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Menai Strait

 
Menai Strait

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Menai Strait



 
 
The Menai Strait (the "River Menai") is a narrow stretch of shallow tidal water about 14 miles (23 km) long, which separates the island of Anglesey
Anglesey

Anglesey is an island and principal areas of Wales off the northwest coast of Wales, with a predominantly Welsh language-speaking population. It is connected to the mainland by two bridges spanning the Menai Strait: the original Menai Suspension Bridge , designed by Thomas Telford in 1826; and the newer reconstructed Britannia Bridge ; which...
 from the mainland of Wales
Wales

native_name = Cymru|conventional_long_name = Wales|common_name = Wales|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg|national_motto = ...
.

The strait is bridged in two places - the main A5 road is carried over the strait by Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford

Thomas Telford was born in Langholm, Scotland, UK. He was a stonemason, architect and civil engineer and a noted road, bridge and canal builder....
's elegant iron suspension bridge
Menai Suspension Bridge

The Menai Suspension Bridge, or Pont Grog y Borth in Welsh language, is a suspension bridge between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales....
, the first of its kind, opened in January 1826, and adjacent to this is Robert Stephenson
Robert Stephenson

Robert Stephenson Fellow of the Royal Society was an England civil engineer. He was the only son of George Stephenson, the famed locomotive builder and Rail transport engineer; many of the achievements popularly credited to his father were actually the joint efforts of father and son....
's 1850 Britannia Tubular Bridge
Britannia Bridge

Britannia Bridge is a bridge across the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales, originally a tubular bridge of wrought iron rectangular box-section spans, and now a two-tier steel truss arch bridge....
. Originally this carried rail traffic in two wrought-iron rectangular box spans, but after a disastrous fire in 1970, which left only the limestone
Limestone

File:Limestone Formation In Waitomo.jpgLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geology record....
 pillars remaining, it was rebuilt as a steel box girder bridge
Box girder bridge

A box girder bridge is a bridge where the main Beam comprise girders in the shape of a hollow box. The box girder normally comprises either prestressed concrete, structural steel, or a composite material of steel and reinforced concrete....
.






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The Menai Strait (the "River Menai") is a narrow stretch of shallow tidal water about 14 miles (23 km) long, which separates the island of Anglesey
Anglesey

Anglesey is an island and principal areas of Wales off the northwest coast of Wales, with a predominantly Welsh language-speaking population. It is connected to the mainland by two bridges spanning the Menai Strait: the original Menai Suspension Bridge , designed by Thomas Telford in 1826; and the newer reconstructed Britannia Bridge ; which...
 from the mainland of Wales
Wales

native_name = Cymru|conventional_long_name = Wales|common_name = Wales|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg|national_motto = ...
.

The strait is bridged in two places - the main A5 road is carried over the strait by Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford

Thomas Telford was born in Langholm, Scotland, UK. He was a stonemason, architect and civil engineer and a noted road, bridge and canal builder....
's elegant iron suspension bridge
Menai Suspension Bridge

The Menai Suspension Bridge, or Pont Grog y Borth in Welsh language, is a suspension bridge between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales....
, the first of its kind, opened in January 1826, and adjacent to this is Robert Stephenson
Robert Stephenson

Robert Stephenson Fellow of the Royal Society was an England civil engineer. He was the only son of George Stephenson, the famed locomotive builder and Rail transport engineer; many of the achievements popularly credited to his father were actually the joint efforts of father and son....
's 1850 Britannia Tubular Bridge
Britannia Bridge

Britannia Bridge is a bridge across the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales, originally a tubular bridge of wrought iron rectangular box-section spans, and now a two-tier steel truss arch bridge....
. Originally this carried rail traffic in two wrought-iron rectangular box spans, but after a disastrous fire in 1970, which left only the limestone
Limestone

File:Limestone Formation In Waitomo.jpgLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geology record....
 pillars remaining, it was rebuilt as a steel box girder bridge
Box girder bridge

A box girder bridge is a bridge where the main Beam comprise girders in the shape of a hollow box. The box girder normally comprises either prestressed concrete, structural steel, or a composite material of steel and reinforced concrete....
. Between the two bridge crossings there is a small island in the middle of the strait, Ynys Gored Goch
Ynys Gored Goch

Ynys Gored Goch is a small island in the Menai Strait between Gwynedd and Anglesey in North Wales.It is situated in the stretch of the strait called the Swellies between the two famous bridges, Thomas Telford's Menai Suspension Bridge and Robert Stephenson's Britannia Bridge....
 on which is built a house and outbuildings and around which are the significant remains of mediaeval fish trap
Fish trap

A fish trap is a trap used for fishing. Fish traps resembling a fishing weir or a lobster trap. A typical trap might consist of a frame of thick steel wire in the shape of a heart, with chicken wire stretched around it....
s - now no longer used.

Britannia Bridge and Nelson Memorial 3
In places the strait is nearly two miles across but it narrows to little more than 200 metres where it passes underneath the two bridges. The differential tide
Tide

Tides are the rising of Earth's ocean surface caused by the tidal forces of the Moon and the Sun acting on the oceans. Tides cause changes in the depth of the marine and estuary water bodies and produce oscillating currents known as tidal streams, making prediction of tides important for coastal navigation ....
s at the two ends of the strait cause very strong currents to flow in both directions through the strait at different times, creating dangerous conditions. One of the most dangerous areas of the strait is known as the Swellies
Swellies

The Swellies is a stretch of the Menai Strait in North Wales.It is notable for its difficulty in safely navigating its shoals and rocks due to the whirlpools and surges that are the result of the tides washing around the island of Anglesey at different speeds....
 (or Swillies – Welsh
Welsh language

