeth Marsh
Malltraeth Marsh (also spelled as Malldraeth; cy, Cors Malltraeth or cy, Cors Ddyga, label=none) is a large marsh area in Anglesey, North Wales, north-east of Malltraeth village, along the flatlands of Trefdraeth, Bodorgan, Llangristiolus and ...
es are believed to support an occasional visiting bittern
Bitterns are birds belonging to the subfamily Botaurinae of the heron family Ardeidae. Bitterns tend to be shorter-necked and more secretive than other members of the family. They were called ''hæferblæte'' in Old English; the word "bittern ...
, and the nearby estuary of the Afon Cefni
Afon Cefni is one of the major rivers on the island of Anglesey, Wales. It is long. Its source is near to the village of Capel Coch, before flowing through Bodffordd and into Llyn Cefni in the centre of the island. It continues to run south th ...
has a bird population made famous internationally by the paintings of Charles Tunnicliffe
Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe, Order of the British Empire, OBE, Royal Academy of Arts, RA (1 December 1901 – 7 February 1979) was an internationally renowned naturalistic painter of British birds and other wildlife. He spent most of his work ...
, who lived and died at Malltraeth on the Cefni estuary. The RAF
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
airstrip at Mona is a nesting site for skylark
''Alauda'' is a genus of larks found across much of Europe, Asia and in the mountains of north Africa, and one of the species (the Raso lark) endemic to the islet of Raso in the Cape Verde Islands. Further, at least two additional species are ...
s. The sheer cliff faces at South Stack
South Stack ( cy, Ynys Lawd) is an island situated just off Holy Island on the northwest coast of Anglesey, Wales.
Geology
South Stack is an island known as a sea stack. It was formed by the wave erosion of sedimentary rocks that once conn ...
near Holyhead
Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...
provide nesting sites for large numbers of auk
An auk or alcid is a bird of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the murres, guillemots, auklets, puffins, and murrelets. The word "auk" is derived from Icelandic ''álka'', from Old Norse ''alka'' (a ...
s, including puffins, razorbill
The razorbill, razor-billed auk, or lesser auk (''Alca torda'') is a colonial seabird and the only extant member of the genus '' Alca'' of the family Alcidae, the auks. It is the closest living relative of the extinct great auk (''Pinguinis im ...
s and guillemot
Guillemot is the common name for several species of seabird in the Alcidae or auk family (part of the order Charadriiformes). In British use, the term comprises two genera: '' Uria'' and ''Cepphus''. In North America the ''Uria'' species ...
s, along with chough
There are two species of passerine birds commonly called chough ( ) that constitute the genus ''Pyrrhocorax'' of the Corvidae (crow) family of birds. These are the red-billed chough (''Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax''), and the Alpine chough (or yellow- ...
s and peregrine falcons. Anglesey holds several tern species, including the roseate tern
The roseate tern (''Sterna dougallii'') is a species of tern in the family Laridae. The genus name ''Sterna'' is derived from Old English "stearn", "tern", and the specific ''dougallii'' refers to Scottish physician and collector Dr Peter McDoug ...
on three breeding sites – see Anglesey tern colonies
Ynys Feurig, Cemlyn Bay and The Skerries Special Protection Area, also known as the (North) Anglesey tern colonies, is a Special Protection Area covering three sites in Anglesey, North Wales which support breeding terns:
* Ynys Feurig ()
* Cemly ...
.
There are marked occurrences of the ''Juncus subnodulosus''–''Cirsium palustre'' fen-meadow plant association
A plant community is a collection or association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The components of each plant ...
marked by hydrophilic grasses, sedges and forbs.
Anglesey supports two of the UK's remnant colonies of red squirrel
The red squirrel (''Sciurus vulgaris'') is a species of tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' common throughout Europe and Asia. The red squirrel is an arboreal, primarily herbivorous rodent.
In Great Britain, Ireland, and in Italy numbers ...
s, at Pentraeth
Pentraeth (; ) is a village and community on the island of Anglesey (''Ynys Môn''), North Wales, at . The Royal Mail postcode begins LL75. The community population taken at the 2011 census was 1,178. The village itself having a population of ...
and Newborough.
Almost the whole coastline of Anglesey is designated as an Area of Outstandng Natural Beauty (AONB) to protect the aesthetic appeal and variety of the island's coastal landscape and habitats from inappropriate development. The coastal zone of Anglesey was classed as an AONB in 1966 and confirmed as such in 1967. The AONB is predominantly coastal, covering most of Anglesey's coastline, but includes Holyhead Mountain and Mynydd Bodafon. Large areas of other land protected by the AONB form the backdrop to the coast. The AONB is about 221 sq. m (85 sq mi) and is the largest in Wales, covering a third of the island.
A number of Anglesey habitats gain still greater protection through UK and European designations of their nature conservation value. These include:
*6 candidate Special Areas of Conservation (cSACs)
*4 Special Protection Areas (SPAs)
*1 National Nature Reserve
*26 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)
*52 Scheduled Ancient Monuments (SAMs)
These support a variety of wildlife, such as harbour porpoise
The harbour porpoise (''Phocoena phocoena'') is one of eight extant species of porpoise. It is one of the smallest species of cetacean. As its name implies, it stays close to coastal areas or river estuaries, and as such, is the most familiar ...
s and marsh fritillary
The marsh fritillary (''Euphydryas aurinia'') is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. Commonly distributed in the Palearctic region, the marsh fritillary's common name derives from one of its several habitats, marshland. The prolonged larval s ...
.
The AONB takes in three sections of open, undeveloped coastline designated as Heritage Coast. These non-statutory designations complement the AONB and cover about of the coastline. The sections are:
#North Anglesey
#Holyhead Mountain
#Aberffraw Bay
Popular recreations include sailing, angling, cycling, walking, wind surfing and jet skiing. They place pressures and demands on the AONB, while stoking the local economy.
Culture
Anglesey hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1957, 1983, 1999, and 2017.
It belongs to the International Island Games Association
The International Island Games Association (IIGA) is the organising body for the Island Games, a friendly biennial multi-sport competition between teams from several European islands and other small territories (24 Members from 7 Nations). The ...
. Anglesey's biggest successes were at the 1997 Island Games in Jersey
Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...
, (11th in the medals table, with two gold, three silver and nine bronze medals) and the 2005 Island Games in the Shetland Islands
Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom.
The islands lie about to the no ...
, (again 11th, with 4 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze).
The annual Anglesey Show is held on the second Tuesday and Wednesday of August. Farmers from around the country compete in livestock–rearing contests, including sheep and cattle. Other events have included the Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
archaeological television programme ''Time Team
''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...
'' (series 14), transmitted on 4 February 2007, and Gottwood, an electronic music and arts festival held each summer at the Carreglwyd estate.
The Druidic college at Anglesey is referred to in the metal band Eluveitie
Eluveitie ( ; )Chrigel Glanzmann: "...According to current research, it is pronounced in Bernese German as, i.e. ''"Elvèyti"''. But I don't know if this is correct. The gods know that.:: Metalist Magazine :: Interviews :: Eluveitie is a Swiss f ...
's song "Inis Mona", referring to Ynys Môn.
Capital Cymru
Capital Cymru is a local Welsh-language radio station owned and operated by Global. The station broadcasts to Gwynedd and Anglesey from studios in Gwersyllt, Wrexham via the Arfon transmitting station.
Previously, the station formed part of th ...
, a commercial contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio (also known as CHR, contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format that is common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by ...
station, also covers Gwynedd
Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, and C ...
