Vauxhall's New Vxr8 Is a Car Full of Surprises
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VDRIVEN WORDS BY BRIAN LABAN • PICTURES BY SIMON CHILDS VDRIVEN PowerVauxhall’s new VxR8 is a caR full of suRpRises - a saloon that thinks it’s a Play supeRcaR, a caR with peRfoRmance way aboVe its pRice, a caR with comfoRt and pRacticality as well as stunning dRiVing dynamics. and the beautiful isle of anglesey was once the island poweR-base of welsh kings. 40 VAUXHALL MAGAZINE VAUXHALL MAGAZINE 41 VDRIVEN a natural stronghold in mediaeval times, by the 13th century anglesey had become ‘wales’s granary’, and a seat of kings and Princes battling for welsh indePendence. any times over millions of years, dating back more than 5000 years, to the middle much of northern Europe, including Stone Age, so Anglesey is dotted with Neolithic M most of Britain, was covered by the burial chambers, Bronze Age standing stones, glacial ice sheets of the Ice Ages, and as the and Celtic hill forts left behind by those early glaciers crept over the northwest corner of settlers and their descendants. Wales, they carved deep scars. But as the last Once a powerful natural stronghold in its glaciers retreated, some 12,000 years ago, and own right, Anglesey was sacred to the Druids the sea added its own ravages, one scar was so until the Romans attacked in 78AD and drove deep that the waters poured in and the British them out. And Irish and Norse raiders followed Isles had a new island – what would become before Anglesey was regained by the Welsh. known as Ynys Môn, or Anglesey, separated by By the 13th century it had become ‘Wales’s the Menai Strait from Snowdonia and the Lleyn granary’, a seat of kings and princes battling Peninsula to the south-east. for Welsh independence, until Edward I of And although the Straits are little more than England first blockaded the island to cut off a hefty stone’s-throw across, and bridges supplies to the Welsh forces in Snowdonia, then restored Anglesey’s physical links to the rest of began to turn Anglesey into a stronghold of his Wales (and England) more than 180 years ago, (and England’s) own, for another century. it retains that feeling of a place apart - with the What drove Anglesey to a new age was magic to draw us there with our new VXR8, to England’s Act of Union with Ireland in 1801, ponder more than one meaning of power. and a geographical position that made it the It’s a beautiful place whose landscape was final stepping stone on the road from London to also shaped by the power of those glaciers - Dublin. That was when the road network that scoured to the point where Holyhead Mountain still makes Anglesey such a fine place to go (the highest point on Anglesey) rises barely 720 driving just for the pleasure of it began to feet, where nearby Snowdonia has any number evolve; and that’s when many of the towns we of peaks over 3000 feet. It’s a compact island, visited in our VXR8 began to take on the roughly square but nibbled by dozens of bays, character they have today. large and small. Corner to corner, from Penmon Not that it happened overnight, and travelling to South Stack Lighthouse, is less than 30 miles around Anglesey was once a tough call. The and its coastline measures just over 125. Most route west had been used for many years by the is designated an Area of Outstanding Natural mail service, but even by 1801 most roads were Beauty (AONB) - the largest AONB in Wales, little more than tracks - the main reason for covering around a third of the island. North crossing Anglesey being to take a boat from Anglesey, Holyhead Mountain and Aberffraw Holyhead (or Caergybi) to Ireland. Even to get Bay are also designated as Heritage Coast, and onto Anglesey meant taking a ferry, and offer a huge variety of scenery - the northern Porthaethwy (now the town of Menai Bridge) shores mainly low cliffs, with coves, pebble was where most of them landed, from Bangor. beaches and sheltered villages, the east with Then, in 1826, Thomas Telford’s great Menai sheer limestone cliffs punctuated by fine sandy Bridge brought the A5 trunk road onto the beaches, and the south having huge sand dunes island and on towards Holyhead – and at the reaching down to Aberffraw and Abermenai. time, it was the longest suspension bridge in It’s an island shaped by human history, too, the world, with a main span of 579 feet. >>> Overlooking the Straits, Beaumaris offers fishing and trips to the islands. The statue of Dic Evans looks out to sea at Moelfre, and at Amlwch fishermen tend their pots while the occasional sailing ship ties up to a quay that was once the busiest in Wales. Holyhead’s huge breakwater, with its square lighthouse, is a magnet for fishermen, too, and Telford’s Menai Bridge is still an elegant gateway 42 VAUXHALL MAGAZINE VDRIVEN VDRIVEN Robert Stephenson’s Britannia Bridge (the he’d conquered Welsh King Llewellyn ap world’s first box-girder design), followed in Iorwerth, who married the daughter of 1850, to bring the railway onto Anglesey. It now England’s infamous King John. Taking more carries another road, too, but compared to than 25 years to complete, it was the most Telford’s design it’s an ugly duckling and we technically perfect of the four castles Edward arrived on the prettier one – the VXR8 burbling built to control the coast around North Wales - past the old sign welcoming visitors to Môn at Conwy, Caernarfon, Harlech and here. Mam Cymru – Mother of Wales. Centred on the Castle, Beaumaris is a busy Our plan was fairly simple, a lap of Anglesey’s little tourist town. The Green overlooks the coastline and towns, to enjoy the docile side of water where the Castle once had its own the VXR8. Then to add another dimension, harbour; the jetty offers fishing trips and bird- several more laps on one of the island’s modern watching trips to Puffin Island, opposite big, wonders - a race circuit where we could explore elegant terraces of houses (some designed by the outer limits of its huge performance, in Joseph Hansom who also created the Hansom under the PurPle safety, against views to take the breath away cab) and the imposing Bulkeley Hotel, named almost as effectively as the VXR8’s power. for the current owners of Beaumaris Castle. heather and yellow Turning north-east from the Bridge we We stayed just outside Beaumaris, in a setting gorse, the blue- dropped down from Menai Bridge town’s that could hardly have been more stunning, and narrow high street to an even narrower lane by as the sun went down we drove on single-track green earth is a the water’s edge under the Bridge itself – high lanes to see the lighthouse guiding ships in the enough above water to let fully-rigged sailing narrow channel to Puffin Island. In the morning reminder of the ships pass under it was built, as the Admiralty we went across country for a day’s adrenaline- had insisted, and still looking majestic over a pumping on the Anglesey Circuit and a gentler hugely rich copper shore now dotted with yachts and powerboats evening tracing the A5025 north towards and overlooked by houses that remind you of Cemaes Bay past scatterings of wind turbines, mines that used to the wealth of Anglesey in its heyday. quietly making eco-friendly electric power. Five miles on, hugging the shore, the A545 Beyond Cemaes we found hillsides with dot Parys mountain reaches Beaumaris, where the Straits open to beautiful colours, soft under the sun dipping the sea and the great Castle has World Heritage towards The Skerries, Holyhead Bay and the Site status. Originally not a Welsh castle, but an Irish Sea. Under the purple heather and yellow English one - started in 1295 by Edward I after gorse, the blue-green earth is a reminder of the The deep blue water of the old ponds and the rich colour of the earth, gorse an heather make the old copper workings of Parys Mountain a beautiful sight in the setting sun. Built as an English stronghold by Edward 1, Beaumaris Castle is a World Heritage Site. Wherever we went, the VXR8 could compete with even this beautiful scenery for attention VAUXHALL MAGAZINE 45 VDRIVEN Lovingly restored and hugely rich copper mines that used to dot Parys One must-do en route to Holyhead is a stop beautifully fitted out, our Mountain - and nearby you’ll find Port Amlwch, at a little railway station just outside Menai windmill retreat offers vertical living - with a tiny cove that can’t have changed much since Bridge, on the old A5 past Anglesey’s statue of dining room, two double Amlwch was a boomtown, with a population Lord Nelson. The station is famous simply for bedrooms, and sitting room with views to take bigger than Cardiff’s, from where the copper its name - Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrn- your breath away all was shipped, and where a wooden-hulled three- drobwlllantysiliogogogoch (what the locals call linked by the old winding staircase. The dining masted sailing ship is now pulled up tight Llanfair PG) - invented by a local tailor in 1880 ouR windmill table is around the old under the harbour wall on the low tide. to attract visitorsas the longest place name in There are many places to stay on Anglesey, mill’s shaft; kitchen and Down the coast from Amlwch driving back Britain! And if you’re wondering, it means ‘the bathroom are newly built but there can’t be many more special than and superbly equipped, towards Beaumaris, Moelfre, is another pretty church of St Mary’s in the hollow of the white the one we chose.