You don’t have to be paranoid, or have 13.5 million readers, to imagine bots are hard at workin some dim Trumpian basement

Greece has a coastline of 13.6 million metres (13,676 km) … sunset on the rocky coastline below the Fortezza in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

This blog reached yet another new peak shortly after 7 am yesterday (24 June 2025), totalling up 13.5 million hits since I first began blogging about 15 years ago, back in 2010.

Once again, I find this is yet another humbling statistic and a sobering figure that leaves me not with a sense of achievement but with a feeling of gratitude to all who read and support this blog and my writing.

After I began blogging, it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. It was over a year before this figure rose to 1 million by September 2013. It climbed steadily to 2 million, June 2015; 3 million, October 2016; 4 million, November 2019; 5 million, March 2021; 6 million, July 2022; 7 million, 13 August 2023; 8 million, April 2024; and 9 million, October 2024.

But the rise in the number of readers has been phenomenal over the past few months, reaching 9.5 million on 4 January 2025, 10 million over a week later (12 January 2025), 10.5 million two days after that (14 January 2025), 11 million a month later (12 February 2025), 11.5 million a month after that (10 March 2025), 12 million early last month (3 May 2025), 12.5 million a month later (6 June 2025), 13 million less than two weeks later (17 June 2025) and 13.5 million early yesterday (24 June 2025).

Indeed, June 2025 was the second month that this blog ever had 1 million hits in one single month, with 1 million hits by Sunday 22 June. This follows January's record of 1 million hits by the early hours of 14 January, and a total of 1,420,383 by the end of that month (31 January 2025).

In recent months, the daily figures have been overwhelming on occasions. Seven of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog were this month alone, and the other five of those 12 busiest days were in January 2025:

• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)
• 261,422 (13 January 2025)
• 100,291 (10 January 2025)
• 82,043 (23 June 2025)
• 81,037 (21 June 2025)

• 80,625 (22 June 2025)
• 79,981 (19 June 2025)
• 79,165 (20 June 2025)
• 69,722 (18 June 2025)
• 64,077 (14 January 2025)
• 55,614 (17 June 2025)

This blog has already had about over 2.8 million hits this year, almost 21 per cent of all hits ever, and by 6 pm this evening (25 June 2025) it had over 1.26 million hits so far this month alone.

Joseph Heller wrote in Catch-22, ‘Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.’ It may only be a hunch, but I have not failed to notice that some of these days were in the week before and after Trump’s inauguration, the others were in the days around his damp-squib military parade in Washington DC on 14 June and his hairbrained decision to attack Iran. Indeed, the overwhelming number of hits are not from Ireland, the UK and Greece, as I might expect, but from the US.

It’s not paranoid to imagine how the bots at work in some ugly, dim basement in Washington are trawling far and wide for anyone critical of the Trump regime. The costs may be minimal, but it’s still money that could be better spent on healthcare, education, rehiring air traffic controllers or reinstating DEI programmes. But I doubt my criticisms of Trump, Rubio, Vance, Hegseth and Musk are going to make it easy to get a visa to visit the US over the next four years, should I ever want to under the present dystopian regime. I’d prefer to boost my ego and convince myself that my popularity is growing and that I have become a ‘must-read’ writer for so many people every day. But, sadly, I don’t think that’s so. And if a minor critic of the Trump regime outside the US such as me is being intimidated at this level, try to imagine how many critics inside the US feel they really are being intimidated and bullied into silence.

Greek is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora … the poetry of George Seferis celebrated in street art in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

With this latest landmark figure of 13.5 million hits by today, over 1.4 million hits in January alone, and 1.26 million hits during June so far, I once again find myself asking questions such as:

• What do 13.5 million people look like?
• Where do we find 13.5 million people?
• What does £13.5 million, €13.5 million or $13.5 million mean.
• What would it buy?

In Africa, 13.5 million children have been uprooted or displaced due to many factors. They include children living as refugees, who are migrants or who are internally displaced.

Syria once had the largest displacement crisis in the world, With 13.5 million people displaced by over 13 years of brutal civil conflict. But fiigure has since been surpassed in Sudan, which now has the world’s largest displacement crisis, with 14.3 million displaced people.

