Town in Anglesey, Wales
Beaumaris
Beaumaris is a castle that was never finished, a town built to push out the locals, and a seaside street with a Victorian jail that still has a treadmill.
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Key information
- County
- Anglesey
- Nation
- Wales
- Known for
- Edward I's unfinished castle, a Victorian gaol, Menai Strait sailing
- Famous people
- Edward I, James of St George, Madog ap Llywelyn, Joseph Hansom
About Beaumaris
The castle that ran out of money
Beaumaris Castle is often called the most technically perfect castle in Britain, and it was never finished. Work began in 1295 under Edward I, and the plan was ambitious: a perfectly symmetrical ring of walls inside a ring of walls, surrounded by a moat. Then the money went elsewhere. Edward's wars in Scotland drained the royal purse, and building stalled. It picked up again from 1306 and stopped for good around 1330. The towers never reached their planned height, and the great gatehouse was left incomplete. The design was the work of James of St George, Edward's master mason from Savoy, who also had a hand in Harlech and Conwy. Beaumaris was his last and most polished attempt at the concentric castle. Today it is part of the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward I in Gwynedd, a World Heritage Site since 1986. Sea water once reached the moat, and a dock beside the castle let supply ships come almost to the gate.
A beautiful marsh and a bitter swap
The name is Norman French: beau marais, 'beautiful marsh'. That is how the flat, wet ground beside the Menai Strait looked to Edward's men. The locals pronounce it roughly 'bo-MAR-iss'. In Welsh the town is Biwmares. The castle came out of a rebellion. In 1294 Madog ap Llywelyn led a Welsh revolt against English rule, and Edward answered by tightening his grip on Anglesey. He built the castle and founded an English borough beside it. The town walls came later, in the early 15th century. The nearby Welsh town of Llanfaes was a busy trading port. Its people were moved out to make way for the new settlement and re-established at Newborough, at the other end of the island. Beaumaris was founded as an English garrison town, and its first residents were incomers.
A princess's coffin on the church floor
In the church of St Mary and St Nicholas stands a stone coffin that once held Princess Joan, known in Welsh as Siwan. She was the daughter of King John and the wife of Llywelyn the Great, and she was buried at Llanfaes. When the friary there was dissolved, the coffin ended up in Beaumaris. For centuries it was used as a watering trough before being rescued and put on display in the church. It is a fitting object for a town that became a replacement for Llanfaes.
Hard labour on the seafront
Beaumaris Gaol opened in 1829 and was built to be modern. Its architect was Joseph Hansom, the man who later patented the hansom cab. It had individual cells, running water and a regime of enforced silence and hard work. The treadmill is still there. Prisoners walked it for hours as hard labour, but it did useful work too: it powered a pump that supplied water to the gaol's upper floors. Other rooms include the cells themselves and the exercise yard. The town's old courthouse, dating from 1614, is a few minutes away. Together they show how law was enforced here from the Stuarts to the Victorians.
Sails, mussels and the view of Snowdonia
Today Beaumaris is a place for boats. The Royal Anglesey Yacht Club was founded here in 1885, and the Menai Strait is full of sailing dinghies in summer. The pier and the green by the water are the heart of the town. Across the strait the mountains of Snowdonia fill the horizon. It is one of the best views in North Wales, and you get it while eating an ice cream on the front. The strait is also known for its mussels. They grow in the fast-moving, nutrient-rich tidal water and turn up on local menus. A short drive along the coast takes you to Penmon Priory and the view of Puffin Island, a bird sanctuary just off the eastern tip of Anglesey.