Wandering along Conwy’s city walls I had to stop and investigate what I’m sure you’ll agree is a pretty imposing sculpture that’s hard to miss. I was then even more intrigued to discover a whole row of sculptures some of which are attached onto the town walls.
Whenever I’m near the sea I’m reminded how much I love it and that I don’t visit the coast nearly often enough. On this trip I decided to go on one of the local sightseeing cruises which are recommended on pretty much every “things to do in Conwy” list. It’s not really an activity you can book in advance, being reliant on weather and tides etc. but if you go down to the quayside you can see in the morning what sailings are going to be undertaken that day.
Sunday 11 June was the 25th year that the Park Estate in Nottingham (a private housing estate which in a previous life was the deer park for Nottingham Castle) have put on their Park Garden Trail. Residents in the estate open up some of their gardens to visitors with the fee of £7.50 going towards local charities. The event is held every two years (COVID notwithstanding) and it’s one of those things that I was vaguely aware happened but had never attended before, so I decided on a whim to do it this year, buying my ticket online the night before.
Grade I listed, this is one of the first road suspension bridges in the world and is now cared for by the National Trust. It is right by Conwy Castle and is free to access. It’s an incredibly impressive structure and you can get some really good views of it from the top of the castle as well as at ground level.
The town walls of Conwy are part of the fortification of the town that includes the castle. They cover 1,400 yards in an almost unbroken circuit around the town. And the almost unbroken circuit is an important distinction because more than once I saw guidebooks/tour guides suggesting that you can walk around the town walls the same way as you can at York and no, you definitely can’t. In fact I found some extra COVID restrictions had been left in place with some of the walls closed off completely and others with instructions that the route was one way only – at some places that was completely impractical and if you’d followed the signs your only option would have been to jump up into the sea!
It had been a while since I’d been to the farm so I decided to pop by just after one of May’s many bank holidays so that I could see the lambs, and also I hadn’t yet been to see the meerkats which they now, somewhat randomly, have in their barn.
Conwy Castle, like its fellow Welsh castles of Beaumaris and Caernarfon are World Heritage sites and looked after by Cadw. