We left “home” in sunshine this morning with the firm
intention of boarding the rack-and-pinion train for the one-hour journey to the
top of Mount Snowden, the tallest mountain in England and Wales at over one
kilometre high, but by the time we came close to Llanberis, from where the
train departs, it was raining and foggy to the point where there would be next
to no visibility from the top of the mountain, which would render the whole
exercise fairly meaningless.
Instead we first drove to the nearby town Caernarfon, a
lovely town steeped in history. Its name
means “fort on the shore”, so our first stop was at the remains of the 2nd
century Roman fort, constructed on a hill in about 77CE to defend this outpost
of the Roman empire from rebellious tribes.
Only the foundations of the fort remain, however they cover a
significant area and give an accurate idea of the size of the fort.
From there we went down the hill and walked past the
smallest bar in Wales (we have noticed two things about Wales: they celebrate
small and almost everybody seems to be named Jones) and walked to Caernarfon
Castle, which overlooks the harbour and dominates the town. Building began in 1283 under the orders of
King Edward I, who went on an absolute castle-building spree after conquering
Wales. He ultimately crowned his son the
first English Prince of Wales in this castle, a tradition that has been
maintained, with Prince Charles being the latest investiture in 1969.
This is an outstanding castle to clamber about in, mostly
being able to stay out of the rain. You
can basically ascend any of the several towers and keep going around the entire
castle without having to come back down to ground level. There are spectacular views over the harbour
and town and to the mountains from many vantage points. It has many modern features, including a film
presentation of the history of the castle, a museum highlighting the history of
the Royal Welsh Fusiliers (and did you know that the Grenadiers are so called because
their job was to chuck grenades?), a special room with five large wall cabinets
containing all the campaign and battle medals for the Fusiliers, a room with
oversized heads of key players in the castle’s history, and a display about
King Arthur, as it seems that Edward I was slightly obsessed with the legend of
King Arthur and tried to recreate the legend in Caernarfon, including the
installation of a large round table for important meetings.
We wandered through the quaint town, had lunch and then
drove to Llanberis to see what else was there apart from the Mount Snowden
railway. Again, we were not
disappointed; we visited the Welsh Slate Museum, watched a short video on the
history of slate mining in the region, and wandered through the various old
sheds and workshops. This slate mine,
which is no longer working, was an open-cut type so there was nothing to see
underground, but it was fascinating to look at the machinery and equipment that
supported this type of mining. One feature was the huge De Winton water wheel,
the second largest in Britain. We then
strolled to nearby woodland to one of the Peace Statues that have been erected
in the area, with the simple message to say a prayer for peace, spend a minute or two in meditation or simply
offer a thought of goodwill in the cause of peace and world harmony. We chose options two and three.
Then back to our
little cottage for our last night in this beautiful region before heading north
tomorrow, through England to Scotland.
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