. Môn FM
Môn FM is a bilingual community radio station serving Anglesey and Gwynedd. The station broadcasts on 96.8, 102.1 and 102.5 FM and online from studios in Llangefni town centre.
Overview
MônFM broadcasts around 80 hours a week of locally-orien ...
, a volunteer community radio station, broadcasts from the county town, Llangefni.
In 2017 filming took place for the Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
TV series ''Free Rein
''Free Rein'' is a British drama television series created and written by Vicki Lutas and Anna McCleery.
It stars Jaylen Barron, Navia Robinson (seasons 1-2) and Freddy Carter.
Produced in the UK by Lime Pictures, the ten-part first series prem ...
''. Scenes were used in all three series. Locations included Newborough Warren
Newborough Warren ( cy, Tywyn Niwbwrch) near the village of Newborough, Anglesey, Newborough (''Niwbwrch'') is a large dune and beach system of , approximately half of which is a conifer plantation. The whole area is designated as a Site of Speci ...
and Beaumaris Pier
Beaumaris Pier is a pier in Beaumaris, Anglesey, North Wales.
Construction
Designed by Frederick Foster, it had a concrete and stone neck, wooden piles supporting iron girders, and a wooden deck. After opening in 1846, it was rebuilt in 1872 ...
. In 2018, the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
began a three-part series entitled ''Anglesey: Island Lives'', detailing the lives of several residents of the island. In the first episode, Kris Hughes, a noted companion of the Druid community and the
Anglesey Druid Order, was followed as the order marked the Summer Solstice.
Welsh language
Anglesey is a stronghold of the
Welsh language
Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language family, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut P ...
. According to the 2011 census it was the local authority with the second highest proportion of Welsh speakers. The earlier percentages were these:
*1901: 91%
*1911: 89%
*1921: 88%
*1931: 87%
*1951: 80%
*1961: 75%
*1971: 66%
*1981: 61%
*1991: 62%
*2001: 60%
*2011: 57%
Today, Welsh is less widely used, but remains the dominant language in some areas, particularly in the centre, including
Llangefni
Llangefni (meaning "church on the River Cefni", ) is the county town of Anglesey in Wales and contains the principal offices of the Isle of Anglesey County Council. United Kingdom Census 2011 recorded Llangefni's population as 5,116 people, maki ...
and some parts of the south coast. The island's five secondary schools vary widely in the proportions of their pupils from predominantly Welsh-speaking homes, and in those who can speak Welsh:
*
Ysgol David Hughes
Ysgol David Hughes (meaning: ''David Hughes School'') is a bilingual secondary school on Anglesey, Wales. The school building was completed and opened in Menai Bridge in 1963 by Anglesey County Council which, ten years earlier (in 1953), had b ...
(in
Menai Bridge
Menai Bridge ( cy, Porthaethwy; usually referred to colloquially as Y Borth) is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in north-west Wales. It overlooks the Menai Strait and lies by the Menai Suspension Bridge, built in 1826 by Thomas T ...
): 33% come from Welsh-speaking homes; 90% "can speak Welsh."
*
Ysgol Gyfun Llangefni
Ysgol Gyfun Llangefni is a bilingual community comprehensive school for pupils aged 11 to 18 years old located in Llangefni, Anglesey. Pupils come from the town of Llangefni and the surrounding villages and rural areas. The school opened aroun ...
(in
Llangefni
Llangefni (meaning "church on the River Cefni", ) is the county town of Anglesey in Wales and contains the principal offices of the Isle of Anglesey County Council. United Kingdom Census 2011 recorded Llangefni's population as 5,116 people, maki ...
): 68% of pupils speak Welsh as their
first language
A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...
; 87% of pupils take their exams through the medium of Welsh.
*
Ysgol Syr Thomas Jones
Ysgol Syr Thomas Jones is a mixed bilingual community school for pupils between 11 and 18 years of age in the Pentrefelin area of Amlwch, Anglesey. The school serves the town and the rural catchment area.
History
Originally designed by N. Squir ...
(in
Amlwch
Amlwch (; ) is a port town and community in Wales. It is situated on the north coast of the Isle of Anglesey, on the A5025 which connects it to Holyhead and to Menai Bridge. As well as Amlwch town and Amlwch Port, other settlements within t ...
): 34% of pupils come from Welsh-speaking homes; 82% sit the Welsh First Language
General Certificate of Secondary Education
The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...
(GCSE).
*
Ysgol Uwchradd Bodedern (in
Bodedern
Bodedern is a village and community in the west of Anglesey, Wales.
At the 2001 census, it had a population of 1,074, decreasing slightly to 1,051 at the 2011 census. The community includes the settlements of Llanllibio and Pen-llyn.
Location ...
): 67% of pupils come from Welsh-speaking homes; "a majority" speak Welsh fluently.
*
Ysgol Uwchradd Caergybi
Ysgol Uwchradd Caergybi is a secondary school in Holyhead, Anglesey. It claims to be the first comprehensive school in England and Wales, opening in 1949 as Holyhead County School.
History
The school was formed in 1949 with the amalgamation of ...
(in
Holyhead
Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...
): 14% of pupils speak Welsh at home; 11% are taught the "Welsh First Language" curriculum.
Geology
The geology of Anglesey is complex and frequently targeted for geology
field trip
A field trip or excursion is a journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment.
When done for students, as it happens in several school systems, it is also known as school trip in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and ...
s by schools and colleges. Younger strata in Anglesey rest upon a foundation of old
Precambrian
The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pêž’, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...
rocks that appear at the surface in four areas:
#a western region including
Holyhead
Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...
and
Llanfaethlu
Llanfaethlu is a village and community in the north west of Anglesey, in north-west Wales. The community population taken at the 2011 Census was 553. The village takes its name from the Church of Saint Maethlu. The community includes Llanfwrog ...
#a central area about
Aberffraw
Aberffraw is a village and community on the south west coast of the Isle of Anglesey ( cy, Ynys Môn), in Wales, by the west bank of the Afon Ffraw (Ffraw River). The community includes Soar and Dothan. Located near the A4080 and the nearest ...
and
Trefdraeth
Trefdraeth is a hamlet in Anglesey, Wales, within the Community (Wales), community of Bodorgan about southwest of the county town of Llangefni.
Trefdraeth's Church in Wales St Beuno's Church, Trefdraeth, parish church of St Beuno dates from ...
#an eastern region which includes
Newborough,
Gaerwen
Gaerwen () is a village on the island of Anglesey in the community of Llanfihangel Ysgeifiog. It is located in the south of the island west of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and southeast of Llangefni . The A5 runs through the village, and the A55 r ...
and
Pentraeth
Pentraeth (; ) is a village and community on the island of Anglesey (''Ynys Môn''), North Wales, at . The Royal Mail postcode begins LL75. The community population taken at the 2011 census was 1,178. The village itself having a population of ...
#a coastal region at
Glyn Garth between
Menai Bridge
Menai Bridge ( cy, Porthaethwy; usually referred to colloquially as Y Borth) is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in north-west Wales. It overlooks the Menai Strait and lies by the Menai Suspension Bridge, built in 1826 by Thomas T ...
and
Beaumaris
Beaumaris ( ; cy, Biwmares ) is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, of which it is the former county town of Anglesey. It is located at the eastern entrance to the Menai Strait, the tidal waterway separating Anglesey from th ...
