CEMAES BAY
Pretty Harbour, Great Beach, Fabulous Coastal Walk

Cemaes Bay truly is a lovely everyman village with a pretty little harbour and two beaches.

Both beaches are perfect for all manner of fun beach activities, Sailing, Windsurfing and Surfing.

The Fishing can be excellent along the coast behind St Padrig's Church along the headand on the Llanbadrig Ledges.

Then, there is the absolutely staggering Anglesey Coastal Path leading to the east towards Bull Bay, Amlwch and all the way around again.

This portion of the Anglesey Coastal Path around Cemaes Bay really does take your breath away.

More or less everything that has been weighing heavy on your mind and heart dissolves away to a pleasant state of tranquil reflection.

Yowls of delight and splashing children and adults are a backdrop to any conversation during the Summer holidays.

As I write above, Cemaes Bay has two beaches.

The larger and more popular is Traeth Mawr (literally, ‘Big Beach’).

Cemaes Bay is blessed with a good family friendly beach and a promenade that stretches around a good length of the beach.

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N.B.Doggie restrictions on the beach during Summer.

Please click on my Cemaes Facilities link for more information.

The village is pretty and colourful because the village council has made a great effort to welcome visitors.

You’ll find a couple of character pubs that serve solid food and a decent pint.

The Harbour Hotel is in a particularly nice spot to enjoy a meal or a drink sat outside in the sunshine.

This village really does have more or less everything you need, whether you’re staying for the day or for a week - hopefully, even sunshine.

I’m quite certain that people who enjoy Anglesey beaches are looking forward to the promised sub-tropical climate.

The harbour is a delight with its small quay and marina and it reminds me a lot of Fowey and Polruan in Cornwall

SAILING AND WATERSPORTS

The surfing at Cemaes Bay can be excellent when the sea conditions are right. It's not on the surfer's trail, as such and the information about it is very sketchy.

Local casual surfers on Anglesey all have their favourite beaches.

It's well worth spending some time at the better aspected beaches like Rhosneigr or Trearddur Bay and gathering 'intelligence' about WHERE and WHEN.

There’s even a bit of kite surfing going on.

Other marine activities seem to include sailing in and out of the small marina.

Many weekend sailors sail around Anglesey from harbour to harbour, stay an evening to enjoy the good food, beer and banter and then head off when distant shores.

I believe that the clanking of beer glasses and the tintibulation of clashing champagne glasses draws them ever onwards.

The sailing to the north around Carmel Head and West Mouse can be pretty challenging because of the major currents in the area.

Many's the shipwreck out there and this is what makes the West Coast of Anglesey an adventure magnet for many UK divers.

The little harbour is at its prettiest when the tides is in.

Kids of all ages seem happy enough to throw themselves in off the dockside, again and again.

They appear sensible enough to check before they leap so that they won’t make a dent in the bottom.

Cemaes Bay harbour welcomes visiting yachts and offers boats for hire for fishing and little trips up and down the coast and around the bay.

IS CEMAES BAY YOUR FAVOURITE BEACH?

Is this your favourite Anglesey beach? Maybe you've enjoyed bathing, walking or generally been blown about here?

If you've got stories or thoughts you'd like to share about this or any other Anglesey beach with other visitors then Please CLICK HERE.

We'd all love to hear from YOU.

BOAT REGISTRATION AND LAUNCHING FEES
 

Anglesey welcomes water sports; whether manual with canoes, yachts, sports boats or marine skidoos.

Please note Anglesey like Gwynedd insists on registration of all boats over a specific horsepower and places a cost on launching.

You will find the required qualifications and other useful information about boating off our beaches.

Please CLICK HERE for all the above information and about launching fees on other Anglesey beaches and slipways. 

DOGS ON THE BEACH

• There are Seasonal Prohibitions on dogs at Llanddwyn and certain other Anglesey beaches.

• Always bring a doggie poo-bag with you because the little dears can't always help themselves.

• The main concern regarding dogs on Anglesey beaches is a health issue. Doggie poo can blind for life.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT DOG RESTRICTIONS ON ANGLESEY BEACHES PLEASE CLICK HERE.

FISHING

Cemaes Beach and the surrounding cliffs and ledges offer pretty good fishing, depending on the season, the sea state and the general state of your luck.

The best place to head for is the Llanbadrig Ledges just a around the headland to the east and through the graveyard of St Patrick's Church .

You'll find the ledges below you and to the east (your right).

Llanbadrig Ledges, by Mike Thrussell & North Wales Sea Fishing

BAITS

Mackerel can be feathered of the rocks and are the best all round bait for the huss and conger, though a fresh pout or poor cod can be just as good. The wrasse take worm or crab. Pollack take artificial eels and spinners.

TACKLE AND TACTICS

There are numerous rock ledges here all giving good fishing. The water is generally deep and the seabed very snaggy, so expect some tackle losses. It fishes best on the neap tides right through the flood with the dark hours best for the huss and conger...

