‘Lovely places to eat and geology that’s worth its own syllabus’
Adapted from the Daily Post – its not often you see geology as a recomendation to visit a place.
It’s a little bit of a drive to Cemaes Bay. But once you arrive you realise Mother Nature has really gone to town. It’s got three lovely bays, maritime and industrial heritage and enough geological features to fill its own syllabus.
I strolled along admiring the view of the harbour and the pleasure boats tugging gently at their moorings on the incoming tide. The whole, soothing scene was tranquility itself and I’m sure one of the boats was named Panacea.
Wandering along the seafront you can easily walk down to Traeth Mawr, Traeth Bach or a medium one known locally as the “canol”, tides permitting. I came across a huge green buoy with a story to tell.
It’s a dubious honour to have treacherous rocks named after you, but such was the fate of “Harry Furlong”. As the information board says, a local man named Harris allegedly used to extinguish a beacon on the shore, which was meant to warn sailors of the danger.
Visitors will inevitably contemplate lunch and where to go. Yr Harbwr restaurant is enviably positioned exactly where its name suggests. The friendly chef was only serving a nice latte that day during a refurbishment, but was kind enough to recommend another place to eat – the nearby Gwesty Gadlys Hotel.
Before I left Cemaes itself though I wanted to check out the Wales Coast Path. To reach it it’s simply a case of meandering through the hotchpotch of houses to the rocky shore.
That’s where, for geologists, the fun begins. There’s a Cemaes Geology Trail covering some of the most important rocks on the island formed between 860 million and just 18,000 years ago. Even the mildly curious may be interested to learn about limestone, quartzite, ironstone and a “muddy melange matrix” from display boards at Trwyn y Penrhyn and other points along the route.
Actually there are two trails, one in each direction around the coast from Cemaes to Wylfa (Welsh version) and from Cemaes to Llanbadrig church Welsh version