Rwanda has a population of over 13.5 million people, and cities with a population of about 13.5 million people include Tehran, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Jakarta and Lagos … depending on who does the counting.

Jews were once widely dispersed around the world. But the world’s Jewish population is now concentrated in two countries: the US and Israel. These are home to 13.5 million Jews out of a global total of 15.7 million people.

It is estimated that there 13.5 million Palestinians worldwide, with a significant portion of them living in what is seen as historical Palestine.

It is said that 13.5 million people are stalked in a one-year period in the United States.

13.5 million people amount to 20% of the UK population. Furthermore, the dog population in the UK is estimated at 13.5 million, with 36% of households owning a dog.

Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. It is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora. Greece is almost 13.5 million ha in size, with a total land area of 13.2 ha, and it has a coastline of 13.6 million metres (13,676 km), the ninth longest coastine in the world.

Ellinikon International Airport in Athens, which closed in 2001, had an official capacity of 11 million passengers a year, but served 13.5 million passengers in its last year of operations. A large part of the site was converted into facilities for the 2004 Olympic Games, but much of the site is still derelict, and abandoned old aircraft and airport vehicles can still be seen there. Part of the airport site has also been used as a camp for migrants and refugees.

Patong in Thailand, which pormotes itself as one of Asia’s ‘party capitals’, is visited by more than 13.5 million tourists a year. Tourists spend around £13.5 million a day in Wales.

A £13.5 million Centre for Green Technology was completed at Peterborough College earlier this year. The three-storey, low-carbon facility is planned to provide training in modern construction techniques, alternative heat sources and electric vehicle technology, with officials saying “it will make a real difference to the future’. The 2,435sq metre centre will expand student capacity and support careers in high-growth green industries.

Tom Glanfield, a 46-year-old multi-millionaire, bought what was described as the ‘world’s most expensive bungalow,’ a rundown house in Sandbanks, an exclusive area of Dorset known as ‘Millionaire’s Row’, for £13.5 million in 2023. He had dreams of knocking the cottage down and building a state-of-the-art eco-home, but has faced resistance ever since.

Kris Jenner, the Kardashian family matriarch, has placed her six-bedroom, eight-bathroom mansion in Hidden Hills, Los Angeles, on the market for $13.5 million.

Richard Henry (Prescott) Kerr, a former pupil at Methodist College in Belfast, recently left the school a legacy of £13.5 million in his will.

The world has a population of 8.2 billion people, and 13.5 million people represent only 0.16% of all those people. So 13.5 million hits on this blog is quite a modest number, I have to concede.

One of the most warming figures personally in the midst of all these statistics is the one that shows my morning prayer diary reaches an average of 80-85 people each day in the past month. It is over three years now since I retired from active parish ministry. But I think many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches averaged or totalled 560 to to 580 people a week.

Today, I am very grateful to all 13.5 million readers of this blog to date, and for the small and faithful core group among you who join me in prayer, reading and reflection each morning.

Tourists spend around £13.5 million every day in Wales (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Praying in Ordinary Time 2021: 173, Saint Mary’s Church, Llanfair PG

The Church of Saint Mary in a hollow near Llanfairpwll … the church and its setting inspired the long name of the village (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Each morning in the time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

My theme on this prayer diary for the rest of this week is cathedrals and churches in Wales. As part of my reflections and this prayer diary this morning, my photographs today (18 November 2021) are from Saint Mary’s Church, Llanfair PG.

The sign at James Pringle Weavers shop spells out the English translation of the name and its connection with Saint Mary’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The hymn ‘Hail the day that sees him rise’ is by Charles Wesley and Thomas Cottrill, vicar of Lane End, Staffordshire, and is usually sung to the tune Llanfair. This tune is said to have been written by the Welsh singer and blind composer Robert Williams (1781–1821) of Anglesey. The Llanfair that gives its name to this hymn is Llanfair PG, the village with the longest name on these islands, near the place where Williams was born.

I am sure the editors and typesetters of many hymnals are happy, for the sake of appearances alone, that the tune was written before the longer name of the village was concocted and that it is known by the town’s shorter name.

It is impossible to resist the signs on the road between Holyhead and Beaumaris that invite the visitor to Llanfairpwllgwyngyll or Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll, the village on the island of Anglesey that boasts the longest name in Europe.

