No affiliate links in this one. Nobody’s paying me to say any of this, and Ieuan has no idea I’m writing it.
It’s 3am and I’m on a marine parts website in California trying to work out how fast they can ship a top mast fitting to North Wales, because our two days of sailing turned into one and a half. That’s the trip that finally got me writing this up properly. We’d stayed overnight at Nant Bychan Farm to get an early start on the water, which is exactly the kind of thing this site is good for, and by the time I was back home lying awake over shipping estimates, it seemed daft that I hadn’t written about my actual favourite site on the island yet.
The site itself
Nant Bychan is a working farm campsite near Moelfre on Anglesey, 57 pitches for tents, caravans, motorhomes and small campervans, plus four static caravans for hire (see the site’s full listing on UKCampsite.co.uk, 9/10 from 85 reviews). Electric hookup (EHU) is available. As of 2026, a pitch is £35 a night without EHU, £40 with, worth checking directly with Ieuan for current rates since prices move year to year. Ieuan runs it and farms it, and I’ve known him a few years now. He’s put real money into the place recently: four new or nearly-new statics with what might be the best sea view of any caravan I’ve stood in, looking straight out over Moelfre Bay. You can watch the lifeboat launch from the window if you’re lucky enough to be in one when the pager goes. Nant Bychan’s own Facebook page has photos of the statics and a proper aerial shot of the whole site, worth a look before you book.
New this year is the toilet block, and it’s genuinely one of the nicest I’ve come across on any site, campsite or otherwise. Separate laundrette, separate dishwashing area, proper baby changing, and a dedicated disabled toilet. The whole entrance is flat, no steps anywhere, which matters if you’re pushing a buggy or anything with wheels. There’s an electric car charging point on site too, which still isn’t a given even now.
Where to pitch
The touring side has two distinct characters. The left as you drive in sits slightly higher, so the views are a touch less obscured by hedging, but I’ll be honest, the right side and the very back of the site, nearest the water, is where I always try to end up. You still get the same panorama, Moelfre Bay and the Great Orme away in the distance, but you also catch the evening sun properly, which the left side loses earlier.
There’s usually a handful of big cargo ships anchored quietly off the coast too, waiting for a berth or the right tide to get into Liverpool. There’s a pilot station along this stretch of coast at Point Lynas for exactly that reason. Sounds like an odd thing to enjoy watching, but there’s something properly restful about a huge ship just sitting there doing nothing for a day, going nowhere until it’s needed.
Ten minutes to the pub
It’s a ten minute walk over fields to Moelfre village and the Kinmel Arms, a proper Robinsons pub with real ales, decent home-cooked food and a genuinely warm atmosphere every time I’ve been in. It’s dog friendly, wheelchair accessible, and sits right down by the water with views across the bay. Easy walk back with a dog and a couple of pints in you, which is exactly what you want from a site.
Moelfre and the lifeboat station
Moelfre Lifeboat Station is worth the walk on its own terms while you’re in the village, not just for the pager-launch novelty from the campsite. There are two lifeboats to see, Kiwi, a Tamar class all-weather lifeboat that’s been at the station since 2013, and Enfys 2, a D class inshore lifeboat there since 2018, plus a small RNLI shop for local mementos. Visiting hours are 10am to 3.30pm.
It’s a proper working station rather than a museum piece, and it has one of the most remarkable histories of any lifeboat station in Britain: 37 medals for gallantry awarded to its crews. Two of those went to former Coxswain Richard “Dic” Evans, who served the station for 50 years and is credited with saving 281 lives.
His first Gold Medal came on 27 October 1959, when he took the reserve lifeboat out in hurricane force winds gusting to 104mph to rescue all eight crew from the coaster Hindlea as it was driven onto the rocks, bringing the lifeboat alongside the sinking ship ten separate times. The Hindlea struck the rocks and was lost just 35 minutes after the last man was pulled off. His second Gold Medal came in 1966 for the rescue of the Greek vessel Nafsiporos. There’s a bronze statue of Dic Evans next to the station, unveiled by Prince Charles in 2004.
The other direction, and a confusingly named sailing club
Go the other way from the site and it’s about fifteen minutes to Red Wharf Bay Sailing & Watersports Club, which despite the name isn’t actually on Red Wharf Bay at all. It moved to Traeth Bychan a few decades ago, after Red Wharf Bay itself silted up too shallow to sail out of reliably, and the name never caught up. It’s an RYA training centre, home of the Anglesey Offshore Dinghy Race, a fifteen mile leg from Beaumaris through Puffin Sound to the club, and it’s run by members for members, Easter to October.
That’s where the sailing trip happened. I keep a Nacra Inter 20 catamaran there now, just for fun, though I used to race most weekends. My mate and I planned two days on the water, stopped overnight at Nant Bychan to get an early start, and got a full day one in before the top mast fitting sheared clean off as we came ashore at the end of it. The part had to come from California, so day two turned into a very long, very good breakfast instead, followed by an hour’s kayaking to Moelfre and back using the club’s own kayaks. Day one alone was still worth the trip.
