We were going to Beaumarisand visit the Court House (£2.50/Person), the Beaumaris Castle (£3.70/Person) and the Home of the Marquess of Anglesy "PLas Newydd" (£7/Person)

BEAUMARIS

An attractive and elegant town, Beaumaris was granted a charter by Edward I in 1294 and adopted the Norman name "beau marais" which translates as "beautiful marsh" — the lawned seafront, with its elegant Georgian and Victorian terraces, was once a marsh that protected the approaches to Beaumaris Castle (CADW). Often cited as the most technically perfect medieval castle in Britain, and now a World Heritage Site, Beaumaris Castle was the last of Edward I's Iron Ring of fortresses built to stamp his authority an the Welsh. Begun in 1295 and designed by the King's military architect, James of St George,this was to be his largest and most ambitious project. Regarded as a pinnacle of military architecture of the time, with a concentric defence rather than the traditional keep and bailey, the outer walls contained 16 towers while the inner walls were 43 feet high and up to 16 feet thick in places. It was never actually completed, as the money ran out before the fortifications reached their full planned height. Perhaps a measure of the castle's success was that, unlike other castles built by Edward I, it never experienced military action. The castle is still virtually surrounded by its original moat; there was also a tidal dock here for ships coming in through a channel in the marshes — an Iron ring where vessels of up to 40 tons once docked still hangs from the wall.
Although Beaumaris saw little or no military action, the town briefly enjoyed notoriety as a haven for pirates, as well as being a busy trading port. With the advent of steam ships and paddle boats, the resort developed during Victorian times as visitors from Liverpool and elsewhere took the sea trip down to Beaumaris. The town is now a popular place with the yachting fraternity due to its facilities and involvement in the annual Menai Strait Regatta.
While having connections with both sea trade and developing as a holiday resort, Beaumaris was at one time also an administrative and legal centre for the island.

The Courthouse, dating from 1614, is open to the public during the summer and, although it was renovated in the 19th century, much of its original Jacobean interior remains. lt was here, in 1773, that Mary Hughes stood in the dock and was sentenced to transportation for seven years after she had been found guilty of stealing a bed gown valued at six pence.

Close by is Beaumaris Gaol, which was designed as a model prison by Hansom in 1829. In this monument to Victorian law and order, the last man to bang was Richard Rowlandswho cursed the church clock opposite as he climbed to the scaffold in 1862. Today's visitors can relive those days of harsh punishment as well as view die cells and the treadwheel and follow the route taken by the condemned men to their rendezvous with the hangman.
An equally interesting place for all the family to visit is the Museum of Childhood Memories, a treasure house of nostalgia with a collection of more than 2000 items. In nine different rooms, each with its own theme, such as entertainment, pottery and glass and clockwork tin plate toys, visitors can wander around and see the amazing variety of toys which illustrate the changing habits of the nation over the last 150 years. Under-5s get a free ride on a rocking horse.

Beaumaris Castle

`Beau Mareys':
The Castle on the Fair Marsh

The castle on the 'fair marsh', Beau Mareys in Norman-French, was begun on 18 April 1295. lt was the last of the great royal castles with which from 1277 onwards King Edward 1 (1272-1307) of England ringed the north Wales seaboard, from Flint to Aberystwyth. Like the other strongholds at Rhuddlan, Aberystwyth andHarlech,it was designed on the concentric plan, with the main courtyard of the castle surrounded by a narrow enclosing ward and both of them in turn protected by a wide outer moat.
And yet the site chosen for Beaumaris — on level marshy ground, not very far from the water's edge — enabled its likely architect, Master James of St George, to invest its concentric layout with a degree of symmetry not attained at any of its predecessors. lt also allowed him to fill the encircling moat with a controlled supply of tidal water. lt is this combination of near-perfect symmetrical planning and water defences that gives Beaumaris its most striking and remarkable characteristics.
This said, in another respect the castle is sometimes thought a Iittle disappointing. Lacking the surmounting turrets of Harlech, or Conwy, or Caernarfon, the Skyline at Beaumaris is visually rather less impressive. The Anglesey stronghold has a certain squatness, and it somehow fails to dominate its surroundings. This is because, although the work of building went on more or less continuously for some thirty-five years, when it finally ceased in the 1330s the great towers of the inner ward were still without their top storeys, while the turrets which seem to have been intended to rise here in even greater profusion than at the earlier castles — were never so much as begun.
There was great initial progress with the works in 1295 and 1296, and a contemporary estimate of the labour requirement for the latter year refers to the employment of no fewer than 200 quarrymen, 400 stonemasons and 2,000 minor workmen. The same record enables us to say with some precision what parts of the castle were built first. In fact, with the help of this documentary evidence, together with that provided by an important account of 1306, we are able to trace the successive stages of work throughout almost the entire structure.

Figures preserved in the annual accounts of the exchequer at Westminster (the Pipe Rolls) and in the north Wales chamberlains' accounts (compiled year by year at Caernarfon) show a total cost for the building of Beaumaris Castle of about £ 14,500 between 1295 and 1330. Over £6,000 of this was spent in the first six months, rising to over £11,000 in the first five years.
The castle has relatively little later history to record. Any sieges it may have had to withstand, for example, were not of the kind which add so much to the story of Harlech. Like all the north Wales castles it was held for the king in the Civil War (1642-48); with its surrender to parliament in June 1646 its active life was at an end. Some partial works of demolition are known to have been carried out thereafter, but most of the structure that was built in the years before and alter 1300 has remained standing until our own time.

