Sea-lapped path to a tiny island sanctuary
A walk from the once powerful town of Aberffraw on Anglesey takes in a tiny ancient church stranded on an island
Atiny humpback bridge straddles a narrow, fast-flowing river on the south-west coast of Anglesey. Across the bridge lies a small village, its frontage formed by an estuary which sweeps from the river below the crossing to form a natural harbour for a scattering of little fishing boats. Beyond, sand dunes, anchored by dense, grey-green tufts of marram grass, stand out against the blue of the February sky. This is an area of magnificent coastal walks, offering glorious views, history and nature.
A gentle, circular walk of approximately 5 miles starts at the village of Aberffraw, crosses to the enchanting church of St Cwyfan, on the tidal island of Cribinau, and returns along a rocky coastline; part of the Isle of Anglesey Coastal Path. The whole walk is within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in view of the mighty Snowdon and the peaks of the Llyn Peninsula.
Splendid isolation
Approaching from the east, the old road to Aberffraw cuts briefly through the grassy dunes to the bridge over the River Ffraw. As boulders block both ends, cars must be left in the adjacent car park.
The single-arch stone bridge has provided a crossing for foot traffic and horses since 1731. Now, it caters mostly for walkers and tourists. Motor vehicles used it in the early decades of the 20th century until 1932, when a new bridge was built a little upstream, and the old packhorse route reverted to foot traffic. So, from this side, the village has a feeling of being cut off, as if leaving the 21st century behind.
Over the bridge, a quay with riverfront houses runs right and left, but Stryd Y Bont, or Bridge Street, rises gently up to Sgwar Bodorgan, which translates as Bodorgan Square. This sloping square turns out to be more of a right angle, enclosed as it is at the top right-hand corner by the post office and an adjoining row of cottages. The square is dominated at the lower end by the former Seion Wesleyan Methodist Chapel; a large, gabled building on the left side of the street, now converted into a holiday home.
Its three round-headed windows, topped with a circular light above the door, are plain, but the railings that surround the chapel’s oval yard reveal more decorative elements. Built in 1887, both chapel and railings are Grade II listed. The next building on the left is the Y Goron, or the Crown, pub. This is much older than the chapel and does not seem to mind being frowned upon by its imposing neighbour. The chapel stands slightly aloof, but the pub and houses surrounding the square sink comfortably in their place, as if they have always belonged there.
With the post office and two handsome double-fronted houses ahead, Stryd Yr Eglwys, or Church Street, runs left from the square, past some old whitewashed and pastel cottages; one on the left with an exterior stone staircase. Still rising, the road opens out at the top, and Aberffraw’s coastal location becomes apparent. A tiny traditional cottage, with a walled garden, sits under a wide blue sky at the fork of the road, and tucked in to the left is another church, set within a grassy graveyard. The coast clearly beckons along both roads, but the left fork is the route to take for this walk.
Monastic past
St Beuno’s is Aberffraw’s Grade II* listed Church in Wales parish church. St Beuno, a Welsh abbot and patron saint of sick children, first built a church or possibly monastery here in the 7th century, at a time when Anglesey was a monastic island. Nothing remains of this original building, and neither is there much left of the ‘new’ church that replaced it in the 12th century, except for a decorated Norman arch set
into the interior west wall and a central arcade resting on octagonal piers. It had a tower, but this is long gone, and most of it is a 16th century restoration.
Aberffraw may be tucked quietly away from the main road these days, but it has plenty of historical significance. On Mercator’s map of 1619, where it is one of only four places in Anglesey depicted with buildings, its importance is clear. The Princes of Gwynedd had once made Aberffraw their home. The palace was supposedly built in the 6th century and dismantled by the English in the early 14th century. Its exact site has yet to give up its secrets to archaeologists, but this high point of the village, close to St Beuno’s, seems to be a congruous place for a Royal palace.
