Anglesey

Anglesey is an island off the northwest coast of Wales, separated from the mainland by the Menai Strait and linked by two historic crossings, including Thomas Telford's suspension bridge of 1826. The island was the sacred heartland of the Celtic druids: when the Roman general Suetonius Paulinus attacked in 60 AD, his chroniclers described legionaries frozen in fear at the sight of druids and torch-bearing figures lining the shore. Megalithic burial chambers such as Bryn Celli Ddu, roughly 4,000 years old, point to even earlier settlement. Designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Anglesey today draws walkers along its 200-kilometre coastal path, which winds over cliffs, sand dunes, and wetlands rich in birdlife. Welsh is the everyday language here, and the island holds one of Europe's longest place names — the village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.