Saturday May 3rd 2025

This morning we started our day at Penrhyn Castle for the Parkrun. The castle was constructed in Neo-Norman style in the 19th century. The money for the development of the estate and the associated slate mining (which we will get to on later days) came from Richard Pennant’s slave plantations in the West Indies. Members of the family were part of a group of anti-abolitionist parliamentarians 😡. The Parkrun was a hilly course on mainly gravel tracks through the estate forest and gardens finishing just through the gates in the courtyard of the castle—definately one of the more memorable Parkrun finishes.

On the way back to our accomodation we stopped at Ty Golchi for their small breakfast (above). Then it was home for showers and I’m pretty sure I had a nap this day (I left my journal back at home and I’m writing these posts in Noosa so I can’t check) as we didn’t need to be at our next site until 2 pm.

Bryn Celli Ddhu is a 5000 year old burial mound on Anglesea. There are lots of these Neolithic sites dotted around Wales. When I was looking at places to visit, I saw that Cadw, who look after many historic sites in Wales, were having a series of tours at selected sites over the summer and I found this tour during the time we were going to be in North Wales. I had it penciled in but we made the final decision the day before and bought tickets then. There was only one other couple on our tour. I love really old things and this is really old. The tour guide was an archeologist who works on the various digs in the area so he had an intricate knowledge of the site. He started by explaining the landscape, the hypothesised importance of the water courses to the siting of the monument and pointed out where other associated finds are. We then went inside and talked about the tomb, construction and stones. It was fascinating and highly recommended. The tour lasted about an hour. This site is always open so you can visit on your own as well.

Afterwards we drove across to Beaumaris Castle. Since I had just finished reading the Welsh Princes Trilogy, historical fiction novels culminating in the defeat of the Welsh Princes by Edward I, I was very excited to visit some of the ruins from this time. The Castles and Town Walls of Edward I are also a World Heritage Site and I am always keen to see those. Beaumaris Castle was the last of the four royal strongholds built, and was supposed to be the most impressive. It was never finished due to a lack of funds and trouble in Scotland that drew Edward’s attention away. The castle has four concentric rings of defenses. All four sites are run by Cadw. Since I knew I wanted to see all four sites, plus a number of other sites while we were in Wales we got a 7-day explorer pass. This allowed us to visit Cadw sites on any seven days in a two week period for £58.30 for the two of us. It turned out to be fantastic value for us as we ended up visiting nine Cadw sites. There are also 3-day passes to be used over seven days.

We had a very early booking at the Freckled Angel in Menai Bridge, being a long weekend and a Saturday, it was hard to get in. They serve all small plates, so we picked five and shared. There were a few really good dishes and then a number that just missed the mark on flavour combinations. So just OK, really.

Total Steps: 14,524