Anglesey & Beaumaris Castle

Off the north coast of Wales is the island of Anglesey...

We travelled over the Menai Suspension Bridge, built by Thomas Telford.

And stopped off at the lovely town of Beaumaris with it's wonderful castle...

Beaumaris Castle
 Definitely our favourite castle of the holiday.
It took nearly 50 years to build & was still unfinished, but what a sinister history it has...
 Edward I (AKA: Longshanks - Patrick McGoohan played him in Braveheart) was the man behind it all back in the 13th century...
 He built all the castles in Wales as fortresses to enable him to conquer the Welsh.
We also read that he had some similar castles built in France too, so he certainly got around a bit - when he wasn't busy chasing after Mel Gibson!

We love the fact that the moat is still there...
And we picked a quiet day!

For an unfinished castle - it was pretty impressive...

We liked how some of the towers had become overgrown...

An arrow slit overlooking the moat... 

There are lots of indoor stairways...

And narrow corridors...

Which are quite creepy...
We had a lot of fun jumping out on each other!

The chapel  inside is perfectly intact...

The acoustics were amazing...
And our monk chants sounded great! 

The signs on the way up to the battlements!
We didn't see ET or Alfred Hitchcock up there...

It reminded us a bit of Carcassonne...

We were able to walk around most of the battlements...

And the view was good!
A great place to visit & so cheap to get in...

From the island you can take another smaller bridge to Holyhead
Also known as Holy Island

This is South Stack Lighthouse

Years ago, when we lived in the north of England we visited Wales & Holyhead a lot...

And this was our favourite beach!

Back on Anglesey...

No day trip is complete without a visit to:
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch...
Click on the photo to see how to pronounce it!

This one has the English translation... 

Going back over the Menai Suspension Bridge at night...


Hugo's off to stay with Sal & Ryan tomorrow.
They're having a big Settlers Of Catan night with Rose too...
 And we've decided to have the day out!

Better get organised!

See you soon,

Kay & Sime xx



Comments

  1. Catherine2 November 2011 at 11:56

    How cool to take a tour through an old castle! I am thinking it would be hard to imagine how cold, damp and dark it would be to live in one 'back in the day'! I would need extra warm socks for sure! ;)
    xo Catherine

    ReplyDelete

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