Castles, Wales – May 2019

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Inside the Conwy Castle, the stone structure remains completely intact while the wooden floors and plastered walls are long gone. It’s hard to imagine how this would have looked when it was at its high point.

Wales is also known as the Castle Capitol of the World, and we visited three of the hundred or so that remain intact in the country: Conwy, Penrhyn, and Caernarfon. These three incredible castles are spread across the northern coast of Wales to the east of Llandudno.

Conwy Castle, not surprisingly in the town of Conwy, was built in 1283 by Edward I in four years. The castle is nestled on the edge of Conwy and anchors the wall that surrounds the city. What remains of the castle today is only the limestone and sandstone blocks which are in remarkably good shape after 750 years! For about 10 bucks, you can wander around the courtyards, the towers and turrets, and the many passages and stairways of the structure. The spiral staircases that rise through the towers are so impressive both for their height and their precision.

The wall around Conwy is almost as well-preserved as the castle. With the exception of the wall along the beach, people can walk along the top of the wall all the way around the city. It’s astounding to think what it must have been like to build something like this.

Known as the Three Bridges across the River Conwy: the Conwy Road Bridge on the left, the Conwy Suspension Bridge for pedestrians, and the tubular, steel Conwy Railway Bridge on the right for trains that travel through an arch not far below me in the foundation of Conwy Castle

We finished our Conwy visit with a pastry at Tan Lan Bakery, breezed past the smallest house in Great Britain, and then zipped down the North Wales Expressway about ten miles to the east and turned into Penrhyn Castle, a vastly different place from Conwy.

Penrhyn Castle seems more like a royal palace among a sea of breathtaking landscape than a castle.

While Conwy Castle rises boldly at the edge of town, Penrhyn Castle is hidden outside of Bangor, at the end of winding roads and behind forests, where the countryside rolls down to the Menai Strait. We whipped around the roundabout and onto the well-marked lane towards parking and the entrance. The castle itself never came into view until we walked through the entryway and along a gravel path. But then it suddenly appears.

The castle started as a fortified manor in the 12th century and was transformed into its current incarnation 200 years ago with money made from the trading of slaves and slate. This place is a combination of art museum, originally-furnished palace, and a glimpse at decadent luxury. The $15 admission includes a self-guided tour through the building and a saunter along pathways that offer sweeping views in every direction.

This is one of the most amazing places to build your palace. The front of Penrhyn Castle is 100 feet behind me.

And now off to our final castle of the day in Caernarfon located further down on the Menai Strait, barely separating the island of Anglesey from the mainland. We got a little turned around as we drove into town due to some one way streets and unexpected turns. Before long, we found ourselves turning around at a dead end at the top of hill. We asked a pedestrian how to get to the castle and she kindly said, “Well park right here and walk around the corner.” The lesson here: Asking is almost always the right thing to do. We pulled into a one hour parking spot knowing we’d be gone longer than that and agreeing that a parking ticket from the Caerfarnon police would be suitable for framing.

The courtyard of Caerfarnon Castle looks like a park today but would have been bustling with people at the height of its power.

Caerfarnon Castle was built by Edward I, the same guy who built Conwy. This is not too surprising. Caerfarnon is the same style as Conwy, built right on the edge of town by the water, but larger. Caerfarnon is also integrated more fully into the town. It sits right across the street from restaurants and shops and abuts the town square. This was equally as interesting as Conwy, with endless passages and stairways and chambers throughout the walls and towers. While there is some symmetry to these castles, there are also lots are variations from one tower and wall to the next. The foundations of former walls can be seen on the ground and informational signs and drawings explain how the kitchen and the great hall and the king’s apartment used to fill these spaces.

The marina appears to empty every day as the tide goes out, leaving these boats literally stuck in the mud.

We headed out of the castle and walked around town for a while, grabbing coffee and pastries at Gray Thomas, a modern café right across the street from the castle. Then we wandered back to the car, after two hours away, and were quite sad that we had not received a souvenir from the police.

If I return to this area, I think I’ll stay in Caerfarnon. It’s a very pleasant city with this charming Castle Square and lots of streets to explore.

Each of these stops took about 90 minutes. We left Llandudno at 10:45 bought our Conwy ticket at 11:18am. We were at Penrhyn by 1:15pm, Caernarfon by 3pm, and back in Llandudno at 5:30pm. The car was a great way to accomplish this and very likely no more expansive than using other forms of transportation to get to these places.

The Castles are part of 10 day trip to the British Isles.