Archaeological remains associated with the loss of this vessel are not confirmed as present at this location, but may be in the vicinity.

Event and Historical Information:
The ROTHSAY CASTLE was a paddle steamer built in 1816 and designed to carry passengers on the River Clyde between Inverary and Glasgow. Technical and configuration specifications are given as 200tons; powered by a single 50hp engine. The ROTHSAY CASTLE has been bought by a Liverpool businessman, Watson, to run a packet service between Liverpool and Wexford sharing the route with the PRINCE LLEWELLYN. When the vessel was delivered to Liverpool from the Clyde, sailors refused to continue onboard knowing the vessel was unseaworthy. The official report into the wrecking incident discovered many additional blunders. For example, the ship was overcrowded with 150 passengers when it eventually sailed after being delayed by the loading of a travelling coach belonging to a London gentlemen, Mr Forster. The delay caused the steamer to miss the tidal window at the mouth of the Menai Straits. The crew of the PRINCE LLEWELLYN noted that when they had passed the ROTHSAY CASTLE at the entrance to the Mersey, the vessel was far to leeward of a safe course which should have taken to avoid the lee shore being created by a north-northwesterly wind and strong tide. The ROTHSAY CASTLE was leaking badly, with the pumps choked, the coal in the holds totally submerged, and the cabins awash by the time the vessel reached the Great Orme. The skipper and mate were drunk and missed the opportunity to take the vessel into the anchorage between the two Ormes to land the passengers. The ship arrived at the mouth of the Menai Straits with a head of steam so low that the vessel could not keep course against the tide. The Penmon Point pilot station could have been contacted, and also 20 vessels laying off Bangor, but the ROTHSAY CASTLE carried no lantern and only a fowling piece. The ROTHSAY CASTLE struck on the Dutchman sandbank between midnight and 1am. The captain endeavoured to lighten the bow and to sail the vessel over using the jib sail , but to no avail. It was noted that the vessel grounded 50 times before the captain gave the order to go astern, and passengers were hurled into the sea at every impact. The small ship's boat was overturned in the seas and lost before it could take any passengers and crew. A female passenger (washed overboard with her young son and nephew, who she did not see again) provided her skirt as a sail for a make-shift raft and was rescued along with her companions. The vessel is said to have become a perfect wreck about one and a half hours later. In all only 23 passengers and crew survived. Bodies were washed ashore for miles up the coast. Some are buried on the Great Orme, some at Glanconwy, some at Formby and others at Beaumaris. In a memorandum written to the coroner, the foreman of the jury at the inquest, Sir Robert Williams Bulkeley, stated : 'From the evidence brought before them the jury on this inquest cannot separate without expressing their firm conviction, that had the ROTHESAY CASTLE been a seaworthy vessel, and properly manned , this awful calamity might have been averted. They therefore, cannot disguise their indignation at the conduct of those who could have placed such as vessel on this station?.' The vessel's owner was also highly criticised charging relatives £5 to take corpses back to Liverpool in the PRINCE LLEWELLYN. The disaster led to the establishment of the Penmon lifeboat station in 1831 and the building of the Penmon lighthouse which was completed in 1837. The wrecking event also dominated the North Wales Eisteddfod held at Beaumaris Castle in 1832. Nineteen entries were received for a poetry competition on the subject of the wreck and Princess Victoria (later Queen Victoria) presented the prize which was a set of leather bound drawings of the wreck to the winner, the Reverend William Williams of Caledfryn.

Sources include:
Adshead, J, 1843, The Wreck of the ROTHESAY CASTLE steam packet in Beaumaris bay on the night of 17 August 1831
Bennett, T,1987,Shipwrecks around Wales, Vol 1, pg88-9
Bristol Mercury, Tuesday 23 August 1831, 'Wreck of the Rothsay Castle and Upward of Eighty lives Lost', issue 2156
Gater, D, 1992, Historic Shipwrecks of Wales, pg63-5
Gleave, J, 1831, An account of the melancholy wreck of the ROTHESAY CASTLE
Larn and Larn Shipwreck Database 2002
North Wales Chronicle, Tuesday 23 August 1831, 'Wreck of the Rothsay Castle Steam Packet', issue 204
North Wales Chronicle, Tuesday 23 August 1831, 'Wreck of the Rothsay Castle', issue 205
Skidmore, I, 1979, Anglesey and Lleyn Shipwrecks, pg12-27
Williams, W C, 1832, Awdl ar ddrylliad yr agerddlong ROTHESAY CASTLE, gerllaw Beaumaris, Awst 17 1831
Wynne-Jones, I, 2001, Shipwrecks of North Wales, 4ed, pg97-99

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, July 2008.