The Isle of Anglesey (Ynys Môn in Welsh) is situated off the north-west coast of Wales near the beautiful Snowdonia mountain range. It is separated from the mainland by the Menai Strait, which is spanned by two picturesque bridges, the Menai Bridge and the Britannia Bridge. Anglesey was known as Mam Cymru ('Mother of Wales') during the middle ages because its fertile fields formed the breadbasket for the north of Wales.
The name Anglesey is thought to have come from a Viking place name. In old Norse the -ey ending indicates an island named after a particular person (cf. Bardsey, Orkney, Ramsey, etc.). Anglesey is probably derived from "Ongl's ey", Ongl's island. Who Ongl was we have no idea. To see a BBC video clip about the origin of the name of Anglesey click
here.
This site now has a major new section on the
Windmills of Anglesey.
Today it has several thriving towns.
The historic town of Beaumaris is the site of one of the castles built by Edward I after his defeat of the Welsh princes, as well as the historic mansion Henllys Hall, now a hotel (see their pages for more on the history of Anglesey and Wales). The town of
Holyhead, on
Holy Island, is the main ferry port for travel across the Irish Sea to Dublin and Llangefni, in the centre of the island, is the county town.
Kovach Computing Services (the host of this site) is located in the village of Pentraeth.
Anglesey also has the village with the longest place name in Britain: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (click
here to hear it pronounced). The name, when translated into English, means "The church of St. Mary in a hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and near St. Tysilio's church by the red cave". The name was actually coined in the nineteenth century to attract tourists to the Island. It is abbreviated to Llanfairpwll or Llanfair P.G. by the locals.
Red Wharf Bay at low tide, picking moules, we saw curlew, oystercatchers, cormorant, little egret, LB B Gulls, GBB Gulls.
Llandegfan Family Church, were we laid some flowers on their family plot, we then moved onto Red Wharf Bay, a few miles around the coast, weather still holding ok.
Lunch time meal near Menai at the Gazelle Hotel, we met a party celebrating the Aunties 90th Birthday from North Yorkshire to the rich lands of Surrey,Moules, lasagne and sausage were on the menues.Next stop Llandegfan not far away the Williams Family Plot.
Beaumaris Water Front
Gareth and Sali organised a visit to the Isle of Anglesey to see her Great Grandmothers Family Grave on the Island, they asked did we want to come so we said yes. Gareth and Sali stayed overnite with us for an early 7.45am start. We met up with Gavin and Linda at Stafford North Services on the M6 Motorway. The weather looked good with showers late afternoon.
We arrived at Conwy Marina approx 2.75hrs later, we all moved on for stop at Beaumaris over the Menai/Britannia Bridges, for a stroll over looking the Straits and Snowdonia, the views did not let us down.
We planned this visit as Annie Cullen, was over from France for 10days. We all met at Wendy and Tonys house in Alsager on the sunday morning. We all had prepared a picnic, the weather was cold but very sunny. We arrived at Speke Hall, parked up and started the tour with a warm coffee inside our bellies, then we booked a guided tour, which was very interesting and homely, well worth the trip up the M6/M56.We decided to have our lunch at Speke Hall before departing for John Lennons and Paul McCartneys childhood houses. 
