BEAUSMARIS CASTLE, ANGLESEY

Beaumaris Castle

The name Beaumaris is the French name given to the castle which stands on what the Welsh people called Fair Marsh, begun in 1295 it was the final castle built by Edward I of England, the Hammer of the Scots. Beaumaris differs from most other Castles built in this period by the fact that it was not built on top of another fortification of manor house, however like most castles built on the orders of Edward I it is built in the concentric style with symmetric plans for a quicker and easier build. Until cannon came into their own Beamaris would have been impregnable, had it been finished that is! It saw little action until the Civil Wars of the 1640's but was needed by Edward I as he had made the town of Lanfaes his seat of government in Wales, this was in 1283 as various rebellions in Wales occurred at this time, some were small scale skirmishes but sometimes a local Welshman of high regard would band together a few groups and start a serious fight with the local English overlords, and they had as much cause to make mischief as anyone with the English confiscating lands and raising taxes, Welsh people could not even marry without a special tax paid to the local lord (Prima Nocta never really happened). One of these rebellions was the one headed by Madog ap Llywelyn in the winter of 1294-95.

The rebellion was crushed as much by the horrid weather as by the English forces in the area, however a castle needed building to protect Lanfaes and so Beaumaris was given the go ahead. As I have said it does not stand on any previous foundations and so for the entirety of the first years build some 2'600 men were used to built the lower part of the castle, the overseer to this mammoth task was Master James of St George, a talented and highly experienced castle builder who made a fortune from King Edward I castle schemes. Beaumaris has six inner towers, most castles have one large tower (Castle Keep) but Beaumaris had 6! There are also 16 more towers on the enveloping concentric curtain walls, like I’ve said had it been finished it would have been impregnable, the reason the castle was never built fully was because of lack of funds, Edward I had troubles in Northern France, Northern England and Scotland as well as the various Welsh rebellions.

The main focus of paranormal activity are the sounds of a woman’s laughter and what has also been described as a woman’s voice praying or chanting in the chapel. Who these are no one has ever been able to find out. As for sightings in 1979 a couple from London were walking around when they saw a small boy, dirty looking with black matted unkempt hair run around in front of them, when he stopped to look at them he had no face and slowly faded away, again no one really knows who this is.

CJ Linton