Bridge to Ynys Gaint from Menai Bridge
Ynys Gaint is a small tidal island, which is linked by a short bridge to the town of Menai Bridge in the south of Anglesey. As you can see form the notice on the bridge, it is privately owned and visitors are not welcomed. It was pouring with rain, there was no locked gate, there was no one around and only about 50 metres separated me from this island. It was so tempting...!
Information about the island has proved hard to come by but a couple of people have added comments, which describe the island and give details of its recent history. Many thanks to them for doing that.
You missed a treat. Ynys Gaint is a charming and lovely little island. In the early 1960s the small military base on the island was made available to cadet forces for their annual camps, and in 1964 my CCF, from King Edward VI Five Ways School, Birmingham, had a summer camp there. I think we also went in 1963, though I can't be certain. The camp was very small, and probably only about 30 cadets and three or four officers went. I recall a number of neat, well-maintained huts and a guard room, with tarmac tracks from the entrance gate and around the camp. The island was partitioned by a netting fence, and there was a large private house on the other side of the fence. I remember they had Irish Wolfhounds. We went out from the island on exercise on the mainland (Wales) and around Anglesea, and when off-duty in the evenings on pub crawls round Menai Bridge. I remember four or five of us going into the Mostyn Arms in Menai Bridge and ordering vodka martinis - we'd all read the early James Bond novels, and vodka martinis were all the rage. It was a lovely place, and perfect for a CCF camp.
ReplyDeleteI am also fairly familiar with the island and can add a few more historical details.
ReplyDeleteSir William Guy Fison purchased Ynys Gaint in 1929; in 1930 he was granted a lease by the Crown of parts of the foreshore, upon which were sited the supporting pillars of the access bridge. Fison owned the island until 1948 when he conveyed it to two sisters, Isabel Butler and Teresa Clegg.
In 1951 Clegg and Butler sold 4.46 acres of the island to the then Ministry of War for use as the Army Camp referred to by previous contributors. In 1968 the surviving sister (Clegg) conveyed the old cottage situated on the South side of the island to her chauffeur and handyman Mr Roberts, who then proceeded to reconstruct it. Clegg died a few years later when the main part of the island was acquired by the present owners. The cottage has had two further owners since Roberts sold it in 1977, with the present occupiers having lived there since 1995.
Isabel Butler was my Grandmother. I have fond memories of the island as a young lad including some memorable Christmases. I hope the new owners of the island enjoy it as much as I did. A magical place!
ReplyDeleteI also attended a CCF camp on the island in the early 1960s. There would have been at least 50-60 cadets plus half a dozen officers from my recollection. Our exercises were on the mainland, some cadets went on arduous training expeditions into Snowdonia, but bad weather precluded everyone going. A group of cadets who were also bellringers gained leave of absence on the Sunday to go and ring at Beaumaris, we got there and back by hitch-hiking, a common means of travel in those days. We attended the church service after ringing, to find that it was in Welsh! Happy memories.
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