A History of Beaumaris Castle


Introduction

In March 1284, when the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (d. 1282) near Builth and the execution of his brother, Dafydd (d. 1283), at Shrewsbury had lately brought to an end the rufe of the native Welsh princes, King Edward I Iaid down in the Statute of Rhuddlan the pattern of a new Englishtype administration based on shires and counties.
These were to embrace and supersede the historic contrefi and commotes of Gwynedd. Two of the new shires, Caernarvon and Merioneth, had as their administrative centres the castles of Caernarfon and Harlech, both (like Conwy) newly begun in the spring and summer of 1283. The third shire, Anglesey, at first had no new castle; but from the beginning its sheriff Roger de Pulesdon, was given charge of the manor of Llanfaes. And it was to be within the boundaries of Llanfaes that the new castle of Beaumaris was eventually to begin to rise in 1295.
Very probably the decision to build it was taken, and its site chosen, during a week the king spent at Llanfaes in August 1283, at the very time when Conwy, Harlech and Caernarfon were all just begun. A decision not to proceed immediately with the actual work may well have been taken at the same time; the enormous demands made by the simultaneous construction of the three mainland castles (and in the case of Conwy and Caernarfon of the town walls also), as well as by other works like the repair of Aberystwyth, Criccieth and Castell y Bere, must have stretched the English labour and financial resources to the utmost. The projected castle on the island of Anglesey could take a lower priority.
The Position thus selected for the future castle lay dose beside the existing Welsh town of Llanfaes, already long the principal trading port of the island and the most prosperous and populous borough in native Wales. Since 1237 it had been endowed with
a house of Franciscan friars, in whose church lay King John( 1199-1216) of England's daughter, Joan (d. 1237), wife of Llywelyn the Great (d. 1240). Equidistant by water between the castles of Conwy and Caernarfon, Llanfaes also lay on the old overland route from Chester to Holyhead by way of Rhuddlan, Aberconwy and Llangefni. lt was the place to which travellers to Ireland were ferriedat low tide across the Menai Strait alter riding out over the Lavan sands from Aber. No other place in Anglesey was so well suited to become the centre of its English administration and trade, as well as filling at the same time a notable gap in the chain of coastal castles that extended from Flint to Aberystwyth.
By the end of the 1280s, Conwy and Harlech were finished and Caernarfon well advanced.

In terms of building resources, the way therefore now lay open to undertake the building of the final castle in the series planned in 1283, and the founding of the new town annexed to it. Then, in the autumn of 1294, following a decade of simmering resentment, the Welsh — led in the north by Madog ap Llywelynrose in a furious and widespread revolt. The people of Arfon sacked and severely damaged Caernarfon itself, with many casualties inflicted an the English. The Sheriff of Anglesey, none other than the king's favourite, Roger de Pulesdon, was hanged. The revolt at first took Edward by surprise, but his response was speedy and overwhelmingly thorough.

Resistance was quelled in a critical campaign in the winter of 1294-95, the reassertion of English power being immediately demonstrated by the commencement an the 'fair marsh' of the king's new castle and town of Beaumaris (Norman-French Beau Mareys, Latin de Bello Marisco), just a mile or so from Llanfaes. In order for the new borough to thrive, Llanfaes was depopulated and the Welsh inhabitants were removed to a newly established settlement, situated some 12 miles ( I 9.3km) away near the south-west tip of the island, to which the name of Newborough was given.


The Building of the Castle: 1295-98

The most astonishing thing about the building of Beaumaris is the speed with which the work got into its stride in the summer of 1295. Its direction was in the hands of Master James of St George, the master of the king's works in Wales. Like the king himself, he was probably by then a man in his middle fifties, and already had been involved withthe building of the castles of Builth and Aberystwyth, Rhuddlan and Flint, Conwy and Harlech, and —to the point at which it then stood — Caernarfon. Such was the practical experience that Master James had at his command, ready to bring to bear with maximum effect the moment the tide of victory over revolt should enable the English to reoccupy Anglesey's south-eastern coast.
The reoccupation took place an or about 10 April, from which date until 6 May the king made his headquarters at Llanfaes. There, an 17 April, Master James received 'by his own hands' an advance of 60s. for necessaries Tor the new castle'. On the following day, the newly appointed clerk of works, Walter of Winchester, received the first of a series of payments which, in the course of the next six months, were to reach a figure of over £7,800, some £6,736 of it for the works of 'the new castle of Beau Mareys'. All through the summer and autumn the money poured in from Chester and Rhuddlan, from Conwy and Ireland, and from the exchequer at Westminster.
Income was matched by outlay. In the twenty-four weeks from 18 April to 29 September I 295 the bills passed the £6,000 mark. In this short summer season the carriage of materials alone cost over £2,100, more than the total recorded expenditure on this item at Conwy, Harlech or Caernarfon throughout the 1280s. Here at Beaumaris, most of the building stone had to be fetched from a distance by water, from the area around Penmon, and a naval force was kept in being till mid-July 'to keep thesea between Snowdon and Anglesey'. In the same period the wages of workmen digging trenches and excavating the moat, and also at the king's order
putting up a barricade around the site of the new castle, amounted to no less than £ 1,468 12s. Od., indicating that their numbers throughout the summer must have averaged something like 1,800 men. Similarly stonemasons' wages totalling £1,005, and quarriers' totalling £636, point to numbers in these categories of 450 and 375 men respectively. The tonnage of stone quarried and shipped, and worked and laid by them, must have been immense. The quantities of materials other than stone are itemized in the surviving accounts and some details may be given here: 2,428 tons of sea-coal, for burning lime; 640 quarters of charcoal; 42 masons' axes; 3,277 boards; ropes, cords and chains; 8 loads of lead; 160 pounds of tin; 314 'bends' of iron; and 105,000 assorted nails.
There must already have been much to see when the king came back in July to inspect the results of the work over the first two and a half months. This time Edward stayed not at Llanfaes, but at Beaumaris itself. Here, on two summer evenings, in a setting of temporary thatch-roofed buildings erected 'within the castle', with the great walls and towers laid out and beginning to rise around them, the records give us a glimpse across the centuries of the king taking his ease after the day's work and listening to the playing of a harpist named Adam of Clitheroe.

By great good fortune, there has survived a letter sent in February 1296 by James of St George and Walter of Winchester to the off cials of the exchequer at Westminster. Their letter reported in detail what had been achieved since the previous April, and gave an estimate of how much money would be needed if the pace of construction was to be maintained through the new building season that would shortly be commencing.
lt seems that the curtain wall of the inner ward already stood in places to a height of 28 feet (8.5m), and was nowhere less than 20 feet (6.1 m). Four of the main inner ward towers had been begun, namely two on either side of the north and south gatehouse passages, and four gates were in position and were shut and locked at night; each gate-passage was to have three portcullises. In addition, work on ten smaller towers out of the sixteen, which would eventually flank the curtain of the outer ward, had been started. The letter also implies that work was in hand on the castle dock, which would allow a 40-ton vessel to come fully laden right up to the gate of the castle at high tide.
All this progress required the efforts of 400 masons, 200 quarrymen, 30 smiths, an unspecified number of carpenters, and 2,000 labourers. Some 30 boats, 60 wagons and 100 carts had been employed in bringing stone to the site and transporting coal for the lime-kilns. And to keep a similar labour forceemployed through the coming year it would require the expenditure of at least £250 a week (other figures show that in the first summer it had in fact been running at about £270 a week). Master James and Walter of Winchester told the exchequer officials that money was needed urgently. Payments were already £500 in arrears, and men were apparently leaving the site because they had nothing to live on.
In the event, the 1295 level of expenditure was not approached again. In the second summer, from May to September 1296, it reached only some £2,132, less than one third of the previous year's figure. Money continued to run short, and on 7 May there was not enough to pay all the workmen. There were also debts for materials, which continued to
be required in enormous quantities; as, for example, 16,200 freestones quarried by four contractors, and 32,583 tons of stone transported by sea to the castle. But the king's increasing commitments to Scotland inevitably diminished the resources available for Wales, and expenditure dwindled until after the end of the 1298 building season it appears to have almost ceased. We have only the record of a single assignment of £100 for the works in October 1300.


