Ferries to Holyhead
Holyhead Known in Welsh as Caer Gybi, and situated in Anglesey, Holyhead is the largest town on the island and is perhaps known best for being a busy ferry port. It contains a number of interesting attractions, including a bustling shopping centre with excellent places to eat, a theatre and a cinema. History Holyhead was an important harbour as early as Roman times. Here, in the latter part of the Roman occupation, when the Irish were raiding and settling on the Welsh coast, a tiny fort was built. This is one of Europe’s only three-walled Roman forts (the fourth wall being the sea, which used to come up to the fort). The fort’s pattern resembles those later forts of the Saxon Shore in South-east England, and two of its projecting bastions still stand. It was this Irish threat which led the British authorities, at the beginning of the 5th century, to move the leaders of the Votadini, and many of their tribesmen, from the Lothians of Scotland to settle in North Wales as a bulwark against the invaders. The little church of St Gybi, founded in 550 AD, is set within the fort’s curtain wall. It is a cruciform church with a west tower. Much of the building is the 15th- and 16thcentury enlargement of the earlier church whose chancel dates from the 13th century. Llys Rhosyr, the site of one of the most powerful and charismatic Welsh mediaeval princes has been discovered near the village of Newborough, on the South Western corner of the island. There is archaeological evidence that people have been sailing between Holyhead and Ireland for 4,000 years. Holyhead’s maritime importance was at its height in the 19th century when the two and a half mile (4 km) breakwater, widely acknowledged to be one of Britain’s finest, was built, creating a safe harbour for vessels caught in stormy waters on their way to Liverpool and the industrial ports of Lancashire. Holyhead’s sea heritage is remembered in a maritime museum. What to See & Do in Holyhead
