Francis Griffiths

Explorer Tom If a Roman officer wanted a sea view with his invasion insurance, Caer Gybi in Holyhead gave him both: its rectangular walls still loom above the harbour, and the north-east tower looks ready to demand your paperwork. Stand beneath those stones and try telling the commander you are only here for a gentle stroll; I suspect he would charge you for the view. Cadw dates this coastal fort to the third century and suggests it belonged to a defensive network around Anglesey, perhaps linked with the late Roman watchtower on Holyhead Mountain. That link remains uncertain; no shared manager required. The surviving walls rise as high as four metres and are about one and a half metres thick. Remains of four corner towers give the enclosure a shape you can follow, even without a legion to point the way. The north-east tower is especially striking, at about 7.9 metres high, though Cadw says its upper part may have been rebuilt in medieval times. That is rather typical of old places: the Romans build a showy tower and the next lot can't resist tinkering. The fort's position above the harbour makes the coastal logic easy to grasp. You need no invented tunnel or secret battle to make these stubborn walls interesting. Cadw offers free entry throughout the year during reasonable daylight hours. The fort is in Holyhead, off the A5, with the railway station in town; its ground is listed as accessible, though old stone can be slippery when wet. Bring sensible shoes, mind the walls rather than climbing them, and give the harbour one last look. Two thousand years on, the lookout still wins its argument.

Explorer Tom Holyhead Maritime Museum sits by Newry Beach in an old lifeboat house, a fine place to listen to a port that has spent centuries facing the Irish Sea. Come in with a sailor's curiosity; I shall bring an imaginary hat large enough to impress a gull, if no one else. Maritime exhibitions in 1982 and 1983 led to the museum opening in 1986 at St Elbod's Church. It moved to the seafront lifeboat house in 1998. The museum says this building dates from about 1858 and is thought to be the oldest purpose-built lifeboat station in Wales. Volunteers look after a collection about seafaring, shipwrecks and Holyhead's role as a crossing point to Ireland. An adjacent converted air-raid shelter tells part of the town's wartime story. The lifeboat setting is more than picturesque. The rescue service's own history traces its Holyhead station to a decision to build a lifeboat in 1825, with a local committee formed in 1828. In 1829 Thomas Hughes received a silver medal after helping rescue 24 people from two vessels caught on rocks near the harbour. Those are real people and real dangers. My picture of a gull applying for the harbourmaster's job is entirely my own, and I would not trust it with the paperwork. The museum stands along the Wales Coast Path, so the shore and harbour remain close while you read the exhibits. Use the museum's current visitor information before setting out; volunteer-run places can change their arrangements. Then step outside and look across the water with the lifeboat story in mind. Holyhead has been a gateway, but the sea has always demanded respect at the door.