News
and Events
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ADDED
21st MAY 2009: Anglesey Walking Festival, 23rd May-7th June 2009
The Festival includes some walks with a
geological theme, led by local geologists. Most walks are on the
Coastal Footpath and feature stunning scenery, flora and fauna with
varied geological rock formations - home to a large variety of nesting
bird colonies, which is ideal for birdwatchers. More from the brochure
(PDF format, ~5Mb) - please download by clicking HERE.
In summary, the geological walks (marked in the brochure by the GeoMon
logo) are as follows:
24th May, 2pm: Bodafon to Lligwy: Devonian, Precambrian &
Carboniferous
Start point: Car Park by the track on the mountain. Directions: at
Brynrefail take the narrow road south and as it crosses west between Yr
Arwydd and Mynydd Bodafon. The car park is on the right. Grid
Reference: SH 471 853.
Second Section of walk Start Point: Lligwy Beach Car Park (Moelfre
side). Grid Reference: SH 497 871
Length & grade of walk: 3 miles, 3 hours; Easy. Fee: £2.50
per person. Guide: Dr John Conway
25th May, 2pm: Llanddwyn Island: Spectacular Precambrian pillow-lavas
Start point: Newborough Beach Car Park (Parking Fee applicable). Grid
Reference: SH 405 634
Length & Grade of walk: 3 miles, 4 hours; Moderate. Fee:
£2.50 per person. Guide: Dr John Conway
26th May, 2pm: Benllech to Red Wharf Bay: Rare sandstone pipes in the
Carboniferous Limestone.
Start point: Benllech Beach Car Park. Grid Reference: SH 523 825
Length & grade of walk: 3 hours, 2 miles; Moderate. Fee:
£2.50 per person. Guide: Ray Roberts and Dr Jaquie Malpas
30th May, 2pm: South Stack: world-famous folded rocks spectacularly
displayed in the cliffs.
Start point: RSPB Car Park near South Stack. Grid Reference: SH 211 817
Length & grade of walk: 2 miles, 3 hours; Moderate. Fee:
£2.50 per person. Guide: Prof. Bill Fitches
31st May, 9am: Rhoscolyn Headland: walk the Headland with its
spectacular scenery and
folded rocks and discover why this is the most visited site in Anglesey
for study.
Start point: St Gwenfaen`s Church, Rhoscolyn. Grid Reference: SH 268 757
Length & Grade of walk: 2 miles, 3 hours; Moderate. Fee:
£2.50 per person. Guide: Prof. Bill Fitches
31st May, 2pm: Church Bay to Carmel Head: Some of Anglesey’s oldest
rocks (600 to 500 million years old).
Start point: Car Park, Church Bay. Grid Reference: SH 301 891
Length & Grade of walk: 6-7 miles, 5 hrs, Generally Moderate: path
steep in places. Fee: £2.50 per person. Guide: Dr Anthony Heeley
1st June, 10am: Llys Llewelyn and Aberffraw Coastal Trail: Ancient
Precambrian schists which are intruded by several dykes which were
pushed up into the rocks when the ocean floor split at a plate
boundary.
Start point: Llys Llewelyn Car Park. Grid Reference: SH 365 692
Length & grade of walk: 3 miles, 3 hours; Moderate. Fee:
£2.50 per person. Guide: Sue Brookes Refreshments available at
Llys Llewelyn café (at own cost)
2nd June, 10am: Newborough Forest and Llanddwyn: See the spectacular,
world famous pillow lavas and the jumbled rocks (melange) that formed
in deep oceans at plate margins between 500 and 600 million years ago.
Start point: The Newborough Beach Car Park. Grid Reference: SH 406 635
Length & Grade of walk: 3 miles, 4 hours; Easy to Moderate. Fee:
£2.50 per person. Guides: Dr Margaret Wood and Dr Stewart Campbell
6th June, 1.30pm: Children and Family Geology Event
Holyhead Breakwater Country Park Visitor Centre
This event will be partly indoors and partly along the coast. The
children will be creating animals from painted pebbles and looking at
some rocks at South Stack.
Start point: Holyhead Breakwater Country Park Visitor Centre
Length & Grade of walk: Half a Mile, 2 hours; Easy. Fee:
£2.50 per person. Guide: Dr Kate Riddington
6th June, 1.30pm: Trwyn y Parc to Llanbadrig: Walk the headland and
shore to see Precambrian limestone with surface hollows (pipes) formed
in the Miocene around 20 million years ago. Examine the melange that is
a great jumble of quartzite, limestone and schist blocks that have
tumbled down an ocean slope. Also see younger Ordovician sediments
which may contain fossils.
Start point: Car Park, Grid Reference SH 374 937, approached from the
narrow road sign posted Gadlys Hotel (narrow road leaves A5025 1 km
east of Cemaes)
Length & Grade of walk: 2 miles, 3-4 hours; Moderate. Fee:
£2.50 per person. Guide: Jack Treagus
ADDED
25th APRIL 2009: ANGLESEY JOINS THE EUROPEAN GEOPARKS NETWORK!