These rocks are
schist
Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes o ...
s and
phyllite
Phyllite ( ) is a type of foliated metamorphic rock created from slate that is further metamorphosed so that very fine grained white mica achieves a preferred orientation.Stephen Marshak ''Essentials of Geology'', 3rd ed. It is primarily compo ...
s, often contorted and disturbed. The general line of strike of the formations in the island is from north-east to south-west. A belt of
granitic rocks
A granitoid is a generic term for a diverse category of coarse-grained igneous rocks that consist predominantly of quartz, plagioclase, and alkali feldspar. Granitoids range from plagioclase-rich tonalites to alkali-rich syenites and from quart ...
lies just north-west of the central Precambrian mass, reaching from
Llanfaelog
Llanfaelog is a village and community in western Anglesey, Wales. It is situated some 13 kilometres south-east of Holyhead and 22 kilometres west of the city of Bangor. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 1,679, increasing to 1,758 at ...
near the coast to the vicinity of
Llanerchymedd
Llannerch-y-medd, is a small village, community and post town on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales. The Royal Mail postcode is LL71, and it has a population of 1,360, of whom more than 70% is Welsh speaking.
The village is situated near the centre ...
. Between this granite and the Precambrian of Holyhead is a narrow tract of
Ordovician
The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start ...
slates and grits with Llandovery beds in places, spreading out in the north of the island between
Dulas Bay
Dulas Bay (Welsh: ''Bae Dulas'') is a small bay on the north east coast of Anglesey (''Ynys Môn''), north Wales, forming the boundary between Llaneilian and Moelfre communities. The bay is bordered by three beaches.
Overview
The north-western ...
and Carmel Point. A small patch of Ordovician strata lies on the northern side of Beaumaris. In parts, these Ordovician rocks are much folded, crushed and metamorphosed, and associated with schists and altered volcanic rocks which are probably Precambrian. Between the eastern and central Precambrian masses
Carboniferous
The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...
rocks are found.
Carboniferous Limestone
Carboniferous Limestone is a collective term for the succession of limestones occurring widely throughout Great Britain and Ireland that were deposited during the Dinantian epoch (geology), Epoch of the Carboniferous period (geology), Period. T ...
occupies a broad area south of
Lligwy Bay
Lligwy Bay ( cy, Traeth Lligwy) is a bay of the Welsh island of Anglesey.
It is on the north east of the island, to the north of the village of Moelfre. It was the site, in October 1859, of the loss of the steam clipper ''Royal Charter'' with ...
and Pentraeth, and sends a narrow spur in south-westwards by
Llangefni
Llangefni (meaning "church on the River Cefni", ) is the county town of Anglesey in Wales and contains the principal offices of the Isle of Anglesey County Council. United Kingdom Census 2011 recorded Llangefni's population as 5,116 people, maki ...
to
Malltraeth Sands. It is underlain on the north-west by a red basement conglomerate and yellow
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
(sometimes considered of
Old Red Sandstone
The Old Red Sandstone is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the northeastern seaboard of North America. It also exte ...
age). Limestone occurs again on the north coast around
Llanfihangel and
Llangoed
Llangoed () is a small village, community and electoral ward just north of Beaumaris, on the Isle of Anglesey or ''Ynys Môn'', at . The Royal Mail postcode begins LL58. Llangoed ward has a population of 1,275 (2001), falling at the 2011 census to ...
; and in the south-west round Llanidan near the
Menai Strait
The Menai Strait ( cy, Afon Menai, the "river Menai") is a narrow stretch of shallow tidal water about long, which separates the island of Anglesey from the mainland of Wales. It varies in width from from Fort Belan to Abermenai Point to from ...
.
Puffin Island is made of Carboniferous Limestone.
Malltraeth Marsh
Malltraeth Marsh (also spelled as Malldraeth; cy, Cors Malltraeth or cy, Cors Ddyga, label=none) is a large marsh area in Anglesey, North Wales, north-east of Malltraeth village, along the flatlands of Trefdraeth, Bodorgan, Llangristiolus and ...
is occupied by
Coal Measures
In lithostratigraphy, the coal measures are the coal-bearing part of the Upper Carboniferous System. In the United Kingdom, the Coal Measures Group consists of the Upper Coal Measures Formation, the Middle Coal Measures Formation and the Lower Coal ...
, and a small patch of the same formation appears near Tal-y-foel Ferry on the Menai Strait. A patch of
rhyolitic
Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...
/
felsitic rocks forms
Parys Mountain
Parys Mountain ( cy, Mynydd Parys) is located south of the town of Amlwch in north east Anglesey, Wales. It is the site of a large copper mine that was extensively exploited in the late 18th century. Parys Mountain is a mountain in name only, bei ...
, where copper and iron ochre have been worked.
Serpentine (Mona Marble) is found near
Llanfair-yn-Neubwll
Llanfair-yn-Neubwll is a village and community on the Isle of Anglesey in the north west of Wales. The community includes the villages of Llanfihangel yn Nhowyn and Caergeiliog, and had a population of 1,688, increasing to 1,874 at the 2011 cen ...
and upon the opposite shore in Holyhead. Anglesey is the only onshore part of the UK to have sediments dated to the Early
Middle Miocene
The Middle Miocene is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages: the Langhian and Serravallian stages. The Middle Miocene is preceded by the Early Miocene.
The sub-epoch lasted from 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma to 11.608 ± 0.005 Ma (million y ...
(?Langhian).
Under the name ''
GeoMôn'', affirming its extraordinary geological heritage, the island gained membership of the
European Geoparks Network
The European Geoparks Network (EGN) functions as the regional organization of the Global Geoparks Network (GGN) and the UNESCO International Geosciences and Geoparks Programme (UNESCO-IGGP). Its main objective is to ensure cooperation between geop ...
in spring 2009. and the
Global Geoparks Network
UNESCO Global Geoparks (UGGp) are geoparks certified by the UNESCO Global Geoparks Council as meeting all the requirements for belonging to the Global Geoparks Network (GGN). The GGN is both a network of geoparks and the agency of the United Nati ...
in September 2010.
Landmarks
![South Stack Lighthouse Anglesey](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/South_Stack_Lighthouse_Anglesey.jpg)
*
Anglesey Motor Racing Circuit
*
Anglesey Sea Zoo
The Anglesey Sea Zoo ( cy, Sw Môr Môn) is an aquarium and independent research and marine education centre on the south coast of Anglesey island in North Wales. Located just outside the village of Brynsiencyn, Anglesey Sea Zoo claims to be the ...
near
Dwyran
*Bays and beaches –
Benllech
Benllech (; ) is a large village on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales. It is in the community of Llanfair-Mathafarn-Eithaf, which has a population of 3,382, making it the fourth largest settlement on the island of Anglesey. The name of Benllech v ...
,
Cemlyn
Cemlyn is a village in Anglesey, in north-west Wales. It lies near Cemlyn Bay. It is in the community of Cylch-y-Garn
Cylch-y-Garn is a community (Wales), community in Anglesey, Wales, located on the north west coast of the county, west of ...
,
Red Wharf, and
Rhosneigr
Rhosneigr (; ) is a village in the south-west of Anglesey, north Wales. It is situated on the A4080 road some 10 km south-east of Holyhead, and is on the Anglesey Coastal Path. From the clock at the centre of the village can be seen RAF V ...
*
Beaumaris Castle
Beaumaris Castle ( ; cy, Castell Biwmares ), in Beaumaris, Anglesey, Wales, was built as part of Edward I's campaign to conquer north Wales after 1282. Plans were probably first made to construct the castle in 1284, but this was delayed d ...
and
Gaol
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correct ...
