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 known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island across the narrow

Cymyran Strait {{Location map, Wales Anglesey, mark=Green_pog.svg , lat=53.2820021, long=-4.5845404, width=250, float=center , alt = , caption = , image_bathymetry = , alt_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location ...

and some islets and

skerries A skerry is a small rocky island, usually defined to be too small for habitation. Skerry, skerries, or The Skerries may also refer to: Geography Northern Ireland * Skerries, County Armagh, a townland in County Armagh * Skerry, County Antrim, a ...

. Anglesey island, at , is the largest in Wales, the seventh largest in Britain, largest 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 Europ ...

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. H ...

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 w ...

, built in 1850 and replaced in 1980. The largest town is Holyhead 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, mak ...

, the county council seat. From

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of President of the United States, United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom K ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...

Anglesey was part of

Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the North West Wales, north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County B ...

. 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 peopl ...

speakers. The Welsh name Ynys Môn is used for the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the Parliamentary sovereignty in the United Kingdom, supreme Legislature, legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of We ...

and

Senedd (Welsh Parliament) The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Gove ...

constituencies. The postcodes are LL58–LL78. It is also a historic county of Wales.

Name

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 northern ...

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- ...

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

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 ...

''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 No ...

as ''Monez''. The Brittonic 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 a ...

''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 historian. As a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops, he travelled widely and wrote extensively. He studied and taugh ...

' ''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 fou ...

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 ...

. 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. Plas Newydd Anglesey House NW view

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. Wh ...

s. The

Roman conquest of Anglesey The Roman conquest of Anglesey refers to two separate invasions of Anglesey in North West Wales that occurred during the early decades of the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century CE. The first invasion of North Wales began after the Ro ...