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Crowds on Irish Sea Beach Watch As 128-tonne Transformer Lands in north Wales

17th September 2020
Takes some shifting.... as Afloat adds the transformer attracted crowds on a beach in north Wales from where it is to reach its final destination at Trawsfynyd tomorrow. In the distance is the  Llŷn Peninsula which juts into the Irish Sea south of Anglesey. Takes some shifting.... as Afloat adds the transformer attracted crowds on a beach in north Wales from where it is to reach its final destination at Trawsfynyd tomorrow. In the distance is the Llŷn Peninsula which juts into the Irish Sea south of Anglesey. Credit: BBC News Wales-twitter

Across the Irish Sea crowds gathered at a north Wales beach to watch a 128.5-tonne electricity transformer arriving ashore.

The transformer, BBC News Wales reports, was unloaded from an 262.5ft (80m) barge on the coast near Porthmadog, Gwynedd which Afloat.ie adds is located at the foot of the Llŷn Peninsula that juts out 50kms into the Irish Sea and southwest of the ferryport of Holyhead off the Isle of Anglesey.

Described as "the size of a large motorhome", it will remain on Morfa Bychan beach until it is transported to Trawsfynydd substation where it will replace an old model.

It is the first time National Grid has used a public Welsh beach in this way.

National Grid said the new transformer, which regulates the voltage of electricity between circuits, "will ensure power continues to be delivered reliably" to the local area.

The company said it had used the beach to avoid disruption at Porthmadog Harbour.

More on this coastal development here. 

Published in Coastal Notes
Jehan Ashmore

About The Author

Jehan Ashmore

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Jehan Ashmore is a marine correspondent, researcher and photographer, specialising in Irish ports, shipping and the ferry sector serving the UK and directly to mainland Europe. Jehan also occasionally writes a column, 'Maritime' Dalkey for the (Dalkey Community Council Newsletter) in addition to contributing to UK marine periodicals. 

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Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.