The village stands on the Menai Strait next to the Britannia Bridge and across the strait from Bangor.

Most of the 3,000 people in the town speak Welsh as their first language, so they know how to pronounce the name of the place, and they know what it means. But most of them seem to refer it as Llanfairpwll, even as Llanfair PG, rather than Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

The long form of the name was invented for promotional purposes in the 1860s. With 58 characters, it is the longest place name in Europe, and the second longest official one-word place name in the world.

But the story of the village and the church that gives it its name are far longer than the story of the name. People have lived on the site of the village since the Neolithic era (4000 to 2000 BC). Later, the area was briefly invaded and captured by the Romans under Gaius Suetonius Paulinus. The Romans abandoned it to consolidate their forces against Boudicca (Boadicea), but they returned and held the area until the end of Roman Britain.

After the Romans finally withdrew, the area fell to the early mediaeval Kingdom of Gwynedd, but by 1583, the village still only had a population of about 80.

With the end of the feudal system and the introduction of estates in the 16th century, much of the land was absorbed into the estates of the Earls of Uxbridge, who later became the Marquises of Anglesey. The inhabitants became tenant farmers on enclosures, and by the early 19th century, the village population began to boom.

Anglesey was connected to the rest of Wales when the Menai Suspension Bridge was built by Thomas Telford in 1826. It was connected with London in 1850 when the Britannia Bridge was built and the busy North Wales Coast railway line then connected London to the ferry port at Holyhead.

The Upper Village (Pentre Uchaf) is made up mainly of the older houses and farms, and the newer or Lower Village (Pentre Isaf) was built around the railway station, with shops and workshops.

With 58 characters, the long form of the name is the longest place name in the United Kingdom and one of the longest in the world.

For visitors who do not understand what the name means, a large local shop, James Pringle Weavers, has a lengthy sign spelling it out: The Church of Mary (Llanfair) in the Hollow (pwll) of the White Hazel (gwyn gyll) near (go ger) the fierce whirlpool (y chwyrn drobwll) and the church of Tysilio (Llantysilio) by the red cave ([a]g ogo[f] goch).

The railway station is officially known as Llanfairpwll or as Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll (‘Saint Mary’s in the Hollow of the White Hazel Township’). Pwllgwyngyll was the original mediaeval township where the village is today.

But the station house has at least three signs displaying the long name. The platform for trains in the direction of Holyhead even has one long sign for the benefit of non-Welsh speakers and tourists spelling out how to pronounce the name.

This village was originally known as Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll, which appears on Ordnance Survey maps, and is generally signposted as Llanfairpwllgwyngyll. It is known to local residents more simply as Llanfairpwll or even more simply as Llanfair.

The long name was contrived in the 1860s in an attempt to develop the place as a commercial and tourist centre. The original idea was to come up with the longest name for any railway station in Britain.

According to Sir John Morris-Jones, the name was created by a local tailor, whose name he did not confide, letting the secret die with him. Other stories say the name was invented by a cobbler from the nearby village of Menai Bridge.

The village war memorial simply spells the name as Llanfair P.G. – the longer versions would never fit into a slim column. But across the street from the railway station, the name is spelled out in full over the arch at the Penrhos Arms, with another English translation, but remembering to recalling the link with Saint Mary’s Church.

I should have called in to the Penrhos Arms to find out whether they serve shorts in the pub that displays the longest name in Europe.

The name is too long for the slim column on the village war memorial (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 19: 41-44 (NRSVA):

41 As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. 44 They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.’

The long name was contrived in the 1860s to attract tourists

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (18 November 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for school chaplains across the Anglican Communion. May they continue to plant seeds of faith in the hearts of teachers and students.

A sign on the platform at the railway station in Llanfair PG spells out the name in full with helpful hints for English speakers and visitors (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Signs at the railway station spell out the name in full (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

The Church of Saint Mary in Llanfair PG (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Images of the Ascension and the Kingdom in Penmon Priory and Bangor Cathedral

The Ascension depicted in the East Window in Saint Seiriol’s Church at Penmon Priory, near Beaumaris (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

Today is Ascension Day [5 May 2016]. This afternoon, I hope to bring a visiting group from the Church of Sweden to visit Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and later in the day I hope to take part in the Choral Eucharist for Ascension Day sung by the Cathedral Choir.

