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Photo Journal of our 1990 Trip To Wales Day 9 By Rhuddlwm Gawr |
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DAY 9.......TUESDAY JULY 31
We visited a full day on the Isle of Anglesey. First we drove along A5 from Betws y Coed through Ogwen Pass and across the Menai Straits to Anglesey. We visited the attractive resorts of Beaumaris and the castle. We then visited the Bryn Celli Ddu. Then we visited Bodowyn Burial chamber. Then we drove across the Island to Moelfre to visit Din Llugwy, a village nearly 3000 years old. Also the Lugwy Cromlech. We then returned to the mainland and drive along the coast to Conwy Castle. We returned through the Conwy valley to Betws y Coedd, and stayed at Tan y Foel Country House Hotel (as above) Had dinner at the Royal Oak Hotel
BEAUMARIS CASTLE
We finally arrived at Beaumaris where, of course, We are going to find something to eat and then we are going to tour the castle. |
Beaumaris is, indeed, much squatter than any of the other castles we have been before. It doesn’t look that squat when you see it in pictures, but it is. |
We parked the car and on the way to the castle we stopped and bought icecream.
| Beaumaris was the final link in the chain of castles built by Edward I during and after the two military campaigns in which he conquered Wales. Being on flat marshy ground, Beaumaris means, "fair marsh." It had to rely entirely upon man-made fortification. Its symmetrical layout and multiple defenses represent the high point of medieval castle design. |  |
Construction began in 1295, twelve years after the last campaign, following the revolt the previous year. For the first two seasons, work progressed at breakneck speed, employing up to 2,600 men, but heavy demands in Scotland soon caused it to almost cease. As a result, the castle was never completed to its full height and presents a rather squat appearance today. In plan, the defenses are concentric, a double ring of walls surrounded by a moat. This not only provided greatly increased firepower, but also since inner walls overlooked outer walls, it presented would-be attackers with a virtually impenetrable series of obstacles. It’s hard to say how much taller it would have been had it been finished, but because it’s irregular at the top with parts up and down, it’s hard to know how tall it was originally planned to be, and whether or not parts of the walls were scavenged or just never finished.
The main gate to Beaumaris was protected by a carefully planned sequence of defenses. First the moat, then a drawbridge and outer gate and finally the multiple defenses of the inner gate. At every stage high and low level arrow loops provided cover in fire. The inner gate house was defended first by a barbican, then by three successive pairs of barred gates and portcullises. Being set deliberately off line to the outer gate would force would be attackers into exposing their left flank to archers waiting above. The scaffolding used to create these castles was very ingenious. When we were in Conwy, you could see at a sort of a diagonal set of holes where they would stick logs in and build up to that point, then go to the next level and go to the level above that. You can see some of that still left over here as well.
Although it’s much more squat than the other ones, we notice we're standing against a wall that's at least fifty feet high.We saw some more swans at Beaumaris. They were certainly larger than babies, but were still not fully grown. They were still brownish in color and they are their mom were waddling about, heading toward a Budweiser bucket were we saw lunch waiting for them.
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I think the squatness of Beaumaris is emphasized by the roundness of the towers. They are short and wide. The outer wall, which circled the main inner stronghold, had 15 towers and arrow loops at the second and third levels, providing over 300 shooting positions for the few archers inside. Both sets of walls were well-supplied by latrines, sometimes three levels of them in the inner wall. |
You would have go through the portcullises and doors of the outer walls before getting into the inner walls and that is, of course, already inside the castle. You have the outer castle wall and then you have the outer set of towers and then the inner set of towers. There even appears to be an inner set of doors or portcullises or there is an inner archway that takes you inside the entire inside, which is the inner courtyard.
