Island of 20,000 saints off the Llŷn.
Bardsey, Ynys Enlli in Welsh, has been a place of pilgrimage for centuries. Three journeys here once counted for as much as one to Rome, and tradition holds that some 20,000 saints are buried in its soil. The monastery St Cadfan founded in the sixth century became St Mary’s Abbey; only a ruined 13th-century tower has survived since the Dissolution in 1536, though pilgrims and visitors still come. Boats cross from near Aberdaron, generally March to October, when the sea allows. At the south end, Bardsey Lighthouse, built in 1821, is the tallest square-towered lighthouse in the British Isles, painted in broad red and white bands, not far from Mynydd Enlli, the island’s highest point. A bird observatory set up in 1953 still monitors migrating birds each spring and autumn, and grey seals come ashore below the cliffs. Enlli became Europe’s first Dark Sky Sanctuary in 2023, and without permanent street lighting, the Milky Way is clearly visible overhead on a clear night.