*
Cribinau
Cribinau is a small tidal island off the south west coast of the isle of Anglesey in Wales between Porth China and Porth Cwyfan. The island is in Aberffraw Community, about west of Aberffraw village.
The island can be reached on foot at low ti ...
– tidal island with 13th-century church
*
Elin's Tower
Elin's Tower ( cy, Tŵr Elin) is a Victorian stone tower on Holy Island, located around west of Holyhead. The castellated folly, which was originally used as a summer house, was built between 1820 and 1850 for the notable Stanley family fro ...
(Twr Elin) – RSPB reserve and the lighthouse at South Stack (Ynys Lawd) near
Holyhead
Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...
*
King Arthur
King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain.
In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as a ...
's seat – near
Beaumaris
Beaumaris ( ; cy, Biwmares ) is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, of which it is the former county town of Anglesey. It is located at the eastern entrance to the Menai Strait, the tidal waterway separating Anglesey from th ...
*
Llanfairpwllgwyngyll
Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, or Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll (), is a large village and local government community on the island of Anglesey, Wales, on the Menai Strait next to the Britannia Bridge and across the strait from Bangor. Both shortened (Llanf ...
, one of the longest place names in the world
*
Malltraeth – centre for bird life and home of wildlife artist
Charles Tunnicliffe
Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe, Order of the British Empire, OBE, Royal Academy of Arts, RA (1 December 1901 – 7 February 1979) was an internationally renowned naturalistic painter of British birds and other wildlife. He spent most of his work ...
*
Moelfre – fishing village
*
Parys Mountain
Parys Mountain ( cy, Mynydd Parys) is located south of the town of Amlwch in north east Anglesey, Wales. It is the site of a large copper mine that was extensively exploited in the late 18th century. Parys Mountain is a mountain in name only, bei ...
– copper mine dating to the early Bronze Age
*
Penmon
Penmon is a promontory, village and ecclesiastical parish on the eastern tip of the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, about east of the town of Beaumaris. It is in the community of Llangoed. The name comes from cy, pen (which can mean "head", "end" ...
– priory and dovecote
*
Skerries Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
Lighthouses mar ...
– at the end of a low piece of submerged land, north-east of
Holyhead
Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...
*Stone Science Museum – privately run fossil museum near
Pentraeth
Pentraeth (; ) is a village and community on the island of Anglesey (''Ynys Môn''), North Wales, at . The Royal Mail postcode begins LL75. The community population taken at the 2011 census was 1,178. The village itself having a population of ...
*Swtan longhouse and museum – owned by the
National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
and managed by the local community
*Working
windmill
A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called windmill sail, sails or blades, specifically to mill (grinding), mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and ...
–
Llanddeusant
*
Ynys Llanddwyn
Ynys Llanddwyn (also known as Llanddwyn Island) is a small tidal island off the west coast of Anglesey (Welsh language, Welsh: Ynys Môn), northwest Wales. The nearest settlement is the village of Newborough, Anglesey, Newborough.
Geology and g ...
(Llanddwyn Island) – tidal island
*
St Cybi's Church
St Cybi's Church is a medieval church near the Roman Caer Gybi in Holyhead, Anglesey, Wales. The church was Grade I listed in January 1968. The original church was constructed at Holyhead around 540 AD by St Cybi, a cousin of St David. The ch ...
Historic church in Holyhead
Notable people
Born in Anglesey
*
Tony Adams
Tony Alexander Adams (born 10 October 1966) is an English former football manager and player. Adams played for Arsenal and England, captaining both teams. He spent his entire playing career of 19 years as a centre back at Arsenal, making 672 ...
– actor (Anglesey, 1940)
*
Stu Allan – radio and club DJ
*
John C. Clarke – U.S. state politician (Anglesey, 1831)
*
Grace Coddington
Pamela Rosalind Grace Coddington (born 20 April 1941) is a Welsh former model and former creative director at large of American ''Vogue'' magazine. Coddington is known for the creation of large, complex and dramatic photoshoots. A '' Guardian'' ...
– creative director for US ''Vogue'' (Anglesey, 1941
*
Charles Allen Duval
Charles Allen Duval, often spelled duVal or Du Val, (19 March 1810 – 14 June 1872), was a well-known Victorian portrait painter, photographer, literary critic, illustrator and writer. He played a large role within the city of Manchester's th ...
– artist and writer (Beaumaris, 1810)
*
Dawn French
Dawn Roma French (born 11 October 1957) is a British actress, comedian, presenter and writer. French is known for writing and starring on the BBC comedy sketch show ''French and Saunders'' with her best friend and comedy partner, Jennifer Saunde ...
– actress, writer, comedian (Holyhead, 1957)
*
Huw Garmon
Huw Garmon (born 1966) is a Welsh actor, probably best known for playing the eponymous lead in the Oscar-nominated Welsh language film '' Hedd Wyn'' (1992). He has also taken part in various television series and has currently taken an academic p ...
– actor (Anglesey, 1966)
*
Hugh Griffith
Hugh Emrys Griffith (30 May 1912 – 14 May 1980) was a Welsh film, stage, and television actor. He is best remembered for his role in the film '' Ben-Hur'' (1959), which earned him critical acclaim and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Acto ...
– Oscar-winning actor (Marianglas, 1912)
*
Elen Gwdman – poet (fl. 1609)
*
Meinir Gwilym
Meinir Elin Gwilym (born 31 March 1983) is a Welsh-language pop and folk singer. Raised in Llangristiolus, Anglesey, she released her first EP, "Smôcs, Coffi a Fodca Rhad" (translates into English as "Smokes, Coffee and Cheap Vodka") in 2002. ...
– singer and songwriter (Llangristiolus, 1983)
*
Owain Gwynedd
Owain ap Gruffudd ( 23 or 28 November 1170) was King of Gwynedd, North Wales, from 1137 until his death in 1170, succeeding his father Gruffudd ap Cynan. He was called Owain the Great ( cy, Owain Fawr) and the first to be ...
– royal prince (Anglesey, c. 1100)
*
Hywel Gwynfryn
Hywel Gwynfryn (born 13 July 1942 at Llangefni, Anglesey) is a Welsh TV, and radio personality and lyricist. He started working for the BBC in 1964 and joined Radio Cymru at its inception.
Career
Gwynfryn joined the BBC as a presenter in 1964 and ...
– radio and TV personality (Llangefni, 1942)
*
Aled Jones
Aled Jones, (born 29 December 1970) is a Welsh singer and radio and television presenter. As a teenage chorister, he reached widespread fame during the mid-1980s. Since then he has worked in television with the BBC and ITV, and radio (for Cla ...
– singer and television presenter (Llandegfan, 1970)
*
John Jones – amateur astronomer (Bryngwyn Bach, Dwyran 1818 – Bangor 1898); a.k.a. Ioan Bryngwyn Bach and Y Seryddwr
*
William Jones – mathematician (Llanfihangel Tre'r Beirdd, 1675)
*
Julian Lewis Jones
Julian Lewis Jones (born 21 August 1968) is a Welsh actor. He trained at the Welsh College of Music & Drama. He has appeared largely in British television in shows such as '' Where the Heart Is'' and '' Caerdydd''. In 2009, he starred in Clint ...
