A paddle in the mind along the North Coast of Anglesey (From a 'lockdown armchair') - By Richard Janes

From Bull Bay (Porth Llechog) to Porth Wen 

“The wind is blowing silly hard from the South South West “, so where shall we go? A very technical question, posed between a bite of breakfast and slurp of coffee with the usual group at a well known Anglesey watering hole. More focus on squirting brown sauce until the clever one mentions a chunky swell and joint recognition that the tide will be ebbing until after lunch. 'Lunch' being the nominal break for intellectual discourse (?) between breakfast and 'pub' time. 

Easy parking but a bit of a carry over the storm defences and the kayaks are ready to go, lined up on the tiny remains of  beach left by the tide. We can see white water on the headland to the West and paddle with enthusiasm for some surfing fun to start the day. Someone shouts “fin!” ….The large triangular dorsal fin giving away the presence of three porpoises. Two larger, one smaller. The young are cared for by their mothers for up to two years and the females (bigger than males but don't tell them) may be  as much as 70kg and two metres in length. This bunch were hunting in the fast waters of the headland. They hunt using echo location, swallow fish whole and digest them at leisure. We left them to their chores and stayed in the tidal conveyor for a carry  West. Very soon the familiar shape of the 'brickworks' start to appear, so we leave the conveyor and head into the Bay of Porth Wen.

This was once a very busy place. High silica refractory bricks were made using the local white quartzite and exported from the harbour, we can still see the remains. The brickworks operated from 1850 to 1914. The beehive shaped firing kilns still remain, only slightly spoiled by the efforts of local graffiti artists. 

The brickworks were supplied from two quarries to the north-west of the works. Pieces of quartzite were broken up and passed down chutes to lower levels for further processing, resulting in a fine powder at the lowest stage. It is likely that the pieces of quartzite were reduced by hammer with the workers wearing iron covered gloves.

The resulting powder was mixed with lime and water in a pan mill. The resulting paste was then moulded and pressed into bricks in the moulding shed, and then dried out in drying sheds. Originally bricks were made using moulding and wire cutting, but were later made using a press. After drying, the bricks were then fired in one of the three circular beehive kilns.

We land on the pebbly beach next to the large remains of a two storey storage building. Marvel at Victorian building skills but not too close! One day those walls are going to collapse.

As we munch our sandwiches its obvious how Porth Wen got its name from the white quartzite. Quartzite is a type of very hard sandstone which during its geological history has been baked and probably squashed under huge pressure. 

There are other fascinating stories in the rocks hereabouts. This is one of the best places on Anglesey to see the surface between an older sedimentary rock that has been exposed to erosion in its time and a younger sedimentary deposit. Geologists call this an 'unconformity'. Unfortunately, we would need to walk to the quarry beyond the kilns to see examples. Such walk was also deemed an unconformity today. Closer to hand and to the right as we landed are some very strange looking rocks. They look like pebbles stuck in another rock. And that's exactly what these 'conglomerate' rocks are. 

Looking across the bay we can see attractive cliffs, adorned with orange, white and grey lichens in the 'splash zone'. We chatted about this during our 'Walk Down Porth Dafarch Beach', we can also see some of the beautiful, whiskery sea-ivory. 

The tide has begun to drop now and as it does, we can see a line of Black Tar lichen all along the cliff. Right in front of us the dropping tide begins to expose seaweed or better, algae. The first algae to be exposed are going to be out of the water for a long time before the tide gets back to them. The biology in this region includes methods to prevent dehydration. And the first we see is Channel Wrack growing near the high water mark. If you look at it closely, the fronds are rolled to reduce water loss, trapping water face downwards. Amazingly, this alga can survive 95 per cent water loss but can return to action and photosynthesise in 20 minutes after the tide returns! 

Our group are also complaining about dehydration and thinking its time to return.

Paddling back, now close to the cliffs to enjoy the benefit of eddies, its obvious the rocks and biology must take a bashing during storms. We can see Spiral Wrack which appears slightly lower than channel wrack. The spirals help prevent water loss but the stringy nature of the growth here suggests its been battered! 

Rock-hopping back the quiet sound of the ocean is sullied by the painful graunch of fibreglass hull against barnacle encrusted rock and a vicious expletive, showing no respect for these amazing creatures. Respect returns when we discuss the reproductive attributes of barnacles. In relative terms, these tiny crustaceans have the largest penis in the animal kingdom at around eight times the length of their bodies. Hmm.... but these creatures are glued to the rocks so when the urge arrives they  wave it around to reach in their neighbours shell to deposit sperm. As you do! 

But this bohemian sounding lifestyle sure ain't without its hazards! At intervals amongst the barnacles are white Dog Whelks which have a mechanism to bore through the shells of barnacles, secrete enzymes and suck out barnacle soup. Lovely!

The tide has dropped when we get back to Bull Bay which means a longer carry. Sheltered from heavy breaking sea, there is considerably more seaweed on the rocks. Lots of Knotted or Egg wrack  with its tell tale air bladders. Each frond grows one bladder a year, so we can date the frond. A good sign of a sheltered shore as they are easily ripped off.

Carrying the boats up the beach we remind ourselves of a Cormorant we once watched fishing here. They are great swimmers with webbed toes, remaining under water for several minutes at depths up to 40 metres. Our Cormorant caught a fish, we are sure nearly as long as his body and shimmied it down whole. We don't know if the bird was shaking after or the fish still wiggling!  Their feathers are not waterproofed like other sea birds and held out to dry. Our friend chose to spend the afternoon doing this with some pride, belly ache or probably both.

This section of the North Coast is a wonderful area. Always interesting, usually quiet and excellent paddling. However, dehydration is a major consideration for our team now. Any discussion of biology, geology or neutrinos lost to the seductive lure of a warm bar and refreshing pint.....