The procession hymn this evening is ‘Hail the day that sees him rise,’ by Charles Wesley and Thomas Cottrill, vicar of Lane End, Staffordshire, sung to the tune Llanfair. This tune is said to have been written by the Welsh singer and blind composer Robert Williams (1781–1821) of Anglesey. The Llanfair that gives its name to this hymn is Llanfair PG, the village with the longest name on these islands, near the place where Williams was born and which I visited last weekend.

I am sure the editors and typesetters of many hymnals, and the person who put together this evening’s service sheet are happy, for the sake of appearances alone, that the tune was written before the longer name of the village was concocted and that it is known by the town’s shorter name.

Earlier this week [2 May 2016] in Anglesey, when I was visiting Saint Seiriol’s Church at Penmon Priory, outside Beaumaris, I photographed a beautiful stained glass window illustrating the Ascension.

This three-light East Window in the Chancel of Penmon Priory Church, dates from 1912. The centre window depicts Christ in glory, holding the chalice and the host, with rays of light emanating from the wounds in his hands and feet. He is surrounded by the symbols of the four evangelists.

The three-light East Window was given in memory of Sarah and Henry Owen Williams in 1912 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

This window, with its Anglo-Catholic sacramental imagery, was given in 1912 in memory of Henry Owen Williams and his wife Sarah (Holborn) of Tre-Castell, near Beaumaris, by their children. Their children included the Revd Raymond Owen Williams, who was presented to the Vicarage of Fisherton Delamere in Wiltshire by Athelstan Riley (1858—1945), the Anglo-Catholic hymn writer and hymn translator.

In the left-hand light window, Sarah Williams is shown with the women and children being blessed by Christ. Henry Williams is depicted in the right-hand light, in a scene depicting the blessing and distribution of the loaves and fishes.

Saint Christopher and Saint Seiriol … a window by David Evans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Fragments of the original East Window in the Priory Church can be seen in a small stained glass window that is the east window of the south transept. This window depicts the Priory’s founder, Saint Seiriol, watching Saint Christopher carrying the Christ Child across a river.

The head of Saint Christopher, his right hand, Christ’s orb, and the right hand of Saint Seiriol with parts of his staff are mediaeval. These were worked into a new window ca 1855 by David Evans (1793-1861), who imitated mediaeval styles in the remaining work in the window. A second window by Evans in the Priory Church from the same time shows Saint Catherine and a bishop.

David Evans was born at Llanllwchaiarn near Newtown. He worked in partnership with Sir John Betton of Shrewsbury (1765-1849) from 1815 as Betton & Evans, and I am familiar with some of their windows in Lichfield Cathedral (1819).

Evans retained the name of the firm after Betton retired in 1825. Examples of Evans’s work in Wales can also be seen in Bangor Cathedral, including three of the Evangelists – Saint Luke Saint Matthew and Saint Mark – three prophets, Aaron, Moses and David, and three Epistle writers, Saint Peter, Saint John and Saint Paul.

The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand … but the left hand is missing (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The salvaged right hand of Saint Seiriol in this window in Penmon Priory came to mind later on Monday afternoon as I wondered about the mysterious, missing left hand of Saint John the Baptist in a panel on the pulpit in Bangor Cathedral.

The two relief panels on the sides of the pulpit are carved in Caen stone and were designed around 1880 by Sir George Gilbert Scott as part of his restoration of Bangor Cathedral.

One panel depicts the mission commission to the disciples after the resurrection, with the text: ‘Go ye into all the world & preach the Gospel to every creature’ (Mark 16: 15).

The other panel depicts Saint the Baptist preaching to a group of six, including two Roman soldiers and a mother and child. The inscription on this panel reads: ‘Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand’ (Matthew 3: 2). Saint John the Baptist has his right hand raised as he preaches. But the one part of the panel that is missing – whether by vandalism or accident, I do not know – is his left hand.

The opening words of this evening’s Psalm at the Choral Eucharist are: ‘O clap your hands together all ye peoples’ (Psalm 47: 1).

