Sand, forest and Welsh history
Newborough
A village beside a vast dune-and-forest landscape, with a tidal island, red squirrels and a rediscovered royal court.
- Best for
- Forest trails, dune walks and medieval history
- Give it
- Up to a full day for coast, woodland and village history
- Don't miss
- The sands to Ynys Llanddwyn outside high tide
The Fox verdict
A village where royal history meets a tidal coast
Newborough pairs a rediscovered court and medieval church with forest, dunes, beach and the landmarks of Ynys Llanddwyn.
Come for the waymarked forest routes, red-squirrel woodland and broad sands, then make time for Llys Rhosyr and St Peter's beside it. The result is a guide that works equally well as an outdoor day or a compact history circuit.
Where to go
Places in Newborough
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesNewborough Forest
Explore waymarked walking and cycling routes through 2,000 acres of conifer forest, with trails leading to Llanddwyn Beach.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 1 hour 30 minutes
- Locality
- Newborough Forest
St Peter's Church (Eglwys Sant Pedr)
A Grade II* listed church with an early 14th-century core, a decorated gritstone font of about 1150 and medieval gravestones in the chancel walls.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 30 minutes
- Locality
- Beside Llys Rhosyr
Anglesey Transport and Agriculture Museum – Tacla Taid
A museum collection of vintage vehicles and rural-life objects near Newborough.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 1 hour 30 minutes
- Locality
- Nearby, at Newborough
Walks & outdoors
2 placesLlyn Parc Mawr
A community woodland with walking trails and a hide for watching the red squirrels that range through Newborough Forest.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 1 hour
- Locality
- Near the village
Newborough Warren
An extensive dune-walking landscape across one of Britain's largest dune systems.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 1 hour 30 minutes
- Locality
- Newborough Warren
History & heritage
1 placeLlys Rhosyr
See the excavated remains of an undefended royal court of the Princes of Gwynedd, rediscovered beneath the sand in 1992.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 45 minutes
- Locality
- On the edge of the village
Things to do
1 placeYnys Llanddwyn
A tidal-island outing with rocky knolls, coves, rock pools, former pilot cottages, church ruins, crosses and lighthouses.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 2 hours 30 minutes
- Locality
- Off Newborough Beach
- Access
- Check tide times because the island is crossable except at high tide.
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Three ways to explore Newborough
Signature outings
Walk out to Llanddwyn
Cross from Newborough Beach outside high tide for church ruins, crosses, pilot cottages and the island's two lighthouses.
Look for red squirrels
Llyn Parc Mawr combines woodland walking trails with a hide for watching the red squirrels that range through the forest.
Read a court in stone
Llys Rhosyr is the excavated, publicly visible court of the Princes of Gwynedd that was rediscovered beneath sand in 1992.
The village story
Newborough, from the White Lion to the raven roost
The accepted Travel Fox article moves from village life into forest, dunes and island before returning to royal history, marram craft and the ravens overhead.
The White Lion and a village funeral
The White Lion has a doggy shower. It's round the back, for washing the sand off dogs after the beach and forest, and a cool bowl of water is always out. This is the only pub in Newborough, over two hundred years old, hung inside with an extensive collection of guitars and memorabilia. Alyson and Sam Pritchard bought it in 2010. One TripAdvisor review titled itself "Friendliest Pub in Anglesey," and the food — scampi and chips, veggie chilli, a kids' menu that ends in fudge cake and ice cream — comes piping hot. There's a large beer garden at the back with water features and songbirds, and the kitchen serves through summer.
In 2013 a visitor found the pub unexpectedly closed; Sam Pritchard explained it had shut for restocking and cleaning after a community funeral.
Village essentials, then sand and forest
The rest of the village runs to a general store carrying more than its size would suggest, a post office, and a fish and chip shop that people mention mostly for its architecture.
Then the sand starts. Newborough sits at the south-west corner of Anglesey behind an enormous hinterland of dune and forest. You arrive through Newborough Forest — around 2,000 acres of pine planted between 1947 and 1965 to pin down the moving dunes — which opens onto Newborough Warren, one of the largest dune systems in Britain, and the wide Blue Flag sweep of Newborough Beach. The car parks sit at the forest edge and charge.
Llanddwyn legends and forest wildlife
From the beach you can walk across the sands to Ynys Llanddwyn, a low tidal island of rocky knolls, crossable except at high tide. It carries the ruins of St Dwynwen's church, two crosses and the Tŵr Mawr lighthouse, and it looks straight across at the mountains of Eryri. Dwynwen was a fifth-century princess who prayed to be freed of a love she wasn't allowed to marry into; she became the patron saint of Welsh lovers, and her feast on 25 January is the Welsh answer to Valentine's Day.
Red squirrels were reintroduced to the forest in 2004 and now range through it; there's a hide at the Llyn Parc Mawr community woodland, and a fair chance of seeing one. The forest, warren and island have stood in for other places on screen, from Clash of the Titans to House of the Dragon.
Royal foundations and marram craft
The village is younger than it looks. Edward I founded it in 1294 after evicting the people of Llanfaes to clear ground for Beaumaris and its castle. On its edge sits Llys Rhosyr, a royal court of the Princes of Gwynedd, lost under the sand until it was dug up again in 1992.
For a couple of centuries the warren supported a marram-grass industry, the grass cut in August and plaited into mats and baskets, worked mostly by the women — Ellen Williams, Margaret Pritchard and Mari Pant among them — whose skill, it was said, nobody elsewhere could match. St Peter's is said to be the longest church on Anglesey.
Getting there and ravens overhead
Bodorgan station is a short drive north, and the 42 bus runs the A4080 straight through the village.
Newborough Forest once held the second-largest raven roost in the world. The roost has gone, but the ravens are still up there, and you tend to hear them before you see them.
Stay around Anglesey
Make a longer stay of it
Travel Fox holiday homes around Anglesey, linked directly to their property pages.
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.
- Newborough Forest — walescoastpath.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Ynys Llanddwyn — naturalresources.wales other published source
- Llyn Parc Mawr — naturalresources.wales other published source
- Newborough Warren — naturalresources.wales other published source
- Llys Rhosyr — cadw.gov.wales statutory register or public authority
- St Peter's Church (Eglwys Sant Pedr) — coflein.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Anglesey Transport and Agriculture Museum – Tacla Taid — angleseytransportmuseum.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation