Visiting Beaumaris Castle and a Puffin Island Cruise
Of course it was raining for our arrival and first stop in Wales. Beaumaris wasn’t showing itself in its best light, but we were still heading for the castle. A bonus was being given someone’s parking ticket for free as we parked just behind Beaumaris Castle.
Visiting Beaumaris Castle
Beaumaris Castlewas built in 1295, but was never really finished. There’s a film telling the history of the castle, which was nice to get out of the rain and find out a bit more about it.
There’s a water filled moat (rare to still see water in moats in many castles we’ve visited previously), outer wall and inner castle.
When we visited they had knights school, with people dressed up in medieval clothing to teach people to fight. There were others dressed up to show different work or crafts. There were also due to be some ferrets but it was weather dependent.
N wasnt bothered about seeing those so we stuck with exploring the walls. There is a one way walls walk so we walked that, then explored the other ins and outs.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen cobbles on the walk around the top of the outer walls of a castle before. Despite the rain we got good views of the surrounding town and countryside.
Around the castle there’s also a few information boards about the building of the castle, for example some of the strange faces to look out for in the stones.
We also spotted some ‘’rooms’ with large musical instruments to play. There were plenty of children enjoying them. We couldn’t not have a go on the harp.
It didn’t take us long to finish our visit. If you’re expecting to see examples of what it looked like back in the day, you won’t. Beaumaris Castle is very much the (fairly complete) remains rather than visiting samples of castle rooms. I would have liked to see more information about the people who lived there not just about the building of it though.
After our visit I’d have liked to have visited Beaumaris Courthouse and gaol museum, but N wanted food. By then we were back in the car avoiding the rain, and didn’t fancy another walk back into the town.
Puffin Island Cruise with Seacoast Safaris
The following day we were back in Beaumaris for the afternoon to go on a wildlife cruise to Puffin Island with Seacoast Safaris. This time we parked on the village green car park. This has queues to go in on a sunny day, and is card payment only on entrance.
There are a couple of companies who do wildlife cruises, as well as sightseeing tours of the Menai Strait. I found booking on the day was easiest with Seacoast Safaris. I could have booked online with them but wasn’t sure if we’d arrive on time from our morning trip. But it turned out we had plenty of time to get lunch and be back at the pier for the cruise, so booked in person at the kiosk. We were lucky to get the slot we wanted in the summer holidays. So it’s worth advance booking, especially if there’s more than 2 of you and you don’t have flexibility over times. Other places you can only book by phone on the day.
Beforehand we grabbed some chips for lunch and sat overlooking the water (avoiding the seagulls). Most of them were hovering above the crabbers on the pier. When we headed on there to wait for our cruise pick up, we found space to sit under the old pier shelters away from all the crowds.
There’s only a basic sea toilet on board the boat. But there are public toilets not far from the pier and ticket kiosk so it’s worth using those instead.
Waiting for the boat pick up was carnage. People pushing in the queue, queueing in the way of people on the pier. I’m sure there could be a better method. But it didn’t matter because there were enough seats for everyone who’d booked and we got the seats we wanted.
Our skipper was a woman and she did all the commentary for the cruise. There was a bit of chat about other things we could see, but mostly it was commentary around the island once we got there. We also heard about the lighthouse, and the quarry prior to reaching the island.
Although called Puffin Island, the birds are only on the island for breeding, then go back out to sea in August. So we just missed seeing them by a few weeks. But there was plenty of other wildlife to spot.
We were provided with a wildlife guide with our tickets so we could find out a bit more about the birds and animals we might see.
There were plenty of kittiwakes to spot on the cliffs and flying around, as well as shags. Other gulls, plus we got to see fulmar which the guide said was quite unusual to see. We’d already seen a gannet on the trip out to the island too. Another more unusual sighting was an egret.
We were lucky to see a few seals. A couple basking on the rocks or in the bay. Plus some swimming around in the water, noses popping up every so often.
The boat always turned around when there was something good to see, so everyone got to have a chance to see it. It was definitely needed, as with all of these type of cruises, everyone starts standing up and moving around, so then others can’t see.
My photos weren’t that great, despite my having my proper camera and long lens, but more practice is definitely needed. I’m reliant too much on my phone nowadays.
The ride back to dry land was very splashy. As it’s tidal, and was windy, we were getting the wind over wave conditions, so people on our side (especially the woman who’d kept pushing in front of us in the queue – karma) got very wet. I walked off with a wet left arm, and back, as well as a wet right bottom cheek!
It was a great boat trip out and experience getting to see the wildlife relatively close, in their habitat. Even my 13 year old said he thought it was great (probably due to the splash on the way back).
There were all ages on the cruise – from a very young baby to pensioners. It’s easy to access the boat, and they can make some adjustments helping people onto and off the boat. It’s not practical for wheelchairs to go on and off currently.
The wildlife cruises are a nice contrast to the more historic attractions in Beaumaris, and you can fit both in on one day.
You can see where we stayed on Anglesey, in a good location for reaching Beaumaris.
Check out our other Anglesey posts: