Anglesey
Porth Wen Brickworks
Abandoned brickworks in a remote cove, with beehive kilns and a chimney still standing on the shore where nothing else is.
- Distance
- 3.7 mi / 6 km
- Time
- 2 hr 10
- Ascent
- 200 m
- Difficulty
- Demanding
- Shape
- There and back
Where it is
The circle shows the general area, not the exact start. Use the directions link below to get to the car park itself. Contours and paths shown are OpenTopoMap, drawn from OpenStreetMap data.
The route
The coast path runs west from Bull Bay above the cove. Steep in places, with a rough descent to the works themselves.
Worth knowing
- The brickworks are unstable and unfenced. The view from the clifftop is the safe one.
- Quartzite was quarried here and fired into firebricks for furnace linings.
- The descent to the shore is steep and loose; many people look from above.
What you’ll see
The beehive kilns and chimney, the cove, and the north Anglesey cliffs.
Background
Porth Wen made silica firebricks from local quartzite and was abandoned around 1924, left where it stood.