– actor, known for his portrayal of Karl Morris on the Sky 1 comedy ''
Stella'' (Anglesey, 1968)
*
John Morris-Jones
Sir John Morris-Jones (17 October 1864 – 16 April 1929) was a Welsh grammarian, academic and Welsh-language poet.
Morris-Jones was born John Jones, at Trefor in the parish of Llandrygarn, Anglesey the son of Morris Jones first a schoolmaster ...
– grammarian and poet (Llandrygarn, 1864)
*
Edward Owen – 18th-century artist, notable for letters documenting life in London's art scene
*
Goronwy Owen – 18th-century poet (
Llanfair-Mathafarn-Eithaf
Llanfair-Mathafarn-Eithaf () is a parish and community in Anglesey, Wales including the small seaside town of Benllech. The community population taken at the 2011 census was 3,382.
Local buildings include the medieval St Mary's Church, where ...
, 1723)
*
Osian Roberts –
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
player and manager (
Bodffordd
Bodffordd () is a village and community in central Anglesey, Wales. As of the 2011 census, the community's population was 960. The community includes the hamlets of Trefor, Heneglwys and Bodwrog.
Description and history
Bodffordd is located ...
)
*
Tecwyn Roberts
Tecwyn Roberts (10 October 1925 – 27 December 1988) was a Welsh spaceflight engineer who in the 1960s played important roles in designing the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas and creating NASA's worldw ...
–
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
aerospace engineer and Director of Networks at
Goddard Space Flight Center
The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC empl ...
(
Llanddaniel Fab
Llanddaniel Fab (or Llanddaniel-fab) is a village and community in Anglesey, Wales. At the 2001 census it had a population of 699, increasing to 776 at the 2011 census.
It is near the prehistoric monument of Bryn Celli Ddu which was construct ...
, 1925)
*
Hugh Owen Thomas
Hugh Owen Thomas (23 August 1834 – 6 January 1891) was a Welsh orthopaedic surgeon. He and his nephew Robert Jones have been called "the Fathers of orthopaedic surgery".
Thomas was descended from a line of Welsh bone setters and placed great i ...
– pioneering orthopaedic surgeon (Anglesey, 1836)
*
Ifor Owen Thomas – operatic tenor, photographer and artist (Red Wharf Bay, 1892)
*
Sefnyn – medieval court poet
*
Owen Tudor
Sir Owen Tudor (, 2 February 1461) was a Welsh courtier and the second husband of Queen Catherine of Valois (1401–1437), widow of King Henry V of England. He was the grandfather of Henry VII, founder of the Tudor dynasty.
Background
Owe ...
– grandfather of
Henry Tudor, married the widow of Henry V, which gave the Tudor dynasty a claim on the English throne (Anglesey, c.1400).
*
Kyffin Williams
Sir John Kyffin Williams, (9 May 1918 – 1 September 2006) was a Welsh landscape painter who lived at Pwllfanogl, Llanfairpwll, on the Island of Anglesey. Williams is widely regarded as the defining artist of Wales during the 20th century.
Pe ...
RA – landscape painter (Llangefni, 1918)
*
William Williams (VC) – recipient of the Victoria Cross (Amlwch, 1890)
*
Andy Whitfield
Andrew Whitfield (17 October 1971 – 11 September 2011) was a Welsh actor. He was best known for his leading role in the Starz television series '' Spartacus: Blood and Sand''.
Early life and career
Whitfield and his family came to live in B ...
– actor (
Amlwch
Amlwch (; ) is a port town and community in Wales. It is situated on the north coast of the Isle of Anglesey, on the A5025 which connects it to Holyhead and to Menai Bridge. As well as Amlwch town and Amlwch Port, other settlements within t ...
, 1971)
*
Gareth Williams – employee of Britain's
GCHQ
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Unit ...
signals intelligence agency (Anglesey, 1978)
Lived in Anglesey
*
Rachel Davies (Rahel o Fôn) – preacher
*
Henry Austin Dobson
Henry Austin Dobson (18 January 1840 – 2 September 1921), commonly Austin Dobson, was an English poet and essayist.
Life
He was born at Plymouth, the eldest son of George Clarisse Dobson, a civil engineer, of French descent. When he w ...
– poet and essayist (Plymouth, Devon 1840)
*
Taron Egerton
Taron Egerton ( ; born 10 November 1989) is a Welsh actor. He is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award, and has received nominations for a Grammy Award and two British Academy Film Awards.
Born in Birkenhead, England, Egerton began acting at a ...
– actor and star of ''
Rocketman
''RocketMan'' (also written as ''Rocket Man'') is a 1997 American comic science fiction film directed by Stuart Gillard and starring Harland Williams, Jessica Lundy, William Sadler, and Jeffrey DeMunn. A partial remake of the 1967 film, '' The ...
'' (moved to Wales aged 12)
*
Gareth Glyn
Gareth Glyn, born Gareth Glynne Davies (born 1951), is a Welsh composer and radio broadcaster.
Life and education
Born in Machynlleth, Wales, Glyn is the eldest son of the late Welsh poet T. Glynne Davies. He received his secondary education at ...
– composer and broadcaster (since 1978)
*
Wayne Hennessey
Wayne Robert Hennessey (born 24 January 1987) is a Welsh professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Nottingham Forest and the Wales national team.
Hennessey's first professional games saw him set a new Football ...
– footballer, currently goalkeeper with
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace may refer to:
Places Canada
* Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick
* Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario
* Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...
and
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
(Bangor, 1987)
*
Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister – heavy metal bass player and singer, front man of
Motörhead
Motörhead () were an English rock band formed in London in 1975 by Lemmy (lead vocals, bass), Larry Wallis (guitar) and Lucas Fox (drums). Lemmy was also the primary songwriter and only constant member. The band are often considered a precu ...
(Stoke-on-Trent, 1945)
*
Glenys Kinnock
Glenys Elizabeth Kinnock, Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead (''née'' Parry; born 7 July 1944), is a British politician and former teacher who served as Minister of State for Europe from June to October 2009 and Minister of State for Africa and the ...
– politician (Holyhead, 1950s)
*The
Marquesses of Anglesey
A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman w ...
– noble family from
Plas Newydd,
Llanfairpwll
Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, or Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll (), is a large village and local government community on the island of Anglesey, Wales, on the Menai Strait next to the Britannia Bridge and across the strait from Bangor. Both shortened (Llanfa ...
*
Matthew Maynard
Matthew Peter Maynard, (born 21 March 1966) is an English cricket coach and former cricketer. He played in four Tests and fourteen ODIs for England.
Maynard was a batsman (and, later in his career, wicketkeeper) known for his aggressive and d ...
– cricketer (Oldham, Lancashire 1966)
*
George North
George Philip North (born 13 April 1992) is a Welsh professional rugby union player who plays for the Ospreys in the United Rugby Championship and the Wales national team. He has also represented the British & Irish Lions and currently has th ...
–
Wales rugby union international (born King's Lynn, 1992; family moved to Anglesey in his early childhood)
*
Gruff Rhys
Gruffudd Maredudd Bowen Rhys (; born 18 July 1970) is a Welsh musician, composer, producer, filmmaker and author. He performs solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals, which obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He formed ...
– musician best known for being the leadman of
Super Furry Animals
Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band formed in Cardiff in 1993. For the duration of their professional career, the band consisted of Gruff Rhys (lead vocals, guitar), Huw Bunford (lead guitar, vocals), Guto Pryce (bass guitar), Cian Ciaran ...
grew up in Rachub, near
Bethesda (Haverfordwest, 18 July 1970)
*
Iain Duncan Smith
Sir George Iain Duncan Smith (born George Ian Duncan Smith; 9 April 1954), often referred to by his initials IDS, is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2003. He was S ...
– leader of the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
2001–2003, attended
HMS ''Conway'' School Ship Plas Newydd, Llanfairpwll, 1968–1972.
*
Charles Tunnicliffe
Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe, Order of the British Empire, OBE, Royal Academy of Arts, RA (1 December 1901 – 7 February 1979) was an internationally renowned naturalistic painter of British birds and other wildlife. He spent most of his work ...
– wildlife artist (Langley, Macclesfield, 1901)
*
Naomi Watts
Naomi Ellen Watts (born 28 September 1968) is a British actress. After her family moved to Australia, she made her film debut there in the drama '' For Love Alone'' (1986) and then appeared in three television series, '' Hey Dad..!'' (1990), '' ...
– Oscar-nominated actress (born Kent, 1968)
*
Rex Whistler
Reginald John "Rex" Whistler (24 June 190518 July 1944) was a British artist, who painted murals and society portraits, and designed theatrical costumes. He was killed in action in Normandy in World War II. Whistler was the brother of poet and ...
– artist (born Eltham, Kent 1905)
*
Maurice Wilks
Maurice Fernand Cary Wilks (19 August 19048 September 1963) was a British automotive and aeronautical engineer, and by the time of his death in 1963, was the chairman of the Rover Company, a British car manufacturer. He was the founder of the ...
– father of the Land Rover, which was test driven on Newborough and Llanddona beach
*
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge – grandson of Queen
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
, and his wife
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge
Catherine, Princess of Wales, (born Catherine Elizabeth Middleton; 9 January 1982) is a member of the British royal family. She is married to William, Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the British throne, making Catherine the likely next ...
(2010–13)
*
Clive Woodward
Sir Clive Ronald Woodward (born 6 January 1956) is an English former rugby union player and coach. He was coach of the team from 1997 to 2004, managing them to victory in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. He also coached the 2005 British & Irish Lion ...
–
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
player and England / British Lions coach, attended
HMS ''Conway'' School Ship Plas Newydd, Llanfairpwll, 1969–1974.
Schools
Secondary schools:
*
Ysgol David Hughes
Ysgol David Hughes (meaning: ''David Hughes School'') is a bilingual secondary school on Anglesey, Wales. The school building was completed and opened in Menai Bridge in 1963 by Anglesey County Council which, ten years earlier (in 1953), had b ...
,
Menai Bridge
Menai Bridge ( cy, Porthaethwy; usually referred to colloquially as Y Borth) is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in north-west Wales. It overlooks the Menai Strait and lies by the Menai Suspension Bridge, built in 1826 by Thomas T ...
*
Ysgol Gyfun Llangefni
Ysgol Gyfun Llangefni is a bilingual community comprehensive school for pupils aged 11 to 18 years old located in Llangefni, Anglesey. Pupils come from the town of Llangefni and the surrounding villages and rural areas. The school opened aroun ...
,
Llangefni
Llangefni (meaning "church on the River Cefni", ) is the county town of Anglesey in Wales and contains the principal offices of the Isle of Anglesey County Council. United Kingdom Census 2011 recorded Llangefni's population as 5,116 people, maki ...
*
Ysgol Syr Thomas Jones
Ysgol Syr Thomas Jones is a mixed bilingual community school for pupils between 11 and 18 years of age in the Pentrefelin area of Amlwch, Anglesey. The school serves the town and the rural catchment area.
History
Originally designed by N. Squir ...
,
Amlwch
Amlwch (; ) is a port town and community in Wales. It is situated on the north coast of the Isle of Anglesey, on the A5025 which connects it to Holyhead and to Menai Bridge. As well as Amlwch town and Amlwch Port, other settlements within t ...
*
Ysgol Uwchradd Bodedern,
Bodedern
Bodedern is a village and community in the west of Anglesey, Wales.
At the 2001 census, it had a population of 1,074, decreasing slightly to 1,051 at the 2011 census. The community includes the settlements of Llanllibio and Pen-llyn.
Location ...
*
Ysgol Uwchradd Caergybi
Ysgol Uwchradd Caergybi is a secondary school in Holyhead, Anglesey. It claims to be the first comprehensive school in England and Wales, opening in 1949 as Holyhead County School.
History
The school was formed in 1949 with the amalgamation of ...
,
Holyhead
Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...
There are 50 primary, all co-educational day schools.
Transport
Anglesey is linked to the mainland by the
Britannia Bridge
Britannia Bridge ( cy, Pont Britannia) is a bridge across the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales. It was originally designed and built by the noted railway engineer Robert Stephenson as a tubular bridge of wr ...
, carrying the
A55 from
Holyhead
Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...
, and the
Menai Suspension Bridge
The Menai Suspension Bridge ( cy, Pont y Borth, Pont Grog y Borth) is a suspension bridge spanning the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales. Designed by Thomas Telford and completed in 1826, it was the world's f ...
, carrying the
A5 trunk road. The
A5025
The A5025 is an 'A' road that runs from Llanfairpwllgwyngyll to Valley in Anglesey, Wales. A major road around the north coast of the isle, it runs up the east, north and finally north-west side of the island via several places including Benll ...
round the northern edge of Anglesey and the
A4080 round the southern edge form a ring.
The six railway stations are
Holyhead
Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...
,
Valley
A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...
,
Rhosneigr
Rhosneigr (; ) is a village in the south-west of Anglesey, north Wales. It is situated on the A4080 road some 10 km south-east of Holyhead, and is on the Anglesey Coastal Path. From the clock at the centre of the village can be seen RAF V ...
,
Ty Croes,
Bodorgan
Bodorgan is a village and community (Wales), community on the Isle of Anglesey, Wales, United Kingdom. According to the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census, there were 1,503 residents in the now former Wards of the United Kingdom, electoral ...
and
Llanfairpwll
Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, or Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll (), is a large village and local government community on the island of Anglesey, Wales, on the Menai Strait next to the Britannia Bridge and across the strait from Bangor. Both shortened (Llanfa ...
. All are on the
North Wales Coast Line
The North Wales Coast Line ( cy, Llinell Arfordir Gogledd Cymru), also known as the North Wales Main Line ( cy, Prif Linell Gogledd Cymru or cy, label=none, Prif Linell y Gogledd), is a major railway line in the north of Wales and Cheshire, ...
, with services operated by
Avanti West Coast
Avanti West Coast is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by FirstGroup (70%) and Trenitalia (30%) that operates the West Coast Partnership franchise.
During November 2016, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced the Inter ...
to
London Euston
Euston railway station ( ; also known as London Euston) is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, managed by Network Rail. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city rail ...
, and by
Transport for Wales Rail
Transport for Wales Rail Limited, branded as Transport for Wales and TfW Rail ( and ), is a Welsh publicly owned train operating company, a subsidiary of Transport for Wales (TfW), a Welsh Government-owned company. It commenced operations of t ...
to
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
,
Manchester Piccadilly,
Birmingham New Street
Birmingham New Street is the largest and busiest of the three main railway stations in Birmingham city centre, England, and a central hub of the British railway system. It is a major destination for Avanti West Coast services from , and vi ...
and
Cardiff Central. Historically the island was also served by the
Anglesey Central Railway
The Anglesey Central Railway (Welsh: ''Lein Amlwch'', ''Amlwch Line'') was a standard-gauge railway in Anglesey, Wales, connecting the port of Amlwch and the county town of Llangefni with the North Wales Coast Line at Gaerwen. Built as an i ...
which ran from
Gaerwen
Gaerwen () is a village on the island of Anglesey in the community of Llanfihangel Ysgeifiog. It is located in the south of the island west of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and southeast of Llangefni . The A5 runs through the village, and the A55 r ...
to
Amlwch
Amlwch (; ) is a port town and community in Wales. It is situated on the north coast of the Isle of Anglesey, on the A5025 which connects it to Holyhead and to Menai Bridge. As well as Amlwch town and Amlwch Port, other settlements within t ...
