South Stack Lighthouse is on a summit of a small island north west of Holy Island on Anglesey North Wales.
It was still on our bucket list from our 2020 holiday and a location we didn’t get to on that occasion.
We set out late in the day and made our way up to Anglesey. Hunting out a particularly favourable garage fuel price meant once the car was sorted, we decided to call by at the nearby coastal location of Red Wharf Bay.
Red Wharf Bay, also known as Traeth Coch (Welsh for “red beach”), is a village and a wide sandy bay in the Anglesey Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the east coast.
We had a quick walk round the large expanse of a Sandy beach as the tide was out. It was an overcast day so there wasn’t much to be had here, and after the walk and a quick shot of the beach, we hopped in the car, and headed up to South Stack.
Upon arriving at South Stack, we parked at the visitor centre which was closing, and a brief walk took us to the first viewpoint.
I did all my shots at South Stack with a tripod as I wanted to get the best shots I could.
It’s unfortunate that the weather was poor on this day, very cloudy and ‘grey’. Despite this, the views of the lighthouse are stunning and there are plenty of compositions to be had.
I spent longer than usual shooting as I was trying to time my shot as the light on the lighthouse lit us in its most brightest moment.
I walked further up the clifftop and took another shot on the side of the cliff.
Then I joined Kathryn and we made our way to the path and steps that take you further down towards the lighthouse.
Down the steps are several viewpoints where you can get a shot of the lighthouse with parts of the path also in view.
Finally, I walked up higher to the top cliff and took some shots from the highest viewpoint.
If I’m honest, and it’s no surprise, all the shots look similar because the main focal point is the lighthouse. The difference is probably due to the foreground.
We enjoyed visiting this location, ticking it off the bucket list but photographically (similar to the lone tree at Llyn Padarn), I hadn’t got an epic shot.
I think I got the best shots I could given the conditions. It’s what Nigel Danson calls getting ‘good’ rather than ‘great’ shots.
If you Google this location, you’ll notice amazing shots either have an epic sunset or are night shots with the lighthouse lighting up the sky with a star burst, and the Milky Way visible.
As I said, the bucket list now has one more location ticked off.
Onwards and upwards…