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Moelfre

This is a charming coastal village with a sheltered, pebbled beach, attractive cottages and sandy beaches to both the north and the south. Fame, however, came to Moelfre in an unfortunate and bizarre way via its lifeboat, which, over the years, has been involved in many rescues, two of which are worthy of mention.

Returning to Liverpool from Australia in October 1859, laden with cargo and passengers, including gold prospectors coming home after making their fortunes in the Australian Gold Rush, the Royal Charter sank. A rigged iron vessel and the pride of the merchant fleet, the ship was all set to make the long passage in record time but, while sheltering from a hurricane in Moelfre Bay, she foundered with the loss of 450 passengers and crew. Only 39 people survived, and many believe that the gold still lies with the wreck out in the bay. Efforts have been made to recover the lost fortune with varying but not overwhelming degrees of success and it has been said that the larger houses around Moelfre were paid for with gold washed ashore from the wreck. This is despite customs officers swamping the village in an attempt to ensure that any salvaged gold ended in the Exchequer rather than in the hands of the locals. Charles Dickens visited the site on New Year’s Eve 1859, and apparently based a story on the disaster in The Uncommercial Traveller (see also Pentraeth).

One hundred years later, almost to the day, in October 1959, the coaster Hindlea, struggling in foul weather, had eight crew members rescued by the Moelfre Lifeboat. The rescue earned Richard Evans, the lifeboat’s coxswain, his second RNLI gold medal for gallantry. The Lifeboat Station can be visited between 9am and 4pm, with crew training at 7pm on Wednesdays.

At Llanallgo, between Moelfre and Dulas, is the mainly 15th-century Parish Church of St Gallgo, with its ancient bell, one of the oldest in the country. It was struck in the 13th century, and bears the inscription Ave Maria Gracia Plena (Hail Mary, Full of Grace), as well as the imprint of an Edward I coin struck in 1281. In the graveyard is a memorial to the victims of the Royal Charter tragedy. St Gallgo is famous as being the brother of Gildas, the 6th century historian of Britain, who wrote De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae. He was born in the Kingdom of Strathclyde in Scotland, which at that time had strong tis with Wales, and even spoke the same language.

The Seawatch Centre has displays and exhibits about Anglesey’s rich maritime heritage, including athe village’s lifeboat. Beyond the station is a small outcrop of rocks, Ynys Moelfre, a favourite spot for seabirds and, occasionally, porpoises. About a mile inland from the village, off the narrow road, is the impressive Lligwy Burial Chamber, a Bronze Age tomb with a huge capstone supported by stone uprights, which lies half hidden in a pit dug out of the rock. Close by is Din Lligwy Village, the remains of a Romano British settlement that covers overhalf an acre. Certainly occupied around the 4th century AD, after the Roman garrison on Anglesey had been vacated, some of the stone walls of the buildings can still e seen and excavations of the site have unearthed pottery, coins and evidence of metal working from that period. Nearby are the ruins of the 14th centuy Capel Lligwy.