Just above the sailing club there’s a small café, the Traeth Bychan Shop-Cafe-Pizzeria, wood-fired pizzas, sweets, ice cream, sausage rolls, proper coffee. The car park above it isn’t cheap: the Beach Car Park at Traeth Bychan has 99 spaces including two disabled bays, open 8am to 8pm daily, £1.50 for an hour up to £12 for up to twelve hours, coins or PayByPhone. Blue Badge holders park free in any bay. Worth knowing before you go, since it adds up over a full day.
A lot of people join the sailing club purely for day access to the clubhouse and facilities when they’re on the beach, even without any intention of sailing. If you’re on Anglesey for a week or more it’s worth the membership just for that.
Water, fishing and the coast path
You can fish straight off the rocks from the site, and if you’re a confident paddler, Lligwy beach, Moelfre and Traeth Bychan are all reachable by kayak or paddleboard. The Wales Coast Path runs right past the site too, a genuinely lovely stretch of it, and you can walk to Benllech and back or to Lligwy and back, both with ice cream and food available along the way if you time it right.
Walk far enough past Lligwy towards Dulas Bay and there’s a genuine wreck sitting on the sand, more skeleton than boat now: the Manx Rose, built in Arklow, Ireland in 1942 for the Admiralty, later worked as a fishing boat out of Pwllheli and then Amlwch, decommissioned around 1985 and brought to Dulas, where she’s been quietly falling apart on the mud ever since.
The same stretch of coast has a far heavier piece of history too: Dulas Bay is where the Royal Charter went down in October 1859, the worst shipwreck ever recorded on the Welsh coast, around 450 lives lost, gold from the Australian goldfields scattered across the seabed, and a story famous enough that Charles Dickens wrote about it. There’s a memorial stone on the cliff path above the site. Worth the extra walk if that kind of history interests you, though it’s a genuinely heavy story for what is otherwise a lovely stretch of coast path.
Benllech itself has decent options. The Shed is the one I’d point people to specifically, a proper café doing drinks, sandwiches, breakfasts and cakes, and if you’ve got a special occasion they’ll close the place for private hire. Worth knowing if you’re ever planning something around a trip here.
The one we keep coming back to
A rainy day during one of our stays here also, unexpectedly, turned into a new hobby entirely. I wrote up how a wet-weather trip to Indy Climbing Wall on the island led to me climbing every Tuesday back home ever since, in this post about The Boardroom in Buckley.
We’ve got one particular static booked again this August, the same one we always go for. I’ll do a full separate review of it once we’re back, fixtures, fittings, how it actually lives day to day, not just the view. Cujo’s already claimed the balcony as his.
The dog-friendly scorecard, honestly
This is where I have to be straight with you, because Nant Bychan is my favourite site on the island but it isn’t a dog-specific site the way Henstent or some of the leads we’re tracking are, and it wouldn’t be honest to score it as if it were, against the same eight-point scoring framework we use everywhere else.
Dedicated off-lead area: not on site itself, but genuinely close. There are two fields right next door to the campsite, reached via the rocks at the bottom of the site, where dogs can run properly free. Long-time visitors rate it as one of the best-kept secrets of staying here.
Safe off-lead walk within easy reach: strong. On top of the adjacent fields above, turn left out of the campsite and you’re straight onto the coast path towards Traeth Bychan, no need to drive anywhere first. The small beach between the site and Moelfre, or Traeth Bychan beach itself, both give real options too. It’s a working farm, so livestock awareness matters, not somewhere to let a dog run loose without thinking about it.
Water access for cooling: partial, and tide-dependent. There’s a small beach a five minute walk towards Moelfre, but it’s only sandy at low tide.
Facilities practicality: strong. The whole site entrance is flat, no steps, and there’s a separate disabled toilet.
Staff attitude to dogs: not something I can score specifically. Ieuan’s brilliant, warm, properly invested in the site, but that’s true generally rather than anything dog-specific I’ve seen him do.
Pub or village walkability: strong. The Kinmel Arms is confirmed dog friendly and it’s a straightforward ten minute walk.
Water bowls or dog-wash points: none that I’ve seen on site.
Breed restrictions: none posted or mentioned that I’ve come across, though I haven’t asked Ieuan directly to confirm that’s actually policy rather than just something that’s never come up.
The verdict
Nant Bychan earns its place as my favourite site on genuine merit, the setting, the views, Ieuan’s investment in the place, the sailing and walking on the doorstep, and it turns out it’s a genuinely good dog site too once you know where the locals go, not just because it’s been built with dogs specifically in mind from the start. Cujo and Blaze are always welcome there and always happy there. If what you want is one of the best coastal settings on Anglesey with a proper working farm underneath it, it’s hard to beat.
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About the author
I’m Pete Harrison. I’m 55, I run a business, and I have a mild case of insomnia that means I spend a lot of time at 3am reading about gadgets, gear and, this time, campsites, shipwrecks and mast fittings. Things I Learnt at 3am is where I write honestly about the things I’ve actually bought, tested and lived with. No fluff, no rehashing the spec sheet. Just the real verdict from someone who uses this stuff every day.
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