Isle of Anglesey

Anglesey, believed to mean 'Isle of the Straits', is the only really non-mountainous Welsh county, the highest point is Holyhead Mountains at just over 700 ft. As an island, it is only 276 miles in extent and is linked to mainland Wales by Thomas Telford's graceful suspension bridge, spanning the narrow Menai Strait. Anglesey is full of delightful surprises, with a landscape deriving from rugged, twisted rock formations that are among the oldest in Wales. There are small farms, charming stone walled villages, precipitous cliffs, glorious beaches and secluded coves. Inland, are four excellent trout lakes, an abundance of ancient churches, prehistoric cromlechs, tumuli, chambered cairns, centuries-old manor houses and Edward I's glorious castle at Beaumaris - complete with moat.

From about 150 BC, Anglesey has been the centre of Celtic culture and religion, and is still remembered in Welsh history as the place where the mysterious Druids made a fearsome stand against the Roman invader. Plas Penmynydd was the ancestral home of the Tudor dynasty.