Heading towards Cemaes Bay I turned off the A5025 onto the single track lane which I followed in June when looking for Porth Wen brickworks, but this time I took a left turn off it and followed a second lane with fields on both sides. The lane ended in a gravel surfaced car park with a house and a couple of holiday cottages opposite, and St. Patrick's Church right on the headland - it was certainly in a very remote spot. Across from the headland, and looking rather like a large whale basking on the surface of the sea, was Middle Mouse Island, and legend says that St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was shipwrecked there. He made it safely to shore and took refuge in a cliff cave where there was a good source of fresh water, then to give thanks for his survival he founded a church on the headland.
The original wooden church was replaced by the current stone building in the early 14th century, making it one of the oldest churches on Anglesey; it was modified a few times over the years but then in 1884 a major restoration took place. It was entirely funded by Lord Henry Stanley, 3rd Baron of Alderley, Cheshire, who owned the Penrhos estate, and the appearance of the church today owes almost everything to that restoration.
In the early 1870s, while abroad with the Diplomatic Service, Henry Stanley married a Spanish lady of Moorish descent and converted to the Islamic faith, resulting in the interior restoration of the church being greatly influenced by him. The stained glass windows, instead of depicting biblical scenes or characters, had the overtones of a mosque with simple red, white and blue geometric designs, and the tiles on the wall behind the altar also showed geometric or floral patterns. When Henry Stanley died at the age of 76 he was buried upright, facing Mecca in accordance with his faith, in the unconsecrated grounds of a private house in Cheshire about half a mile south of the traditional family burial place.
In 1984 the church was unfortunately badly damaged by fire caused by arsonists and after raising £15,000 over two years another restoration took place, with the building being reopened in May 1987. In 2005 the church was used as one of the Anglesey locations for the murder/mystery/thriller film Half Light starring Demi Moore, and another time one well-known visitor, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, pronounced the site to be "the most peaceful spot on earth" - and with nothing but the sound of the waves down below the cliff and the calling of the sea birds it certainly was a very tranquil place.
Unfortunately my time for exploring outside the church was limited as I wanted to get to the Stermat store at Valley before it closed but I'll most certainly go back there another time. This was a small church with a big history but the building itself and the location definitely merited some further exploration.
When I woke that morning the wind had returned but at least it was fine, and though it started off cloudy it came nicer as the morning went on so I followed the sunshine and blue sky northwards and went to explore a part of Parys Mountain I hadn't previously been to. From the car park I took one of the lower paths round the side of the mountain and followed it along, up and down until I came to what I was looking for - the old engine house on the east side of the mountain. Unfortunately the heather was no longer in full bloom, which it would have been only a month before, but the views from the mountain's lower slopes were great and I could even see beyond Cemaes Bay to the old Wylfa power station.
There was nothing particularly exciting about the engine house, it was just an empty shell with various bits of rubble on the floor though at some point in recent years it's been re-roofed. High up on one wall was a bricked-up window and in the recess was what looked like a large bird's nest - I couldn't quite figure out if it was a man-made one or a proper one but if it was the genuine article it must have been home to a bird the size of an elephant.
From the engine house I took the nearest path and worked my way round and up the hill to the old windmill, and with the colour of the stones underfoot I felt a bit like Dorothy following the yellow brick road. With other places to go to I didn't want to linger too long on the mountain so instead of going across and round by the Open Cast I followed the path straight down from the windmill and took a short cut back to the car park.
I still had a lot more of the mountain to explore but I could do that on another holiday; it was time now to go to my next port of call further along the north side of the island, a place I'd previously missed when I went looking for the old Porth Wen brickworks back in June, so with the dogs safely back in the van I set off on my next quest.
