Holyhead Mountain Walk – Stack, Stack, Seal

10 October 2012 Andy

Most people know that Holyhead is a ferry port. It’s the place where you go when you want to catch a ferry to Ireland. However it came as a nice surprise to find that it nestles at the bottom of Holyhead Mountain and also has a nice little promenade. We came across it by chance when we turned the corner on to the Prince of Wales Road (we never did find out whether he actually lived there) which then became Beach Road.

Of course, even here the ferry port is never too far away, it pervades just about everything around Holyhead.

We drove a little further along and took a few photos of the Breakwater.

At one end of it is also the now derelict (and fire gutted) Soldiers Point Hotel. A shame really, it looked an interesting building.

Finally we reached Holyhead Breakwater Country Park for the beginning of our walk.

The park is in old quarry at the bottom of Holyhead Mountain (Mynydd Twr). From here we set off on the St Cybi circular walk.

You are soon climbing steep hill sections towards North Stack fog signal station.

View towards North Stack Fog Signal Station

In the cove below North Stack were a small group of seals with their pups. My photo (taken using my smartphone and hence not suitable for taking details images from a distance) doesn’t do them justice, they were a magnificent site.

Then it was back up Holyhead Mountain and over to South Stack Lighthouse.

We ate lunch at Ellins Tower on the RSPB South Stacks Cliffs Reserve.

After lunch we continued to climb – onwards and upwards.

Eventually we reached the trig point at 220m. It’s the highest point in the county of Anglesey, and the views are magnificent.

After that it was a quick descent back down to the Country Park.

We had planned to do more with the day. However it was almost evening by the time we got back to the car, and frankly we were tired. At which point we decided to call it a day and head back for Stockport. We stopped off on the way for a well deserved (in our minds at least!) evening meal at The Bells of St Mary’s just outside Prestatyn.