Caernarfon – Benny & Bessy's Travels from 2021 and Samson & Suzi's European Travels 2016-2020…… (as named by Jack Spencer)

We decided to give Bessy and Benny some Welsh air and try to learn bit of Welsh language so we booked them into a campsite in Rhos on Sea, just outside Llandudno.

I say a campsite, but it was just a field on a working farm, but a great base to start touring. We had a day out with Benny and visited a few castles and Snowdonia National Park, 100 miles round trip with the top down was amazing on a lovely sunny day.

Another day out was a little further afield to Porthmadog for a surprise meeting with family and then to Portmeirion for an afternoon wandering the Italianate gardens, a paddle in the seawater pools then another beautiful drive back through the Welsh Mountains.

We’ve also spent some time in Llandudno itself, a pretty coastal resort with a long long pier!

Our Castle Day – Conwy

First stop was Conwy Castle, a complete walled city within the Castle walls. We walked around the inner streets, and had a quick look at the walls (which needed some attention in places!!) but it was far too hot to do the complete walk around the walls.

Its considered a fortress, built by King Edward I and his architect Master James of St George who built both castle and walls in a barely believable four years between 1283 and 1287. In the distance rise the craggy mountains of Snowdonia and spread out below are the small harbour and narrow streets of Conwy – still protected by an unbroken 1,400-yard (1.3km) ring of town walls. It has World Heritage status, along with 3 other castle in Wales.

Next Stop Bangor

This small cathedral city is known for so many things:

being the oldest city in Wales
it has the longest (retail) High Street in Wales at 1.265 km (0.79 mile)
in 2021 has the world’s first non-binary (elected) Mayor – and at 23 years old, was the youngest Welsh Mayor ever elected.
has the second longest pier in Wales, 460 metres.
In 1967, the Beatles were in Bangor meeting the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi when they learned of the death of their manager Brian Epstein.
Singer Duffy was born here in 1984.
The town is mentioned in the Fiddler’s Dram 1979 hit single “Day Trip to Bangor”.

We headed down to the pier which looks across the Menai Strait towards Anglesey and admired the scenery. The pier was opened in 1893 and after several closures, mainly due to expensive repair costs, it was sold to the County Council in 1974, who gave it a Grade II Listed building status and secured its future. The British Listed Buildings inspector considered it to be “the best in Britain of the older type of pier without a large pavilion at the landward end”. Restoration work took place over several years, and the pier was re-opened to the public on 7 May 1988, however it’s now in need of more work……

We crossed the Menai Bridge into Anglesey

Anglesey – Beaumaris and Penmon Point

We landed in Anglesey and turned right, towards the Eastern point of the Island.

Beaumaris is a small seaside town full of cafes, restaurants and take aways, all catering for the visitors to the castle.

Beaumaris Castle is famous as the “greatest castle never built” . It was the last of the royal strongholds created by Edward I in Wales – and perhaps his masterpiece.

Here Edward and his architect James of St George took full advantage of a blank canvas: the ‘beau mareys’ or ‘beautiful marsh’ beside the Menai Strait. By now they’d already constructed the great castles of Conwy, Caernarfon and Harlech. This was to be their crowning glory, the castle to end all castles.

The result was a fortress of immense size and near-perfect symmetry. No fewer than four concentric rings of formidable defences included a water-filled moat with its very own dock. The outer walls alone bristled with 300 arrow loops.

But lack of money and trouble brewing in Scotland meant building work had petered out by the 1320s. The south gatehouse and the six great towers in the inner ward never reached their intended height. The Llanfaes gate was barely started before being abandoned.

So the distinctive squat shape of Beaumaris tells of a dream that never quite came true. Still it takes its rightful place on the global stage as part of the Castles and Town Walls of Edward I World Heritage Site.

Because this castle is special – both for the scale of its ambition and beauty of its proportions. Gloriously incomplete Beaumaris is perhaps the supreme achievement of the greatest military architect of the age.

Our view of the “Greatest Castle Never Built”

A huge imposing building, looking out onto the Estuary was built by Joseph Hansom and Edward Welch, architects of York, and completed in 1833, for the Corporation of Beaumaris. The terrace was the centrepiece of a plan to regenerate the declining port of Beaumaris by creating a fashionable resort. Now it is a Grade 1 Listed Georgian property with several large residential “town houses” and holiday accommodation.

Traditional fish and chip lunch over, we headed out to Penmon Point, the most Easterly point of Anglesey. Locally known as Black Point, it is home to one of Anglesey’s 5 lighthouses and Puffin Island, in the 6th century the island was home to a monastery, now it is just a bird and animal sanctuary.

Llanfairpwll…….. OK I give up!

We doubled back through Beaumaris and went to the town with the longest name in the world – 58 charachters!!

The full name is Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which was created so its railway station would have the longest sign in the country—in the mid 1800s. It means “St. Mary’s Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the red cave.”

Caernarfon Castle

We returned to the mainland and turned right, heading to Caernarfon Castle. Being the place where Prince Charles was inaugurated in 1969, we thought we would book the tour of the castle, expecting it to be full of historic artifacts. We were disappointed, it’s an outline of the building, with only a museum for the Welsh Fusiliers.

The small market town was also disappointing, very run down with lots of charity shops. However, it’s one ticked off the list, Caernarvon Castle.

We then took a slow drive thrugh the Snowdonia National Park and realised why we loved living in Wales, it’s green, lush, sparkling, colourful, beautiful!