Day 28

Day 28

“I can see for miles and miles”

First morning in Holyhead and I was a bit lazy to wake. When I did, it was chilly and windy. It seems that here is always like this. But I had clear that I had to seize the day and took my maps and information to go Caer y Twr, the Iron age hillfort which stands at the top of Holyhead Mountain. It don’t stand very far from the city, so I just went walking.
On the way I could find the place where the rocks were taken to the construction of the breakwater. This monumental work designed by James Meadow Rendel took 28 years to get done. Now there’s only a huge empty space close to the mountain.

the big hole in the mountain

A kind of railroad was built to take the stones to the shore, where it would be thrown in the ocean. The brick factory built nearby provided special bricks to cover the waterbreak.

THE BRICK FACTORY

brick factory

There is the site where there is the remains of the vitrified brick factory. The kilns were able to burn up to 18.000 bricks at one time and employed 100 persons. After the waterbreak was finished the production decreased and the prices fell down. Even though the factory continued in activity for a long time. The factory was held by William Wild and sons that’s been working from the 1901 until 1973.







CAER Y TWR

The way uphill was a bit hard, but the view was amazing. Caer y Twr is a natural fort, as it stands up the hills, but it’s been modified by human hand. It was made more difficult to get to it, as it is surrounded by precipices. From the top is possible to see the whole Holy Island. It is an incredibly windy place where you must be careful not to fall. The place was the last refuge of the Celts defeated by the Roman army. Once in the top the Romans built a watchtower there.

the roman watch tower in the top of the mountain

one of the entrances for the fort

the silver stones of caer y twr

Caer y Twr

That’s when the rain came and I had to find a shelter somewhere. It was a bad time of the day. I decided go back to the city and wait. The rain did not last longer, so I went to Ty Mawr hut group.

TY MAWR

The Ty Mawr is a little village or farm that’s been in use since at least 1500 BC for more than a thousand years. Its location facing the sea in one side and the mountain in the other is breathtaking. There are around 50 round huts found in the area, divided clearly in two stages: the round dug in the ground without floor, and other which comes up of the ground and have stone floor, plus a more elaborate farm scheme. Ty Mawr gives a hint of how the Bronze and Iron age people organized and lived together.

the pattern of the walls

some of the huts

the second stage of construction

the floor covered in stones

PENRHOS FEILW

Just a walk from there is possible to reach the Penrhos Feilw standing stones, two menhirs which is said once formed the center of a stone circle.
The group must have been from early Bronze age, dating around 2.000 to 1500 BC. As it stands so close to Ty Mawr is hard not to associate both. Penrhos Feilw stands like a frame to the mountain in the background. Both stones are in a quite similar position, facing the north-south axis and much thinner in the east-west axis. They get up close to 3 meters high and around 80 cm wide, a bit wider at the bottom.

the two menhirs

Today I was able to do the northeast of the island, tomorrow I will try to make the area west and south, and then go to the other cities. I hope the rain don’t get too hard.

The houses with turf roof, that I saw today in Ty Mawr are used until today in Aran Islands. Apparently the Vikings also had the same fashion.