The Building of the Castle: 1306-30

No more is heard of Beaumaris until I 306.1n that year a newly appointed constable, John of Metfield, reported on the state of the far from finished castle and made recommendations for improving its security. The indications are that, up to this time, the outer curtain and its towers had not advanced beyond the work done in the summer of 1295; in other words only ten towers (numbered 1 to 10 on the plan at the end of the guidebook), with the corresponding lengths of curtain wall, had even been begun, and still stood only to a height of about 8 feet (2.4m) above the water of the moat. Meanwhile, towers 1 I to 16, with their linking lengths of curtain wall, had yet to be started. In short, on the north and north-wert sides, the castle was still left without any outer ring of defence.

In all, Metfield enumerated seven 'grievous defaults'. His report (in Norman-French), stated that a good, strong barbican was needed to cover the gate towards the dock, and at the other gate either the same thing or a good barricade (a la porte dever Le Porth une bone Barbecane e forte, e al autre porte ensement o bones borres). In addition, the portcullises (those mentioned in the letter of 1296) were still needed. And it would still be necessary to complete the closing in of the castle an the north and north-west sides, either with a wall of stone or, failing that, a strong palisade. Metfield's other recommendations were to repair the gates and change their locks; to scour and deepen the moat; to clean out the drains and the basements of the towers (rather suggesting that they may have been then, as now, open to the sky); and to repair and roof over the latrines, evidently then, as now, likewise exposed to the elements.
What, then, was done? To begin with, the barbican was duly built against the front of the south gatehouse, intentionally impeding direct access to the gatepassage. The round rear arch in the barbican is a Savoyard feature, suggesting completion before 1309 by when Master James of St George had died. At much the same time, the entrance to the north gatehouse, still the more exposed of the two, was blocked up: in May 1306 a mason and four labourers were paid 'for obstructing the gate towards the field' (obstruenti portam versus campum), and remains of the blocking walls they built against the sides of the gate-passage can still be seen today. These works the barbican in front of the south gate and the barricade in the north gate-passage would have compensated for the absence of the six portcullises, most of which could not have been installed until later, when the superstructures needed for hanging and working them had been built to the requisite height.

The urgent improvement of the unfinished defences at this time was part of a programme for bringing the castle into full commission in a period when there was fear of the Scots making common cause with the Welsh and effecting a landing on the north Wales coast. In April 1306, the constable went on a forty-day visit to London to buy armour and other supplies for the castle garrison, his purchases including a breviary for use in the chapel and twentytwo baldrics, or belts, covered with red leather. In June, a mason named William de Kyrkebi was paid 3s. 9d. for shaping 180 round stones at the Penmon quarry 'for the prince's engines in the castle'; in August he received 3s. 4d. for another 160 round stones 'for the trebuchets in the castle'.
James of St George was succeeded at Beaumaris by Master Nicholas de Derneford, who had come to join Master James after previously working at St Augustine's Abbey, Bristol, theAbbey of Burton in Staffordshire and Repton Priory in Derbyshire. lt is perhaps to Derneford's hand that we should ascribe the unusual form of the window heads on the courtyard face of the north gatehouse . From 1323 his responsibilities at Beaumaris were embraced within those of the wider office ofmaster of the king's works in north Wales, which he continued to exercise until 1331, by which date it is to be inferred that the Beaumaris works — at least as a continuous Operation were finally halted.
In general, the work of the previous twenty years must have been a gradual building-up, first at one point and then at another, from where things had been left in 1298. Attention was focused on both the inner and outer rings of walls and towers, and on the inward part of the north gatehouse. One major new undertaking was evidently the closing of the gap on the north and north-west section of the outer circuit of walls, including the Llanfaes Gate and towers 13 to 16. There are references to completing ten and a half perches of the moat between 1312 and 1315, and in 1317 to a payment for twelve perches of moat (1 perch = 51/2 yards = 5m). These may well relateto the stretches of the moat alongside the new sections of wall and towers. Even then, the front of the Llanfaes Gate was left unfinished towards the field, and possibly it is this gate which is referred to in a stray document which, as late as 1402, speaks of some old lead tanks being melted down to provide roofing for 'the new tower in the outer ward'.
Probably another new undertaking of 1310-30 was the raising of the spur wall on the east side of the dock known as the Gunners Walk.
Over the castle as a whole, the curtain walls — both outer and inner were completed to the full height of their corbelled parapets. So, too, apart from those of the Llanfaes gate, were the outer towers. But for the most part the great towers of the inner ward only reached a little above the floor level of their top storeys, at which point they were left unfinished. The turrets, which would have surmounted them and given the castle as picturesque a skyline as Conwy, Harlech and Caernarfon castles, were not even begun.

The Later Middle Ages

Proof that, structurally speaking, the incomplete castle we see today is still very much the building at the stage at which it was left in 1330, and is not the result of decay, depredation or demolition in later periods, is provided by a report whichhas come down to us of a survey of Beaumaris and other castles made by William de Emeldon on behalf of Edward, the Black Prince(d. 1376), in 1343. Emeldon estimated that to bring Beaumaris to anywhere near completion would need the expenditure of at least £684, a very considerable sum. Nearly half of this would be needed to build the south gatehouse, still scarcely begun towards the courtyard; finishing the north gatehouse would cost £100, and the Chapel Tower £128; the other towers could simply have their roofs repaired at the existing level at a cost of £5 to £10 each. The survey says nothing of a need to erect the buildings in the courtyard whose fireplaces are still to be seen in the east and west curtains; it may well be, therefore, that these had in fact already been built before 1330, and that their disappearance belongs to a later phase of the castle's history.

