Day 27

Day 27
HOLYHEAD
I wake up early in the morning and took my way to Euston Station, where the trains depart to North East and Wales, and apart some delays, I could take the 9:10 (which actually departed 9:25) to Holyhead. It was a four and half hour travel, not bad to cross the country.
It was a good feeling going back to road. I was missing it. In London I had time to organize things and visit collections, get books but there’s nothing like going to the places where the monuments are. It’s like the gap between language and experience, both are necessary at some point.

My eyes were sharp enough to spot a Tor in the side of the road, and after a while another one in a very outstanding mark in the field. Both mounds were around the same size and shape, but one was much more taken by the vegetation, while the other was very much a grassy hill. They were big enough to be seem from miles, maybe as big as Silbury Hill. Where this strong alignment would lead? It could be a Ley. Just their shapes in the landscape were strong enough to call the attention, and would not be mistaken.
It took me some time to find it in the map, and I am not sure if I did. I know I've been close to Oldbury Camp’s Hartshill, an Iron Age hill fort. This is an impressive place, look the photo.
In the hill there is a chalk drawing of a horse, dating from the 30's and restored not long ago.

Hartshill

It is possible that this marks in the landscape were intended to spot places of significant importance like mines or metal deposits, settlements, meeting places, sacred places and so on. We can never forget that we are dealing with monuments of different ages and their intentions may vary.

holyhead

I’ve been to Holyhead ten years ago, or should I say, I was in a coach that passed through Holyhead ten years ago. But anyway I could remember some of the beautiful country side views, especially the area close to Holywell, which turns into a kind of muddy desert. It is actually the mouth of the River Dee going into the sea. This is the northern border of Wales and England.
Another special site in the coast is Llandudno, where the fortified (medieval?) walls enclose the whole city. It looks impressive as we pass through the tunnels that surround it. There is a copper mine nearby called Great Orme that’s been used since the Bronze age, this means barely 2.500 to 800 BC. Copper is the main metal to produce bronze, and the mines were very important places for the people living around. They should be able to extract it and to work it, which would demand high skills to achieve the right temperature to melt the metals. The copper requires specially high temperatures to work, more than gold or silver, for instance. The metal industry was of great importance for those people, and in fact lots of settlements were placed close to mines (Cornwall is a good example).

holyhead port

When the train finally arrived in Holyhead, I went after a B&B, and although I could find then, I could not meet anyone to deal, so I used my old Tourist Information Bureau strategy and could find not only a close and cheap one, as lots of information and nice people to speak for a while. It’s not always like that. I tried to do some more serious exploration, but due to the extremely bad weather it was impossible.

the roman fort and st. cybi church

Holyhead was founded around the year 200 and 300 by the Romans interested in the goods of the area (metal, basically). As there were a Celt settlement there (and in almost the whole Wales), the Romans had to expel them, not without some fight. The city grew around the Roman fort built facing the sea. Inside the fort there is a church dedicated to St. Cybi, build in the 13th century, but it may be older than that. Even after the Romans depart, the fort been in use to avoid the raids of Irish pirates from the 5th century on and the Vikings assaults some time later.
Now the link with Ireland is of great importance to the city. In the 19th century the need of better roads linking London and Dublin made necessary the opening of the A5 road, completed by Thomas Telford in 1826.

abandomned houses close to the breakwater

the house of John Hawkshaw close to the breakwater

The port also was reconstructed and in 1845 it was constructed the biggest breakwater in the world (today remains the bigger in Europe), with 2.4 km. This huge work made possible to shelter ships from storms. Two lead civil engineers were working on the breakwater: John Hawkshaw and James Meadows Rendel.

construction of the breakwater

The area has a big tide variation, so further improvements were necessary to make the ferry travel to Dublin possible. That is much of what the city is about today.
But there’s a lot around too, that been left behind. Ancient people been here and left their mark. This was one of the most important areas to look for ancients constructions. I am here for this.