This morning we set our alarms for 7:30 and luckily slept really well, after yesterday’s very early morning. We got up and showered and ate some breakfast before hopping in the car and heading towards Caernarfon. It was only about a 50 minute drive, although the main ‘highway’ was a small road winding through fields and villages built right up to the road so it was a little slower than planned, particularly once you started hitting all the roundabouts leading into Caernarfon (they really love roundabouts in Wales).  We’d allowed plenty of time though, so we had time to park the car and go for a walk before our 10am ticket time at the castle. Caernarfon is an ancient walled city so we had a little wander around the outside of the walls, in through a gate and through the old town, which had gorgeous little townhouses in bright colours and lots of cute little shops and pubs. At 10 we made our way back to the castle and entered, with an advisory from the staff about the one way system and hand sanitiser at almost every doorway. 

It was a huge space inside the entrance gate, and we immediately recognised the lawn inside from the filming of the Crown (where Charles has his ‘Prince of Wales’ ceremony). Caernarfon was probably the most informative castle we’ve been to so far, with lots of story boards around as you followed the one-way path up the staircases, along the walls and back down through rooms and passageways down to ground level. On exit at ground level we found a room with a film playing, and after waiting for the group before to exit, we sat down to watch a comprehensive history of the Roman history of the region, the mythology of Macsen Wledig (the Roman emperor who apparently ruled from Wales), and the history of Edward I building the castle. After the film, we made our way to the next pathway up along the walls, down through pathways and back and forth through a range of rooms and exhibitions. The best story was about the fact that the Welch Fusiliers (the official name for the Welsh representatives in the British military) have a goat in their regiment - as a member, not a mascot! The goat can be promoted or demoted based on its behaviour. The military history of the Welsh Fusiliers was displayed in a museum in part of the castle, but it was a very dense and not-particularly-well-curated exhibition with way too much information about every single conflict the British have ever been involved in - too many! We ended up getting bored (yes, me, bored in a museum!) and moving through the second half of it to check out the rest of the castle. After seeing the last few hallways and views, looking over some construction happening in the seaward side of the castle, we found our way to the exit. 

From there, we were both getting very hungry (clearly toast doesn’t cut it for breakfast) so we got back in the car and on the road towards the Menai Bridge. We crossed the impressive bridge over the Menai Strait between mainland Wales and the Isle of Anglesey and pulled over at the pub I’d found on google that we were pretty sure was the one Peter’s mum had recommended. We had a coffee and a delicious lunch - I got another very impressive salad with some grilled chicken and Peter had a roast beef sandwich. Once we’d eaten we headed off on foot along the walking path that led along the water around to Church Island. This was (unsurprisingly) an island graveyard with a little church, and is where Peter’s great grandparents were buried. There was a huge tree looming over the path, next to which was a memorial plaque dedicated to two men who’d died building the Menai Bridge in 1821, so we wondered if the tree was planted then - 200 years old! The island had a little hill in the middle with a path running around the outside, and was dense with tombstones over the whole island, mostly overgrown with grass and wildflowers. We did a walk around the island before something jogged Peter’s memory (he’d been there as a child) and we followed a little path up to a little stone building, and right by that we found the tombstone we were looking for. They were a little overgrown, so we pulled some leaves and plants away, only to find that it was some sort of prickly poison ivy or oak or something, so we both came away with tingling, itching fingers that were welting a little bit by the time we left. (EDIT: turns out these were stinging nettles, so not so bad, but still uncomfortable) Being at the top of the hill, there was also a nice view back towards some wooded areas on the other side of the walking bridge. After spending a moment, we walked back down to the main path and then up a path towards the top of the hill. There was a war memorial at the top, looking out towards the Menai strait and the bridge further down. After admiring the view for a bit we headed back towards the pub.

Back in the car, we drove along the beach road towards Beaumaris. Unlike the suburb in Melbourne (we say ‘beau-mo-ris’), it’s pronounced ‘Beau-MA-ris’, and is a seaside town with a castle on the point. This was the fourth of the four Edward I castles (Conwy, Harlech, Caernarfon and Beaumaris) that were given World Heritage Status in 1986, but it looked surprisingly unimposing from the outside/the town. The town was very very busy for such a tiny town, and the beach in particular had an unbelievable amount of people parked on the grassy verge next to the foreshore. We did a little loop of the town and checked out the ‘largest single hinge door in the world’, which also had a ‘mysterious chimney’, an old Tudor house, and the cute pubs along the foreshore before making our way to the castle for our 3pm entry. It turned out when we got there that I’d mixed it up with yesterday’s ticket and we were actually supposed to be there at 2, but they weren’t busy so they let us in. 

I was surprised when we headed inside at how few people were in there for how many people were in the town! I wondered whether people hadn’t been able to get tickets or whether the beach is the real drawcard of the town? The castle was surrounded by a wide, but shallow, moat, and once you entered the gatehouse across the drawbridge you realised how imposing it really was. The one way system led us up onto the outer walls - it’s a concentric castle, with lower outer walls reinforced with archer’s nooks all around, but these were dwarfed by the inner walls. Once we’d come down onto the grass between the outer and inner walls, we followed what we assumed was the path (less signs at this one!) in through the main gate to the inner castle. It was enormous, with huge thick walls that you could see would have carried enormous gates. The information boards in one of the adjoining halls explained that Beaumaris castle was never finished, with the main inner towers planned to be twice as high as they were (and they were already pretty high!). Edward I had run out of money and moved on with conflicts in Scotland and never came back to finish it. We followed the path up onto the inner walls, which had far more comforting barriers set up than Harlech, and followed the path around, reading information as we went about the modern latrines built into the walls and the symmetrical design of the castle. Being up on the inner walls made you appreciate both its overall size, which was somewhat hidden from the town due to its placement, and how enormous it would have been if it had been finished! Back on ground level, we found our way around to a film about the castle, which had a shorter simpler history than Caernarfon (war in wales, Edward built another castle, then ran out of money). Then it was another walk through the walls, leading into the chapel, which was all plastered and done up like it would have looked and had a stunning echoey sound. We then followed the path back around down to ground level and after another loop of the remaining rooms and the outer grassy area, made our way back out of the castle. 

The forecast had been for thunderstorms all day so we’d been quite pleased about the fact that we hadn’t been rained on, but it was starting to get ominously dark at about 4:15 so we stopped by the shops to grab some microwave-food supplies just in case it was too rainy to do a fire meal. As we got back into the car, it started to rain, and this turned into torrential rain with lightning as we made our way down south. This made the 27 roundabouts on the navigation an interesting affair! Luckily it cleared as we made it back through Harlech and arrived back at our tent at around 5:45. However, the fire pit was full of water so we didn’t have much hope of getting a fire going and we were hungry. Luckily we’d found some cooked chicken breasts and some microwaveable rice so we pulled together a simple dinner of rice, chicken and some salad. Then we just had a quiet night of Umbrella Academy in bed, while also watching the lightning flashes light the tent from the thunderstorms to the south of us.