Collect:

Grant, we pray, Almighty God,
that as we believe your only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ
to have ascended into the heavens;
so we in heart and mind may also ascend
and with him continually dwell;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Readings:

Acts 1: 1-11 or Daniel 7: 9-14; Psalm 47 or Psalm 93; Ephesians 1: 15-23 or Acts 1: 1-11; Luke 24: 44-53.

Post Communion Prayer:

God our Father,
you have raised our humanity in Christ
and feed us with the bread of heaven.
Mercifully grant that, nourished with such spiritual blessings,
we may set our hearts in the heavenly places;
where he now lives and reigns for ever.

I know what Llanfair PG means, but can I pronounce the longest name in Wales?

A sign on the platform at the railway station in Llanfair PG spells out the name in full with helpful hints for English speakers and visitors (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

It is impossible to resist the signs on the road between Holyhead and Beaumaris that invite the visitor to Llanfairpwllgwyngyll or Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll, the village on the island of Anglesey that boasts the longest name in Europe.

The village stands on the Menai Strait next to the Britannia Bridge and across the strait from Bangor.

Most of the 3,000 people in the town speak Welsh as their first language, so they know how to pronounce the name of the place, and they know what it means. But most of them seem to refer it as Llanfairpwll, even as Llanfair PG, rather than Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

The long form of the name was invented for promotional purposes in the 1860s. With 58 characters it is the longest place name in Europe, and the second longest official one-word place name in the world.

The Church of Saint Mary in a hollow near Llanfairpwll ... the church and its setting inspired the long name of the village (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

But the story of the village is far longer than the story of the name. People have lived on the site of the village since the Neolithic era (4000 to 2000 BC). Later, the area was briefly invaded and captured by the Romans under Gaius Suetonius Paulinus. The Romans abandoned it to consolidate their forces against Boudicca (Boadicea), but they returned and held the area until the end of Roman Britain.

After the Romans finally withdrew, the area fell to the early mediaeval Kingdom of Gwynedd, but by 1583, the village still only had a population of about 80.

With the end of the feudal system and the introduction of estates in the 16th century, much of the land was absorbed into the estates of the Earls of Uxbridge, who later became the Marquises of Anglesey. The inhabitants became tenant farmers on enclosures, and by the early 19th century, the village population began to boom.

In 1826, Anglesey was connected to the rest of Wales when the Menai Suspension Bridge was built by Thomas Telford. In 1850, it was connected with London when the Britannia Bridge was built and the busy North Wales Coast railway line then connected London to the ferry port at Holyhead.

The Upper Village (Pentre Uchaf) is made up mainly of the older houses and farms, and the newer or Lower Village (Pentre Isaf) was built around the railway station, with shops and workshops.

The sign at James Pringle Weavers shop spells out the English translation of the name (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

With 58 characters, the long form of the name is the longest place name in the United Kingdom and one of the longest in the world.

For visitors who do not understand what the name means, a large local shop, James Pringle Weavers, has a lengthy sign spelling it out: The Church of Mary (Llanfair) in the Hollow (pwll) of the White Hazel (gwyn gyll) near (go ger) the fierce whirlpool (y chwyrn drobwll) and the church of Tysilio (Llantysilio) by the red cave ([a]g ogo[f] goch).

Signs at the railway station spell out the name in full (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The railway station is officially known as Llanfairpwll or as Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll (“Saint Mary’s in the Hollow of the White Hazel Township”). Pwllgwyngyll was the original mediaeval township where the village is today.

But the station house has at least three signs displaying the long name. The platform for trains in the direction of Holyhead even has one long sign for the benefit of non-Welsh speakers and tourists spelling out how to pronounce the name.

This village was originally known as Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll, which appears on Ordnance Survey maps, and is generally signposted as Llanfairpwllgwyngyll. It is known to local residents more simply as Llanfairpwll or even more simply as Llanfair.

The long name was contrived in the 1860s to attract tourists

The long name was contrived in the 1860s in an attempt to develop the place as a commercial and tourist centre. The original idea was to come up with the longest name for any railway station in Britain.

According to Sir John Morris-Jones, the name was created by a local tailor, whose name he did not confide, letting the secret die with him. Other stories say the name was invented by a cobbler from the nearby village of Menai Bridge.

