CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Beaumaris it runs 170 km to Beaumaris; allow about 3 h 16 of riding. On the way it passes Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G, Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri, Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls and back through Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 25 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Beaumaris is often called the most perfect castle never finished. Edward I began it in 1295 on the shore of Anglesey, at the northern entrance to the Menai Strait, as the last of his great chain of fortresses built to hold down Wales after his conquest. His architect, Master James of St George, designed it as a perfectly symmetrical concentric castle: an inner ring of high walls and towers, an outer ring of lower walls, and a moat linked to the sea so that supply ships could sail up to a dock at the gate. Money ran out, the Scottish wars took priority, and the towers never reached their planned height. Even so, it is a masterpiece of military design, and with the castles of Conwy, Caernarfon and Harlech it is listed by UNESCO.
Read the complete Beaumaris Castle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beaumaris Castle is where the day begins. Next is Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G.
Edward I built Caernarfon to be unmistakable. Begun in 1283, after his conquest of Wales, the castle rises beside the Menai Strait with polygonal towers and bands of coloured stone that echo, it is said, the walls of Constantinople, a deliberate reference to imperial power. The King wanted a seat of government as well as a fortress, and the town walls were built to enclose a planted English borough, so the whole thing was an act of colonisation in stone. UNESCO listed Edward's castles and town walls in Gwynedd in 1986, together with Conwy, Harlech and Beaumaris, and Caernarfon is the grandest of them.
Read the complete Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G comes up 26 km in. Next is Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri.
High above Porthmadog, in the empty upland between Cwm Pennant and Cwmystradllyn, two abandoned slate quarries sit like ruined castles on the hillside. Gorseddau and the Prince of Wales quarry are part of the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales, which UNESCO listed in 2021, and they tell a story of big hopes and quick failure. Gorseddau in particular was developed in the 1850s with money and ambition, a tramway and a grand multi-storey mill at Ynys-y-Pandy whose roofless stone shell still looks like an abbey. The slate turned out to be poor, and within a couple of decades the whole enterprise had wound down.
Read the complete Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
51 km in you reach Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri. Next is Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls.
Long before Edward, Caernarfon was Roman, and before that it was legend. The Roman fort of Segontium stood on a hill above the modern town, a garrison post guarding the Menai Strait and the copper of Anglesey, and its foundations can still be seen, with a small museum beside them. The Mabinogion, the medieval Welsh story collection, tells how the emperor Macsen Wledig, the historical Magnus Maximus, dreamed of a beautiful maiden and a fortress at the mouth of a river, and travelled across the world to find them. The place he found, in the tale, was Caernarfon. Whatever the truth, Welsh tradition ties the town to a sense of ancient dignity.
Read the complete Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls, about halfway. Next is back through Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri sits at 103 km, about halfway. Next is back through Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G comes up 128 km in. Next is Beaumaris Castle.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beaumaris Castle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beaumaris Castle closes the day.
Beaumaris Castle → Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G → Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri → Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls → back through Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri → back through Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G → Beaumaris Castle is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.