A ring of castles Part 2 heading west

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Although not adventures round the world sometimes it is right to look at what we have close at hand . It seems we get obsessed with travelling to far off lands without looking at what is just round the corner. Gap years here and there , long distance travel becoming the norm. In our twenties you were lucky to get a holiday in this country . Now it seems everyone must have a gap year and they overlook some of the interesting and beautiful things here. Give us the good weather and we can give as good as we get .

Over the winter months the opportunity does come around to look at the lay of the land and make the decision to stop wandering far afield and visit what is on the doorstep. There are more castles in this part of the world than you can shake a stick at . The scenery can be stunning but we do ignore it at our peril.

Our next round of castles take in Conway, Caernarfon, Beaumaris and finally Harlech. Conway was always one of those places you travel past - speeding by on the A55 -heading to Bangor or Caernarfon on some course with work. But overlook Conway at your peril with its great fortress overlooking the town and the estuary and its medieval town. The castle is in excellent fettle with a eight magnificent towers and a high curtain wall. It sits within its own well preserved medieval walls . On a scale of one to ten I would say up to now Conway comes up near to ten with much more preserved than at Rhuddlan. With its pretty marina the town looks interesting lying as it does beneath the castles bulk. Yes it can be busy but go in the week and go early to see it at its best. Edward was very worried about the Welsh to build castles on these scales. The sheer cost in time, labour and money is hard to imagine. One of the most interesting sights that you can see from the walls are the three bridges. The first the modern road with its hubbub of traffic , the second the old road which leads into the town and the third the railway bridge built to carry the North Wales coast railway line across the River Conway

Before moving on we stopped for a paned (a cup of tea in Welsh ) at a local cafe. Our next stop was Plas Mawr a lovely Elizabethan town house set in the jumbled streets of Conway. Having been to Trecice a medieval manor house in Cornwall and to Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire Plas Mawr turned out to be a shock to the system. Smaller than both it nevertheless had everything the man about town might need. White plaster walls, plastered fancy ceiling work but this time with a riot of red and green paint. Not quite what you would expect. To round off a lovely tour there is a small medieval courtyard garden.

Every onward along the A55 and over the Brittania Bridge to Ynys Mon, the Mother Island of Anglesey. Sunday lunch in a local cafe and a cup of tea to warm the cockles as the wind was howling and the rain coming down in stairrods. Beaumaris is perhaps a prettier castle than the others we had seen. It could just be the fact that it had a moat around it which softened its character somewhat.

Anglesey is blessed with golden beaches, Red Wharf Bay, Treaddur to name a few but we did not get the chance to walk due to the stormy weather and headed back to the mainland via Holyhead. Having an Irish great grandfather gives us a reason to go across the sea to Ireland perhaps in the motorhome . Galway and Roscommon to be discovered at some later day.

Our next stop was Caernarfon, not my favourite castle due to its commercialism. Most visitors come to see the slate slab used for the investiture of Prince Charles or the window where the first Prince of Wales was presented to the Welsh people . He would speak no word of English his father promised . True no baby speaks any word of any language . It is possible to take a guided tour of the castle and is worth the money to hear the hidden history of the castle. The little harbour beneath the castle is full of small boats, a tiny steam train chugs its way to Portmadoc and a lovely cup of tea can be had at the Galeri. Best parking which is free is at the top end of the town as you come in from the Bangor Road. There is a huge free car park with no height barrier so even motorhomes can get in.

Final stop of the day Harlech a castle marooned now that the estuary has silted. Once surrounded by the sea it now sits perched on a rock. A magnificent gatehouse with murder holes and portcullis start your trip off and it is possible to walk around its walls taking in the brooding mountains of Snowdonia to one side and the grey wind lashed Irish Sea to the other.

A wonderful trip to the land of castles - yes there are more of them dotted around this landscape and perhaps one day in the motorhome we will get the opportunity to visit them all and walk along that sandy beach but not today.

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Photos

Conway
The old and the modern

Conway
Plas Mawr