Aberffraw’s history, however, goes much further back. The first evidence of humans living on Anglesey, dating from 7000 BC, was found here. When the Romans invaded Anglesey in 60AD, the historian Tacitus described fierce battles with Anglesey men and ‘wild women’ brandishing torches, and the Romans may have built a fort at Aberffraw. Myth mixes with history in the tragic tale from the Mabinogion, the earliest British prose stories to be written down, of Branwen, a princess of Gwynedd, who lived at the palace at Aberffraw before being unhappily married to the King of Ireland.
River of crystal
Aberffraw’s primary school, next to the church, closed in 2011, but has now been converted into a community art gallery, called the Old School Gallery. The residential road on the right, immediately past the gallery, leads to a kissing gate. From here, the route goes straight across three small fields, each separated by a kissing gate. The final one opens onto a short path between a hedgerow on the left and a barbed wire fence on the right, beyond which the fields slope away uphill.
The sandy shore of the river runs parallel to the left, below. Aber means estuary or mouth of the river, and Ffraw means fair, fine or bright in Celtic, perhaps describing the flow of the river. Early on a chilly February morning, this small rushing river is all three. It edges Tywyn Aberffraw, an area of dunes covering approximately 1sq mile and home to threatened species of moss and liverwort. The dunes are a Site of Special Scientific Interest for the grasses and wildlife they harbour. Adders may be spotted here in the spring and summer.
The river is short and shallow, just 1½ miles long, and flows from Llyn, or Lake, Coron. In warmer weather, trout fishers line its banks, but on a chill, though windless, February morning, there are just a few dog walkers out on the sandy dune-backed Traeth Mawr beach.
The river runs into Aberffraw Bay and, further out, Caernarfon Bay. Beyond the river and dunes, the mighty Snowdon and the mountains running down the Llyn Peninsula provide a dramatic backdrop; their peaks scratching the pearly winter clouds and their upper reaches under a thick white duvet of snow.
Across the fields
The path now joins a small road that curves left down to the river and beach, but passing two houses and a farm entrance on the right, the walk continues straight on between hedges until a track emerges onto it from the left, a little further along. The road bends to the right at this point, leaving Snowdon and the river behind. The road now zigzags pleasantly between the fields.
Everything is soon to spring into life, but, for now, the only colour comes from splashes of spiky yellow gorse and the rusty fronds of bracken. The green shoots of brambles, nettles, the feathery leaves of yarrow and ferns are beginning to unfurl amid the twisting stems of bindweed.
Robins and perhaps a stonechat land momentarily on the posts and chirp their presence, but mostly, there is silence, punctured only by the occasional sound of jets returning to nearby RAF Valley.
After a derelict farm building, the road turns right, then left, then right again; finally emerging onto the road that leads from Aberffraw down to the beach. Across the frosty north-facing fields sloping to the coast, the tiny church of St Cwyfan is finally visible, marooned on its island.
‘Floating’ church
The single-track road is narrow between the hedgerows and lichen-covered walls, and care is needed as it winds down to the beach entrance. Above, to the right, is a wooden seat on the low clifftop; easy to scramble up to for the stunning views and some seal-spotting before walking along the beach to the causeway across to the island, tides willing.
Building a church on an uninhabited island may seem unwelcoming, but St Cwyfan’s was on the mainland when it was built more than 1,000 years ago. It was perched on a tiny teardrop-shaped peninsula between two bays: Porth Cwyfan and Porth China; a reference to the clay industry once important in this part of Anglesey. As the sea crept closer and closer, it washed away some of the church’s outlying graves, and the walled ‘island’, raised up from the bedrock, now offers some protection.
At high tide, the church is encircled, but at low tide, it is accessible along the man-made causeway, built in the 19th century. It is not very far from the shore, but checking the tides is essential. When the waters meet and cut it off, St Cwyfan’s is left in atmospheric isolation.
Boulders and stones litter the beach and causeway at low tide, and seaweed
“We must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures” William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar