Beaumaris Castle - who said history was boring?

The concentric walls of Beaumaris Castle

For an unfinished building, Beaumaris Castle has attracted considerable attention and worthy acclaim.

It was the last castle in Wales to be built by Edward I around 1296. The intention was to build an impregnable fortress against the Welsh princes on the eastern side of the island, and to guard the Menai Strait.

“Longshanks”, as Edward was known, due to his extraordinary height, simply ran out of money, since his finances were being severely drained in trying to keep the Scots quiet as well.

However it didn’t stop him commissioning the architect, Master Mason James of St George together with 400 quarrymen, 2000 labourers and 450 masons in beginning the work. It also involved uprooting an entire village and its inhabitants at Llanfaes, and moving them to a new settlement, on the western side of the island, not too imaginatively called “Newborough”.

For many, the concentrically planned castle is the best designed of all. The threatening attacker would have had 15 obstacles and four defence walls to negotiate. “It is an extraordinary castle” says Mike Williams, a custodian who shares his time between Beaumaris and Conwy castle. “It is totally different from Conwy” he says, “and it attracts a different kind of tourist or explorer. You can only marvel at the thought and intricacy behind the design of it. Beaumaris Castle is in an exceptional location”.