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BEAUMARIS
CASTLE & OLD TOWN
Medieval Fortress Gem on Anglesey
Angelsey
is now perhaps best known as where Prince William and Kate live, but
this sprit of land at the north end of Wales has been the province
of royals for centruies. Beaumaris Castle was the last and the largest
of Edward I’s “Iron
Ring” of fortresses meant to control the unruly Welsh princes.
Not as visually dramatic as Conwy, iconic as Harlech or historically
important as Caernarvon, (see Caernarfon
Castle) the castle 
at
Beaumaris is the most elegant in design, sometime described as the most
technically perfect of castle
design. Edward “Longshanks” master mason, James of St. George
took the lessons of his other stoneworks and the flat plain of its seaside
location at the edge of a tidal marsh to build a symmetrical form of
fortress with concentric walls within walls, surrounded by a broad moat
and supplied directly from the sea. An attacking force would face 15
separate major obstacles and four lines of fortifications to breach the
inner bailey quarters.
Begun
in 1295 with construction ended by 1330 under Edward III with the
Scots and France more a problem than Wales after the beheading of
Roger Mortimer (see King
Edward and Mortimer's Hole). Beaumaris Castle
was never fully completed and its current form is essentially
as it was left
in
the
14th Century.
It had
survived a siege in the revolt of Owain Glyn Dwr around 1400, but was
so “utterly decayed” by the time of the English Civil War,
and so costly to repair, it played little part in the struggle and surrendered
after the royal capitulation to the Parliamentary forces. Swans swim
now in the reflective waters of the castle moat with the mountains of
Snowdonia
rising across
the
tidal bay, giving the castle a formidable peacefulness.
Beaumaris,
which means “Beautiful Marsh” in
French, the language of the Plantagenet Kings, is at the south-east
tip of the island
of Anglesey, only separated from the north Wales mainland by the ford
between bays of the Irish Sea the Menai Straight, virtually a wide river
crossed by two bridges, of the A55 autoroute and old Menai Bridge to
Bangor. The
castle was built in the place of a former village of Llanfaes and the
town of
Beaumaris grew around the castle.
After
a visit to the castle, what else is there to do in Beaumaris?
Across the street from the castle visitors
center and souvenir shop, the old town Beaumaris Courthouse offers
a look into justice in the 1600s, with bewigged justices and bailiffs
still
watching over the wood bench of petition. Unusual at the Beaumaris
court is the juror box placement higher than the judges, not a political
statement
but a quirk of design. Nearby, a Museum of Childhood Memories once
attracted visitors, but is now unfortunately closed.
The
Beaumaris Gaol offers another look into old time justice, with
heavy barred cells
on three floors of the thick walled prison. The Beaumaris
jail had its own chapel as well as whipping rooms for the unruly. The
Beaumaris Gaol, built in 1829, last used as a police station in the 1950s
and now a museum is the only English jail with a remaining prisoner operated
water wheel treadmill. In shifts, two prisoners at a time would walk
the treadmill like a modern stairmaster to operate the pump system supplying
the jail’s water 
from a cistern above the cell. A block from the
Beaumaris Gaol is one of Wales oldest coaching inns, The George and Dragon
first opened in 1410, no longer a hotel but just a pub, with the branch
lath and plaster wall construction of the late middle ages still visible
through a plexiglas covered whole in the wall to prove its claim. Enjoy
a pint where soldiers of the king once relaxed over a few Welsh rebel
jokes after tossing prisoners into leg irons.
Where to
stay in Beaumaris.
The Best Western Bulkeley Hotel is
a Georgian historic hotel from 1832 within steps of the fishing and boating pier
with tours
to Puffin Island. The owners have a rather whimsical bent as you’ll
find smoking goat heads and other curiosities among the deep cushioned
couches.
Beaumaris
castle is valid with the Great
British Heritage Pass or
an Explorer Pass from Cadw Welsh Tourism.© Bargain
Travel Europe
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North
Wales Tourism
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SEE ALSO:
PORTMEIRION "Prisoner" VILLAGE AND GARDEN
HARLECH CASTLE - SNOWDONIA COAST
RUTHIN CASTLE HOTEL - GHOSTS & PRINCES OF WALES
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