Red Wharf Bay

Red Wharf Bay, also known as Traeth Coch (Welsh for "red beach"), is a village and a wide sandy bay in the Anglesey Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the east coast of the island of Anglesey in Wales. The bay lies between the villages of Pentraeth and Benllech. It is also close to Castell Mawr Rock, thought to be the site of an Iron Age fort.

Red Wharf Bay beach itself has a large expanse of sand at low tide.

Village

The village of Red Wharf Bay is on the western shore of the bay. The village is linked to Benllech and Pentraeth via the Anglesey Coastal Path. Red Wharf Bay has three restaurants—The Tavern on the Bay, The Ship Inn, and The Boathouse—all with views of the bay.

Wildlife

The bay attracts an abundance or wildlife, including a large number of waterfowl and wading birds, such as oystercatcher, shelduck, purple sandpiper, curlew and dunlin. The bay is bordered by salt marshes and sand dunes. Some of these dunes are rich in shell fragments that support the flora common to lime-rich areas, including the pyramidal orchid.

Events

Each year the Red Wharf Bay Sailing Club Anglesey Offshore Dinghy Race takes place from Beaumaris to Traeth Bychan. The 14-mile (23 km) race runs up the Menai Strait and down the Anglesey coast.[1]

History

The name of Traeth Coch is believed to originate from a battle involving Vikings in 1170 that left the beach soaked in blood.[2]

A hoard of five Scandinavian type arm-rings was discovered at Red Wharf Bay between c. 1887 and c. 1894.[3] Historian Mark Redknap wrote that "The Red Wharf Bay arm-rings are probably contemporary with the Cuerdale Hoard (buried c. 905), and it has been suggested that Ingimund’s activities on Anglesey in 903 might have led to the deposition and their non-recovery."[4]

There was once a railway line which terminated at the bay, the Red Wharf Bay branch line, which left the Anglesey Central Railway at Pentre Berw. Stone for the Admiralty Arch, Holyhead was quarried near the bay.[5]

References
  1. "Anglesey Offshore Dinghy Race to be held on 13th August 2023". www.yachtsandyachting.com. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  2. Owen, Annie (2 July 2022). "The centuries old North Wales beach bar on a site with a blood soaked past". North Wales Live. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  3. "Viking Archaeology - Arm-Rings from Red Wharf Bay, Anglesey". viking.archeurope.info. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  4. Redknap, Mark (2012). Brink, Stefan (ed.). “The Vikings in Wales” in "The Viking world". The Routledge worlds (1. publ. in paperback ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-203-41277-0.
  5. "George IV Arch and Salt Island, Holyhead". Retrieved 23 February 2018.

53.304°N 4.19°W / 53.304; -4.19


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