Anglesey Beaumaris to Bull Bay, 13th August
Trip Start
May 14, 2010
1
32
42
Trip End
Ongoing
Beaumaris, Wales, United Kingdom
Sunday, August 15, 2010
In 1296 King Edward 1st set out to build a chain of castles around the north Wales coast following a Welsh uprising, and Beaumaris was his last and most symmetrical, originally built on the edge of the Menai Straight, with ships tying up alongside.
The castle itself, although unfinished is very pretty, set partly in it’s original water filled moat, but it’s the town of Beaumaris which we found delightful, from the pier covered in children catching crabs for crab races later on the beach (as they scurry for the water) to the pretty little town streets.
The first six photos are of Beaumaris castle and town, and the rest were taken up along the coast- we were pleased to find such pretty little coves, harbours and good family beaches. Amlwch, close to where we are staying, was once the port for one of the biggest open cast copper mines, and here you can see the copper mine on the hill, with Cornish looking engine houses and chimneys. The tiny harbour of Amlwch is little more than a crack in the coast and yet managed to load several large ships at once. Today, the chemicals leaching from the mine site are badly polluting the Irish sea, and a failed Bromide-from-seawater plant is a horrible mess of coastal concrete in the distant view from where we stay- you may be able to spot it in the earlier photos.
During our stay we didn’t have time to get to Holyhead itself, but we did explore some of the west and south coast beaches of Anglesey, before seeing some high priority sights on the mainland- about which more next time.
Hope life is treating you well,
Richard and Christine