Beaumaris is the last castle built by Edward I in Wales and by far the largest. Although never completed, it is clear from what survived that the inner ward was planned on a lavish scale. I got confused, because there are so many entry points, so many arches with doors and portcullises, that it looks like it is adding another level of building. All of Edward I’s new castles in North Wales were set where they could be supplied by sea. At Beaumaris, the defenses incorporated a dock for sea going vessels. The dock was filled by sea water through a wide shipping channel, long since covered in. The castle moat was supplied by fresh water streamed from the north and the level between the two was regulated by a fluce gate in gunner’s walk. Ships up to 40 tons could sail into here on high tide, tie up at the iron rings in the wall and unload their supplies into the doorway in the castle wall. The dock was defended by archers and artillery in gunner’s walk and beneath this was a corn mill, which must have increased the castle’s self-sufficiency. The foundations of the wall linked to the castle and closed the town. Although planned from the start, the town wall was not built until 1414. Although so unfinished and beat up, Beaumaris still has its own charm, even though it is very different than the Conwy or Caernarfon. There is no tour at Beaumaris, nor is there nearly the amount of traffic there is at the other castles, likely because this is on an island and most people just don’t make it out this far. The road was rather harrowing. Very narrow road, right next to the ocean, some high up, some not. When we came out of the mountain road, we were practically at sea level...and then, of course, we were at sea level.and should be at Conwy Castle in an hour. Llandudno, the small resort town where our hotel is located, is 42 miles from here.
We've decided to take a detour on our way to Conwy since Rhuddlan Castle is so close by. I hadn't realized it was so nearby, and, if my memory is right, it's a pretty cool castle.
| Rhuddlan Castle was one of the most important locations in the battle for Welsh independence. It was here in 1284 that Edward I first announced the formation of the government of the conquered principality. The Rhuddlan Castle was the second to be erected as part of Edward’s strategic chain. The river Clwyd was diverted so that the castle could be supplied by sea and Rhuddlan was a port right up until a century ago. |  |
We have been walking around the outside of what I would call the outer keep at Rhuddlan. It's built on a pretty tall hill that they erected for it because the outside wall leading down is very tall. The castle is in a pretty big state of ruin. The aerial picture that we have bought and the pictures I remember of it on the web are misleading, but even though it's pretty well wrecked, it's still amazing to see.
The walls are about 10 feet thick, and we've just waked into the inner keep, which was the central stronghold in the main residential quarters, including a suite of royal apartments. It is laid out in a regular diamond plan. The castle was virtually impenetrable with its high walls, thick walls, and four story towers to the north and south and twin towered gate towers to the east and west. The regular garrison numbered around thirty here. Inside the courtyard the stone walls would have been partly hidden by timber framed buildings erected against them, roofed with shingles. No traces remain of these today except for a small stretch of cobbled flooring. They included halls and private apartments for the king and queen, together with kitchens and a chapel. Queen Eleanor had lawns laid out in a central area and small fishponds.
| We walked up a staircase they've erected and were able to look out over the cobble stone flooring I just mentioned. It's hard to believe royalty once lived here. |  |
CONWY
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Conwy Castle was begun in 1283, after Llewellyn's death and is another link in the network of fortifications erected by Edward I. Conwy's town walls are nearly a mile around (you can see how extensive the walls are in this photo), with 22 towers and three original gateways, and are the most complete anywhere in Europe. The town itself, however, was for so long less important than the strategic defenses. There were no more than 60 houses here by the late 1600's. |
The entrance to the walled city is very narrow - to go through the gates one car from one side goes and then a car from the other side goes. Two cars can't fit at the same time.
Edward I built Conwy (pronounced "Conwee") between 1283 and 1287.
The seagulls seem to love England. Bath, although it’s not on the ocean, had seagulls we could hear and right now, looking over one of the paths up into the inner courtyard and looking out over the water I’m hearing seagulls everywhere.
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Originally Conwy Castle was accessible only by water. In 1800 a single-lane bridge was built and designed to look as though it were the same age as the castle. They did not build a multi-lane bridge until 1960. |
Conwy Castle's well was 91 feet deep.
It wasn’t just the castle that was walled, the entire city was walled in and they did it all in four years. Conwy was an amazing stop for us and the tour thoroughly enjoyable and informative.
Llundudno, is Wales' largest resort, with 20,000 people. For more than a hundred years, it has been the jewel in the crown of north Wales, with lovely Victorian architecture. It is often called the most beautifully situated resort in the whole of the British Isles.
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