Three free Cadw monuments in the fields and woods above Traeth Lligwy.
CHECK FIRST · TERRAIN
All three monuments are unstaffed open-access field sites, reached on foot across field and woodland through kissing gates, not from the lay-by itself. There are no facilities on site, so arrive ready for farmland ground underfoot.
Time needed
About an hour
Best time
After a dry spell, when the field walk is not muddy · morning light in the woods
Opening, entry & booking
Free · All year · Cadw lists 10am–4pm
Access & difficulty
Field & woodland · kissing gates
Parking & start point
Small roadside lay-by
Getting there
Off the A5025 at Llanallgo
Toilets, food & facilities
None on site
Dogs
On a lead
Plan with confidence.Detailed information on arrival, access, facilities, restrictions and local conditions.
Opening, entry & booking
Open
Free, with no ticket and no booking. All three monuments are unstaffed open-access field sites; Cadw lists opening as 10am–4pm, closed 24–26 December and 1 January.
About ¾ mile (1.2 km) north of Llanallgo, off the A5025 near Moelfre. At the Llanallgo roundabout, follow the lane inland (grid SH497861).
Space
A small roadside lay-by on the lane holds only about four or five cars. It fills on fine weekends, so arrive early. Open the access point in Google Maps: the lane and footpath start, not a car park.
Cost
No parking charge is listed for the lay-by.
The burial chamber
The Lligwy burial chamber sits back down the lane with no designated parking, and roadside space for a single car only.
Public transport & car-free access
Public transport
Bus services run the A5025 corridor past Llanallgo, but there is no dedicated stop at the monuments and you still have the lane and footpath to walk.
Plan a route
Route 62 (Arriva) runs the A5025 corridor; plan door to door with Traveline Cymru. Check the current service before travelling.
Toilets, food & facilities
On site
Plan as if there are no toilets, café or visitor centre at the monuments: all three are unstaffed field sites with nothing on them.
Nearest
The nearest shops, food and toilets are in Moelfre and Benllech, a short drive away. Bring water and anything you’ll want for the walk.
Accessibility & terrain
The walk
From the lay-by a footpath crosses a grazed field (the chapel stands in it) and runs through woodland to the hut group. It is a short walk, but the ground is uneven and muddy after rain.
Gates & footwear
Expect narrow kissing gates. Cadw rates the terrain “Level 3 — Moderate.” Wear sturdy shoes; it is not step-free, and not suitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs.
Dogs & restrictions
Rule
Dogs on a lead. The footpath crosses grazed farmland, so lead control is a livestock requirement rather than a site by-law.
Why it matters
The chapel stands in a working field and the hut group lies beyond it. You are walking through someone's grazing, not a visitor attraction.
On the day
Cadw publishes no dog rule for these sites, so on-site signage is the authority. The lead requirement comes from the grazing land you cross, not from the monuments.
Safety, weather & local conditions
Unstaffed
All three monuments are open-access field sites with nobody on duty: no visitor centre to ask at, and no facilities.
Underfoot
Uneven, muddy field and woodland ground. The hazard here is footing, not exposure, and it is markedly worse after rain.
Livestock
The route crosses grazing land; expect stock in the field around the chapel.
No coastal risk
Inland farmland and woodland: no tide, cliff or water hazard applies, despite the coast being a mile away.
What to bring
Water
Sturdy shoes
A torch for the tomb
Windproof layer
Don’t come for one monument. Come for the three.
Within a few minutes’ walk sit a Neolithic burial chamber, a Roman-era walled village, and a medieval chapel: three chapters of the same landscape, all free and open to the sky.
The reward here is the layering of time in one field system, not the scale of any single stone.
Tomb, village and chapel: one short walk apart.
Should this shape your day?
A quiet hour through three ages of Anglesey, worth the detour off the beach run.
Good fit for
anyone curious about layered history
photographers of stone and ruin
walkers who like unfenced, open sites
families with sturdy shoes
a quiet pairing with Traeth Lligwy beach
Think twice if
you need step-free or wheelchair access
you’re pushing a pushchair
you need toilets or a café on site
the lay-by is full, because it holds only a few cars
you’d rather not walk out across field and woodland to reach the monuments
After a dry spell, walked as a loop: the chapel, the woodland hut group, then the great capstone by the road.
