Following the winding path, brushing against spiny gorse bushes as I go, I make my way cautiously across the uneven ground. It’s imperative that I tread carefully here – barely a stone’s throw from the track, there’s a 60-metre drop down to the waves below. But despite my proximity to the cliff’s edge, it’s proving difficult to keep my eyes focused on the ground, because the landscape is breathtaking – to my left, the turquoise sea mirrors a cloudless sky, while to my right, swathes of gorse, heather and bracken stretch over the brow of the hill. And there isn’t a person, pylon or building in sight.

This is Dinas Gynfor, the most northerly point in Wales and part of the Anglesey Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Confirmed in 1967, Anglesey’s designation encompasses the majority of the island’s 201-kilometre coastline, and I’ve been told that one of the best ways to explore the region is by walking a section of the newly re-invigorated coastal path. AONB project officer Efan Milner and Coastal Path and AONB link officer Andy Godber have agreed to be my guides for the day, and we’ve already been walking for several hours by the time we reach Dinas Gynfor.

Stopping to take a break in the shade of the disused semaphore station on the promontory, we spot a flurry of birds diving for fish. Closer inspection reveals three porpoises plunging through the waves, driving the fish to the surface and into the beaks of the waiting seabirds. According to Milner, this is a fairly common sight. Apparently, almost every time he visits Anglesey’s east coast, he spots harbour porpoises, and a recent survey by Marine Awareness North Wales found that the island’s coastline represents one of the most important sites in the UK for the species.

The island and its surrounding waters are something of a haven for wildlife, boasting red squirrels, grey seals, basking sharks and the odd leatherback turtle, while the inaccessible cliffs and rugged coastline encourage a rich variety of birds to visit the island. At the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds reserve on South Stack Cliffs near Holyhead, the nooks and crannies in the cliff face provide nesting spots for thousands of birds each year. ‘We have choughs, and we also have peregrines nesting on the coastal cliffs,’ Milner tells me. ‘And the Skerries, a small collection of islands just off the coast, are an important tern colony. We have puffins too.’


Fierce currents

Situated off the northwest coast of Wales, Anglesey (Ynys Môn in Welsh) is separated from the mainland by the Menai Strait, a glacial channel filled with bass, cod and conger eels.

The abundance of marine creatures is the result of a stretch of water called the Swellies, home to some of the fiercest currents in the British Isles, along with the tidal races that swirl around South Stack. These races – streams of rapidly flowing water created when a tide is forced through a constricted channel – stir up nutrients in the water, which nurtures the plankton on which the fish feed, and which, in turn, become food for the larger marine animals.

As well as encouraging wildlife, the currents around the island are so strong that they are being touted as a potential energy source. There are already several small windfarms, all of which fall outside the AONB, but Milner tells me that there are plans afoot to significantly extend the project. ‘Because the races here are so powerful, the potential is quite vast for energy generation via marine turbines,’ he says. There is a proposal to install large turbines between the island and the Skerries within the next two or three years. ‘What we’re looking at is seven big domes about four metres across, going down 30–40 metres into the sea, with two turbines either side.’

Obviously, looking out from the coast, the turbines would have a big effect on the view, but Milner is more concerned about the potential impact upon the marine wildlife. ‘When you think about where these races are, the importance of them to the porpoises in terms of fishing and where they get their food,’ he says, ‘it could have quite a dramatic effect on their numbers around Anglesey.’

But wildlife isn’t the only issue, and energy production is a major concern on the island, with Anglesey Aluminium Metal’s smelter in Holyhead accounting for a quarter of all Wales’s energy consumption. The smelter’s huge demands are currently met by Wylfa, a nuclear generator located on the island’s north coast. Reaching the end of its lifespan and due to close next year, the station was recently granted an extension until 2010, which is when the tidal generators will open if the scheme is granted planning permission.

Balanced against the possibility of a second nuclear power station, a tidal power plant may be the lesser of two evils, and Milner is keeping an open mind on the matter. ‘I need to be shown proper facts about the actual amount of power [the tidal power plant] would create before I could comment,’ he tells me. ‘And I’d absolutely expect the AONB to be consulted on it, because it would have such a dramatic impact when looking out over the coast. With Anglesey being a coastal designation, the seascape is very important. But then what do you want to see – another nuclear reactor or seven humps in the water?

‘That’s the problem we have as an AONB,’ Milner concludes. ‘The fact is, Wylfa will be closed eventually, and the likelihood is that the aluminium smelter will have to close then too, which would have a major impact on the island’s economy.’


