C is for Castle. C is also for 100 in latin - is that how many we visited?

Leaving Bath we headed towards the Welsh border and our first stop at Grosmont to visit the castle there.  It's fairly ruined but the villagers look upon it as very much their own, they consider it to be not really part of the national estate.  We had our lunch at the village pub and the publican (who was actually a kiwi) told us how Cadw (the Welsh Government's historic sites managers) kept their noses out when the village planned an event in the castle grounds.  Possibly more that a village of 200 people didn't do to much damage when they decided to have a community picnic?  We also looked over the church which is reputed to have the oldest roof in Wales!  It was really interesting as half the church is used for community purposes including markets, and half is still the village church.

Chimney remains at Grosmont

Inside the church, we had a lovely chat with the vicar about the different changes and renovations which have been done over the years to keep this particular church as the centre of the community.

Undeterred by the unrelenting rain we continued on to Hay-on-Wye, the famous book town, where we planned to stay the night in an old inn. 

Diorama of the murder mystery bookshop - the shop window

We managed to not fill the car up with second hand books only by reminding ourselves of that dreaded weight limit on our luggage.  That, and knowing we were meeting my friend Sera for dinner on the other side of Wales helped us leave close to the planned hour in order to fit in visits to Harlech and Criccieth Castles en route to Caernafon.

A dragon hatchling!

The ocean used to almost lap at the bottom of Harlech castle but over the years the estuary has silted up

Criccieth is opposite Harlech on the other side of the bay,  we're not sure what all the groynes on the beach were for but "sunbathers" were using them as a windbreak!

All was going well until just before dinner time when we went to check in to the Black Boy Inn, right on the castle walls of Caernafon.  They had a booking for us all right.  But it wasn't for another month!  The front-desk staff were very sorry, but the hotel was fully booked; in fact, the Eisteddfod was starting the next day on Anglesey Island and every hotel for miles around was fully booked!  Cue one of those muttered conversation that every couple has had...

Eventually we did find a room in a hotel with some perks I hadn't come across before.  Like the fully stocked lake should one feel like a spot of fly fishing.  Matt did think that sounded like fun but given a choice of getting up early or watching me eat smoked trout for breakfast that someone else caught earlier you know what he chose right?

With Sera outside the Black Boy where we didn't stay!

The next morning we went back to explore Caernarfon.  Matt found it fascinating for a number of reasons - it's the most complete of the castles we visited and could best be described as "Grand", as befits its status (it's still a royal castle).

Our second stop for the day was at Beaumaris.  We managed to dodge the Eisteddford by following Sera's instructions and going via Bangor and the Menai Bridge.  We also saw some stunning urban scenery.  We had no sooner arrived at the castle when - you guessed it - the heavens opened.

The final Welsh castle we planned on visiting was Conwy.  Conwy was a lovely seaside town and we had hoped to stay there - but the aforementioned eisteddfod meant it was booked out and we went on to Denbigh.  Yet another place we need to go back to.  Conwy that is, definately not Denbigh which was the only boring place we visited in Wales!  Although the castle was interesting...

View over the estuary bridges from Conwy Castle.

You can still walk around the walls of old Conwy  town but we decided we'd had enough clambering up and down slippery steps for the day!


Thank goodness we were able to drive most of the way up to the remains of Denbigh Castle because it was on the top of a very steep hill! The gatehouse had a triple tower which was a 13th Century experiment in fortification design.  It managed to withstand the forces of the Parliamentarian Army for four months before being conquered by Cromwell.

Denbigh had a very commanding position over the posh chateau!

From Denbigh we headed to Rhuddlan Castle which was to be our last Welsh castle.  Although we added in a quick stop at Flint as we were driving nearly past it.
Rhuddlan was designed by James of St George who worked on so many of Edward I's anti-Welsh castles.  To put the castle where they wanted and still have access to the river (for supply purposes as well as access to the sea) they diverted the entire river!  Pretty impressive engineering for the 13th century!

Re-enactors in the rain at Rhuddlan

The tower at the end of the docks at Rhuddlan

The rain held off until we arrived at Flint Castle. From Matt's point of view it was interesting as it was the first of Edward I's castles that his architect James of St George worked on.
This was the castle where Shakespeare had Richard II abdicate in favour of his cousin Henry, and Cadw had some interesting interactive points where you could here various speeches declaimed.

Leaving Wales with some sadness we headed back to England to visit the birthplace of The Bard.