During the rest of the fourteenth and most of the fifteenth centuries, the north Wales chamberlains' accounts periodically record minor sums spent on maintenance, but there is no firm evidence of work of any consequence being carried out. Nevertheless, in the years of tension leading to the Glyn Divrrevolt of the early fifteenth century, defence of the castle was by no means taken for granted. In 1389, for example, twenty men were placed in Beaumaris on the chamberlain's order,'because of enemiesat sea'. During the height of the revolt itself, in the closing months of 1403, the castle was certainly besieged by the Welsh. There is a record, too, which suggests a mill was built within the castle, presumably increasing the garrison's capacity to withstand an extended siege. In any case, in June 1405 a relief raid was launched from Ireland, putting the Welsh rebels in Anglesey to flight and leading to the recapture of the castle.

Thereafter, in the long term, the amount of maintenance done was not sufficient to arrest the gradual process of continuing deterioration, especially of the leadwork and roof timbers throughout the castle. By 1534 'there was scarcely a single chamber in Beaumaris Castle where a man could lie dry', and four years later all four north Wales castles were reported to be 'much ruynous and ferre in deca'y
for lacke of tymely reparacons'.
Writing from Beaumaris to the king's secretary, Thomas Cromwell(d. 1540), on 9 April 1539, Sir Richard Bulkeley(d. 1546/47) reported that:
'The royal castles of north Wales are unfurnished and have neither guns nor powder, nor other artillery, apart from eight or ten small pieces in Bewmares possessed by the writer. Has provided three barrels of gunpowder, some shot, forty bowl and forthy sheaves of arrows, with as many coats of fence and sallets and splinters, at his own cost; this is inadequate for such a fortress. Conwey, Carn' and Hardlach castles have nothing in them to defend them for one hour. If enemies secure them "hit wold cost his majestie a hundreth thowsand of his pounds and the losse of mayny a man affor' they shuld be gotten agayn". Anglesey is but a night's sailing from Scotland beseeches a couple of gunners and some good ordnance and powder to defend the King's house in Bewmares.'

The Civil War and After

By 1609, when at least parts of Harlech and Caernarfon were still usable, Beaumaris — like Conwy—was officially classified as 'utterlie decayed'. To remedy this state of affairs Thomas, viscount Bulkeley (d. 1659), was later claimed by his son to have spent £3,000 in repairing the castle in aid of King Charles 1 (1625-49) early in the Civil War, action paralleled at Conwy by Archbishop John Williams(d. 1650). From 1643 onwards, both castles occupied key positions in the transit of men and materials from Ireland to the king. For Beaumaris the eventual victory of parliament culminated in the surrender of thecastle by Colonel Richard Bulkeley (d. 1650) to Major-General Thomas Mytton (d. 1656) on 14 June I 646,'Beaumaris being a place that hath been of very great use to the King'. A short-lived revolt in 1648 only led in Anglesey to a second surrender of Beaumaris to Mytton on 2 October, and a fine of £7,000 levied on the island for its contumacy.Under the Protectorate, the constableship of the castle was conferred on Colonel John Jones (d. 1660), a near relative by marriage of Oliver Cromwell, who appointed an old Ironside officer named Captain Wray as his deputy, and annual expenditure on the garrison in the 1650s is recorded as amounting to £1,703. And in 1657 we have a reference to two of its number being imprisoned 'for stealing ye leads of ye castle', which suggests a state of dilapidation, if not active partial demolition, at that time. Only a few years later, in 1665, when Lord Conway's agent was supervising the dismantling of Conwy Castle, he wrote from Conwy to his employer in Warwickshire of the dangers and difficulties encountered in taking down the lead roofs therel feare I can have noe workman here that knoweth how to doe it, but I here there is one at Blewmarris that hath taken downe one or two Castels alreadye, and tomorrow I doe intend to send to gett him'. Taken together, there references point to a similar dismantling in progress at Beaumaris at about the time of the Restoration in 1660.
This may well have been the period, therefore, which saw the removal of the medieval courtyard buildings, as well as the unroofing of the hall in the north gatehouse, and what may have remained of the tower roofs generally. But in terms of detail we are entirely without information both as to how extensive the stone robbing may have been, and as to how late it may have continued. One cannot look at Beaumaris Gaol (built 1829), for example, without some suspicion as to whether all of its building stone was newly quarried for the purpose, or may not in part, at least, have come from the castle.

At Beaumaris, as elsewhere, the eighteenth century was a time when the castle ruins acquired their ivy mantle and kept the noiseless tenor of their way. Few besides the travellers to Ireland, who continued to pass by the castle until the opening of Thomas Telford's Conwy and Menai bridges in 1826, can have had occasion to observe it. Beaumaris lacked the fame and the Romantic appeal that increasingly attracted artists and writers to the more scenically beautiful castles an the mainland shore. Once, momentarily, in August 1832, the castle came into its own, when the inner ward was the setting for a 'Royal Eisteddfod', graced by the presence of Her Royal Highness, Victoria of Saxe-Coburg, the duchess of Kent (d. 1861), with her thirteen-year-old daughter and future queen, the Princess Victoria (d. 1901).

Meanwhile, as we have observed, the Bulkeleys had been associated with Beaumaris for many years. As royalist supporters, the family had defended the castle for the king in the 1640s. In fast, a constable of the

In fact, a constable of the castle of the name of Bulkeley first appears as early as 1440, and Bulkeleys or Williams-Bulkeleys have held the office almost without a break since the time of the Civil War. And it was in 1807 that the sixth Lord Bulkeley (d. 1822) acquired the ownership of the castle ruins from the Crown for the sum of £735.
By 1925, when Sir Richard Williams-Bulkeley (1862-1942) placed the castle in the guardianship of the Commissioners of Works for preservation as an ancient monument, the moat had long been entirely filled in and the walls were so shrouded in ivy that most of their masonry was scarcely visible. Their clearance and consolidation, and the re-establishment of the moat on the wert and part of the north and south sides, were undertaken during the following ten years, and maintenance has continued ever since. In 1987, Beaumaris Castle was inscribed on the World Heritage List as a historic site of outstanding universal value. Today, Cadw maintains the site on behalf of the National Assembly for Wales.

A Tour of Beaumaris Castle

The Castle Plan

Many castles are lifted up on rocky cliffs or promontories, even though these may sometimes be only a few feet above the sea, as at Caernarfon. Beaumaris on the other hand lies at sea level.
And, lacking its own distinctive skyline, it is thus denied the distant views that lend enchantment to, say, Rhuddlan and Harlech, or Conwy and Caernarfon. lndeed, it is only with difficulty that the castle can be seen from just across the Menai Strait, and the Romantic artists of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as Richard Wilson (d. 1782), Paul Sandby (d. 1809), and Peter de Wint (d. 1849), all largely passed it by. Nowadays, the great scale and immense strength of its buildings excite the wonder of a host of visitors, and the purpose of the description that follows is to explain why those buildings are planned as they are, and to point out their more interesting features.

