Amlwch

Amlwch is Anglesey's northernmost town, sitting on the coast where the island meets open water with no shelter until the Orkneys. It is a place with a history out of all proportion to its current modest size: in the late 18th century, the copper mines of Parys Mountain behind the town were producing a third of the world's copper supply, and Amlwch Port — hand-carved from solid rock — was the busiest mineral-shipping harbour in Britain after Bristol. The town's population briefly exceeded Swansea's.

That era has gone, but the landscape it left behind is extraordinary. Parys Mountain is now a geological SSSI — an ochre and purple moonscape of oxidised minerals, open shafts, and engine houses — one of the most visually striking industrial ruins in Wales. The Copper Kingdom visitor attraction in the town itself tells the story well, with reconstructed workings and an exhibition tracing the mine's global influence on the copper trade.

Amlwch Port is worth a slow walk. The tiny harbour, carved from the rock, still has a few working boats, and the old warehouses are being gradually restored. Bull Bay (Porthllechog), a mile east, is one of the island's most sheltered small coves and a favourite with local sailors.

The surrounding coast — from the Skerries lighthouse to the west to Moelfre to the east — is among the most rugged and least-visited on the island. The Coastal Path here is genuinely wild.