Anglesey Seaside Cottage

Cemaes is the most northerly village in Wales and was originally an ancient fishing village. The village includes a sheltered natural harbour that looks north to the Irish Sea and is a site of an ancient settlement that in more recent centuries has become a centre for maritime activities (as well as smuggling and piracy!)

Between the end of the 18th and beginning of the 20th century the village was noted for producing salted herring, building ships, and brick construction from a nearby works. The brickworks was served by a narrow gauge tramway down to the sea (you can see the route of the tramline as well as parts of the old line from the garden on the opposite side of the valley). In the garden, see if you can spot the home-grown brick we found buried in the garden!

The harbour (less than a minute’s walk from the house) is a characteristic part of the village. At the right times you can see fishermen return with their haul (Cemaes Bay lobster is shipped all over the world).

Cemaes Bay has two sandy beaches – originally named ‘Traeth Mawr’ (Big Beach) and Traeth Bach (Little Beach) which are separated by a natural stone harbour that looks to the Irish Sea. At high tide you’ll hear the tidal bell chime as the waves roll to and from the beach.

Around the village you will probably see lots of images of Cemaes in the old days. Large parts of which have not changed much over the last two hundred years. You may also encounter lots of flowers. The local gardening group, Cemaes in Bloom, maintain the village’s floral displays, and in recent years the village has won prizes with both Wales- and Britain-in-Bloom competitions.

The village provides a great base to explore all of Anglesey – in particular the coastal path. Whether you head east or west you will find plenty of deserted beaches and desolate cliff tops to explore. Incidentally, if you enjoy photography, the area in and around the village provides some great sights and scenes for you to capture. In the living room you will see photographs of the harbour and a photo Porth Wylfa – a beach that can be found to the west of the village.

To the immediate east there is the Porth Padrig beach, dominated by the large quartz rock known as the White Lady and Llanbadrig church – where St Patrick was shipwrecked and subsequently founded a church in 440 AD. Next to the church is a wooden bench where the Dalai Lama sat when he visited the area, declaring it to be ‘the most peaceful place on earth’. We certainly agree with that sentiment...