First, we shall make our way right into the heart of the castle, into the huge inner ward. In doing so, we shall note the various barriers — no fewer than fifteen of them — that would have had to have been encountered by anyone attempting to do the same thing when the castle was in its heyday. We shall then look at the inner ward itself, at the two great gatehouses through which access was gained to it, and at the curtain walls and corner towers which enclose it. Lastly, we shall describe the ring of defences making up the outer ward, with a final look at these outer defences from the outside.
A castle was generally designed as a fortified residence, capable on occasion of accommodating its lord and his suite, in this case the king or the prince. Meanwhile it would be garrisoned under the command of a constable, who was the lord'sdeputy or lieutenant. At Beaumaris, all the residential accommodation was either in the inner ward, or intowers attached to it. The lines of defence, four in number, were ranged concentrically around it. Taking them in order from the centre they are:
1 The massive curtain walls, 36 feet (11m) highand 151/2 feet (4.7m) thick;
2 The outer ward, an encircling area of open ground averaging about 60 feet (18.3m) in width and commanded from the battlements of the inner curtain wall;
3 The lower and less massive outer curtain wall, with its eight battlemented sides flanked by twelve battlemented turrets and pierced by two twin-towered gateways;
4 The water-filled moat, now only partially complete, but originally wholly surrounding the inner three lines of defence.

The Gate next the Sea and the Barbican

From the ticket office, the path along the south side of the castle leads to a modern timber bridge across the moat. On the other side, the Gate next the Sea contained the first three of those fifteen obstacles which a medieval intruder would have needed to negotiate to gain access to the castle at this point.To begin with there was a drawbridge, its chains formerly passing through two holes still visible high up within the outer arch. Next there were two parallel 'murder slots' over the gate-passage, and then a heavy two-leaved door of which the drawbar hole and the stumps of the hinges can still be seen. Passing through the gate, ahead and at right angles are the next two hazards, namely the doorway into the barbican and the barbican itself, its interior commanded by a shooting platform running around the three sides of its wall-head.

The South Gate-Passage

The remaining ten barriers were built into the main gatehouse passage. In turn there were: outwardsopening doors, with double drawbar holes on the inside; the first of three portcullises, marked by grooves in the side walls; five parallel 'murder slots' overhead; 'spy holes' or arrowloops looking through from the guardrooms on either side of the passage; a second portcullis, again marked by grooves in the walls; and inwards-opening doors, also with double drawbar holes visible on the inside. Another row of 'murder slots' was situated in the now-missing roof of the next part of the passage, from which doors on either side led to guardrooms, and to the newel stairs in the far corners leading to the upper parts of the gatehouse. Finally, by analogy with the corresponding features of the north gatehouse, traces of a third pair of double doors and a third portcullis, with yet another'murder slot' in the arch above it, can be identified. When all these checks had been safely negotiated, then, and only then, was entrance to be had into the inner ward.

The Inner Ward

Internal Features

The striking thing about the interior of the inner ward is its size three-quarters of an acre (0.3ha). lt is not difficult to picture it filled, as we are told it was filled in the winter of 1295-96, with huts to house the workforce of upwards of 2,000 men engaged in the manifold tasks of construction. Its present spaciousness, however, was originally curtailed, or designed to be curtailed, by long ranges of buildings running the full length of its western and about half the length of its eastern sides, and by a building in the south-east corner. The lower door openings to be seen in the north-east, south-east and south-west corners, and in the centre of the west side, were all shaped for 'interior doors'. In other words, they were designed to provide access to and from buildings that no longer exist against the east and west curtains. You should note the careful rebating of some of these openings to house flush-fitting doors.
Looking closely at the western side of the ward, you will see a number of other pieces of evidence for these surrounding buildings. At the north end, there is a ground-floor fireplace, and just to the south of it are two small bondings again at ground level. Nearby, in the angle with the north gatehouse, there is a short length of foundation almost 6 feet (1.8m) wide for the inner wall of the range. There is also
an offset, or narrow ledge, to carry a floor along the whole length of the western curtain. Very probably, the northern part of this lost range contained the kitchen, with the stables to the south. At Conwy they were similarly placed end to end on the opposite side of the courtyard to the hall.
On the east side of the ward, the evidence is provided by a similar (but lower) offset, which can be found running along the northern half of the curtain wall [I]. The range as a whole presumably terminated on the line of a return wall near the Chapel Tower, the bonding of which can be seen extending to the full height of the curtain [2]. At the level of the offset are two fine fireplaces [3 and 4], evidently intended to serve rooms of major importance. The windows of these rooms would have been in the now vanished wall towards the courtyard.
Clearly the imposing arched doorway [5] which faces the courtyard at first-floor level would also have been approached from inside the eastern range of buildings. lt gave access to a vestibule, which in turn led to the chapel royal. The Position of the chapel as an annexe to the range suggests that the latter, including the adjacent north-east tower [6], was intended to provide the castle's principal residential suite. The arrangements would have corresponded as a whole to the royal apartments in the inner ward at Conwy.

Beneath these east range apartments was a low basement [7], and there survives from this a partly blocked opening for light and air towards the north, originally heavily barred where it emerges towards the outer ward. Nearby, the remains of an oven the adjacent corner against the north gatehouse.The existence of a former building in the southeast corner of the inner ward is vouched for by the wall-plaster still adhering to the southern curtain wall. The end wall of this building must have been formed by the east wall of the gatehouse, considerably more of which must therefore have stood at one time than remains today. This fast alone gives rise to doubt as to whether, as has sometimes been suggested, the vanished courtyard buildings were indeed ever built, or whether their absence may not rather reflect the activity of the 'one at Blewmarris that hath taken downe one or two Castles alredye', as reported by Lord Conway's agent in 1665 .
Two other features visible from within the inner ward may be pointed out. The first is a series of three inclined lines of putlog holes sloping up from ground to wall-top level over the whole length of the west curtain. These are best seen from the middle
or far side of the courtyard. The holes held the bearer poles of inclined scaffold paths used instead of vertical ladders and cranes for hoisting material at the time of the original building. The careful observer will also notice them in other parts of the castle.
The second feature is the presence of rounded projections at wall-top level, near to the centre of each of the longer curtains. Corbelled out above the main wall face below, these projections carry the wall-walks around what appear to be the bases of uncompleted turrets, one of which on each side would have contained the stairs to the roof of the adjacent unfinished tower. The position of the castle well, presumably somewhere within the courtyard, has yet to be discovered.


