Holyhead Mountain

County - Anglesey

Elevation – 220m

Date – 17/07/2021

Distance – 4km

Elevation climbed - 203m

When I started this I'd decided to focus on English County Tops; it seemed vaguely achievable (though I'm beginning to doubt this), and adding Welsh and Scottish ones just added another 55-60 mountains, all a long way from home.

However...a good County Topper never misses an opportunity when one lands his way.

As well as a long history of walking, Nick and I have also sailed together since 1986 and currently co-own a small yacht, Aquila (see below). In June we had sailed Aquila with our pal Dan to Holyhead marina from our home port near Fleetwood, and now we had to move it again (not least because mooring fees in Holyhead are extortionate). Once Nick and I had recovered from the epic hike up Billinge Hill (by drinking beer and having a nice sleep), we hit the road early to drive to Holyhead. On a hot summer Saturday there was every chance of traffic jams on the A55 and we didn't want to risk missing the tide.

Aquila, looking good in the Welsh sun

As luck would have it, we were there in plenty of time. We couldn't leave too early or we would get caught in the treacherous tidal races around South Stack lighthouse, so what should we do for the two hours we had to kill? I looked up from the yacht club and saw a craggy peak towering over our heads...

Minutes later we were leaving the car park at the Breakwater Country Park and looking up at the old quarry walls. Suddenly there was an explosion of feathers; a peregrine falcon had smashed into a pigeon right in front of us and was carrying it off to munch it on the cliff face; an incredible sight to witness.

It was pushing 28C as we headed upwards. Holyhead Mountain might look small on the County Top list (especially compared to the rest of Wales) but you have to start from basically sea level and it's properly mountain-y; all steep trails, heather and gorse, pebbles underfoot, random sheep. After a few minutes we realised that in our haste to get cracking we'd forgotten to bring any water...

Don't tell me that's not a bloody mountain. Sweaty northerner in the foreground, trig point at the top

There are a proliferation of paths cris-crossing Holyhead mountain but very few of them actually seem to lead to the top. It took a lot of false starts and angry map-reading to find the right one, but when we eventually made it we were treated to astonishing views. It won't surprise the regular reader to see I didn't capture them well.

Snowdonia and the Llyn. Possible Iron Age stone circle house in the foreground.

Holy Island, Anglesey, Snowdonia

We touched the trig point with the sort of joy that only people who haven't contemplated the lack of decent signposting on the way back down could demonstrate. We looked down on a whirlpool forming off South Stack - which we were about to sail through - and tried to pretend everything was going to be ok (spoiler - it was).

The walk down was a sod - the multitude of little trails through the heather never seemed to end anywhere apart from the clifftops, and we ended up following a path through head-high bracken until we reached a narrow lane back to the Country Park.

My second Welsh County Top ticked off (I did Snowdon in 2016) and a bloody good morning ahead of what was to be a sun-kissed sail to Porthdinllaen.