Distance: 5.1 kilometres / 3.1 Miles

Difficulty: Moderate

The area’s low cliffs dominate this walk, and Anglesey’s dramatic northern Coast Path makes up half the route. The views from the headland at Trwyn bychan over Porth Wen with its ruined brickworks on the far side are sublime. The outward leg across farmland offers a fascinating contrast to your return’s wild coastline. 

Directions

Car park to ruined windmill

From the car park turn left and walk up the road. Take care as there is no pavement here.

Take a right turn shortly, following a footpath signup a private lane.

Turn left onto a path sign posted with a yellow arrow and you will pass through a kissing-gate into a field.

Bear left to a gate beyond the field, then right up the lane towards Ty Gwyn. Before Ty Gwyn turn left over the fields following a waymarked footpath towards a farm.

Cross the lane and another field following more yellow markers. Continue up a gorse-covered hill, over a falling-down wall towards a yellow way marker.

Cross the field sheading towards the ruined windmill. At the windmill head towards the farmhouse.

Ruined windmill to Porth Wen

Pass in front of Pant-y-Gaseg Farm and then go through the gate to the left side of the house.

Follow the track down the hill and through the farm gate by a footpath sign.

Walk up the hill through the gorse and over the stile. Keep to the right of the next field and at the track turn left heading towards the coast.

Turn right at the junction where the lanes meet. Go past Porth Wen Farm and continue down the lane.

Just before the next farm named Castell Farm and after a set of wooden gate posts bear right onto a walled track signposted ‘Coast Path’.

Porth Wen to car park

Follow the Coast Path around the eastern cliffs of Porth Wen. You will get a good view back towards the abandoned brickworks on the other side of the bay. The path is well-defined which enables you to study the amazing cliff formations, the twists in the underlying rock, and the steep-sided inlets. Most of the paths are grass, with a few rocky sections.

You will pass through a couple of kissing-gates and will eventually come to a flat, green area near Bull Bay.

Take a left turn through a gate and follow a path back inland. This will become a road which descends to the bay.

Turn right at the road junction and uphill you will see your starting point of the car park ahead.

Further information on this walk

History and interest

• The Welsh name Porthllechog means Sheltered Bay, but the English name of Bull Bay is derived from a rock feature called Pwll y Tarw (the Bull’s Pool) which is located near the bay.
• Bull Bay is the most northerly village in Wales. There is a lifeboat station, a nearby golf course and a rowing club. It’s a great place for fishing and rock pooling.
• You might see the remains of private Bull Bay Baths, a tidal swimming pool built in 1864 for the Marquess of Anglesey. It was refashioned in the 1920s as part ofa large faux-Roman Baths complex.
• The Ruined Windmill which you pass1km into your walk probably only ran farm machinery for nearby Pant-y-gaseg Farm as the sails would have been too small to power a mill stone. It was already in a ruinous state by 1899.
• The Cliff Formations viewed from the Coast Path here are fascinating with folded strata, arches, rock stacks, ravines, and several inaccessible caves. The rock itself is some of the oldest in Wales at over 570 million years old.
• From the clifftop at Trwynbychan overlooking the bay at Porth Wen you can see ruined brickworks on the far side.

Wildlife

The cliffs are a great place for bird watching out to sea. Seabirds such as puffin, guillemot, and all manner of gulls frequent the area. On the shore at Bull Bay you will see oystercatchers and other wading birds. Porpoises and common seals are often seen close to the shore.

Public Transport

Bull Bay is well-served by buses, and service Nos. 31, 60, 61, 62 and 562 all stop there. The No. 61 Bus (Amlwch to Holyhead service) runs five or six times a day, Monday to Saturday.

Refreshments

The Trecastell Hotel in Bull Bay offers a restaurant and bar open to non-residents.