Since the opening of the Chester and Holyhead Railway, thousands of persons have availed themselves of the opportunity, thus afforded, of visiting this extreme western point of the Principality. And though the claims of business are weighty and urgent, still, many will secure a few days in some of the summer months, for the purpose of repairing, in some measure, the physical and mental waste of a year’s toil. Such persons, having arrived at the spot where they purpose making a short stay, are desirous to know how the brief season may be at once profitably spent. Hence, the numerous inquiries made by many of the visitors to Holyhead, as to whether there were any objects worthy of notice in the town and neighbourhood, led the writer to infer that a small Hand-book, containing the desired information, was a desideratum. He has, therefore, made the attempt to supply the deficiency, by communicating all necessary detail of such objects of interest as the Tourist may become acquainted with in the space of a short time, at a very reasonable outlay, and he trusts the following sketches will be found to afford some hints and observations, not altogether useless to those who may have the good fortune to visit this romantic locality.

In the compilation of the present Guide, the writer has consulted most of the best authors on North Wales, and has availed himself of that assistance, without which the work would not have appeared in its present dress. The writer makes no apology for the religious sentences, occasionally interwoven in the following pages, for he is fully persuaded that no excursionist can really enjoy a ramble amid the beauties of creation, unless he looks “through nature up to nature’s God.”

In conclusion, the compiler has only to add, that if the reader derives any information, pleasure, or profit, from the perusal of the work, he shall think the time occupied in writing it by no means uselessly employed.

T. J.

Holyhead, 1853.

N.B.—In the event of a second edition of this work being called for, the compiler would feel greatly obliged to any person who would furnish him with any additional information respecting any of the objects named in this Hand-book.