North Wales: Beaumaris

Wednesday I learned something about buses in the UK. Even if you’re standing at a bus stop, waiting expectantly for your bus, it won’t stop unless you hail it. I failed to stick my arm out properly at the stop in Bangor, and ended up missing the bus to Beaumaris that I meant to get on. Luckily, I was across the street from a supermarket, so I was able to look around there and buy some cheese and a dandelion-burdock soda. Going to the supermarket made me want everything, especially all the different kinds of cheese, and cider, and sweets. My one regret about this trip was that I couldn’t try every kind of cider Morrisons supermarket had on its shelves. I’m also glad I got on the later bus because the driver was funny. Whenever someone pushed the button for a stop he’d call out and ask where they wanted to stop, and let one woman off right in front of her house.

Beaumaris is on an island—specifically on Anglesey (Ynys Môn in Welsh), the island just to the north of Gwynedd. There are at least two bridges, including the Menai Suspension Bridge and the Britannia Bridge, and at least one rail line that connect the island to the mainland. I was pretty excited to go to Anglesey, because it’s in our social studies book, and after pointing to it on the map for three years it was cool to go there.

Beaumaris Castle looks short and squat from the outside. It’s got a moat part of the way around it, with a couple of swans squelching through the mud…it looks like a little backyard playhouse castle. Once you get inside, though, it seems a normal size. Beaumaris is built on a concentric plan: there are outer walls, and then a set of inner walls. Although it was never finished (part of the reason it seems so short), it’s called Edward’s most technically perfect castle.

Beaumaris is the one Gwynedd castle whose chapel is intact and open to visitors. It was not a very big room, and set up as expected. I think the thing that most caught my attention was that the interior was whitewashed, although most of the castles' exteriors were completely whitewashed as well. Besides the whitewash, the only remaining decoration was the nice Gothic arches, like in the doorway at left, as well as blind arcading on the side walls. On each side of the chapel was a small room slightly higher than the chapel itself, with a window into the chapel. These, if I recall correctly, were for the use of the king and other important people.

I did break down and go in a church in Beaumaris. I didn’t mean to; it was just there, and I only meant to walk around the churchyard but the church itself was open, and the nave dated from the early 14th century, and I couldn’t stop myself. Inside there was an alabaster tomb of a nobleman and his wife, and a stained glass window made with fragments of medieval windows destroyed during the 16th or 17th century. There were also some good misericords on the stalls near the altar.

If Caernarfon was my favorite castle, Beaumaris was my favorite location. Standing atop the walls, one can see sheep pastures on one side and the Strait in the near distance. It really was charming. None of the pictures do it any sort of justice. Looking back at the mainland, it put me in mind of Middle Earth, with the snow on the mountains above the green hills and the clouds around them. I swear LotR used to be on YouTube, why can't I find it now that I want to watch it?

For lunch I had bara brith and tea. Bara brith is a Welsh specialty. It’s a kind of fruit cake. I’d really hoped to eat something featuring leeks, but I wasn’t able to find anything. Then for a snack later I bought a scone stuffed with fresh whipped cream and jam, and I ate that staring at the nature. For my final act, I charged up a little hill that I’d seen a man walking his dog on earlier that day. The hill went up to a little cliff overlooking the strait. Then I ran part of the way down, just because. Me and my well-traveled umbrella, running down a hill in Wales, dodging cow pats.