Beaumaris

The most technically perfect medieval castle in Britain. Beaumaris was the last link in the chain of coastal fortresses built by King Edward I to control Wales. The site of the castle, on level ground not far from the water's edge, enabled its archirtect, Master James of St.George, to invest its concentric layout with a degree of symmetry not attained at any of its predecessors and to fill the encircling moat with a controlled supply of tidal water. However, the visitor may find the castle disappointing: it is visually less impressive than Harlech or Conwy because it fails to dominate its surroundings. The cause of the squatness of its skyline is that the castle was never completed: the great towers of the inner ward were still without their top storeys, while the turrets, which seems to have been intended to rise here in even greater profusion than at the earlier castles, were never so much as begun.

Beaumaris was begun in 1295 in reaction to a Welsh rising on a site, midway by sea between Conwy and Caernarfon, commanding the old ferry crossing to Anglesey. The new castle was given the French name of Beau Mareys (Beautiful Marsh). At first work progressed with speed. Two thousand labourers dug the encircling moat, materials poured into the site and hundreds of masons, smiths and carpenters began raising the six towers and two huge gatehouses of the inner ward, surrounded by sixteen towered defences of the outer ward. In this time the castle had connections with the sea, the old tidal dock can still be seen, though the short channel which gave seaborne access has long since disappeared. Any attack on Beaumaris would have presented formidable problems: the original water filled moat forms the first line of defence, followed by a ring of outer walls and a series of evenly spaced towers. Should the attackers overcome these obstacles they would then be caught in deadly crossfire from archers and crossbowmen positioned on the next series of walls and towers protecting the central core.

But soon the King's attention was distracted and funds and supplies faltered. When work petered out some thirty years later, Beaumaris was in the state that we can see today: a magnificent incomplete white elephant and the ultimate memorial to master James of St.George. With its fourteen successive barriers between outer gate and inner ward, its hundreds of cleverly positioned arrow slits, its 'murder-holes', wall passages and uniquely designed latrines, Beaumaris is perhaps the most fascinating of all Edward's castles to explore. The castle is on the World Heritage Site list and in the cure of CADW.