The Coordination
Committee of the European Geoparks Network have voted to accept
GeoMôn as a new member of the European Geoparks Network. This
recommendation will go forward to the next meeting of the UNESCO Global
Geoparks Network Bureau, in August 2009, for formal acceptance into the
global family of geoparks.
BBC News piece: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8014522.stm
Anglesey Council economic development portfolio holder Councillor Bryan
Owen said the authority was committed to the GeoMôn partnership.
"The island's geological heritage will now be promoted worldwide by the
European GeoParks Network and will undoubtedly provide us with an
economic boost in terms of geo-tourism."
Council deputy leader and environment portfolio holder, Councillor Bob
Parry, said: "This is excellent news for Anglesey. GeoPark status fits
in well with out promotion of the island as a place with a stunning,
unspoilt natural environment."
Buy Cheap Software Source Insight 3.5 Softmaker Office 2006
Dr Margaret Wood adds: "Thank you all for helping in many different
ways over the past 5 years." The map shows Anglesey Geopark along with
the other existing European Geoparks.
ADDED 19th MARCH 2009: IMPORTANT NEW
BOOK ON THE GEOLOGY OF ANGLESEY
"For
those of us who teach and learn from the rocks of Anglesey this is an
invaluable book that will help a wider audience open a window into the
history of the Earth and provide a manual by which to test the plate
tectonic model."
Peter Loader - Chief Examiner, A level
Geology, WJEC
Written by veteran
Anglesey research geologist, Jack Treagus, this book (ISBN
0-9546966-2-X) is now on sale from
GeoMon, via Dr Margaret Wood. Cost is just £11.00
(including postage and packing) - please send orders to Margaret,
together with cheques payable to "AGP", at:
College, Llansadwrn,
Menai Bridge, Anglesey, LL59 5SN
Email enquiries to
Margaret can be sent to:
margaret@coleg10.freeserve.co.uk
In the footsteps of Charles Darwin - NW
Midlands and North Wales
June 19-24 2009
This will be a field meeting jointly
sponsored by The Geologists' Association, The Geological Society of
London and The Quaternary Research Association.
To commemorate the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth in 2009,
and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species,
the excursion will visit a number of localities in his home area of
Shropshire - Staffordshire and also North Wales. Besides the
general Darwin related sites, the emphasis will be on his earlier work
as a geologist and in particular his field trip in June 1842 to
appraise the evidence presented by William Buckland in 1841 supporting
the 'Glacial Theory'. The excursion will be led by Professor Peter
Worsley (University of Reading) and will be an opportunity to see
aspects of the glacial geology of North Wales. Three nights will be
spent at Keele University and two in Llanberis.
Full details (PDF): Charles Darwin fieldtrip
QRA.pdf (255k)
Xmas 2008 Newsletter
The
Summer 2008 Newsletter, issued on
July 10th, is available to download here
(PDF, 56K). For older Newsletters please scroll down to the Archive.
Added 12:12:2008....
Young Geologists Club dates for 2009
Please follow this link: http://www.geomon.org.uk/education/ygc.htm
Added 03:12:2008.....
Congratulations to Hootons Homegrown , Anglesey on winning
the Sky UK TV Food award (local
heroes) for Wales and to Derimon Smokery, Anglesey for being in the top 5 nationally. We are proud to
have them as partners in our Geopark.
Anglesey is only a small island, but to get 2, including the winner, in the top food producers in Wales
is a huge achievement. Well
done to both. Margaret
(Director)
INTRODUCING: ROCKY SCRAMBLES TEACHING PACKS!
Produced by Peter
Loader, this new series of teaching field guides for areas of the
proposed Anglesey Geopark begins with a geological guide to Traeth
Bychan and Penrhyn Point. They are available in our education section
in PDF format. More details at: http://www.geomon.org.uk/education/teachers.htm
Anglesey
AONB Events Programme 2008
Anglesey County Council, in
partnership with various local
organisations (including GeoMon) have arranged an events programme for
July through to December. including a variety of walks, talks and
events to celebrate the distinctiveness of the Anglesey coastline.
Details of the events can be read by downloading the Summer 2008
edition of Swn y Mor, the magazine for the Anglesey Area of Outstanding
Natural Beauty and the Anglesey Coastal Footpath. Please note that
GeoMon will have a stall in the Craft Tent at the Anglesey Show, on the
Anglesey Agricultural Showground, on 12th-13th August 2008.
Link to Swn y Mor: http://www.anglesey.gov.uk/upload/public/attachments/85/issue5swnymor.pdf
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Anglesey
Young Geologists' Club
Please go to www.geomon.org.uk/education/ygc.htm for details.
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