The name is too long for the slim column on the village war memorial (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The village war memorial simply spells the name as Llanfair P.G. – the longer versions would never fit into a slim column. But across the street from the railway station, the name is spelled out in full over the arch at the Penrhos Arms, with another English translation.

I should have called in to the Penrhos Arms to find out whether they serve shorts in the pub that displays the longest name in Europe.

A long name for a pub … but do they serve shorts? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

A weekend with the prisoner in Frongoch and ‘The Prisoner’ in Portmeirion

Portmeirion … a view of the central plaza (Photograph: Michael Maggs, Wikimedia Commons)

Patrick Comerford

I am in Wales for the weekend, staying at the Castle Court Hotel in Beaumaris, a former royal borough and once the county town of Anglesey.

It is some time since I have stayed in Wales. I stayed in Saint Michaels’s College in Llandaff, near Cardiff in south Wales, in 2007, when I was visiting theological colleges in England and Wales, and I was in north Wales in 2004 when I led a retreat in Loreto House.

But I have to be honest and admit that while I have travelled through Wales quite often since my teens, I seem to have treated as a corridor between Dublin and the English Midlands, never giving myself a real opportunity to know this country.

I have arrived here this morning on the ferry between Dublin and Holyhead, and Beaumaris is still on the island of Anglesey, at the eastern entrance to the Menai Strait, the waterway that separates Anglesey from the coast of North Wales.

Castle Court, on Castle Square, where I am staying is a 19th-century hotel facing mediaeval Beaumaris Castle and a two-minute walk from the beach and Beaumaris Pier.

Beaumaris is a small town with a population of about 2,000. This was originally a Viking settlement known as Porth y Wygyr, or Port of the Vikings. To the north, the village of Llanfaes was occupied by Anglo-Saxons in 818 but was later retaken by Merfyn Frych, King of Gwynedd.

But the town only began to develop in 1295. After Edward I of England conquered Wales, he commissioned the building of Beaumaris Castle as part of a chain of fortifications along the coast of North Wales. The other castles include Conwy, Caernarfon and Harlech.

Beaumaris Castle was built on a marsh from which it takes its name – the French builders called it beaux marais or “beautiful marshes.” French and English masons were brought in to build the castle and a walled town. The castle was designed by James of St George, a master mason from Savoy, and is considered a perfect example of a concentric castle.

The Welsh residents of Llanfaes were moved forcibly as one group to Rhosyr in the west of Anglesey, and a new settlement grew up around the castle. This new town was named “Newborough” by King Edward. In the royal charter, only the English and Norman-French residents were given full civic rights, while any remaining Welsh residents were largely disqualified from any civic office, carrying any weapon, and holding assemblies. The charter also prohibited Jews from living in Beaumaris.

Beaumaris became the main commercial centre of Anglesey and the port of registration for all vessels in north-west Wales.

As well as the castle, the town’s notable buildings include Saint Mary’s, the 14th century parish church, the 14th-century Tudor Rose, one of the oldest, original timber-framed buildings in Britain, and the Bull’s Head Inn, which was built in 1472.

During the Siege of Beaumaris in 1648, during the second English Civil War, General Thomas Mytton had his headquarters at the Bull’s Head Inn. The hill leading north from the town is named Red Hill from the blood spilled in that conflict.

Two of us are using Beaumaris as a base this weekend. Among the places we hope to visit this weekend include nearby Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, which is just 10 km away and is known as the place on these islands with the longest place name:

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

We may also get to see the cathedral at Bangor, the sea at Lladudno, the mountains of Snowdonia, and the castles at Conwy, Caernarfon and Harlech.

But the first place to see is the former prison camp at Frongoch, which is about 60 km from here. Barbara’s grandfather, Sergeant Joe Doyle of the Irish Citizen Army, was held in the immediate aftermath of the Easter Rising in 1916. It seems appropriate to visit this site 100 years after he was a prisoner there.

Then tomorrow, we plan to visit Portmeirion, which is about 50 km from Beaumaris. This coastal village was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 in the style of an Italian village, and is now owned by a charitable trust. Portmeirion has been the location for many films and television shows, and was ‘The Village’ in the 1960s television series The Prisoner.

So from the prisoner in Frongoch to the The Prisoner in Portmeirion, this should be an interesting weekend in Wales.