Porth Swtan
Church Bay
A small rocky-and-sandy bay backed by cliffs, with nearby seafood, giant scones and Anglesey's last surviving thatched cottage.
- Best for
- Cliff walks, the beach and local seafood
- Give it
- Time for the coast, the cottage and a meal
- Don't miss
- Swtan's earth floor and the Lobster Pot's offshore catch
The Fox verdict
Beach, seafood and the last thatched cottage
Come for Porth Swtan's sand, shingle and high cliffs; stay for a thatched-cottage museum and two family-run food stops.
Church Bay is little more than a handful of houses near the beach. Its visitor experiences include a strenuous coastal circuit, the restored Swtan cottage, fresh seafood above the cove and Wavecrest's giant scones at the lookout.
Where to go
Places in Church Bay
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesPorth Swtan / Church Bay Beach
A roughly 300-metre rocky-and-sandy bay, sandy in the middle and shingly below the cliffs, used for swimming, sunbathing, rock pooling, evening barbecues and surfing.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 75 minutes
- Locality
- Church Bay
- Access
- The beach is reached by a very steep but good path from the lookout. Parking at the bay is very limited; arrive early in summer.
The Lobster Pot
A family-run restaurant established in 1946, serving fresh Welsh pot-caught lobster and crab supplied through the family's fishing heritage; the seasonal menu also includes locally sourced meats and a children's menu.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- above the cove
- Access
- Booking is recommended, especially at weekends.
Wavecrest Café
Penny's family-run café is known for giant All in One scones with strawberries and cream, alongside cheese and onion pie, fish pie and Granny Hudson's apple pie and custard.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 45 minutes
- Locality
- at the lookout above the beach
- Access
- The café opens seasonally; Zoe's Cake Cabin covers its regular closed days.
Walks & outdoors
1 placeChurch Bay to Ynys y Fydlyn Circular
A high-cliff circular to the tiny split islet of Ynys y Fydlyn, where a collapsed cave or blowhole appears to have severed the rock from the mainland.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 180 minutes
- Locality
- Church Bay to Ynys y Fydlyn
- Access
- The route is strenuous, with steep ups and downs; good boots and hill gear are advised.
History & heritage
1 placeSwtan Heritage Museum
Anglesey's last surviving thatched cottage is a restored crogloft dwelling with an earth floor and period artefacts; children can feed hens, and the site also has vintage tools, a herb garden, an orchard and a sheltered picnic area.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 60 minutes
- Locality
- Church Bay
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Three ways to explore Church Bay
Signature outings
The island's last thatch
See Swtan's earth floor and period artefacts, then feed the hens and explore the herb garden and old Welsh apple varieties.
Sand, shingle and rock pools
Take the very steep but good path from the lookout to Porth Swtan's sandy middle, shingly cliff edges and rock pools.
The split islet
Follow the strenuous high-cliff circular to Ynys y Fydlyn, a tiny islet split in two beside a collapsed cave or blowhole.
The village story
Church Bay Village Guide
A small Anglesey bay shaped by family fishing, giant scones, a steep beach path, an unseen church and a cottage restored from ruin.
Lobster by the metre
At the Lobster Pot the lobster comes up from a boat run by the two brothers of the woman who cooks it, which is roughly the arrangement the family has had since 1946. John and Freda Wilson turned their cottage, Glan-yr-Afon, into a café serving lobster teas that year; nearly eighty years on it's their granddaughter Julie Hill running the restaurant while her brothers Tristan and Graham fish the shellfish offshore. One description of the setup calls it "measured in metres rather than miles." The kitchen does pot-caught lobster and crab as the catch allows — Lobster Thermidor with white wine, cream and mustard, Lobster Mornay under Welsh cheddar, scallops seared in garlic butter, crab baked with a parmesan gratin — plus Welsh beef for anyone who came this far to the sea and didn't want fish. Book ahead at weekends.
Scones above the beach
Up at the lookout above the beach is the Wavecrest Café, run by Penny, who makes the food fresh each day and is known across this side of Anglesey for scones the size that require the phrase "about a mile high." They come with strawberries and cream. A North Wales Live reviewer, Christopher Davies, called it "the North Wales café with extraordinary views that's so popular it's hard to get a table," and admitted he'd worked in the area seventeen years before finding it. Specials run to cheese and onion pie, fish pie, and Granny Hudson's apple pie and custard. It opens roughly Thursday to Sunday from Easter to September; the other three days Penny's daughter Zoe runs Zoe's Cake Cabin instead.
Down the steep path
From the lookout a very steep but good path drops to the beach, about 300 metres across, sandy in the middle and shingly under the cliffs. People swim, sunbathe, work the rock pools, light barbecues in the evening, and surf if they're brave. Walk the cliffs north early on a summer evening and, as one account has it, they're full of rabbits, with seagulls working the updraughts. Offshore to the north-west the Skerries Lighthouse sits on the horizon, and the sunsets are the reason people stand at the top of the path.
The unseen church and the pub up the hill
The bay's English name comes from a church you can't see from here — St Rhuddlad's, inland at Rhydwyn, was the landmark sailors steered by. The Welsh name, Porth Swtan, means Port Whiting. The pub is up the hill at Rhydwyn: the Church Bay Inn serves drink but no food, keeps up to two real ales, and has a terraced beer garden looking over Holyhead Bay, plus glamping pods.
The cottage brought back
The village's one museum is the last thatched cottage on Anglesey. Swtan was restored from a collapsed ruin — its roof beam had been an old ship's mast, and it rotted through — reopened in 2000 and run since as a charity. Inside is an earth floor, a herb garden, hens to feed and a small orchard of old Welsh apples. Gwilym Jones, the last person born in the cottage, went on to serve for years as the restoration trust's treasurer.
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A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- Porth Swtan / Church Bay Beach — visitanglesey.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Swtan Heritage Museum — swtan.cymru operator, sector body or destination organisation
- The Lobster Pot — thelobsterpot.net operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Wavecrest Café — wavecrestcafe.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Church Bay to Ynys y Fydlyn Circular — visitanglesey.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation