PENMON (PEN-MON), a parish, in the union of BANGOR-AND-BEAUMARIS, hundred of TYNDAETHWY, county of ANGLESEY, NORTH
WALES, 4 miles (N. E. by N.) from Beaumaris; containing 228 inhabitants. The name of this place, signifying "the bead of
Mona," is derived from its situation in the eastern end of the Isle of Anglesey (anciently called Mona), on a promontory
boldly projecting into the Irish Sea, at the northern entrance to the Menai strait, and having at its extremity the small
island of Priestholme. This and the surrounding country were desolated by the Danes, in 969, and again shortly afterwards,
in common with the whole of Anglesey. The parish is not of very great extent, but comprises nearly equal portions of
arable and pasture land, in a tolerable state of cultivation; the houses are widely scattered: The surrounding scenery is
not remarkable for features either of rural or picturesque beauty; and the views, though comprising some objects of
romantic character, derive their chief interest from the expanse of waters composed of the Irish Sea and the Menai strait.
The only metallic mineral found is pyrites of iron; but the parish abounds with beautiful grey-coloured marble, clouded
with an almost endless variety of shades, and susceptible of a high polish. This marble has been long in estimation tor
ornamental purposes, and for the construction of mantel-pieces, tablets, &c., but its excellent qualities as a solid and
durable material for buildings of superior strength and importance has been only recently brought into notice, by its
being selected for the construction of the piers and buttresses of the grand suspension bridge over the Menai strait. The
pier and quays of Holyhead, the piers of Aberconway bridge, Penrhyn Castle, and many other public and private buildings,
have also been constructed of marble from the quarries here; and the town-hall of Birmingham, for the erection of which
upon a magnificent scale theproprietor generously gave a sufficient quantity of marble, was built with this valuable
material. The quarries, which are very extensive, have been worked for a considerable period with great success, and their
favourable situation on the shores of the Menai strait on the east, and of the Irish Sea on the north and north-east,
greatly facilitates the conveyance of their produce to its destinetion. A great number of men were constantly em-ployed
in them, and several vessels, which can come in and load at all times of the tide, are regularly engaged in transporting
the marble to various parts of the kingdom. Part of the parish is included within the limits of the borough of Beaumaris.
The LIVING is a perpetual curacy, annexed to that of Llanvaes, and endowed with £400 private benefaction, £800 royal
bounty, and £600 parliamentary grant. The church, dedicated to St. Seiriol, and formerly the conventual church of a priory
situated here, was originally a spacious cruciform structure, in the Norman style of architecture, with a square tower in
the centre, but the nave and choir are all that remain of the ancient building; the former is in a state of Freat
dilapidation, and the latter, which is appropriatelyfitted up for the performance of divine service, is embellished with
some of the richest details of the most finished period of the Norman style. There are places of worship for Calvinistic
and Wesleyan Methodists, with the former of whom a Sunday school is connected, containing about 55 males and females, who
are gratuitously taught, a few pence only being collected. The parish is entitled to receive every alternate year a sum of
£3. 13. for apprenticing a boy, arising from the charity of William Wynne in the parish of Llangoed, and charged on the
lands of Friddodd, in Bethgelart; and the interest of a benefaction of £17. 10. by Richard Owen, at a period unknown, is
distributed in small sums among the poor at Christmas. A gift of £10 by Hugh Davis has been lost. The PRIORY, according to
some historians, was originally founded in the sixth century, by Maelgwyn Gwynedd, and subsequently enlarged by Grufydd ab
Cynan, who appointed his son Idwal prior, in 1140. Llewelyn ab Iorwerth, in 1220, made considerable additions to its
revenue, and placed in it monks of the Benedictine order, in whose possession it remained till the dissolution, at which
time its revenue was estimated at £49. 12. 2. The site, with the park and other appurtenances, was granted, in the 6th of
Elizabeth, to John More, Esq. The principal remains of this ancient establishment are, besides the present church, the
refectory, and part of the prior's house and dovecote, exhibiting massive pillars and semicircular arches, richly
ornamented with zig-zag and other mouldings. In the park is a very old stone cross, ten feet high, the abaft of which is
curiously sculptured with knots and other ornaments; and on the south side are the figures of a saint, and two other
persons, now very much defaced. Among the Plus Gwyn manuscripts is preserved the grant of a free pardon to Robert ab
Johns, with a fragment of the seal of the priory, bearing the upper part of figures of the Virgin and Cbild, with the
legend PENMONA + 81G. About a mile to the south of the priory are the remains of Casiell Aber Llienawg, built by Hugh
Lupus, Earl of Chester, and Hugh the Red, Earl of Sbrewsbury, in 1098, when they jointly invaded the Isle of Anglesey, and
