Day 110: Castle of Northern Wales

Awoke to the sound of hammering rain on the roof. Not a good sign, considering we wanted to visit the three remaining castles of King Edward situated nearby! We had breakfast and weighed up our options - we had to decide between going today (it was supposed to clear up later), or waiting it out today and trying tomorrow (the weather was supposed to be much the same, but can change suddenly and frequently).

In the end we decided to head out today, because it was better to risk it today and have tomorrow as a fallback option, rather than putting all our eggs in tomorrow's basket. If that makes sense.

So we headed out later than planned, around 11am, and headed for the castle at Caernarfon, about 30 minutes to the west. This was the largest and grandest of the castles built, though it was never quite finished; the project ran out of money as Edward was spending his treasury brutally crushing Scotland instead.

Interestingly though, it was here that his wife gave birth to their son and heir, Edward II, who was entitled Prince of Wales to shore up his claim over Wales. Ever since, the heir apparent to the UK has been titled the Prince of Wales - funny how traditions start!

This castle was very large, though with no buildings in the middle, so just tall thick walls and a gatehouse surrounding a large field. It was on a promontory near the old town, and some of the town walls were still visible. This castle was intentionally designed to be grand, showing off the power and wealth of the English kings, though I guess running out of money may not have helped that - there were a series of rebellions over the next couple of hundred years, but the English have held Wales since this time (1280s).

The rain lashed down on and off, but we managed to get the footage we needed for our UNESCO visit. Had a quick lunch of Welsh Rarebit in a local cafe; quite tasty though it is just glorified cheese on toast! Also tried bara brith, a slightly denser fruit loaf that's traditional to Wales. Very tasty.

Next up we drove northwards back on to Anglesey and the town of Beaumaris where castle #2 was located. This castle was the strongest and probably most impressive, military-wise, as it had a pioneering "concentric design" - walls within walls. So you had a large moat, then a set of tall and thick walls with lots of parapets and archery holes, a narrow flat area, then another set of even taller, thicker walls! The gatehouse was very strong too, with lots of murderholes (gaps in the ceiling where defenders could drop rocks, boiling oil and other nasty things on intruders).

Very impressive to see, though again this castle wasn't quite finished. More filming, though again it was raining heavily on and off. Here you could walk along both the rooftops and the passageways inside the walls; a little claustrophobic but still a lot of fun.

Finally we set off eastwards to the town of Conwy and the final castle of the day. We arrived quite late, just after 4:30pm, when the castle shut at 5pm and last entry was supposed to be 30 minutes before closing. But we talked our way in, particularly since our multi-day pass was expiring at midnight and we couldn't come back.

Conwy was actually the most complete castle, and was used quite a few times to defend the town and guard the king. A couple of monarchs had spent time here, though usually not more than a couple of months at a time. Definitely interesting to see the rooms prepared for the king, as opposed to the rough stone digs for everyone else! This castle was quite nice to look at as well, since it was on a tall rocky outcrop above the town, and much of the wall had survived. More filming the rain, but finally done and just in time for closing!

Last stop for the day was just around the corner, the "smallest house in Great Britain". Seemed a bit gimmicky, but it definitely was small! Only a metre or so across, two storeys but the ceiling would've been shoulder-height for me. It was closed so we didn't go in, just took a photo at the front and headed off.

Back to our apartment where we cooked in for a change, the usual spaghetti with pesto!Read more