The North Gatehouse

Imposing though it is, the great north gatehouse at Beaumaris is but a fragment of the building it was intended to be. The overall concept was very similar to that of the near-complete surviving gatehouse built by Master James twelve years earlier at Harlech, though it was to be a structure of considerably larger dimensions. At Harlech there are six windows on the courtyard side, three to each floor; here at Beaumaris there were to be ten, of which only the lower five were ever built. The upper five, as may still be seen, were never raised beyond the level of their window seats.
In looking at this same courtyard faade, we must also remember that the two corner turrets were initially designed to rise up to double the height to which they stand today. lndeed, if completed, they would have been appreciably taller than the highest surviving parts of the gatehouse. The two rounded towers flanking the outer side of the gatehouse passage are the only towers in the whole inner ward which approach something like their full intended height of about 60 feet (18.3m). They lack only their battlements and their rear walls.
At ground level, running centrally through the gatehouse from north to south, is the heavily defended entrance passage. Its arrangements were very similar to those planned in the south gatehouse. In this case, what appear to be the remains of the blocking structure inserted in 1306 can be seen towards the outer end. On each side of the passage there were intercommunicating rooms for porters and janitors, those to the south giving access to the two turret staircases.
To allow for access from within the castle, when all the doors and portcullises of the passage were closed, there was also an outside stair. As at Harlech, this led up from the courtyard to the rooms on the first floor.

In fact, you will see that it communicated through the lower part of the westernmost ofthe five windows, which accordingly has a lower sill than the others. The former presence of the stair (of which no other trace now remains) no doubt accounts for the small size of the window openings of the adjoining basement, in contrast to the single large opening which exists on the other side of the gate-passage.
All five first-floor windows were originally mullioned and transomed, as may be seen from the surviving transom in the easternmost window. Notice, however, that there is a perceptible difference in the jamb mouldings between the upper and lower parts of each window. This said, the higher dressings appear to be of one build with the surrounding stonework, which in turn supports the bases of the intended windows of the unbuilt second floor. Taken as a whole, the evidente suggests that the entire build of the lower windows is unlikely to be any later than about 1330 — the date which marks the end of the main construction period.
As left at that time, the first-floor accommodation towards the courtyard appears to have comprised a single hall, approximately 70 feet by 25 feet(2l .3m by 7.6m). The position of the two fireplaces, however, suggests that — as at Harlech — a dividing cross-wall was intended, probably on the line of the eastern side of the gate-passage below. The newel stair in the south-west turret gives access to wall-walk level and this same point may bereached via the wall-walk along the western curtain from the south-west tower.
From this upper vantage point you will have a good view of the moulded corbels or brackets running down both sides of the hall. They presumably supported timber wall-posts used in the framing of the low-pitched roof. Higher in the north and south walls, near the centre, you will also see a pair of 'springers' for a stone arch which would have supported the intended second floor. In the south wall, notice the bases of the embrasures and window seats of the five intended second-floor windows. There are also indications of the slope of the pent roof, which covered as much as was built of the rooms in the two northern towers and over the gate-passage (best viewed from ground level).

Back at ground level, looking up into the corners between the gatehouse and the adjacent curtain walls, you will see traces of the supports for wooden platforms. If these platforms were removed, the gate and the wall-walks could be isolated one from the other. On the west side, a modern access 'bridge' takes the place of the medieval platform. In this same corner, looking at the south-west stair turret, notice the door that communicated at first-floor level with the now-vanished range of buildings on the west side of the courtyard. As above, access may have been by way of a removable timber platform.
Moving out from the inner ward to the north side of the gatehouse, you will see the large trefoilheaded windows that lit the three rooms on the upper floor. Below are the plainer lights of the lower chambers. There was a fireplace in each of the six rooms. In the case of the two examples over the gate-passage, this is an indication that they were not designed — as were the corresponding rooms at Harlech — to serve as chapels.


The South Gatehouse

Returning to the south gatehouse it is clear that in all essentials it was planned to be the dose counterpart of that to the north. In the symmetrical layout of the castle they are set axially opposite one another. But even though the part of the south gatehouse projecting into the courtyard may once have stood slightly higher than now (pp. 12-13, 23), it is certain that the building as a whole never achieved anything even approaching the degree of completeness of its far from finished northern replica. Whereas the great outward flanking towers of the north gatehouse were, as we have seen, carried up at least in part to their full intended height, those of the south gatehouse never rose beyond the level of the curtain walls to either side of them.
Thus, even towards the front, where the gatehouse is at its highest, we have to envisage the addition of a whole upper storey and battlements to the twin towers. The stair turrets towards the courtyard, now little more than shapeless stumps of masonry, would have risen to a height of something like 70 feet (21.3m). Small wonder that of the sum of £684 estimated to be needed for repairing and completing the castle in 1343, no less than £320 (£200 of it masons' work) was said to be required for the south gatehouse.

The Wall-Passages

All of the inner ward curtain walls are pierced at first-floor level by Jong passages, similar to those which are such a marked characteristic of Caernarfon Castle. Here at Beaumaris their purpose was to provide internal communication between the various rooms in the flanking towers of the inner ward, and also to give access to the latrines contrived beside them within the thickness of the walls . The passages are roofed with flat shouldered vaults composed of roughly shaped flag stones carried on running brackets corbelled out from the tops of the side walls. lt is possibly these flagstones that are referred to in the 1296 Pipe Roll account as petras velosas (sail stones).Robert of Preston and his fellow boatmen brought some 19,706 tons of them by sea from the quarrt' to the castle in the summer of that year at a cost of 2d. a ton, a total of £ 164 4s. 4d.
These passages can be reached today by the circular staircases leading up from the south-west and south-east corners of the inner ward. There are corresponding stairs in the two northern corners, and in the middle of the western side, but being partly ruined these latter are now inaccessible. Nor is the circuit of the passages any longer continuous, owing to the floors being destroyed in both the north and south gatehouses.
To reach the eastern passage, you should follow the steps that lead up from the south-east corner of the courtyard. Inside, the left-hand door from the bottom landing leads to the newel staircase. At the next landing you should turn right and right again to gain access to the main east passage. This can be followed through to the east tower of the north gatehouse. First, however, to the left of the landing and dose beside the south-east tower, notice the small guardroom or sleeping chamber in the thickness of the wall. The vaulted roof of this
chamber is gathered over from no fewer than six courses of corbelling.
As you progress along the eastern passage, you will find a succession of doorways leading off from the right, the first two giving access to latrines. Next, there is a door to one of the chapel's side watching chambers. Then down a short flight of steps is the entrance to the chapel proper. The doorway to the second watching chamber is found beyond, and next to this is a spiral stair which led up to the wall- walk. From here, the narrowing of the passage an the left is where it passes behind the fireplaces of the adjacent great hall and chamber. Further on, near the north-east tower, there is another small guardroom with a corbelled vault. Finally, to the left of the next landing, there is a passage with another pair of latrines — which served both the tower and the eastern side of the north gatehouse a small chamber containing a fireplace and a lobby area in front of the door connecting with the gatehouse.Return now to the chapel, but should you wich to follow the sequence in the western curtain wall, access to the passage is gained by way of the steps in the south-wert corner of the courtyard. There are similar openings to latrines and wall chambers along the whole half circuit, from gatehouse to gatehouse.

