Salt Island (Welsh : Ynys yr Halen) is joined to Holy Island, Anglesey, in North Wales. It is a natural provider of shelter for the town's Old Harbour from the Irish Sea and is part of the Port of Holyhead.
Salt Island (Welsh : Ynys yr Halen) is joined to Holy Island, Anglesey, in North Wales. It is a natural provider of shelter for the town's Old Harbour from the Irish Sea and is part of the Port of Holyhead.
The island is believed to have gained its name from a factory on the island which processed sea water in order to extract sea salt. [1]
The Stanley Sailors' Hospital was set up in 1871 [2] by public subscription and initially only treated sailors although it quickly became a general hospital. It was taken over by the National Health Service in 1948 and closed its doors in 1987 and was subsequently demolished.
There have been three lighthouses located on the island. The current lighthouse is the Holyhead Mail Pier Light. [3] It was designed by John Rennie the Elder in 1821, although he died before supervising the construction. It is one of the few surviving examples of Rennie's work. The lighthouse was superseded by the Holyhead Breakwater Lighthouse when the new harbour opened in 1873.
The main pier on the island, the Admiralty Pier, was opened in 1821. At around 980 feet (300 m) long it extends east into the sea and has been used to handle ferry traffic since it was opened. Due to its important historical links between Great Britain and Ireland, the pier has twice had royal visitors. On 7 August 1821, King George IV arrived from Ireland. The Arch known as Admiralty Arch was constructed to commemorate this visit. [4] and once in 1898 when Queen Victoria set sail for her last voyage to Ireland.
An inner arm, pairing the existing 5,100-foot (1,600 m) long breakwater (built between 1848 and 1876) was planned from Salt Island. The isolated broad gauge tramway railway from the Holyhead Mountain quarry used to build the former had a branch to Salt Island, via Newry Beach, to facilitate this. Although started with an intention to be 2,100 feet long, the inner arm was never developed beyond a rubble spit at the northern tip of the island. Stone blocks that supported this tramway are still to be found along the upper seafront of Newry Beach. No trace remains of the, presumably, wooden viaduct across the Borth Sach inlet which provided access to the island. During the 1990s the remains of rails were still to be found amongst the large boulders deposited as the foundations for the inner arm.
In more recent times, starting in February 2001, the island was expanded into the sea by the process of land reclamation. In total 11 acres (4.5 ha) was gained at a cost of £10 million. An average of 7,000 tonnes of rock and mud was extracted per day during the process.
Salt Island is part of the port of Holyhead and almost the whole extent of the island is used as a passenger, car and freight terminal and berths for ferries to and from Ireland. Both Irish Ferries and Stena Line sail from Salt Island to the Port of Dublin. The Holyhead lifeboat station is on the island. The Admiralty Arch, the end of the A5 which links London to Holyhead is located very close to the southern tip of the island. This was opened in 1826 when the last section of the road the Menai Suspension Bridge was completed. Access to the island as a whole is strictly monitored and is virtually impossible for pedestrians to enter.
John Rennie was a Scottish civil engineer who designed many bridges, canals, docks and warehouses, and a pioneer in the use of structural cast-iron.
Holyhead is a historic port town, and is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is separated from Anglesey island by the narrow Cymyran Strait, having originally been connected to Anglesey via the Four Mile Bridge.
Holy Island is an island on the western side of the larger Isle of Anglesey, Wales, from which it is separated by the Cymyran Strait. It is called "Holy" because of the high concentration of standing stones, burial chambers and other religious sites on the small island. The alternative English name of the island is Holyhead Island. According to the 2011 UK Census, the population was 13,659, of whom 11,431 (84%) lived in the largest town, Holyhead.
The A5, the London-Holyhead trunk road, is a major road in England and Wales. It runs for about 243 miles (391 km) from London to the Irish Sea at the ferry port of Holyhead. In many parts the route follows that of the Roman Iter II route which later took the Anglo-Saxon name Watling Street.
Portland Harbour is beside the Isle of Portland, Dorset, on the south coast of England. Construction of the harbour began in 1849; when completed in 1872, its 520-hectare (1,300-acre) surface area made it the largest human-made harbour in the world, and it remains one of the largest in the world today. It is naturally sheltered by Portland to the south, Chesil Beach to the west and mainland Dorset to the north. It consists of four breakwaters: two southern and two northern. These have a total length of 4.57 km (2.84 mi) and enclose approximately 1,000 ha of water.
Saint Peter Port Harbour is located in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey. It was a natural anchorage used by the Romans which has been changed into an artificial harbour that is now the island's main port for passengers. Loose cargo, liquids and gas are shipped to and from St Sampson's harbour.
South Stack is an island situated just off Holy Island on the northwest coast of Anglesey, Wales.