Economic saviour

With the possibility of one of the island’s largest employers leaving, it’s vital that other sources of income are explored. As the second largest industry after agriculture, tourism is understandably being touted as a possible economic saviour. At present, around two million people visit Anglesey each year, and with new schemes such as the coastal path encouraging people to come and explore the island’s stunning seascapes, it seems there is great potential for growth.

‘The coastal footpath is quite a gem of a thing,’ agrees Gwynne Morris Jones, chairman of the AONB’s Joint Advisory Committee and its Sustainable Development Fund, ‘because it’s the natural beauty of our beaches and our cliff coastlines that are our main attraction.’ As we follow the trail around the headland to Porth Wen, along one of the island’s three sections of heritage coastline, we pause to look out at the crumbling splendour of the abandoned brickworks that dominate the bay. Drinking in the view, it’s difficult to disagree with Morris Jones’s sentiment.

‘It’s essentially an around-the-island walk,’ Godber tells me. ‘We’ve been trying to improve it over the past seven years, making it more aesthetically pleasing, swapping stiles for kissing gates, and generally making it more accessible for people’.

In total, the Isle of Anglesey Coastal Path stretches more than 200 kilometres around the island, and 95 per cent of that falls within the AONB. ‘To a certain extent, everything that is a highlight of the AONB is also a highlight of the coastal path,’ Godber says. ‘It’s a way for the general public to get out and enjoy the AONB, to see geological sites such as South Stack and the north coast, which are essentially the landscape gems of the coastal path. Personally, I think one of the nicest things about the coastal path is the variety of the landscape – this sort of area has the seascape and the dramatic coastal landscape views, whereas along the southern end, you get a brilliant view of Snowdonia.’

So far, the initiative has proved very popular with visitors. ‘The coastal path has been very well publicised and is becoming a major draw,’ Milner confirms. ‘We have an annual footfall of around 350,000 people.’

But if these figures are encouraging, Godber believes that the path deserves even greater recognition. ‘We’re hoping to get to national trail status,’ he says. ‘We’ve had to apply to the Countryside Council for Wales – that’s under way at the moment – and obviously we have to hit certain targets in terms of accessibility, the standard of the path, the infrastructure and added links with the environment, interpretation and so on, but those are the targets we’ve been working towards over the past five to six years anyway, so we’re hopefully in pretty good shape.’

If the application is successful, the coastal path will become the fourth national trail in Wales. However, perhaps the most exciting tourism-related development is the island’s ongoing application for European geopark status. Established in 2000, there are now 32 such parks, including the Brecon Beacons. In order to qualify for geopark status, a site must demonstrate a special geological heritage and the potential to generate sustainable economic development through geotourism. Anglesey seems to be a prime candidate.


Rock star

‘We have the oldest fossils in Wales,’ says Dr Margaret Wood, director of GeoMôn, the organisation supporting Anglesey’s bid for geopark status. ‘And we have probably the best teaching area for geology in the whole of Britain – more schools and universities use it as a teaching area than anywhere else in UK.’ In fact, a recent survey carried out on the site of the proposed geopark by the Gwynedd and Môn RIGS Group for the Welsh Assembly Government identified about 150 sites where either the general public or schools and colleges could benefit from using the landscape to learn about geology.

This isn’t surprising, considering the fact that Anglesey contains rocks spanning nine geological periods over 600 million years. According to Wood, ‘Anglesey is the place to teach plate tectonics, because you have all sorts of examples of the different plate edges. And there are fantastic Pre-Cambrian rocks with folding and faulting at South Stack.

‘It’s a very popular area to study. Llanddwyn Island and the adjacent forest on the west coast,’ she continues, ‘is famous for its pillow lavas, because they’re still perfectly formed. Formed from a basalt-like rock called spillite, they were extruded at a plate margin and they’re very beautiful to look at – they really are just like pillows, one on top of the other – and the ones in Anglesey are between 560 and 600 million years old, but they look just as if they were extruded yesterday.’

Given that the mineral wealth of the island has been exploited through mining and quarrying for centuries, it seems fitting that, should the area gain geopark status, it will allow the landscape to provide economic benefits to the islanders for years to come, without disturbing the scenery that makes it unique.

For more information about Anglesey, contact Visit Wales on 0800 915 6567 or visit its website at www.visitwales.co.uk

November 2007