Rock pooling is the cheapest, best entertainment on the Anglesey coast — a net, a bucket, and a falling tide, and a small child will happily lose an hour to a single crab. The island’s mix of rocky headlands and sandy bays makes for excellent rock pools, and you don’t need to go far. Here’s where to take the kids and how to do it well.
Best rock-pooling beaches
Lligwy Beach
Lligwy Beach near Moelfre has a broad sandy arc with excellent rock pools at its northern end — crabs, anemones, small fish, and shells. It rarely gets as busy as nearby Benllech, and the coastal path leads on to the ancient village of Din Lligwy if you want to make a half-day of it.
Trearddur Bay
The rocky headlands at either end of Trearddur Bay on Holy Island (Ynys Gybi) hold deep, clear pools — and the same clear water makes for good snorkelling for older children. The Sea Shanty is right there for afterwards.
Penmon Point
Penmon Point at the island’s eastern tip is all rock and tide line, looking across to Puffin Island — good pooling, a lighthouse to look at, and seals to spot in the water.
Rhoscolyn and Porth Dafarch
On Holy Island, the coves along the Rhoscolyn coastal walk and the sheltered beach at Porth Dafarch reward a bit of exploring among the rocks.
Benllech
Benllech Beach pairs easy rock pools with full facilities, lifeguards in summer, and the Mermaid Fish Bar — the easy all-rounder if you’ve got little ones and need toilets and chips nearby.
When to go
Timing is everything: go at low tide. Rock pools are only exposed when the tide is out, and the lowest tides — the spring tides around new and full moons — uncover the most. Check a tide table for the beach you’re visiting and aim to arrive an hour or so before low water, so the tide is still falling and you’ve got time before it turns. Then keep an eye on the returning tide — it can come in faster than you expect across flat sand.
What you’ll find
- Shore crabs — the classic catch, green and feisty. Hold them across the shell, behind the claws.
- Beadlet anemones — the red blobs on the rocks that become flowers underwater.
- Blennies and small fish darting in the deeper pools.
- Hermit crabs, shrimp, limpets, periwinkles, and starfish if you look carefully.
Rock pooling kindly
Teach the kids to put everything back, and the wildlife will be there next time:
- Use a bucket of seawater, not a dry net, and don’t leave creatures out of the water in the sun.
- Always return animals to the exact pool you found them in, and gently turn any rocks you lift back the way they were — that’s a home you’re moving.
- Don’t pull anemones or limpets off the rock — they can’t reattach and won’t survive.
- Wear grippy shoes. Wet rock and weed are slippery, and barnacles cut bare feet.
- Watch the tide and the kids near deeper water and slippery ledges.
Bring a bucket, check the tide, and Anglesey’s rock pools will keep the children happy for far longer than anything with a screen. For a full day out with kids, see our Anglesey with kids guide.