The claim
A timber-framed former merchant's house on Church Street, a short walk from Beaumaris Castle, said to have been built in 1410 and turned into an inn around 1770. Exposed beams and a rediscovered ancient fireplace give it character, and today it is a friendly Robinsons local serving seafood, pub food and cask ales.
What the records show
Cadw listed the house Grade II* on 23 September 1950 and dated it probably 1610, from a date recorded on a roof truss in the 1930s and since concealed; it was originally timber-framed with a jettied upper storey, and the present front is a twentieth-century remodelling after the pub absorbed the house and shop to the south. The 1410 the house is known by is raised lettering on a rendered band between the storeys, which Cadw records as an inscription and not as a date for the building. Tree-ring dating settles the frame between those two years and agrees with neither: the beams and joists were felled between the winter of 1536/7 and the spring of 1541, so the range went up about 1541, and the 1610 belongs to the painted truss and the wall paintings rather than to the building. The house history published with that dating gives 1771 for its earliest deed and an 1826 publican's recognizance for its earliest licence, and repeats the local account that the building of 1410 was a merchant's house. The George and Dragon is shown on the town plan of 1829 and the Ordnance Survey of 1889; Robinsons says it was built in 1410, a century and a third before the timber was felled.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1410 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| c.1541 | Present building | Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, Coflein site 254, publishing the Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory report for the Dating Old Welsh Houses project: felling dates winter 1536/7 to spring 1541 |
| 1770 | First record of a drinking house here | Cadw |
What to look for inside
- Late-medieval timber frame
- Became an inn c. 1770 (secondary source)
Visiting
George & Dragon is in Beaumaris, Wales, at Church Street, Beaumaris LL58 8AA. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- www.robinsonsbrewery.com/pubs/george-dragon-beaumaris/
- www.northwalesholidaycottages.co.uk/other-information/blog/things-to-do/historic-pubs-of-north-wales/
- www.dailypost.co.uk/business/business-news/north-waless-oldest-pubsand-ghosts-14818052
- cadwpublic-api.azurewebsites.net/reports/listedbuilding/FullReport?lang=en&id=5617
- ratings.food.gov.uk/business/116501
- www.coflein.gov.uk/en/sites/254
- www.coflein.gov.uk/media/79/620/dcp2013_036_02.pdf
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
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