Today was a tour into Wales to see some of the amazing castles. The weather didn't really cooperate and we had a fair amount of rain and low-lying fog, which made it difficult to get views of some of the mountain ranges we drove through.
When it was clear, the Welsh landscape was beautiful:
Our first stop was Conwy Castle (Castell Conwy). The castle was built during the English conquest of Wales in the 1280s by King Edward I and involved in several sieges and battles during the Welsh revolts.
The castle was partly ruined when it was surrendered to Parliamentary forces in the English Civil war (1640s) and then was stripped of lead and iron in 1665, leading to it being left a ruin. Restoration was undertaken in the late 1800s and the castle is now a tourist attraction.
The castle consists of an inner and outer ward, eight towers, two barbicans and a postern gate that allowed supply from the sea.
Initially we drove to the south side of the castle and took some photos across the water.
Some shots as we approached from the west:
And from the south:
We then drove back across the bridge but, to do so, we needed to pass through the castle:
We parked at the western side of the bridge and walked across toward the castle. Kristine really liked the fact that the train ran through the castle:
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| Town walls leading down to the harbour |
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| The Guildhouse across the road |
Our next stop was Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. The community of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch often has its name shortened to Llanfairpwllgywngyll, Llanfairpwll, or Llanfair PG. It is a community on the Welsh Isle of Anglesey and the second longest one-word place name in the world at 58 characters (behind the 85 letters of Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu in New Zealand). It is the longest official one-word name in Europe and the longest name for a settlement.
The name translates to "The church of St Mary at the pool of the white hazels near the fierce whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave."
The original name of the town was Pwllgwyngyll (meaning "The pool of the white hazels"), but the longer version of the name started to be used in the 1800s in order to gain tourist attention. In 1869 the name was given to the train station as a publicity stunt to create the longest name of an rail station in Britain.
The actual breakdown of the name is:
"[The] church of [St.] Mary (Llanfair) [of the] pool (pwll) of the white hazels (gwyn gyll) near to (go ger) the fierce whirlpool (y chwyrn drobwll) [and] the church of [St.] Tysilio (Llantysilio) of the red cave (gogo[f] goch)".
Our next stop was Beaumaris Castle. Another of the castles built during King Edward I's invasion of Wales. Work began in 1295 but was never completed, despite large amounts of money being spent. In 1403 the Welsh took the castle and in 1405 the English recaptured it. As with Conwy castle, it was surrendered to the presidential forces in 1646.
We struggled to find a carpark and since we didn't have time to do a full paid tour, we were a little limited in what we could see from outside the walls:
Our final stop in Wales was Caernarfon Castle. It was originally a motte-and-bailey castle (built late 11th century), which King Edward I ordered replaced with a stone castle in 1283. The castle was made the administrative centre of north Wales, and so was built big and included city walls around the town of Caernarfon.
The town and castle were captured and sacked in 1294 by the Welsh leader Madog ap Llywelyn when they rebelled against the English, but was only in Welsh hands for a year before it was recaptured. The castle was again sieged in the 1400s as part of the Glyndŵr Rising, but held. In 1485, the Tudor's took over the English throne and tensions between the two countries lowered, so the castle was allowed to fall into ruin.
It played another part in Britain's history when it was held by the Royalists in the English Civil War and, despite being in a state of disrepair, it survived three sieges. In the 1800s it was restored and used as the location for the ceremony to name the Price of Wales and has become a World Heritage site and tourist attraction.
We parked just outside the walled town and walked through the walls to the base of the castle:
The walled city was pretty cool, and the castle was massive:
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| One of the more friendly locals |
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| City walls to the beach |
I had considered heading down to one last castle, but it was getting late and dark, so we headed back to our accomodation.
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