Rhoscolyn
Encyclopedia
Holy Island, Anglesey
Holy Island Cybi') is an island on the western side of the larger Isle of Anglesey, North Wales, from which it is separated by a narrow, winding channel. It is called "Holy" because of the high concentration of standing stones, burial chambers and other religious sites on the small island. The...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. It is just over five miles south of Holyhead
Holyhead
Holyhead is the largest town in the county of Anglesey in the North Wales. It is also a major port adjacent to the Irish Sea serving Ireland....
and is the most southerly settlement on the island. The name Rhoscolyn is said to mean "The Moor" (Rhos) of The Column (colyn), referring to a pillar which the Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
put up to mark the edge of their territories.
A little to the west of the village is a mediaeval well
Water well
A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...
dedicated to St Gwenfaen beside which are the remains of a drystone well house measuring 4.5m east-west by 5.5m. The local church in the village itself is dedicated to the same saint and was first built in the 6th century.
Rhoscolyn is bordered to the south by a small enclosed bay
Bay
A bay is an area of water mostly surrounded by land. Bays generally have calmer waters than the surrounding sea, due to the surrounding land blocking some waves and often reducing winds. Bays also exist as an inlet in a lake or pond. A large bay may be called a gulf, a sea, a sound, or a bight...
called Borthwen which is bordered by a public beach
Beach
A beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea, lake or river. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles or cobblestones...
. There was once a lifeboat station on Borthwen which was open between 1830 and 1929 which has been replaced by a navigational beacon
Beacon
A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location.Beacons can also be combined with semaphoric or other indicators to provide important information, such as the status of an airport, by the colour and rotational pattern of its airport beacon, or of...
on Ynysoedd Gwylanod (Gulls' Island). Around these waters at the end of the 18th century was a thriving oyster
Oyster
The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified....
catching industry but this declined once the beds had been depleted. Existing buildings include the local pub, The White Eagle, and the primary school which is found just over a mile north of the village.
Probably the most significant lifeboat incident here was the launch to the 'Timbo': On 1/12/1920 a small coaster, the Timbo, was enroute to Ireland from Holyhead when she was overcome by a storm off South Stack and began to drift down the coast. The lifeboat was launched, with great difficulty in the heavy seas, and made a number of attempts to get a line aboard her, without success, until the cox decided no more could be done and the lifeboat started it’s return journey, from a point close to Llanddwyn Island. The lifeboat capsized and 5 of the 13 man crew were lost, and, a little later, 4 men from the Timbo as well. The ship eventually became stranded at Dinas Dinlle, was eventually refloated with the use of tugs until she struck the Carreg y Trai (Ebb Rocks) reef off Abersoch and was lost.