Taking advantage of the good weather three friends and I went to the Holyhead Breakwater Country Park to do a short but very enjoyable circular walk in that area. The park was featured on TV last year when Iolo Williams visited it. There are so many things to do and see there that you could spend a whole day just looking around the area. After parking the car we set off on a steep and uneven path to North Stack where there is a site of a redundant fog warning station, comprising a number of buildings, including the Trinity House Magazine built in 1861 where shells were stored for the warning cannon.
After puffing and panting going uphill and having a couple of stops on the way we then went downhill to North Stack and as we did so the track became even worse. It was hard to imagine how the elderly artist Phillipa Jacobs who had a studio in the main building could have driven her Land Rover to and from this property. The property was up for sale a few years ago but I’m not sure whether it was sold or not.
There is a cave under the cliff where Grey Seals used to have their pups and then they would mate immediately afterwards. This occurrence happened in the first week of October and for many years my friend Geraint and I would go to the spot and watch the Seals. Near the end of the headland is a small island which is actually the North Stack and we spent some time looking at them and the Cormorants that had started nesting there already. After that we moved on and took a lower path past another magazine house that used to store explosives for the quarry where the Country Park now is. We found a sheltered spot in the sun and stopped to have our refreshments and watched the Ferries and the other boats going past. The views were superb and we could have stayed there all day but after a while it was time to move on and make our way back to the Country Park. We had a walk around the lake and places of interest there and drove to the Holyhead Breakwater. This breakwater was built between 1846 and 1873 and at 1,5 miles long is the longest in Europe and the nearby Country Park quarry supplied the stones to build it
Nearby is the sad looking ruin of the Soldiers Point Hotel that was destroyed by fire a few years ago, I hope that it isn't too long before the site is developed and put to some good use.