Iolo Griffiths - Crossing the Menai Strait: Ferries and Bridges to Anglesey

Crossing the Menai Strait

Nowadays it is so easy to cross between Anglesey and the Welsh mainland that travellers going to Holyhead to catch the ferry to Ireland, holidaymakers visiting Benllech, Rhosneigr or any of the other great beaches on offer, and Anglesey residents shopping in Bangor, Llandudno or further afield, can easily forget that Anglesey is an island, and that this easy journey was for centuries fraught with difficulties, not to say perils.

The Menai Strait is a channel 15 miles long which separate the island of Anglesey from the mainland, and is little wider than a large river (ranging in width from less than a quarter of a mile to three quarters of a mile), hence the Welsh name Afon Menai (literally River Menai ). Despite the channel being narrow and relatively short, its unusual tidal pattern presented challenges. The famous Admiral Nelson, the hero of Trafalgar, considered the Menai Strait to be one of the most difficult stretches of water to navigate, and is reputed to have remarked that whoever could navigate a sailing ship through the Menai Strait could sail any sea in the world.

The shallow depth of the channel, with just 10 metres of water and a rocky uneven floor presented challenges to large sailing ships, but the fact that the Strait has two high tides and two low tides each day, and that tidal currents can be swift, reaching eight knots, would present difficulties for vessels of any size.

Although there is no doubt that the Druids would have crossed the Menai Strait from their headquarters in Anglesey to the mainland for centuries, it is probable that the first crossing of the Strait to be actually recorded was by the Roman general Suetonius Paulinus in AD 61 as he and his army of 10,000 men, invaded Anglesey, the island headquarters of the Druids, whose spiritual authority was inspiring British resistance to Roman rule.

The battle, or perhaps we should call it a massacre, is described by the Roman historian Tacitus, a nephew of Suetonius. The Roman forces, as they mustered on the mainland shore were faced by a battle line of men brandishing weapons, women shrieking and carrying torches, and druids invoking curses on the invaders. This rather unearthly scene at first intimidated the Roman soldiers, who stood in awe, until their officers rebuked them for their cowardice.

The Roman officers then ordered the men to cross on a flotilla of flat bottomed boats to their foes in the Brynsiencyn area, at a site near Porthamel. It seems that the Menai Strait was shallower at that time than at present, since the cavalry swam beside their horses.

The Druids offered no resistance as the Romans massacred them and cut down the sacred groves. The fact that Suetonius did not remain long in Anglesey was due to being recalled because of the more pressing threat posed by Boudiccas revolt in East Anglia.

In one fell swoop the old Celtic religion was destroyed. The fact that the Druids committed nothing to writing, but transmitted their history and tradition orally, means that all their knowledge was lost to posterity on that day, and what we know about them today is through the writings of their foes. How much of the lurid rituals attributed to them is purely Roman propaganda is a matter of debate.

Although the various ferries and the two 19th century bridges will make up the bulk of this book, it is worth mentioning another, much earlier, bridge, built in 1282, on which a royal army tried to cross, and were annihilated during this attempt.

This was in the wake of the rebellion of the Welsh Prince Llewelyn the Last, and Edward I decided to attack Gwynedd by a pincer movement. The forward base for the attack was Rhuddlan, from whence a detachment under Luke de Tany was sent to Anglesey. The orders were that he was to occupy Anglesey, and then build a bridge of boats, across the Menai Strait, near Bangor (though some suggest that the actual location of this pontoon bridge was at Moel y Don). The plan was to attack Gwynedd from east and west, and de Tany had strict orders not to cross the bridge until the king gave the word.

De Tany occupied the island in August of 1282, and his task was to secure his hold on the southern coast of Anglesey, especially the commote of Menai, and seize the harvest, thus depriving the Welsh of food. The work on the bridge started at the end of August, and by November the bridge was ready to allow a concerted attack, but by then the Archbishop was carrying out a peace mission.

Despite the archbishops negotiations, and without any orders from the king, on November 6, 1282, de Tany and his men crossed their bridge, and at high tide, which allowed the Welsh to ambush them. Many of the English army jumped off and were drowned, including de Tany himself, Hywel ap Gruffydd ap Ednyfed Fychan (a grandson of Llewelyn the Greats seneschal, but who clearly had gone over to the English side), and two sons of Edwards chancellor, Robert Burnell.

Why this crossing took place in apparent defiance of the kings orders is unknown, though one English chronicler suggests that it was an act of treachery during the peace talks. However, it was a crushing defeat for the English, and the war was only brought to an end by the unexpected death of Llewelyn in a skirmish in mid-Wales a month later.

This was not the end of the bridge, as it was still in use in early 1283, but was afterwards dismantled to allow ships to use the Menai Strait for transporting materials for building Caernarfon castle.

A poem by Bardd Mathafarn seems to suggest that it was possible to cross on foot at low tide even as recently as 1450:

Af i dir Mn er Dr Menai.

Tros y traeth ond aros trai.

(I will go to Anglesey over the waters of Menai, across the beach, but wait for the ebb tide). It can be wondered if there is some licence here to fit the poetic measure.

Anglesey Ferries

The island was linked to the mainland by several ferry crossings, including those connecting the Lavan Sands, near Llanfairfechan to Beaumaris; Bangor to Menai Bridge (then called Porthaethwy),and Caernarfon to Abermenai. These ferry crossings need to be considered in the context of being links in routes connecting places. Moel y Don, Tal y Foel and Garth were other important crossings.