Beaumaris Castle

‘The castle on the fair marsh’, Beaumaris is noted for the near perfect symmetry of this concentric castle and it’s graceful marine setting on the Isle of Anglesey .

Beaumaris Castle

Though the castle is without the dramatic skyline of towers and turrets of its 13th century sister castles of Conwy , Caernarfon and Harlech , or their mountain backdrop, Beaumaris’ location on level marshy ground beside the Menai Straits on Anglesey, allowed its designer James of St George to make this castle more symmetrical then any of the others. This also allowed him to best use water defences by encircling the castle with a moat of controlled tidal water and a protected dock for supplies, which aside from any military purpose provide a charming setting.

Beaumaris Castle was the last of the castles built for King Edward I of England to keep North Wales in line. Work started in 1295 and continued until 1330, employing 400 stonemasons and 2,000 labourers at a cost of £14,500. Despite or perhaps because of this Beaumaris is unfinished, the great towers of the inner ward are without their top storeys while the turrets which were intended to be bigger than any other castle in Wales , were not even started, left as James of St George’s unfinished masterpiece.

The castle is entered beside the Dock, via a footbridge over the moat into the ‘Gate Next the Sea’. Then from the outer ward to the inner ward through a Barbican and a twin towered gatehouse. The inner ward is protected by six towers and a northern gatehouse, which would have provided domestic accommodation. This is connected via wall passages to what would have been stately apartments and a castle chapel in the Chapel Tower which houses an exhibition on Edward’s Welsh castles and the design origins in the castles of Savoy.


This attraction is included in the Great British Heritage Pass.