Distance: 8.5 kilometres / 5.2 miles

Difficulty: Challenging

Though not overly long, this is a tough walk: some sections involve steep gradients or arduous steps, and parts of the Coastal Path itself are rocky, narrow and exposed. Set off through gentle rolling farmland, and return along the dramatic clifftops of northernmost Anglesey which is peppered with intriguing historic sites.

Directions

Cemaes to '1902' chapel

Leave the car park in a north-easterly direction along the lane, and continue until it meets a junction. Turn right for about 30m, and left through a rusty gate onto a footpath.

Continue on this path along the bottom of the valley. It may be a little overgrown in places.

Bear right at the fence along the bottom of the slope. Look for the beehives on your left as you approach a house, Tyddyn Rhydderch.

Go through a kissing-gate, entering a private garden, and cross the lawn. Cross the drive, and enter a field on the other side. Crossthe field, go over a footbridge, and up a few stone steps over the wall to join the road.

Turn right along this lane for about 1.5km, and on a right-hand bend there is a footpath going off to the left. Ignore this unless you want to take it as a shortcut. Please note: (this walk can be shortened by taking this footpath and continuing in an anticlockwise direction onto the Coastal Path. You can also use this footpath from the other end to avoid the hilly second-half of the Coastal Path section).

Continue on the road and you will come to a converted chapel dated 1902, and a drive to a farm named Cae Adda.

‘1902’ Chapel to Graig Wen

Soon, you’ll see a National Trust holiday cottage and two ruined farm buildings. Then, on a gentle bend in the road you’ll come to two footpaths going off to the left about 30m apart. Take the first one, passing through a farm gate.

Follow the field-edge track down the hill, and the bay of Porth Wen comes into view on your right.

Follow the path round and downhill to a junction with the Coastal Path. Here you keep left passing the tops of the chimney stacks of the Old Brickworks down on the beach on your right.

From here continue uphill on the Coastal Path, with a shipping-marker on a mast on the promontory known as Torllwyn on your right.

You can make the short detour to the mast if you wish to admire the view. On a clear day you can see the Isle of Man which is 80km due north.

Follow the Coastal Path uphill and keep the Old Winding Gear on your left. The rocky out crop high on the left, Graig Wen, has a Trig Point on the top and offers good views to the south across Anglesey.

Graig Wen to Llanbadrig Church

Please note: there are several flights of steep step sand narrow, rocky paths on the next section of Coastal Path but after Hell’s Mouth there is the option to take a footpath inland off to your left if you wish to avoid the more difficult parts by returning to the road and retracing your steps back to the start.

Continue along the clifftops before descending and ascending steeply to and from the gorge of Hell’s Mouth and up to a Lookout on Llanlleiana Head.

Go down steps to Porth Llanlleiana where there is an old chimney and some ruined porcelain works, before climbing steeply up some steps to continue along the cliffs. Wylfa Nuclear Power Station comes into view as you head for Llanbadrig Church.

Pass round the Cemetery, following the wall onto the road.

Llanbadrig Church to Cemaes

Head down the road before turning right through a kissing-gate and re joining the Coastal Path.

Walk around the headland with views across the bay to Cemaes, and follow the steps and path down between the hedges to emerge back at the car park

Further information on this walk

History and interest 

• Cemaes is a charming fishing port and tourist resort with a rich and fascinating history. There is a Heritage Centre for those who would like to learn more.
• The ruined Winding Gear was used to transport quarried quartzite down to the brickworks on the beach at Porth Wen.
• The ruins of a Look out Tower on Llanlleiana Head mark the northernmost tip of Wales and of the Isle of Anglesey. It was built by a Captain Pristan to commemorate the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902.
• Llanbadrig Church is dedicated to St Patrick after he was reputedly ship wrecked at Middle Mouse Island, just off the coast here, and sheltered in a caveat Porth Padrig. It is the oldest surviving church in Anglesey with origins dating back to 440AD, and was refurbished in the19th century by Lord Stanley of Alderley.

Wildlife 

Common seals may be seen basking on the rocks, and porpoises spotted out to sea. Choughs and peregrine falcons nest on the cliffs here. Seabirds such as kittiwake, fulmar and guillemot might also be seen. In spring and early summer there is a profusion of colourful clifftop wildflowers.

Public Transport

Cemaes is well served by buses. Services 31, 60, 61 and 62 all stop here.

Refreshments

Cemaes has a pub, cafés, restaurants and shops. The Heritage Centre has a café.