Qualla: Cemaes

Cemaes: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Dixon, CC BY-SA 2.0. Walk east from the village of Cemaes for half a mile, climb a stile in the churchyard wall, and the view is one of the strangest in Wales: an empty squat-towered church standing alone on a headland, with the Isle of Man visible across the water to the north, the hills of the Lake District to the east, and on a clear day the Mountains of Mourne in Ireland on the far horizon. The church is Llanbadrig - the church of St Patrick. Local tradition has it that the future patron saint of Ireland was shipwrecked here in the 5th century on his way to convert the Irish, washed ashore on the small offshore island still called Ynys Badrig - Patrick's Island - and recovered in a cave below the cliff. He is said to have founded the church in thanks in AD 440. It is the only church in Wales with a plausible direct link to the saint himself.

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Image: David Dixon | CC BY-SA 2.0

Cemaes: The Most Northerly Village in Wales

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. Cemaes sits at the head of a sheltered bay opening directly onto the Irish Sea, the northernmost settlement of any size in the country (the tiny hamlet of Llanbadrig itself sits slightly further north on the headland, but Cemaes is the working village). The name comes from the We...

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Image: Eric Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0

Cemaes: Salted Herring and Lloyd George

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. Between the late 18th and early 20th centuries, Cemaes ran two industries that the modern village barely remembers. Salted herring were caught, cleaned and packed for export in significant quantities; the harbour pier was rebuilt twice to handle the trade. A nearby brickworks pro...

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Image: Eric Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0

Cemaes: The Rocks That Were Indescribable

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. The cliffs around Cemaes expose some of the oldest and most studied rocks in Wales - the Mona Complex, around 600 million years old, full of contorted folds and chaotic mixtures that geologists have been arguing about for over a century. The Welsh geologist Edward Greenly, who li...

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Image: Eric Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0

Cemaes: Terns, Porpoises, and a Titanic Survivor

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Phil Williams, CC BY-SA 2.0. Wildlife around Cemaes is more abundant than the small village suggests. Porpoises come up to breathe along Wylfa Head. Atlantic mackerel, flatfish and red crabs come into the harbour for any patient line. Just along the coast at Cemlyn, the only breeding colony of Sandwich terns...

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Image: Phil Williams | CC BY-SA 2.0