committed the most cruel outrages on the inhabitants: the castle, which occupies the summit of an artificial mount,
surrounded by a moat, consists of four walls, enclosing a quadrangular area, with a small circular tower at each angle,
and was evidently intended to defend the pass of the adjoining valley. Nearer the shore is a circular mound of earth,
which was connected with the castle, and most probably thrown up to command the landing-place near the mouth of a small
rivulet that runs into the strait. On the estate of Trosyr Avon, in the parish, is a copious spring, the water of which
holds in solution a sulphate of lime, and contains a considerable portion of fixed air; it is much resorted to, and held
in high estimation for its efficacy in chronic diseases. Within the limits of the parish is the small island of
PRIESTHOLMEI anciently called Ynys Seiriol, and now commonly Puffin Island, from the number of those birds by which it is
frequented. This island, which is situated in the Irish Sea, about a mile to the east of the shore, was originally
occupied as a place of devotional retirement; and St. Seiriol, to whom the priory church is dedicated, is said to have
built a hermitage here, which afterwards became a cell to that establishment. Considerable uncertainty prevails among the
old historians with respect to this place: Giraldus appears to have regarded the island as the site of the priory of
Penman,- probably from the brethren being styled s‘ Canonici de Insuld Glannauch," by which name it was occasionally
designated; and the remains of a square tower, and the foundations of three others, between which there seems not the
slightest connexion, have been supposed to be the ruins of the ancient conventual buildings. Perhaps the cell founded here
by Seiriol, and resorted to only as a place of more austere seclusion by some of the brethren, may have led other
historians to confound it with the principal establishment; for the nature of the island, consisting entirely of barren
rock, of which the surface is but thinly covered with loose sand drifted by the winds, renders it impossible that any
number of men could exist in a state of society on so sterile a spot, incapable of producing any vegetable, and cut off
many weeks together from any communication with the main land. The only appearances of building now are the remains of a
square tower, serving as a landmark; the foundations of several similar buildings destroyed by the violence of the
northern gales, to which the island is particularly exposed; and a but inhabited by a man who attends a signal staff,
erected here in 1826, in connexion with Llandudno on the east, and Llaneilian on the west, and forming a link in the
telegraphic communication of Liverpool and Holyhead. About half-way between the main land and the island is a piece of
rock, displaying itself above the surface at low water, from which, in a southerly direction, stretches a causeway,
constructed with large fragments of rock on each side, and having the interval filled up with smaller stones and cement.
It is in a very perfect state, and extends for a considerable distance into the channel, where its termination is marked
by a red buoy. It is traditionally said to have been a road leading across the channel of the Menai strait, which
anciently was here very shallow, to the main land on the opposite shore, forming a communication between this place and
the coast of Carnarvonshire, now nine miles distant. By whom or at what time this causeway was originally made, is not
known; but it may probably have been a work of the Romans, to facilitate the landing or'shipping of troops or
merchandise, as the remains of a paved Roman road may be traced leading through Penmon towards Llaniestyn. Near this spot
the Rothsay Castle steam-vessel, between Liverpool and Bangor, was wrecked, in August 1831, when more than a hundred
passengers perished. The island is about a mile in length, of very great elevation, and forming on all_ sides abrupt
precipices, except towards Penmon, where the ascent, though not precipitous, is very steep: the surface affords only
saint), pasturage for a few sheep and tabbits; but the island is the resort of various sea fowl during the breeding
season, more particularly of puffins or puffin-auks, which congregate here in such numbers as to have given name to the
island. Some of the inhabitants of the parish are engaged in the fisheries on the coast; and the large oysters found in
extensive beds in the sound, which are highly esteemed, after being pickled and packed in casks, are exported to various
distapt places as " Penmon oysters." Here is also an abundance of crabs, and a great variety of beautiful shells are taken
in the dredges of the oyster-men between Priestbolme Island and Beaumaris. The sound or channel between the main land and
Priestholme, which' is of great depth, forms the common passage for ships to and from the roads of Beaumaris; and on the
eastern side of the island is another passage into the same roads, which is little more than a quarter of a mile in
breadth, and navigable only for vessels of very small burthen. Maelgwyn Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales, the original
founder of the ancient priory, is said to have been buried in Priestholme.