Tours on Anglesey

Tours on Anglesey

Place names unbundled: Menai Bridge This local walking circuit around Menai Bridge uses the names of local streets and other landmarks to reveal the town's fascinating history, before and after the advent of the suspension bridge and the steamships from Liverpool. The introduction to this tour is available here. Or you can skip the intro and dive in here, at Uxbridge Square.

Our tour of hundreds of QR-code sites along the Wales Coast Path includes a circuit of Anglesey.

We also have QR codes along National Cycle Network Route 5, which crosses the island from Holyhead to Menai Bridge.

Also along National Cycle Network Route 8, which takes a different route between Holyhead and Menai Bridge.

Our tour along Thomas Telford's historic Irish Mail road, now the A5, also crosses Anglesey.

 

Join the tour at a key location...
Cenotaph
St Cybi’s Church
French privateer cannons

Heroes & Villains tour, Holyhead
Holyhead’s history abounds with tales of heroism and courage, typified by the Royal Humane Society’s silver medal for a sailor who saved a woman and child from drowning in the dock. John Fox Russell, a fearless medic who died in the First World War, was awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest honour for bravery. An American-born sea captain, who had only one arm, was feted after bringing a passenger ship safely into the harbour during a storm in 1807.
The town has had more than its share of villains too, including the Vikings who looted St Cybi’s church and the soldiers in 1405 who took the saint’s relics to Ireland, where they were later lost. In 1710, French privateers pretended their ship was British and in distress in order to kidnap port officials and demand a ransom. They soon got their comeuppance, through what appeared to be divine retribution.
Follow the QR-code tour around the town to discover the places connected to these remarkable characters.
To start the tour, simply scan any of the QR codes along the route with a smartphone or tablet, or use the list on the right to join the tour online. Click “Next” at the foot of the page to see where the next featured location is.

 

Holy Island in WW2 tour
Holy Island was strategically important to more than one nation during the Second World War,. Holyhead was an important naval base and training establishment, and its large harbour was used by Atlantic Convoy vessels. After evading Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in 1940, Dutch Navy vessels and personnel were based at Holyhead. Holy Island’s southern coastline was considered a potential invasion point for German forces.

Now you can scan HistoryPoints QR codes at various locations to discover stories of Holy Island in wartime, including memorials, defences, a surviving air-raid shelter and a radar system which gave early warning of low-flying enemy planes.

When you’ve read each story, click “Next” beside the “Holy Island in WW2 tour” banner to see the next location on the circuit. To view all HiPoints on this tour on Google Maps, click here (opens in new window). To join the tour online, choose a starting point below:

Holyhead breakwater

Pillbox at Trearddur Bay

Old lookout building, South Stack