It had rained heavily during the night, but this morning whilst very cloudy it was at least dry, and the forecast was for it to be a little hit and miss into the afternoon, then brighter later on. Well they were relatively close, it was certainly more of a grey day than a sunny one. That said, we still managed to have a dry day so no complaints there.
We did a bit of a tour today, starting with a visit to Beaumaris, particularly the famous castle. We'd heard and read so much about the town so both had very high hopes, however the town itself was a little disappointing. Yes there were some brightly painted cottages, but you could almost count the number on your fingers, we had expected cobbled streets, but all we saw was tarmac and grey paving stones; it certainly doesn't have the charm of places such as Robin Hoods Bay, or Alnwick and such historic towns.
What it does have however is a very impressive castle, the first time we've actually been in a castle with a moat. Although the castle was never completely finished as they simply ran out of money, it is still almost unique with it's extensive defences; a moat, an outer wall, and then inner walls. It was also a bonus to walk around a castle where you are able to walk in between rooms via corridors within the walls, you really get the feel for how much smaller people must have been with how narrow the walls were. A very worthwhile and rewarding visit.
In addition to the castle, the other highlight of out visit to Beaumaris were our gorgeous ice-cream sundaes in the Red Boat Ice-Cream Parlour, so many different and unusual flavours, some of the best we've ever had. By around 1:45pm we were ready to head a few miles down the coast to our next point of call.
We arrived at Plas Cadnant around 2pm, paid our £6.50 each and headed off into the 'secret garden' to see what was on offer. Well to say we were pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. Yes it's not a garden covering half a county, and yes there are some renovations going on due to the serious Boxing Day flood that took down a 200 year old wall and took out a large portion of the gardens, but, it was simply stunning.
The gardens are all on the side of a hill as it drops towards the river, but they are absolutely enchanting. Winding paths, little nooks a crannies, a stream and a small waterfall, and lots of lovely shrubs and flowers, What also made it just feel that bit extra special was seeing and speaking to the owner of the property who was in his wellington boots planting, watering and repairing. We later read that he is paying for all the repairs and renovations himself, without any money from grants and the like. To top it off we had a lovely cream tea and slice of cake in the very clean tea-rooms. Very impressed.
It was now around 4:15pm, so we headed back up the coast, through Beaumaris and onwards up to Pentmon Point. It's a lovely craggy headland with a lighthouse that chimes (would you call it a chime?) every 30 seconds or so, views across the short stretch of water to Puffin Island, further across the water to the north coast of Wales and the impressive Great Orme. And as a bonus we also saw a couple of Porpoises, first spotted by Donna as they made their way between the seashore and Puffin Island.
On the way back we spent an hour or so looking at the famous dovecote, the priory, and the old quarry and quarry buildings all nearby. So much to see in a relatively small area. and well worth the £2.50 toll for entering the area. Now 6:30pm and time to head back so that we could make our evening meal, and I could settle down to watch Liverpool v Sevilla.
For some reason however we decided to just drive and hope to find a route back to the cottage via the small country (and extremely narrow in places) lanes. Yes we made it back, but what should have been a 10/15 minute drive turned into a 30 minutes meander around country lanes. Thankfully, by 7pm we had arrived back at the cottage.
We did a bit of a tour today, starting with a visit to Beaumaris, particularly the famous castle. We'd heard and read so much about the town so both had very high hopes, however the town itself was a little disappointing. Yes there were some brightly painted cottages, but you could almost count the number on your fingers, we had expected cobbled streets, but all we saw was tarmac and grey paving stones; it certainly doesn't have the charm of places such as Robin Hoods Bay, or Alnwick and such historic towns.
What it does have however is a very impressive castle, the first time we've actually been in a castle with a moat. Although the castle was never completely finished as they simply ran out of money, it is still almost unique with it's extensive defences; a moat, an outer wall, and then inner walls. It was also a bonus to walk around a castle where you are able to walk in between rooms via corridors within the walls, you really get the feel for how much smaller people must have been with how narrow the walls were. A very worthwhile and rewarding visit.
In addition to the castle, the other highlight of out visit to Beaumaris were our gorgeous ice-cream sundaes in the Red Boat Ice-Cream Parlour, so many different and unusual flavours, some of the best we've ever had. By around 1:45pm we were ready to head a few miles down the coast to our next point of call.
We arrived at Plas Cadnant around 2pm, paid our £6.50 each and headed off into the 'secret garden' to see what was on offer. Well to say we were pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. Yes it's not a garden covering half a county, and yes there are some renovations going on due to the serious Boxing Day flood that took down a 200 year old wall and took out a large portion of the gardens, but, it was simply stunning.
The gardens are all on the side of a hill as it drops towards the river, but they are absolutely enchanting. Winding paths, little nooks a crannies, a stream and a small waterfall, and lots of lovely shrubs and flowers, What also made it just feel that bit extra special was seeing and speaking to the owner of the property who was in his wellington boots planting, watering and repairing. We later read that he is paying for all the repairs and renovations himself, without any money from grants and the like. To top it off we had a lovely cream tea and slice of cake in the very clean tea-rooms. Very impressed.
It was now around 4:15pm, so we headed back up the coast, through Beaumaris and onwards up to Pentmon Point. It's a lovely craggy headland with a lighthouse that chimes (would you call it a chime?) every 30 seconds or so, views across the short stretch of water to Puffin Island, further across the water to the north coast of Wales and the impressive Great Orme. And as a bonus we also saw a couple of Porpoises, first spotted by Donna as they made their way between the seashore and Puffin Island.
On the way back we spent an hour or so looking at the famous dovecote, the priory, and the old quarry and quarry buildings all nearby. So much to see in a relatively small area. and well worth the £2.50 toll for entering the area. Now 6:30pm and time to head back so that we could make our evening meal, and I could settle down to watch Liverpool v Sevilla.
For some reason however we decided to just drive and hope to find a route back to the cottage via the small country (and extremely narrow in places) lanes. Yes we made it back, but what should have been a 10/15 minute drive turned into a 30 minutes meander around country lanes. Thankfully, by 7pm we had arrived back at the cottage.
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