A tough 5-6oz beachcaster and multiplier in the 7000 or old type 9000 size is best with 30lb line straight through for the conger and huss. Use a pulley rig built from 80lb mono with an 18-inch hook link and a Viking pattern hook size 6/0. Use a weak link to the lead to break the weight free if it snags.

The wrasse also take ledgered baits but are best fished for with float tackle right under your feet with a powerful mullet or spinning rod with a fixed spool and 15lb line using a short snood paternoster and weak link to the lead.

For the pollack the same rod and reel as for the wrasse is okay. They take small to medium sized artificial eels rigged on a three-way swivel with the middle eye carrying the lead, and the lower eye a hook trace around 3ft to the eel.

Cast this out in a wide angle from either side of you to locate the fish. Early morning and especially late evening are good times. The pollack can top 6lbs, so use a strong Viking hook size 2/0 in the eel.

The rocks and cliff paths can be dangerous, so care is needed, especially in damp conditions.

WATCH OUT FOR SUDDEN SEA SWELLS

For MORE FISHING TIPS on other Anglesey fishing marks PLEASE CLICK HERE

ANGLESEY GOLF CLUBS

If you’re inclined to spend a few hours knocking balls with a stick then why not traipse up the coast to the Bull Bay Golf Course a few miles to the west.

The view to the sea from most places on the course is quite magnificent. Bull Bay Golf Club is spacious, enjoys the sea wind and consequent challenges.

Bull Bay Golf Club rewards your presence with a very pleasant green and rolling course. For more Please Click Here

CEMAES BAY LOCAL FACILITIES

If you're staying in the Cemaes Bay area in a hotel, bed & breakfast or you're renting a cottage for the week, then you might as well park the car.

Forget about it for the duration of your stay.

More or less everything you need to make your stay pleasant is within walking distance.

Local farm shop, local butcher, mini-market, pubs, food and above all ICE-CREAM.

I really don't know if it's the smell of the sea's ozone that makes ice-cream taste better, or is it the ice-cream that heightens my olfactory awareness of the sea.

I'll have to get myself another ice-cream to check out the theory.

For a breakdown of what's available in the immediate and delightful north west area of Anglesey Please CLICK HERE.

ISLE OF ANGLESEY COASTAL PATH

To follow the coastal path from Cemaes Bay to the East towards Amlwch leads you into an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and pleasant old historical industrial encounters.

Not only is the small beach port of Llanlleiana the site of an old nunnery.

This is also where the Romans finally defeated the druids. At a price.

Please note that it wasn't the druids that really scared the Romans, but the raging women. Ah, how things have changed ... On the whole.

Walk along the beach away from the village and follow the well signposted coastal path sign.

The work of Menter Môn, an agency of Anglesey County Council, has to be acknowledged as remarkable and visionary.

I am always encountering people at one beach car park or other packing their knapsacks and set for a walk along the coastline.

Many people are regular visitors to Anglesey all-year round.

They come to complete different sections of the path around the coast of Anglesey.

People don’t only walk the Coastal Path for fitness, they come to recharge their batteries and re-discover a sense of peace they thought they’d lost forever.

The further you walk the gentler your outlook becomes and the deeper your appreciation of Anglesey’s outstanding natural beauty.

Anglesey offers you four great gifts: the Countryside, the Beaches, the Isle of Anglesey Coastal Path and, most important of all, a place to get clean away from everything.

GETTING TO CEMAES BAY

Route 1:

• Cross Anglesey on the A55 Expressway toward Holyhead. Come off at Junction 3 for Valley/Trearddur Bay.

• At the Valley traffic lights turn right for Cemaes Bay.

• Continue along this road for 12 miles until you arrive at the village of Cemaes Bay.

• Turn left at the roundabout and drive into the village. Parking on your left halfway down the main street or down in the harbour (turning opposite the Harbour Hotel).

Route 2:

This is the longer route. There again, you’re on holiday and Anglesey's such a beautiful island to behold.

This is a pleasant coastal route that reveals the east and the north coasts. Discover more Anglesey beaches along the way.

• Come off the Britannia Bridge on the second left slip road signposted for Amlwch. Turn right at the top.

• Follow the road to the Four Crosses roundabout. Travel straight across.

• The towns and villages are in this order: Pentraeth, Benllech, Moelfre, Penysarn, Amlwch, Bull Bay and finally Cemaes.

If you don't come accross them in this order then your reality must be folding in on itself and that means trouble for everyone. What's new?

• Cemaes Bay is well signposted. You'll see a flower-bedecked rowing boat at a right junction.

Turn here and drive into the village, which is less than a quarter mile ahead.

You arrive on the road above the harbour and beach. In time for an ice cream and a 'panad' (cup of tea).

CONTACT ME

Do you have any questions you'd like to ask? I would love to hear from you.

Maybe you have questions you want to ask in advance of your visit?

Maybe you have special advice - or even warnings.

Please feel free. ASK YOUR QUESTION by CLICKING HERE.

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