, and the
Red Wharf Bay branch line
The Red Wharf Bay branch line was a standard gauge railway line in Anglesey, Wales, a branch off the Anglesey Central Railway. It opened fully in 1909, but closed to passengers in September 1930.Richards, Melville: An Atlas of Anglesey, page ...
between
Holland Arms railway station
Holland Arms railway station was situated on the Anglesey Central Railway line from Gaerwen to Amlwch. Located in the village of Pentre Berw it was known as Holland Arms because of the well known hotel of the same name in the village. It also s ...
and
Red Wharf Bay
Red Wharf Bay, also known as Traeth Coch (Welsh for "red beach"), is a village and a wide sandy bay in the Anglesey Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the east coast of the island of Anglesey in Wales. The bay lies between the villages of Pe ...
.
By air,
Anglesey Airport
Anglesey Airport ( cy, Maes Awyr Ynys Môn) is an airport owned by the Isle of Anglesey County Council on land leased from the Defence Infrastructure Organisation. The airport is situated at Llanfair-yn-Neubwll in Anglesey, Wales. The leased ...
has a twice-daily scheduled service to
Cardiff Airport
Cardiff Airport ( cy, Maes Awyr Caerdydd) is the only airport offering commercial passenger services in Wales. It has been under the ownership of the Welsh Government since March 2013, operating at an arm's length as a commercial business. Pa ...
, where connections worldwide can be made.
The ferry port of Holyhead handles over two million passengers a year.
Stena Line and
Irish Ferries
Irish Ferries is an Irish ferry and transport company that operates passenger and freight services on routes between Ireland, Britain and Continental Europe, including Dublin Port–Holyhead; Rosslare Europort to Pembroke as well as Dublin ...
sail to
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
(previously to
Dún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire ( , ) is a suburban coastal town in Dublin in Ireland. It is the administrative centre of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown.
The town was built following the 1816 legislation that allowed the building of a major port to serve Dubli ...
), forming the main surface
transport
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, an ...
link from central and northern England and Wales to Ireland.
Sport and leisure
Anglesey is independently represented in the
Island Games
The Island Games (currently known as the NatWest International Island Games for sponsorship reasons) are biennial international multi-sports events organised by the International Island Games Association (IIGA). Competitor teams each represent d ...
(as ''Ynys Môn''). The team finished joint 17th in the
2009 Games hosted by
Ã…land
Ã…land ( fi, Ahvenanmaa: ; ; ) is an Federacy, autonomous and Demilitarized zone, demilitarised region of Finland since 1920 by a decision of the League of Nations. It is the smallest region of Finland by area and population, with a size of 1 ...
, winning medals in
gymnastics
Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shou ...
,
sailing
Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...
, and
shooting
Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles can ...
.
Anglesey made an unsuccessful bid for the 2009 games, led by Ynys Môn MP
Albert Owen
Albert Owen (born 10 August 1959) is a Welsh people, Welsh Welsh Labour, Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Ynys Môn (UK Parliament constituency), Ynys Môn from 2001 to 2 ...
, in the hope of more than £3m of spending if it had hosted the event. However, Anglesey lacks two needful facilities: a six-lane competition swimming pool and an athletics track.
Several precursors to the modern football codes were popular in Anglesey. They had few rules and were quite violent. Rhys Cox at the turn of the 18th century described a game in
Llandrygan ending with "numbers of players... left here and there on the road, some having limbs broken in the struggle, others severely injured, and some carried on biers to be buried in the churchyard nearest to where they had been mortally injured." William Bulkeley, in his April 1734 diary, records that the violence of such games left no hard feelings, with both sides parting "as good friends as they came, after they had spent half an hour together cherishing their spirits with a cup of ale... having finished Easter Holydays innocently and merrily."
Association football
This arrived in the 1870s and met with local resistance for its perceived associations with drunkenness and rowdiness and the lower classes. One critic called it an "un-Christian practice". An Anglesey League of teams from
Amlwch
Amlwch (; ) is a port town and community in Wales. It is situated on the north coast of the Isle of Anglesey, on the A5025 which connects it to Holyhead and to Menai Bridge. As well as Amlwch town and Amlwch Port, other settlements within t ...
,
Beaumaris
Beaumaris ( ; cy, Biwmares ) is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, of which it is the former county town of Anglesey. It is located at the eastern entrance to the Menai Strait, the tidal waterway separating Anglesey from th ...
,
Holyhead
Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...
,
Menai Bridge
Menai Bridge ( cy, Porthaethwy; usually referred to colloquially as Y Borth) is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in north-west Wales. It overlooks the Menai Strait and lies by the Menai Suspension Bridge, built in 1826 by Thomas T ...
,
Llandegfan
Llandegfan (; ; meaning ''The Church of St Tegfan'') is a village on the east of island of Anglesey in Wales. It is part of the community of Cwm Cadnant.Davies (2008) p.180 Population is around 1,580.
History and description
The original villag ...
, and
Llangefni
Llangefni (meaning "church on the River Cefni", ) is the county town of Anglesey in Wales and contains the principal offices of the Isle of Anglesey County Council. United Kingdom Census 2011 recorded Llangefni's population as 5,116 people, maki ...
was formed in the 1895–96 season. This gave way in 2020 to the
North Wales Coast West Football League
The North Wales Coast West Football League is a football league in Wales, at tiers 4 and 5 of the Welsh football league system in North Wales, founded in 2020. The league is under the control of the North Wales Coast Football Association. The le ...
.
The
Ynys Môn football team represents Anglesey at the biannual
Island Games
The Island Games (currently known as the NatWest International Island Games for sponsorship reasons) are biennial international multi-sports events organised by the International Island Games Association (IIGA). Competitor teams each represent d ...
, winning gold in 1999. In 2018, the island was chosen to host the
2019 Inter Games Football Tournament, where the men's team won gold and the women's team won silver.
For the
aborted 2020–21 season,
Llangefni Town and
Holyhead Hotspur were due to play in the
Cymru North
The Cymru North is a regional football league in Wales, covering the northern half of the country. It has clubs with semi-professional status and together with the Cymru South, it forms the second tier of the Welsh football league system.
The f ...
league, the second tier of the
Welsh football league system
The Welsh football league system (or pyramid) is a series of football leagues with regular promotion and relegation between them.
While most Welsh clubs play in the Welsh pyramid and most clubs in that pyramid are Welsh, five Welsh clubs play ...
, after winning the
Welsh Alliance League
The Welsh Alliance Football League (formerly the ''Lock Stock Welsh Alliance Football League'', for sponsorship reasons) was a football league formed in 1984, and discontinued in 2020 following the reorganisation of the Welsh football pyramid for ...
two years before. There were due to be nine Anglesey sides in the same season's fourth tier
North Wales Coast West Football League
The North Wales Coast West Football League is a football league in Wales, at tiers 4 and 5 of the Welsh football league system in North Wales, founded in 2020. The league is under the control of the North Wales Coast Football Association. The le ...
