Spotlight Saturday

Spotlight on ……

I am spoilt for choice! Where do I choose from our holiday to put the spotlight on? We went to so many lovely places and did so many lovely things. However the one activity that really was my favourite was our walks to Llanddywdyn Island.  We were living only a 5 minute drive away from Newborough Warren which is a National Nature Reserve and is made up of woodland, mudflats, dunes and beaches and just off the beach is a narrow finger of land which is cut off from the beach at high tide but during low tide is easily get at able. It was a magical place and I loved it! The first time we visited we went early evening as I had heard that the views as the sun sets are fantastic and I was not disappointed. We parked in the car park (which usually costs £4 but the barriers were up!) and took a long walk through the woods down to the beach.

Once we arrived at the beach we could see the island and the lighthouse at the end of it. We strolled through the dunes to reach the beach and then it was a lovely walk with views of Snowdonia to get across the causeway to the island.

The island itself was so peaceful! We ambled along the path and up a slight hill and there before us was the most perfect view of the tumbledown chapel, cross and lighthouse.

A short walk down the other side of the hill brought us to the St Dwynwen’s chapel – built in the 16^th century on the ruins of a previous chapel. Through the window was the perfect view of the cross on the hill which was placed there for a celebration of Queen Victoria and just opposite the chapel was a wonderful Celtic cross.

Down from the chapel were a run of 4 cottages where the pilots used to live to guide boats through the Menai strait. On this evening we didn’t walk out to the lighthouse, but just admired it from the bottom of the steps! However we returned later in the week for another walk and actually went up to the lighthouse to look at the views from there – unfortunately you couldn’t get into the lighthouse but it was still fun to walk to.

So yes, this is a magical island which I don’t think I could ever tire of. We visited twice and I could have gone again and again! If you are ever in the area I highly recommend visiting – either for a sunset walk (but watch the tide times you don’t want to get stranded over night!) or during the day. We enjoyed both.