Moelfre round walk

The Moelfre headland is home to some spectacular coastal limestone pavement ....and rather conveniently there is a publicised round walk click here that incorporated this, although it doesn't mention it, as well as a good beach, a late Romano village with round houses and a Neolithic burial chamber. Oh, and a great cuppa and cake at Ann's pantry at the end too. I'll do another couple of blogs on the pavement and the village in due course....

Moelfre.

Fossiliferous limestone beds.

Fossils....albeit small.

Fossil reef.

Limestone pavement.

Solution features...

Spectacular platforms.....

Cahpel Lligwy - 12th Century.

One of the round houses at Din Lligwy - a village settlement.

Neolithic burial chamber.

Red Wharf Bay

On our way back from Newborough Warren we stopped off at Red Wharf Bay. Only a brief walk as by then the wind had picked up and the tide was approaching high tide mark. The highlight was the solution holes/pipes - which were more exciting than they sound! 

Solution holes (pot holes) were formed in Carbonifereous limestone. As sea levels fell the limestone was weathered and eroded, forming pot holes and clints and grykes, similar to todays karst environments. These were then submerged by flood-generated rivers and filled with grit and mud. Ice then smoothed off the surface and erroded some of the holes/ pipes but left the harder cores. Click here for a more detailed explanation! 

The carbonate (rock) platform with two obvious solution holes filled with sediment plugs and another plug in the background. 

For scale ,,,,Rocky on a plug.

'Up-rooted...'

Newborough wanderings

A glorious day and a walk through the dune woodland, onto the beach and the spectacular pillow lavas, before exploring Llanddwyn Island and returning along the beach.

Walking through the woods - Round-leaved Wintergreen still in flower.

Welsh Mountain Ponies - conservation grazing.

Pillow lavas - formed underwater at a constructive tectonic plate margin.

More lavas and below.

Looking along Traeth Penrhos.

...and back into Snowdonia.

The mediaeval church ruins on Llanddwyn island.

...and the lighthouse. 

Looking across Llanddwyn Bay.

A colourful mixture of rocks.

There weren't a lot of grassland fungi, but it was nice to find these 'tongues'.

An enjoyable day for all. 

Benllech rainbow

Be it a sign of God's promise (Christian), the hem of the sun's coat (Cherokee), the Bifrost connecting earth with Asgard (home of the gods) in Norse mythology or an archers bow (Hindu) or just a metereological phenomena, this rainbow, stopped everyone in their tracks. Everyone just stood watching and taking photographs as its intensity waxed and wained. 

It began with a strange light....

A second, double rainbow began to appear...

Then, and it doesn't show well in the photgraphs, a kind of feathering began to appear on the inside of the inner rainbow.

Amlwch to Point Lynas.

After our walk round Parys Mountain, we went to Amlwch Port, which when copper mining was at it's peak in the 18th and 19th centuries, was a thriving and major port. For more information - click here . The port itself is now looking sad and the teashop and visitor centre are closed - but checking, just now, it is hoped  that they will reopen in 2025 - I really hope so as the history of the area is fascinating and the back-story to the landscape and settlements needs to be told.

So without our cup of tea - we set off east along the coastal footpath to Point Lynas and its lighthouse. A pleasant enough bit of coast; like any at this time of year a tad slippery underfoot. 

The geological wheel, that is made from the appropriate rocks for the age needs a bit of TLC.

A misty day and a view towards Point Lynas.

The lighthouse and the first spits of rain - fortunately not too much followed! 

It's always good to see and hear Choughs.

 

Parys Mountain - rocks

Just a few of many photographs I took of  the rocks - wonderful textures and colours....I'm not going to attempt to say what their mineralogy is - just suffice to say they were very pretty!