Caves on Anglesey?

Lankyman

Well-known member
I was at Penmon Priory on Anglesey yesterday and noticed that there's a substantial limestone outcrop thereabouts. Puffin Island just offshore looks like limestone as well. The nearby St Seiriol's Well (see photo) was pushing out a fair amount of water. Does anyone know if there are any caves there?
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20251204_121346.jpg
    IMG_20251204_121346.jpg
    281.7 KB · Views: 62
Presumably you noticed this old thread?


Both Ian and Robin (on that thread) are local-ish and pretty knowledgeable folk
 
Presumably you noticed this old thread?


Both Ian and Robin (on that thread) are local-ish and pretty knowledgeable folk
Thank you, Tom but I hadn't thought to check!
 
There are a fair few small caves dotted around Anglesey as well as a few mines …

I haven’t been wandering around for the last 5 years (knee injury) but some of the information is still in the UCET knowledge bank.

The club has just had a new website (courtesy of Dave Tyson) and the links within each subject, to the old site, no longer work.

Also, the original forum was not in alphabetical order (which would have been helpful) and the migration unavoidably copied that.

I have had a quick look through and can’t seem to find everything, but they are in there, though. Here are a few links that might get you started;

Sea Caves on Anglesey
https://www.ucet.org.uk/index.php?topic=645.0

Holy Island Caves (Anglesey)
https://www.ucet.org.uk/index.php?topic=834.0

Porth Nannerch Mine
https://www.ucet.org.uk/index.php?topic=915.0

Menai Straits Adit
https://www.ucet.org.uk/index.php?topic=870.0

The Knowledge Bank
https://www.ucet.org.uk/index.php?board=17.0

There are also some caves on the Great Orme and the Little Orme (in the knowledge bank too).

Cris Ebbs undertook a much better study of the caves in Anglesey and you can find his information here (Section 10);

https://cambriancavingcouncil.org.uk/registry/CoNW/CoNW.htm

Hope it’s helpful for you.

Have fun!

Ian
 
Nothing at Penmon. The water for the well probably just percolates into some fields and comes out along a shale horizon. The interesting area is Fedw Fawr, where there is an active (periodically) sink - Fedw Fawr Pot. This is about 15foot deep to rubble and some fluting. Unfortunately the resurgence is only a 100m or so away at the beach. I visited years ago, and in a return visit 5 years ago, it didn't look quite the same - some how smaller. Cris Ebbs in a separate visit confirmed there are in fact two Fedw Fawr Pots! You can see the water channels on Lidar.

The only bit of limestone that actually looks 'cavernous' is at Castell Mawr Quarry near Benllech where quarrying has left the remains of a mud filled phreatic passage, and a couple of flow deposits on the wall of the large block of limestone left over by quarrying.

There is some limestone by the Straits and I beleive that some karst features were discovered when Plan Newydd was putting in heat pump equipment a few years ago.

There is a large tract of limestone in central Anglesey, dipping gently to the south. I've always fancied there may be something to be found along the escarpment facing Mynydd Bodafon - particularly where a sizable valley maybe has cut backwards into some down dip channels. Access is a bit tricky in this area though.

The owner of Stone Science mentioned 'an active passage' somewhere on the island, but for some reason he would not divulge where.

Gus Horsey also mentioned a sink and possible passage on the coast between Moefre and the Royal Charter shipwreck monument.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the knowledgeable replies (particularly Ian and Robin). If I didn't live so far away (north Lancs) I'd probably be rooting around for stuff there. I lived for some time in a similarly 'fringe' area (Arnside Silverdale) and regularly went out hunting down all sorts of fairly niche esoterica - even just finding Harry Hest Hole felt like an achievement. I used to occasionally bump into the late Jim Newton out and about and he told me that he always suspected that there was something major underneath Warton Crag ...
 
Back
Top