Holyhead Mountain is the highest point on Holy Island, Anglesey, and in the county of Anglesey, north Wales. It lies about two miles west of the town of Holyhead, and slopes steeply down to the Irish Sea on two sides. Ireland can be seen from here on a clear day and the cliffs below are an important site for seabirds.
The Chester and Holyhead Railway was an early railway company conceived to improve transmission of Government dispatches between London and Ireland, as well as ordinary railway objectives. Its construction was hugely expensive, chiefly due to the cost of building the Britannia Tubular Bridge over the Menai Strait. The company had relied on Government support in facilitating the ferry service, and this proved to be uncertain. The company opened its main line throughout in 1850. It relied on the co-operation of other railways to reach London, and in 1859 it was absorbed by the London and North Western Railway.
James Meadows Rendel FRS was a British civil engineer.
Porth Dafarch is a small bay on the west coast of Anglesey in North Wales. The inlet is on the west side of Holy Island, Anglesey about 2 mi (3.2 km) southwest of Holyhead and 1.5 mi (2.4 km) northwest of Trearddur Bay. It has a sandy beach and is a popular visitor destination. In 2021 Porth Dafarch beach awarded as Blue Flag beach.
Donaghadee Lighthouse is a lighthouse in Donaghadee County Down, Northern Ireland. Donaghadee is probably best known for its lighthouse and harbour. There has been a haven for ships at Donaghadee for centuries, and there has also existed a harbour since at least the 17th century.
Douglas Harbour is located near Douglas Head at the southern end of Douglas, the capital of the Isle of Man. It is the island's main commercial shipping port. The Port of Douglas was the first in the world to be equipped with radar.
Dún Laoghaire Harbour and Carlisle Pier were constructed in the nineteenth century for the purposes of sheltering ships and accommodating the mailboat which sailed between Dún Laoghaire and Holyhead. The nearby settlement of Dún Laoghaire has also previously been known as Kingstown and also as Dun Leary. Carlisle Pier has been known previously as Kingston Pier and the Mailboat Pier.
The Port of Holyhead is a commercial and ferry port in Anglesey, United Kingdom, handling more than 2 million passengers each year. It covers an area of 240 hectares, and is operated by Stena Line Ports Ltd. The port is the principal link for crossings from north Wales and central and northern England to Ireland. The port is partly on Holy Island and partly on Salt Island. It is made up of the Inner Harbour, the Outer Harbour and the New Harbour, all sheltered by the Holyhead Breakwater which, at 2.7 kilometres, is the longest in the UK.
Holyhead Breakwater is situated at the north-western end of Holyhead in Anglesey in Wales. The Victorian structure, which is 1.71 miles (2.75 km) long, is the longest breakwater in the United Kingdom. The breakwater, which is accessible in good weather, has a promenade on top which leads out to the Holyhead Breakwater Lighthouse.
Holyhead Mail Pier or Admiralty Pier Lighthouse on Salt Island, Anglesey, is an inactive lighthouse which was designed by the civil engineer John Rennie in 1821. It was built in the early 19th century to help guide shipping into the newly constructed harbour, now known as the Port of Holyhead, which acted as the terminus for the packet service between England and Ireland. It is the last of a series of three lighthouses located on Salt Island.
Admiralty Arch, in Holyhead, Anglesey, was built in 1824 to mark the end of Thomas Telford's Holyhead road. The arch was designed by Thomas Harrison and its main purpose was to commemorate the visit of King George IV in August 1821. The King arrived in Holyhead on the royal yacht Royal George on the 7 August, continuing to Plas Newydd where he stopped overnight. He returned the next day to his yacht, but due to poor weather his departure was delayed and the decision was made to transfer to the steam packet Lightning which conveyed him on the 12 August to Howth, near Dublin for his state visit to Ireland. The change to the packet boat was met with widespread approval.
The Harbour lighthouse in Howth is a historic aid to navigation situated on the East pier of the harbour. It was built in the early 19th century to help guide shipping into the newly constructed harbour, which acted as the terminus for the packet service between Ireland and England. In 1982 it was decommissioned and replaced by a modern pole light on an adjacent extension of the pier.
The coastline of Wales extends from the English border at Chepstow westwards to Pembrokeshire then north to Anglesey and back eastwards to the English border once again near Flint. Its character is determined by multiple factors, including the local geology and geological processes active during and subsequent to the last ice age, its relative exposure to or shelter from waves, tidal variation and the history of human settlement and development which varies considerably from one place to another. The majority of the coast east of Cardiff in the south, and of Llandudno in the north, is flat whilst that to the west is more typically backed by cliffs. The cliffs are a mix of sandstones, shales and limestones, the erosion of which provides material for beach deposits. Of the twenty-two principal areas which deliver local government in Wales, sixteen have a coastline, though that of Powys consists only of a short section of tidal river some distance from the open sea. Its length has been estimated at 1,680 miles (2,700 km).
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