Central Anglesey

Central Anglesey runs on its own clock. While the coast fills with campervans in July and August, Llangefni's weekly market carries on as it always has: farmers selling directly, Welsh spoken in every stall, a community that is functioning rather than performing. The county town is the quiet capital of a quiet island, and it takes a certain kind of traveller to appreciate it fully.

Oriel Ynys Môn — the island's main gallery and museum on Llangefni's edge — is the best single building for understanding what Anglesey is and has been. The permanent collection covers everything from the Druids and the Celts to the copper barons and the livestock drovers who walked their cattle across the Menai Strait at low tide before the bridges existed. The gallery's art collection includes works connected to Kyffin Williams, the Anglesey-born painter whose brooding landscapes captured the island's character better than any photograph.

Llanfairpwll — the village with the longest place name in Wales (Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch) — is a short stop on the A5 that most visitors make once. The train station is genuinely charming, the gift shop inevitable, and the Marquess of Anglesey's Column worth the climb for its 360-degree view. Pentraeth and Talwrn represent the deeper, quieter central Anglesey that the guidebooks don't often reach — Talwrn is home to the Anglesey Brewing Company, which produces some of the island's best craft ales.