Welsh ]], is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh Marches and in the Welsh settlement in Argentina in the Chubut Valley in Argentina Patagonia....
 Pwll Ceris) between the two bridges. Here rocks near the surface cause over-falls and local whirlpool
Whirlpool

A whirlpool is a swirling body of water usually produced by ocean tides. The vast majority of whirlpools are not very powerful. More powerful ones are more properly termed maelstroms....
s, which can be of considerable danger in themselves and cause small boats to founder on the rocks. This was the site of the loss of the school ship
School ship

A training ship is a ship used to train students as sailors. The term is especially used for ships employed by navy to train future officers. Essentially there are two types: those used for training at sea and old hulks used to house classrooms....
 HMS Conway
HMS Conway (school ship)

HMS Conway was a naval training school or "school ship", founded in 1859 and housed for most of its life aboard a 19th-century wooden battleship....
 in 1953. Entering the strait at the Caernarfon
Caernarfon

Caernarfon is a List of UK place names with royal patronage in Gwynedd, northwest Wales.The name comes from Welsh Caer yn Arfon = "castle in Arfon", referring to the Roman Empire fort named Segontium....
 end is also hazardous because of the frequently shifting sand banks that make up Caernarfon bar. On the Anglesey side at this point is Fort Belan
Fort Belan

Fort Belan is a Grade I Listed building in North Wales Wales, at the south-western end of the Menai Strait opposite Abermenai Point, on the coast of Gwynedd....
, an 18th-century defensive fort built in the times of the American War of Independence.

Tidal effects

The tidal effects observed along the banks of the strait can also be confusing. A rising tide approaches from the south-west causes the water in the strait to flow north-eastwards as the level rises. The tide also flows around Anglesey until, after a few hours, it starts to flow into the strait in a south-westerly direction from Beaumaris
Beaumaris, Anglesey

The Royal Borough of Beaumaris is the former county town of the island of Anglesey and is located on the shore of the eastern entrance to the Menai Strait - the tidal waterway separating Anglesey from the coast of North Wales....
. By the time this happens the tidal flow from the Caernarfon end is weakening and the tide continues to rise in height but the direction of tidal flow is reversed. A similar sequence is seen in reverse on a falling tide. This means that slack water between the bridges tends to occur approximately one hour before high tide or low tide.

Ecology


Because the strait has such unusual tidal conditions, coupled with very low wave heights because of its sheltered position, it presents a unique and diverse benthic ecology
Ecology

Ecology is the science study of the distribution and Abundance of life and the interactions between organisms and their nature environment ....
. The existence of this unique ecology was a major factor in the establishment of the internationally renowned School of Ocean Sciences at Menai Bridge
Menai Bridge

Menai Bridge is a small town on the island of Anglesey in north Wales. It overlooks the Menai Strait and lies by the Menai Suspension Bridge, built in 1826 by Thomas Telford....
, part of the University of Wales, Bangor
University of Wales, Bangor

Bangor University is a university based in the city of Bangor, Wales in the County#United Kingdom of Gwynedd in North Wales Wales.The University occupies a substantial proportion of the city and also has some departments in Wrexham....
 as well as its status as a proposed Marine Nature Reserve
Marine Nature Reserve

Marine Nature Reserve is a British conservation designation officially awarded by the government to a marine reserve of national significance....
.The same unique ecology and geo-morpholgy has let to a number of designations of SSSIs
Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest or SSSI is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon them, including National Nature Res...
 along the strait including Glannau Porthaethwy?, the Ivy
Ivy

Hedera is a genus of 15 species of climbing or ground-creeping evergreen woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to the Macaronesia, western, central and southern Europe, northwestern Africa and across central-southern Asia east to Japan....
 - Oak
Oak

The term oak can be used as part of the common name of any of about 400 species of trees and shrubs in the genus Quercus , which are listed in the List of Quercus species, and some related genera, notably Lithocarpus....
 - Ash
Ash

Ash may refer to:...
 woodland on the southern shore (Coedydd Afon Menai) and Lavan sands .

The depth of the channel reaches 15m in places, and the current can exceed 7 knots. It's very rich in sponges.

Glyn Garth Flats
Much of the land on Anglesey at the eastern end of the strait is designated as an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB).

Places on the Strait


  • Beaumaris
  • Bangor
    Bangor, Wales

    Bangor is a city status in the United Kingdom in Gwynedd, Wales, and one of the smallest cities in the United Kingdom in Britain. It is a university city with a population of 13,725 at the United Kingdom Census 2001, not including around 10,000 students at Bangor University....
  • Caernarfon
    Caernarfon

    Caernarfon is a List of UK place names with royal patronage in Gwynedd, northwest Wales.The name comes from Welsh Caer yn Arfon = "castle in Arfon", referring to the Roman Empire fort named Segontium....
  • Dwyran
  • Menai Bridge
    Menai Bridge

    Menai Bridge is a small town on the island of Anglesey in north Wales. It overlooks the Menai Strait and lies by the Menai Suspension Bridge, built in 1826 by Thomas Telford....
  • Y Felinheli
    Y Felinheli

    Y Felinheli is a village lying beside the Menai Strait between Bangor, Wales and Caernarfon in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. The population is about 2,200....
    , in English Port Dinorwic


Just north of the rail bridge on Anglesey is the famously named Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
Llanfair PG

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch , also spelled Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll and commonly known as Llanfair PG or Llanfairpwll, is a village and community on the island of Anglesey in Wales, situated on the Menai Strait next to the Britannia Bridge and across the strait from Bangor, Wales....
.

Further links

Eifion Jones
Eifion Jones

William Eifion Jones was a Welsh marine botanist, noted for his study of marine algae.He was born and brought up in Aberystwyth. He studied botany at the University of Wales under Professor Lilly Newton....
.

External links


  • A community celebrating the two bridges along the Menai Strait