Day 10: Beaumaris to Benllech

Leaving Beaumaris, the path led over a low bluff with great views across the estuary and the township. From here we followed the road a short distance before being directed onto a rocky beach which made progress very slow as we picked the best route across stony the beach.

View of Beaumaris Castle from knoll

View of countryside from knoll above Beaumaris

View of Menai Straight from knoll above Beaumaris

We re-joined the road after some distance to follow a large and lengthy stone wall which formed part of a large deer park. We visited the thirteenth century Penmon Priory and church and its nearby dovecote. The dovecote was built in 1600 by Sir Richard Bulkeley. It once housed over 1000 birds which were used for breeding to provide meat for the household. The young squab were killed for eating at about 4 weeks old.

Picking our way along the rocky beach

Coastal path following stone wall along river

Large and lengthy stone wall 

Penmon Priory ruins on the left with church to the right

Penmon Dovecote

Inside Penmon dovecote showing the nesting holes and internal ladder structure

The site also contained St Seiriol’s well which was built by the monks of Penmon and was believed to have healing powers by some people visiting it. It has been said that the lower stone walls near the well were part of Seiriol's church in the 6th century; if so, this would make it the oldest remaining Christian building in Wales.

St Seiriol's Well

The path carried on following a private road to the lighthouse at Trwyn Du where we enjoyed a spot of lunch and cake at a conveniently located café. After lunch we moved on some way via gorse lined tracks before taking off my boots in order to doctor my blister clad feet. We would have done this at our lunch stop but didn’t want to put any customers off their lunch!

Lighthouse and Puffin Island at Trwyn Du 

The path made its way up and down across a number of fields towards the knoll of Bwrdd Arthur before the track descended towards the shore at Llanddona Beach. The path continued round the shore to Red Wharf and Benllech however as the tide was out we decided to take a short cut across the estuary. This still took us over 1.5 hours as the estuary was vast. By the time we got to Benllech our destination for the day, we were both very tired having covered more than 25km with our heavy backpacks on over rather hilly terrain.

Starting out across estuary at Llanddona Beach

View back to Llanddona from half way across estuary

The view from our campsite was spectacular looking out over the vast estuary, however there was a problem in that the camping area was located on a slope and it was near to impossible to find a flat bit of land to set up our tent. The whole night I kept waking up feeling like I was sliding out the back end of the tent only to end up down the hill and over the cliff!

View from our campsite at Benllech