Premier Division:
Aberffraw
Aberffraw is a village and community on the south west coast of the Isle of Anglesey ( cy, Ynys Môn), in Wales, by the west bank of the Afon Ffraw (Ffraw River). The community includes Soar and Dothan. Located near the A4080 and the nearest ...
,
Amlwch Town,
Bodedern Athletic, Bro Goronwy, Gaerwen,
Gwalchmai, Menai Bridge Tigers, Pentraeth and Trearddur Bay Bulls. There are a further nine teams in Division One.
Rugby Union
Llangefni RFC
Llangefni Rugby Football Club (Welsh: Clwb Rygbi Llangefni) is a rugby union team from the town of Llangefni, on the island of Anglesey, North Wales. Llangefni RFC is a member of the Welsh Rugby Union.
History
The club was formed in February 19 ...
is the island's highest competing team in the
WRU Division One North
The Welsh Rugby Union Division One North (also called the SWALEC Division One North for sponsorship reasons) is a rugby union league in Wales first implemented for the 1995/96 season. The league was known as Division Four North before the 2008-09 ...
.
Llangoed
Llangoed () is a small village, community and electoral ward just north of Beaumaris, on the Isle of Anglesey or ''Ynys Môn'', at . The Royal Mail postcode begins LL58. Llangoed ward has a population of 1,275 (2001), falling at the 2011 census to ...
hosts an annual
rugby sevens contest. Touring sides have included Manhattan RFC.
Anglesey Hunt
Anglesey Hunt, formed in 1757, was the second oldest
fox hunting
Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase and, if caught, the killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds. A group of unarmed followers, led by a "master of foxhounds" (or "master of ho ...
association in Wales after Tivyside Hunt in Cardiganshire.
Athletics
Every September the Anglesey Festival of Running includes a marathon, a half-marathon, 10-km and 5–km races, and children's contests. Its slogan is ''Run the Island''. There are at present no 400-metre, all-weather, synthetic
tracks on the island, the nearest being between
Bangor and the
Britannia Bridge
Britannia Bridge ( cy, Pont Britannia) is a bridge across the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales. It was originally designed and built by the noted railway engineer Robert Stephenson as a tubular bridge of wr ...
on the mainland.
Motorsport
The
Anglesey Circuit
The Anglesey Circuit ( cy, Trac Môn) is a motor racing circuit located in Ty Croes, Anglesey, Wales. It plays host to a variety of motorsport events including car racing, motorcycle racing, car sprints, stage rallies and drifting.
It open ...
(Welsh: Trac Môn) is a licensed MSA and ACU championship racing circuit that opened in 1997. It hosts many events all year round and is a popular track.
Cricket
The Beaumaris Cricket Club formed in 1858. Clubs at
Holyhead
Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...
,
Amlwch
Amlwch (; ) is a port town and community in Wales. It is situated on the north coast of the Isle of Anglesey, on the A5025 which connects it to Holyhead and to Menai Bridge. As well as Amlwch town and Amlwch Port, other settlements within t ...
and
Llangefni
Llangefni (meaning "church on the River Cefni", ) is the county town of Anglesey in Wales and contains the principal offices of the Isle of Anglesey County Council. United Kingdom Census 2011 recorded Llangefni's population as 5,116 people, maki ...
formed in the following decade, but not until the 1880s was the sport popular outside the upper classes.
Bodedern
Bodedern is a village and community in the west of Anglesey, Wales.
At the 2001 census, it had a population of 1,074, decreasing slightly to 1,051 at the 2011 census. The community includes the settlements of Llanllibio and Pen-llyn.
Location ...
Cricket Club was formed in 1947.
Sailing
The Royal Anglesey Yacht Club hosts the annual Menai Strait Regatta.
Swimming
The Menai Strait hosts two annual open-water contests: the Menai Strait Swim from Foel to Caernarfon (1 mile), and the Pier to Pier Open Water Swim, between
Beaumaris
Beaumaris ( ; cy, Biwmares ) is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, of which it is the former county town of Anglesey. It is located at the eastern entrance to the Menai Strait, the tidal waterway separating Anglesey from th ...
and
Garth Pier
Garth Pier is a Grade II listed structure in Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales. At in length, it is the second-longest pier in Wales, and the ninth longest in the British Isles.
Construction
Designed by J.J. Webster of Westminster, London, the pier has ...
, Bangor. There is a 25-metre pool at Plas Arthur Leisure Centre in
Llangefni
Llangefni (meaning "church on the River Cefni", ) is the county town of Anglesey in Wales and contains the principal offices of the Isle of Anglesey County Council. United Kingdom Census 2011 recorded Llangefni's population as 5,116 people, maki ...
.
See also
*
Roman conquest of Anglesey
*
List of Scheduled Monuments in Anglesey
*
List of places in Anglesey
''Map of places in Anglsey compiled from this list'': See the list of places in Wales for places in other principal areas.
This is a list of towns and villages in the principal area of Anglesey, Wales.
A
* Aberffraw
* Amlwch
* Amlwch Port
B ...
*
List of Anglesey towns by population
This is a guide to the size of settlements in Anglesey
Anglesey (; cy, (Ynys) Môn ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms a principal area known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island across the narrow Cymy ...
*
List of Lord Lieutenants of Anglesey
*
List of Custos Rotulorums of Anglesey This is a list of people who have served as Custos Rotulorum of Anglesey.
* Thomas Holte bef. 1544–1546
* Lewis Ab Owen ap Meurig ?–1558
* Richard Bulkeley (died 1573), Sir Richard Bulkeley 1558–1572
* Richard Bulkeley (died 1621) ...
*
List of Sheriffs of Anglesey
This is a list of Sheriffs of Anglesey. Following the conquest of Wales by Edward I, Anglesey was created a county of Wales under the Statute of Rhuddlan, 1284.Prior to 1974 the office now known as "High Sheriff" were styled "Sheriff" ()
On 1 A ...
*
Isle of Anglesey County Council
The Isle of Anglesey County Council ( cy, Cyngor Sir Ynys Môn) is the local authority for the county of Anglesey, one of the principal areas of Wales. Since 2022 the council has 35 councillors who represent 11 multi-member electoral wards.
Hi ...
*
Ynys Môn (UK Parliament constituency)
Ynys Môn (; officially called Anglesey until 1983) is a United Kingdom constituencies, constituency of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament ( ...
*
Ynys Môn (Assembly constituency) Ynys Môn may refer to:
* Anglesey ( cy, Ynys Môn, links=no), an island of north-west Wales in the Irish Sea
** Ynys Môn (UK Parliament constituency)
Ynys Môn (; officially called Anglesey until 1983) is a constituency of the House of C ...
*
List of islands of Wales
This is a list of islands of Wales, the mainland of which is part of Great Britain, as well as a table of the largest Welsh islands by area. The list includes tidal islands such as Sully Island but not locations such as Shell Island which, thoug ...
– including those around Anglesey
*The
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
's four ships named
*
HMS ''Anglesey'' (P277)
Notes
References
*
*
*
Attribution:
*
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anglesey
Anglesey
Anglesey (; cy, (Ynys) Môn ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms a principal area known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island across the narrow Cymyran Strait and some islets and skerries. Anglesey island ...
Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Wales
Counties of Wales
Principal areas of Wales
Cantrefs
Commotes of Gwynedd
Historic counties of Wales