Hen Capel Lligwy above the bay: the sea a field away, and the sands a mile downhill.
One short walk, three ages.
See the shape of the visit before you make it.
01 The turn
Leave the A5025 at the Llanallgo roundabout.
02 The lay-by
Pull in on the lane. Space is tight.
03 The gate
Through the kissing gate into a grazed field.
04 The chapel
Hen Capel Lligwy, roofless in the field.
05 The woods
A footpath leads on into the trees.
06 The village
Din Lligwy’s walls in a clearing.
07 The tomb
Back to the great capstone by the road.
Seen along the way.
Chapel, tomb and crypt: the monuments you walk between.
The Lligwy burial chamber: a capstone Cadw calls one of the biggest in BritainDin Lligwy, the walls and rectangular buildings of the Roman-era villageLooking out through Hen Capel Lligwy’s doorway to the fieldsThe vaulted crypt beneath the chapel’s later side chamberThe burial chamber head-on: the whole ring of stones under the capstoneSheep grazing below the chapel, in fields these monuments still share
The parts people remember
No crowds, no spectacle, just three monuments and the quiet of the fields between them.
01
The trees close over the village
You come out of open field into woodland and the walls are simply there, standing in a clearing with branches over them.
02
You have to stand next to the capstone
From the lane the burial chamber looks modest. It only registers when you are beside it, low enough to put a hand on.
03
Sheep in the chapel field
The chapel has no roof and no fence around it. You share the field with whatever is grazing there, and step in through its arched stone doorway.
04
Two thousand years in one field
Neolithic tomb, Roman village and medieval chapel, all within a few minutes’ walk of each other.
05
The place past the beach turn
A mile inland from Traeth Lligwy’s sands, the ancient sites stay quiet while the beach fills.
An hour of walking, with two thousand years underfoot.
The record
What we know, carefully told.
Three field notes on three monuments: a Roman-era village, a Neolithic tomb, and a medieval chapel, each with its own record.
Most of this is settled by excavation and by Cadw. Where a detail rests on a single account, it’s flagged.
Field notes
Three entries. Open one to read the note.
Roman era Fact
The walled village
Field note I · filed under Din Lligwy
Din Lligwy is an ancient walled village, its stone foundations still standing in a woodland clearing.
What is known
Two round huts and several rectangular buildings stand within a thick stone wall about 1.5 metres across. Cadw dates the settlement to the late Roman period, the 3rd and 4th centuries, with signs that the site may have been used since the Iron Age. It is believed to have been a farming community, the wall built to contain livestock rather than for defence.
What the record adds
Excavation in the early 20th century recovered 3rd–4th-century Roman pottery and evidence of iron-working on the site.Excavation dates · approximate
What to notice there
Walk between the round and rectangular buildings: the difference in shape marks homes from barns and workshops.
Neolithic Fact
The burial chamber
Field note II · filed under Lligwy
The Lligwy burial chamber is a Neolithic cromlech under a vast capstone that Cadw calls one of the biggest in Britain.
What is known
The roof slab is roughly 18 feet by 15, about a metre thick, and Cadw puts its weight at an estimated 25 tons, resting on stones half-buried in the ground. It would once have been covered by an earthen mound. A 1908 excavation found the remains of some 15 to 30 people, with flint, pottery and a bone pin.
What the record adds
The pottery is recorded as spanning the late Neolithic and the early Bronze Age, two periods of use under one stone.Finds · from the excavation record
What to notice there
Stand beside the capstone before you judge its size; it is low to the ground and easy to underestimate until you are next to it.
Medieval Record
The ruined chapel
Field note III · filed under Hen Capel Lligwy
Hen Capel Lligwy is a roofless chapel dating from the first half of the 12th century, cared for by Cadw.
What is known
The stone walls stand to gable height, the roof long gone. A 16th-century side chapel was added, with a vaulted crypt beneath it. The chapel has been listed since 1952 as a substantially 12th-century structure.
What the record adds
It is said to stand on the site of an earlier timber church, and for a time to have served as a private chapel for the nearby Lligwy House.Association · documented account, not proven
What to notice there
Look for the later side chapel and the steps down to the crypt: two very different centuries in one small ruin.
Don’t let the day end at one pin.
Four stops that turn one cluster of monuments into an Anglesey day.
