Anglesey Coastal Circuit

Anglesey — Ynys Môn in Welsh — is an island of lighthouses, Iron Age forts, and uninterrupted views across the Menai Strait to the Snowdonia massif rising on the mainland like a wall of cloud and rock. This hundred-and-twenty-five-kilometre loop from Menai Bridge circles the entire island on a mix of A-roads and coastal lanes, returning you to Thomas Telford's suspension bridge after two days of wind, seabirds, and Edwardian castle masonry. For a VW T3 it is one of Wales's gentler island drives: largely flat, well maintained, and never far from a village with a chippy or a farm shop.

The circuit runs clockwise from Menai Bridge through Beaumaris, where Edward I's unfinished castle — a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the last of his Welsh ring of iron — sits on the shore with Snowdonia's peaks visible across the water on clear mornings. The north coast brings you to South Stack Lighthouse, reached by a steep footpath down four hundred cliff steps to a Victorian tower where guillemots and puffins nest on the sheer rock faces; the car park above is exposed to Atlantic wind, so hold the van doors when you step out. Holy Island's Porth Dafarch offers the opposite mood: a sheltered sandy cove between headlands, popular with families but still quiet compared to mainland resorts, with a short coastal walk around the peninsula that takes less than an hour.

The eastern and southern shores pass through Amlwch's copper-mining heritage and the wilder cliffs of the west, where the A5025 and smaller lanes keep the sea in constant view. Anglesey's Druidic associations — the island was a centre of pre-Roman ritual — linger in place names and standing stones that dot the interior if you cut across the island between coast sections. The Menai Suspension Bridge itself, completed in 1826, is worth a pause before you leave: Telford's engineering masterpiece was the first modern suspension bridge capable of carrying heavy road traffic, and the towers frame Snowdonia perfectly from the Anglesey side.

Parking a T3 is straightforward at Beaumaris castle pay-and-display, South Stack's cliff-top car park (arrive before 10am in summer), and campgrounds at Trearddur Bay or near Holyhead marina. Avoid overnighting in Menai Bridge lay-bys — they are prohibited. May and June bring long evenings and seabird colonies at full activity; October delivers crisp Snowdonia views across the strait in Atlantic light after the summer caravan rush. The bridge has a height limit of 4.2 metres — verify your T3's roof load before crossing with a pop-top fully raised.