We are back visiting family in North Wales again, and today went out to visit 3 castles in the local area; Beaumaris Castle, Caernarfon Castle and Penrhyn Castle.
[Beaumaris Castle]
My daughter is doing a project for high school and need to get pictures of castles to support that - hence the need to visit 3 in one day !
[Penryhn Castle]
Beaumaris and Caerfarfon Castles are both part of the "ring of steel" - built by Edward the 1st back in the 13th century when he was subjugating the Welsh population. They are magnificent, but their purpose was not so.
[Caernarfon Castle]
Penryhn Castle is altogether different from the other two. It is really a stately home built in the style of a castle. The other two had a defensive purpose - Penryhn never did. However, it has an equally sordid past, considering that it's owner built it on the back of money he basically made from slaves and the servitude of the local population in Welsh slate mines. It was built in the 19th century - so a whole 600 years after the other 2.
[Penryhn]
Penryhn castle is entirely intact and furnished fully inside, which you can visit, although we didnt have time yesterday. It is owned and run by the National Trust as a visitor attraction now.
[Penrhyn]
Penyrhn is certainly beautiful inside and out, although it is hard to look past its links to slavery and servitude.
[Penrhyn]
There are still many people locally who are disgusted with the family that built Penrhyn and vow never to set foot in it. Its still a sore subject 150+ years on !
[Inner courtyard of Beaumaris Castle]
Beaumaris is in the poorest state of the 3 we visited, although still safe to visit, because it is maintained by the Welsh government.
[Beaumaris castle - view into the town of Beaumaris from the castle walls]
You can climb up on the outer walls and walk around, plus as can be seen it still has a moat !
[Another view of the inner courtyard at Beaumaris Castle]
There is still lots to explore at Beaumaris, and you can get inside the main walls, although all of the rooms are bare - but its still fun to explore.
[View to Caernarfon Castle from Caernarfon town centre]
Caernarfon is by far the largest of the 3, with its massive towers. When you see the size of them, its hard to conceive how they were able to build Beaumaris and Caernarfon castles more than 700 years ago - but a display in Caernarfon says they conscripted a lot of english works and then basically made them mine rocks day in, day out - totally breaking them. And I think I've got it hard where I work !
[Caernarfon castle inner courtyard]
Caernarfon again has a huge inner courtyard. It is largely intact and you can explore the majority of its towers, walls and rooms which are quite amazing, although the original furnishings, etc are long gone.
[Caernarfon castle]
There are around 7 towers to climb at Caernarfon castle, which is exhausting, but great for helping you get exercise and your daily step count !!!
[Caernarfon Castle]
It was great to visit all 3 in one day, even if it was a whirl-wind tour. My daughter got the pictures she needed for her school project, and we were all exhausted by the end of the afternoon. It was fantastic to visit them all again !
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