The Chapel

Meanwhile, as we have observed, the handsome little chapel royal occupies the first floor of that tower sited half-way along the eastern curtain wall. Even devoid of its medieval colour and fittings, it undoubtedly remains one of the highlights to be found at Beaumaris. To understand the original arrangements, it is best to begin by standing immediately outside the chapel proper.
Here, you are positioned in what was a small vestibule or lobby opening from the arched doorway towards the courtyard. Of course, the doorway itself was housed within the now lost range of buildings that ran just outside . In turn, further lobbies to the left and right of the vestibule led to watching chambers an each side of the chapel and also communicatedwith the northern and southern halves of the wallpassage. The chapel was entered directly from the vestibule through the trefoil-headed twin doorways. At the appropriate times, the entire complex could be closed off from the remainder of the castle.

Within, the chapel has a polygonal east end and is covered with a ribbed-stone vault springing from semi-octagonal wall shafts. Above the remains of a stone bench, panels of triple blind arcading decorate the lower part of the walls, while the upper part contains five deeply set lancet windows. The openings in the north and south walls look out from the lateral watching chambers, and from the northern of which a squint has been cut to command a view of the altar. There are indications that an upper gallery existed at some time an the west side. And there is an air shaft sloping steeply upward in the west wall to the wall-walk above.
Outside the Chapel Tower, facing the outer ward, there is a small corbelled projection which may have housed a bell . The chapel is built over a barrel-vaulted basement, while its own vault would have carried the floor of the tower's unfinished top storey, of which only a few feet of the walls were ever built. In 1343, the cost of completing it was estimated at £1 28, but work was evidently never resumed.

The Flanking Towers

In all, in addition to the two gatehouses, six round or half-round towers flank the curtains of the inner ward. From the point at which you entered the castle, the south-east tower, Chapel Tower, and north-east towers lie to the right; the south-west tower, Middle Tower, and north-west towers are to the left. The Chapel Tower having already been described above, attention is here drawn to the principal features of the remaining towers.
Apart from the Chapel Tower, with its stone floor and vault, all the other towers are without roofs and floors of any kind. All were designed to be three storeys high, but the top storey was only partly built in the case of the three eastern towers, and to an even lesser extent in the case of those on the west. Internally, above a circular ground stage, the four corner towers are all octagonal. The Chapel Tower and Middle Tower have semi-octagonal interiors at all levels.
In the corner towers, the only light and air admitted to the circular basements was by way of a single vent shaft sloping steeply up through the thickness of the walls to a narrow slit. In short, they can only have been intended as prisons. Stone diaphragm arches (complete in the south-east tower and Middle Tower, with partial evidence in the south-west and north-east towers) may indicate
an exceptionally strong and heavy floor above each basement. There is also a complete diaphragm arch over the main room in the north-east tower. The principal chamber in each tower was situated on the first or middle floor. lt was lit by a two-light mullioned window — similar to the top-floor windows at Conwy Castle — and warmed from a fine hooded fireplace. In every case, subordinate rooms and latrines were at hand. These were reached throughout this level by way of the connecting passages. Sufficient of the second-floor rooms was built in the south-east tower and Chapel Tower to Show that they would have closely resembled those below them.

Wall-Walks and Latrines

The staircase at the south-west corner of the courtyard may be used to reach the top of the western curtain wall. In fact, although not all is now accessible, the level of the wall-walks is maintained with little variation around the perimeters of the unfinished corner towers and those of the south gatehouse. The paving with beach pebbles dates from the time of the Office of Works renovations in the 1920s and 1930s, prior to which the wall tops supporteda rich growth of trees and other vegetation. The remains of the battlements are fragmentary, with only six out of an original thirty-six merlons still retaining their complete loops. But enough is left to show that — as at the other north Walescastles of Edward 1— there were set at alternating levels of declination so as to give command over differing fields of fire.
The most conspicuous feature of the Beaumaris wall-walks (seen well here on the west side) is the presence of the latrines which are
placed in pairs: two pairs to each of the long sides, and one to each of the four short northern and southern sides, making sixteen latrines in all at this level.
There were also sixteen more latrines accessible from the wall-passages below. Their ingenious construction repays examination, In each case, within a total wall thickness of just under 16 feet (4.9m), there is a (arge rectangular pit extending from below ground level to the wall-walk. Above the pits, on each floor, there is a pair of latrine seats set back to back, separated one from the other
by a continuous rectangular ventilating shaft rising from the centre of the pit to the outside air.
The design is unique to Beaumaris, and is almost certainly related to the fact that the castle is placed at sea level within a water-filled moat, allowing the pits to be scoured through channels, now long blocked, beneath the outer ward. In much the same way, channels under the outer ward at Rhuddlan ran from the latrine pits to discharge into the surrounding dry moat.
The open position of the latrines an the Beaumaris wall-walk allows us to see the planning of the individual cubicles. These were approached down an angled flight of six or more steps, at the bottom of which privacy was afforded by a door neatly rebated against the wall. In many cases, the stumps of the door's iron hinges, carefully run in lead, can still be seen. Beyond the door
is the latrine proper, the groove for its wooden seat set in the walls of a little recess, with the air shaft behind separating it from its immediately adjoining neighbour.
The latrines and their flushing system were already a cause of concern at the time of John de Metfield's survey of 1306. Amongst other serious shortcomings (grevuse defautes) at the castle, it was reported that the 'little houses' (petites mesones) in the body of the castle badly needed roofing. In other words, then as now they were open to the sky. Their drains (gutteres) required repairing and mending,
and the said houses needed to be cleansed of refuse (fer' netto de ordure), the ducts (les issues) of the latrines being full of water and filth.

