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  South Stack Location with Anglesey | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Irish Sea near Holyhead, Anglesey |
| Coordinates | 53°18′24.40″N4°41′56.91″W / 53.3067778°N 4.6991417°W |
| Length | 0.15 mi (0.24 km) |
| Width | 0.1 mi (0.2 km) |
| Highest point | 134 ft (41 m) |
South Stack (Welsh : Ynys Lawd) is an island situated just off Holy Island on the northwest coast of Anglesey, Wales.
South Stack is an island known as a sea stack. It was formed by the wave erosion of sedimentary rocks that once connected the island to the mainland. [1]
The area is known geologically as the South Stack Formation. Its strata includes sandstones and interbedded shales which have been contorted by large folds and crumples. The folds can be seen in the seacliffs (best viewed from the steps leading down to the lighthouse). Thick beds of pure Holyhead Quartzite, which forms the bulk of Holyhead Mountain, lie above these folded sedimentary rocks. Recent studies suggests the rocks appearance was caused by large scale earth movements which is not a part of the normal sedimentary process; however, this theory remains controversial. Similar evidence of upthrusts can be seen in the cliffs to the south of South Stack. [2]
The geology of South Stack has been chosen as one of the top 100 geosites in the United Kingdom by Geological Society of London, for its display of small-scale folding. [3]
South Stack Lighthouse, which was completed in 1809, is sited 41 metres (135 ft) above the sea on South Stack. Its lamp tower is 28 m (92 ft)-tall and the lighthouse complex covers seven acres (2.8 ha). There are over 390 stone steps and 10 metal steps down to the footbridge.
Originally the only way to cross to the island was in a basket suspended from a hemp cable. In 1828, an iron suspension bridge was built; it was replaced in 1964 with a steel cable truss bridge. However, in 1983 it had to be closed to the public due to safety concerns. After a new aluminium bridge was built, the lighthouse was reopened to the public in 1997. It has become a popular destination, attracting thousands of visitors every year.
The island's cliffs are part of the South Stack Cliffs RSPB reserve which are home to an estimated 8,000 nesting birds during the breeding season. An RSPB visitor centre (with bird hide) is located at Elin's Tower on the mainland. Birds and marine life seen from the centre include choughs, peregrine falcons, and kestrels as well as harbour porpoises, grey seals, Risso's dolphins and bottlenose dolphins.
In 2019, proposals to develop a 35 km2 (14 sq mi) 'West Anglesey Demonstration Zone' tidal energy project at South Stack were submitted under the Transport and Works Act 1992 to the Welsh Government for planning consent. [4] Consent for the project, called Morlais was awarded in December 2021 and construction of the onshore grid connection works took place in 2023. [5] [6]
As the development will come within 500 metres (1,600 ft) of the South Stack SSSI, concerns have been expressed about the visual impact on the Anglesey Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the Holyhead Mountain Heritage Coast, along with the resultant impact on the tourism, recreation and fishing sectors. The developers have identified that seabird and mammal populations would be affected within the Holy Island Coast Special Area of Conservation and Special Protection Area along with the North Anglesey Marine Special Area of Conservation. Most notably bottlenose dolphin and harbour porpoise would likely be affected, whilst razorbill and common guillemot will be severely impacted. The RSPB is concerned that the razorbill colony on South Stack could be wiped out. [7]
Part of the Anglesey Coastal Path, which is a 200-kilometre (124 mi) long-distance footpath around the island of Anglesey, passes South Stack. [8] The Cybi Circular Walk around Holyhead Mountain has long and short variants; the short walk is four miles (6.4 km) long and takes around two hours to complete. Travelling from the Breakwater Country Park, other sites along the way are the North Stack Fog Signal station, Caer y Tŵr, and Tŷ Mawr Hut Circles.
South Stack's natural beauty has been used in photography and literature. The cover photo for Roxy Music's Siren album was taken directly below the central span of the bridge on a slope on the south side, by Graham Hughes in August 1975. [9] In 2010, a French comic entitled Les Gardiens des Enfers (The Guardians of Hell) was published. Its story is mainly set in South Stack lighthouse in 1859. The cover and the first pages can be seen on the publisher's website. [10]
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.
Grassholm or Grassholm Island is a small uninhabited island situated 13 kilometres (8 mi) off the southwestern Pembrokeshire coast in Wales, lying west of Skomer, in the community of Marloes and St Brides. It is the westernmost point in Wales other than the isolated rocks on which the Smalls Lighthouse stands. Grassholm is known for its huge colony of northern gannets; the island has been owned since 1947 by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and is one of its oldest reserves. It reaches 42 metres (138 ft).
Godrevy is an area on the eastern side of St Ives Bay, west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, which faces the Atlantic Ocean. It is popular with both the surfing community and walkers. It is part owned by the National Trust, and offshore on Godrevy Island is a lighthouse maintained by Trinity House which is said to be the inspiration for Virginia Woolf's novel To the Lighthouse. Godrevy lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and the South West Coast Path runs around the whole promontory. There are several public car parks on the western side where the National Trust owns and operates a café.
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.
St Abb's Head is a rocky promontory by the village of St Abbs in Scottish Borders, Scotland, and a national nature reserve administered by the National Trust for Scotland. St Abb's Head Lighthouse was designed and built by the brothers David Stevenson and Thomas Stevenson and began service on 24 February 1862.
