Town in Anglesey, Wales
Holyhead
Jonathan Swift got stuck here for a week in 1727, and Holyhead has been Britain's front door to Ireland ever since.
Key information
- County
- Anglesey
- Nation
- Wales
- Population
- about 11,400 (2011 Census)
- Known for
- Ferries to Dublin, a huge Victorian breakwater, South Stack lighthouse
- Famous people
- St Cybi, Thomas Telford, James Meadows Rendel
- Football clubs
- Holyhead Hotspur
About Holyhead
The town that trapped Jonathan Swift
In 1727 the satirist Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels, was stuck in Holyhead for about a week, waiting for winds that would let his boat sail for Dublin. He was not impressed, and he wrote up his grumbles in what became known as his Holyhead Journal. He was far from the first or last traveller to be held up here. Holyhead sits on Holy Island (Ynys Gybi), off the north-west tip of Anglesey, and for centuries it has been the jumping-off point for the Irish Sea. A packet service for post and passengers was running from here in the 16th century.
A Roman fort with a saint inside
The oldest thing in town is the wall around St Cybi's Church. These are the remains of a Roman fort, with the sea guarding one side and thick stone walls on the others. The Welsh name for Holyhead, Caergybi, means 'Cybi's fort'. Cybi was a 6th-century holy man who is said to have founded a monastery inside the old walls. The church that stands there now is mostly medieval. The place has been a religious site for around 1,500 years, on a headland that people have been sailing from for even longer. Holy Island itself is scattered with older remains. On the slopes of Holyhead Mountain you can still find the circles of stone foundations left by prehistoric roundhouses.
The road and railway that ended at the sea
After the Act of Union with Ireland in 1801, MPs travelling to Westminster needed a better route. Thomas Telford answered with the road we now know as the A5, running from London through Wales to Holyhead. In the 1820s he built the Stanley Embankment to carry it across the water to Holy Island, and the town got a triumphal arch to mark George IV's visit in 1821. Then came the railway. Robert Stephenson's Chester and Holyhead line opened in 1848, and the Britannia Bridge, opened in 1850, completed the continuous rail link across the Menai Strait. The Irish Mail train, which linked London with the Dublin ferry, put Holyhead on the timetable of every ambitious traveller.
The breakwater that took a mountain
Holyhead's harbour needed protection from Irish Sea storms, so engineers built a breakwater about 1.7 miles (2.7 km) long. It is one of the longest in the world. Work began in 1847 and finished in 1873, and the stone came from a quarry cut into the side of Holyhead Mountain. The design was by James Meadows Rendel, with John Hawkshaw later involved in the construction. The result is a Victorian sea wall that still shelters the port today. Walk the Breakwater Country Park beneath it and you can see where the mountain was quarried away to build it.
Puffins, 400 steps and a lighthouse on a rock
South Stack lighthouse, built in 1809, stands on a tiny island off Holy Island's western cliffs. The only way across is a bridge at the foot of about 400 steps cut into the rock face. The cliffs around it are an RSPB reserve, crowded in spring and summer with guillemots, razorbills and puffins. Above them, Holyhead Mountain rises to around 220 metres, which is enough for views across to Ireland on a clear day. The mountain's Welsh name is Mynydd Twr.
A working port with a changing economy
Holyhead is still a working port. Ferries for Dublin leave from the terminal, carrying freight lorries as well as passengers, and the harbour is one of the busiest in Britain. The town has also had its share of industrial upheaval. The Anglesey Aluminium smelter, a major employer, closed in 2009. What has not changed is the town's job. Holyhead is the place where Wales ends and the sea begins, and where travellers heading west have passed through for centuries.