The Outer Ward

Internal Features

lt is in the nature of a concentrically planned castle, such as Beaumaris, that when we stand in the narrow outer ward we can see on the one hand the massive external face of the great walls and towers of the inner ward, and on the other, the inside of the lower walls and towers of the outer curtain. lt is proposed therefore to point out some of the features worth noting an either side of you when perambulating the outer ward. You should start at the south-west tower and proceed northwards.
Notice first that in all three western towers the large two-light windows are almost all blocked with stone. Only the south-east tower window is now both unblocked and retains its mullion. Although it seems likely that the corresponding windows in the north-east tower and the four gate towers have been unblocked, they have also lost their central mullions. In this context, we may also note that in the whole circuit of the castle's outer walls and towers, a great many of the arrowloops at ground level no fewer than seventy-nine out of a total of 164 — are wholly or partially blocked. lndeed, it is likely that at some time in the history of Beaumaris this blocking of the outer curtain wall loops was universal. Such a security measure must date either from the Glyn Dwr troubles of around 1403-05, or from the Civil War in the seventeenth century, but there is now no evidence to suggest which.
Turning again to the inner curtain, we may be struck by the notable regularity of the moulded stone corbel table that runs around the full circuit at wall-top level. Each section of the corbel table gives a decorative finish that in some measure compensates for the evident incompleteness of the towers. Moving around to the northern part of the outer ward, good examples of evidence for the constructional use of inclined scaffold paths can be seen in the sloping lines of putlog holes in the eastern tower of the gatehouse; also in the northeast tower, and in the curtains to either side of it.
On the east side, in the south angle between the Chapel Tower and the curtain wall, there is a small corbelled projection. lt was perhaps intended, like a similar feature at Rhuddlan, to house a bell. Then, continuing around the circuit, in the south-east tower you will see the unblocked first-floor window with its surviving mullion. Further on, notice the wellpreserved carving of one of two gargoyle head spouts an the south wall of the barbican. The barbican itself, through which we passed at the beginning of the tour, was built as a hindrance to any

possibility of an enemy rushing the main south gatehouse. The construction was undertaken at a time when not only the gatehouse itself was unfinished, but the south outer curtain and the Gate next the Sea may also very likely still have stood short of their full intended height.
Although it is simple enough in its symmetrical eight-sided layout, the outer curtain wall with its numerous flanking towers and two twin-towered gateways is nonetheless a complex and remarkable piece of construction. lt is remarkable in particular for the completeness of its survival, in contrast to the fragmentary state of the corresponding works at Aberystwyth, Harlech and Rhuddlan. In Wales, at least, Beaumaris stands as the concentric castle par excellence.
As a further obstacle to attack, the outer curtain also had an offensive purpose. In fact, its arrowloops provided firing points in every direction at three levels from the turrets and two from the linking sections of wall. The crenellation, or the battlementing with the top level of arrowloops, has almost entirely perished. But it is calculated that when complete this outer circuit of fortification was equipped with not far short of 300 firing positions. From any group of these, the defending garrison could harass attackers at whatever point they might concentrate their assault.
The survey of 1343 reported thirty perches of the castle walls as being 'partly ruinous'. If the reference was to the outer curtain, it may be that the section strengthened by the addition ofinternal arches to the west of the Gate next the Sea was included, and that the arches are a remedial measure carried out at that time. lt is noticeable that the length of wall eastwards from the Gate next the Sea to the south-east corner shows a slight inward lean, but these two lengths together are still a good deal short of thirty perches.

Exterior of Outer Ward

From the February 1296 report of progress an the castle , it would seem that only ten of the outer turrets were included in the initial construction works begun in the previous year. And, looking carefully from the exterior of the castle, you will be able to detect the points at which this earliest construction was subsequently linked with later work, and heightened throughout to produce the outer curtain as we see it today. As a whole, the outer curtain can be viewed from across the moat on the north, the west and south-west sides, and from the recreation ground outside the castle an the east.
The ten towers mentioned in the record of 1296 commence with the tower numbered 1 an the plan at the end of the guide, and continue anticlockwise to the tower numbered 10 at the north-east corner. The first work appears to have reached a height of only about 8 feet (2.4m) above the water level in the moat. For much of the intervening distance there is a well-marked horizontal break or change-line in the masonry. Everywhere below this line the arrowloops are distinctive in having dressed stone jambs, or sides, but no dressed stone lintel. Above it, the arrowloops on all the towers, and throughout the section subsequently built to complete the circuit an the north and west (stretching from tower 10 back to tower 1), have dressed stone lintels as well as dressed jambs and bases. All this later work must belong to the period after 1306 and before 1330, but it cannot be dated more closely.

Llanfaes Gate

lt appears that the proposed outer gatehouse on the north side of the castle, namely the Llanfaes Gate, also belongs to those works undertaken by
Master Nicholas de Derneford after 1306. In 1330 — when construction at Beaumaris seemsto have ceased — it was to remain unfinished, probably in a condition not so very dissimilar from that observed today.lt was originally designed as a smaller version of the main north and south gatehouses, with a central gate-passage, marked by inner and outer arches, flanked by a projecting tower to each side. There is evidence for a portcullis, and the passage
would have been further defended from arrowloops in the side walls. The walls of the proposed towers project irregularly and have been roughly faced
off at the outer ends. At some point, arches were struck across them at a high level to carry a somewhat improvised wall-walk.

Castle Dock and Gunners Walk

From the 1296 report it is clear that the dock was planned from the beginning of the building works. lt was intended to make the castle directly accessible to seagoing shipping, the door in its end wall enabling a boat to unload straight into the outer ward.The flanking wall to the east, known from the mid-nineteenth century as 'Gunners Walk', was built to revet this side of the dock and may date from the early fourteenth-century work . The wall-top afforded a shooting deck with arrowloops and battlements on either side of the 12-foot (3.7m) thickness. A raised and 'machicolated' platform at its southern end may well have been the position of a trebuchet, or stone-throwing catapult.
The tower, which projects from Gunners Walk into the dock, contains the remains of a watermill, together with the sluice controlling the flow of tidal water to and from the moat.