Hermaness is the northernmost headland of Unst, the most northerly inhabited island of Shetland, Scotland. It consists of huge sea cliffs and moorland, making it an ideal habitat for a variety of birds. Hermaness was designated a national nature reserve (NNR) in 1955. The NNR extends over 965 hectares, including the whole of the Hermaness peninsula and the outlying Muckle Flugga and Out Stack. The reserve has a path and boardwalk that extends out onto the moorland. The reserve is managed by NatureScot, though it remains in private ownership, with most being owned by the Buness Estate, although the stacks and skerries around Muckle Flugga are owned by the Northern Lighthouse Board.
The Skerries, coming from the Old Norse word sker, are a group of sparsely vegetated rocky islets (skerries), with a total area of about 17 hectares lying 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) offshore from Carmel Head at the northwest corner of Anglesey, Wales. The islands are important as a breeding site for seabirds, and they attract divers, who come to visit the numerous shipwrecks. The Skerries Lighthouse sits atop the highest point in the islands.
South Stack Cliffs RSPB reserve is a nature reserve, run by the RSPB, on Holy Island on the North West coast of Anglesey, Wales. The reserve is on sea cliffs facing the islet of South Stack, and is crossed by the Anglesey Coastal Path. There is an information centre based in Elin's Tower in the reserve.
Puffin Island is an uninhabited island off the eastern tip of Anglesey, Wales. It was formerly known as Priestholm in English. A hermitage was established here around the 6th century, and there are remains of a 12th-century monastery on the island. The island is also a Special Protection Area for wildlife.
Anglesey is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms the bulk of the county known as the Isle of Anglesey, which also includes Holy Island and some islets and skerries. The county borders Gwynedd across the Menai Strait to the southeast, and is otherwise surrounded by the Irish Sea. Holyhead is the largest town, and the administrative centre is Llangefni. The county is part of the preserved county of Gwynedd. Anglesey is the northernmost county in Wales.
North Stack is a small island situated just off Holy Island on the north-west coast of Anglesey. The area has been an important location in the development of traditional climbing in Britain and has several notable classic, and also extreme, climbing routes.
The South Stack Lighthouse is built on the summit of a small island off the north-west coast of Holy Island, Anglesey, Wales. It was built in 1809 to warn ships of the dangerous rocks below.
The South Stack Formation is a sequence of Cambro-Ordovician metasedimentary rocks exposed in northwestern Anglesey, North Wales. The outcrop of this formation at South Stack was chosen as one of the top 100 geosites in the United Kingdom by the Geological Society of London, for its display of small-scale folding.
Cymyran Strait is a strait that runs from Beddmanarch Bay in the north to Cymyran Bay in the south between the islands of Anglesey and Holy Island. At either end it opens up into the Irish Sea.
The Holy Island Group is a sequence of metasedimentary rocks of Cambro-Ordovician age found in northern and western Anglesey and the adjacent Holy Island in North Wales. It comprises four formations; a lower South Stack Formation, an overlying Holyhead Formation, a succeeding Rhoscolyn Formation and an uppermost New Harbour Formation. The South Stack Formation outcrops on Holy Island, between Holyhead and South Stack and at Rhoscolyn, and also inland on Anglesey itself between Mynydd Mechell and Carreglefn. The Holyhead and Rhoscolyn formations are restricted to the Holyhead Mountain and Rhoscolyn areas of Holy Island. The New Harbour Formation, which previously enjoyed 'Group' status, is some 2km thick and conformably overlies the Rhoscolyn Formation. It extends across much of northern and western Anglesey and Holy Island.
The geology of Anglesey, the largest (714 km2) island in Wales is some of the most complex in the country. Anglesey has relatively low relief, the 'grain' of which runs northeast–southwest, i.e. ridge and valley features extend in that direction reflecting not only the trend of the late Precambrian and Palaeozoic age bedrock geology but also the direction in which glacial ice traversed and scoured the island during the last ice age. It was realised in the 1980s that the island is composed of multiple terranes, recognition of which is key to understanding its Precambrian and lower Palaeozoic evolution. The interpretation of the island's geological complexity has been debated amongst geologists for decades and recent research continues in that vein.
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).
The geology of Pembrokeshire in Wales inevitably includes the geology of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park which extends around the larger part of the county's coastline and where the majority of rock outcrops are to be seen. Pembrokeshire's bedrock geology is largely formed from a sequence of sedimentary and igneous rocks originating during the late Precambrian and the Palaeozoic era, namely the Ediacaran, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous periods, i.e. between 635 and 299 Ma. The older rocks in the north of the county display patterns of faulting and folding associated with the Caledonian Orogeny. On the other hand, the late Palaeozoic rocks to the south owe their fold patterns and deformation to the later Variscan Orogeny.
Morlais is a grid connected tidal stream energy project located in the Irish Sea just off the west coast of Holy Island, Anglesey, Wales. It is being developed by the social enterprise agency Menter Môn. The site has the potential for up to 240 MW of renewable energy to be harnessed from the tides, using a mixture of seabed mounted and floating tidal energy devices from different companies.
Islands of Anglesey | |
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