Anglesey Experience its Award Winning Beaches

Anglesey - Experience its Award Winning Beaches
By David M Phillips

The beautiful island of Anglesey is found off the North West coast of Wales. One of its main attractions are its exceptionally fine sandy beaches and sea views. In fact the beaches are perfect for swimming, sailing and a whole range of water sports.

Here you will find clean, blue waters which can attract even the most sceptical of beach visitors. The highly respected European Blue Flag Award Scheme has again given top marks to a number of Anglesey beaches.

So whether you are an international traveller or from elsewhere in the UK, when you see the Blue Flag you can be confident the waters are of the highest standards for bathing. And support facilities are also excellent which means a visitor can have further confidence in whats on offer.

On Holy Island, a smaller island off the West coast of Anglesey, is Trearddur Bay beach. This vast south-west facing beach is popular with swimmers and sailors. If you prefer a swim, thats fine. Youre safe from power boats and jet skis which have to observe speed restrictions and stay outside a line marked by buoys.

Behind the concrete promenade is the Millennium Cross which was erected to commemorate AD 2000. The cross bears the name St. Ffraid, the patron Saint of Trearddur. Originally, from Faughart in Ireland, legend has it that St. Ffraid was carried across the Irish Sea on a green square turf.

Moving further along to a smaller beach called Porth Diana you will find a slipway for the sailing dinghies and other craft which use these coastal waters. One of the most spectacular sights is when all the different sail boats gather during the Annual Regatta in August. The sea is full of colour.

Here you will see different shaped sail boats, white, green, and yellow sails and spinnakers against a steady blue horizon to the west. It was the red sails of these boats that inspired the famous song Red Sails at Sunset.

To the south of the island is another Blue Flag winning beach called Llanddwyn. Approaching from the famous village of Newborough, you can choose to walk through a fascinating coniferous forest with its abundant wildlife a stimulus to the senses.

Emerging from the forest, you will witness a wide panorama with the blue sea before you and the soft earthy browns and greens of the Snowdon mountain range touching the horizon to your left.

Then there is the famous Llanddwyn Island, with its old church ruins and a white lighthouse at the southernmost point. This is where Dwynwen, patron saint of lovers is said to have been buried. And it was here that Demi Moore filmed Half Light, a film soon to be released.

On the eastern side of Anglesey is the Blue Flag Beach at Llanddona. To approach this beach you need to drive down some narrow country lanes, as the village by the same name is one of the highest points on the island.

Its well worth taking the time to appreciate the magnificent and breathtaking views from the top before you descend to the beach itself. To the left is the red Wharf Bay and the nearby coastal village of Benllech. Looking further north along the coast, the eye reaches Moelfre, famous over the years for the heroics of its Lifeboat crew in some mammoth sea conditions.

Facing the east, Llanddona beach is sheltered from the prevailing south westerly winds, and its great for family watersports. From here you may well see on the horizon a distant ship on passage to Liverpool.

So, whether you want to swim, sail, jet ski or just visit interesting sites and take in the beautiful sea views, Angleseys clean, quality beaches have much to offer the international traveller.

David M Phillips is with Anglesey Today, a journal and news resource on Anglesey life at http://www.anglesey-today.com.

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