An inspiring way to experience the land of Wales

STROLLERS on the coastal path that winds 125 miles around the rugged edge of the Isle of Anglesey in North Wales stare in disbelief.

On a cliff-top pasture overlooking the grey seals and cormorants of beautiful Cemaes Bay, 13 of us wield pick axes and shovels like a jolly railroad chain gang.

We sweat buckets as we dig out fallen stones in readiness to repair a crumbled clawdd, an earth bank faced with stone that acts as a fence boundary and keeps in the cows and sheep.

The walkers are agog because it’s a Sunday morning beneath a summer sun and we could be lazing on the sands or taking a paddle. Instead we are volunteers and have paid for a week of aching backs and blisters. “Are you on community service?’’ cries one walker.

Since they began 40 years ago this year, National Trust Working Holidays have grown to around 400 weekends and short breaks in stunning locations in England and Wales, costing from as little as £50 full board.

Led by trained volunteers and National Trust staff, the holidays attract around 4,000 people from all walks of life each year. They bring people and the environment together in energetic and inspiring ways.

You can learn the 600-year-old tradition of harvesting sedge, while spotting wild ponies and birds in the Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire; you can pick redcurrants and discover the art of fruit-tree pruning at a Georgian mansion near York; or you could work on creating a pathway to the sea on Britain’s only natural World Heritage Site, on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset.

New for this year, the Trust is branching out into property conservation which, given the current enthusiasm, is sure to be a big hit.

Accommodation is basic, usually a sleeping bag rolled out in a bunkhouse. Our base camp for the week consisted of converted stone-built outhouses at Tyddyn Sargent (Sargeant’s Cottage), an angler’s retreat set in eight acres of Welsh countryside. The standard of cuisine depends on whose turn it is to cook.

A unique attraction of these holidays is the camaraderie. Single people have met and married, youngsters train for their Duke of Edinburgh Award schemes, and the retired venture from their comfort zone.

Volunteers want to make a difference, get to know the landscape intimately, have a laugh and make friends. Helping to maintain the Isle of Anglesey Coastal Path for future generations is my third sampling of a National Trust Working Holiday.

Ten years ago I did “bracken bashing” at Brimham Rocks in North Yorkshire (tough, and the bracken seemed to multiply overnight) and two years ago  I helped breathe life into an overgrown border in the organic gardens of Sunnycroft, a Victorian gentleman’s residence in Shropshire.

Repairing this slip of a Welsh wall though is arduous. Gwynfor Owen, community warden for North Anglesey, tells us the wall was built around 150 years ago, probably by just one man. Repairing it is labour-intensive and expensive, and it would be far cheaper for the Trust just to fling up a fence but that would be the landscape’s loss.

Though we grunt and groan, we know we are achieving something. Besides, there’s a picnic lunch on the clifftops to look forward to, with the outline of Mount Snowdon behind us.

But there is plenty of spare time to explore. On my leisurely day off I drive along winding lanes of stray chickens and whitewashed stone cottages, passing the Gwinllan Padrig Vineyard (free tastings) and the Wylfa Nuclear Power Station (there’s a visitor centre) to Church Bay, a sandy cove with towering cliffs of yellow rock. Here is the renowned Lobster Pot Restaurant.

Later I park beside the harbour at Beaumaris, with a World Heritage Site castle crowning a town of pastel-painted cottages and tea shops serving bara brith (fruitbread). Anglesey is breathtaking and the best bit is knowing that the wall doesn’t have to be rebuilt for another 150 years.

● INFORMATION:

National Trust Working Holidays (0870 429 2429/national trust.org.uk/volunteering) take place throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland. A seven-night working holiday in Anglesey, staying at Tyddyn Sargent, costs from £75pp, including full board. Short breaks start from £37. VisitBritain: 020 8846 9000/ visitbritain.com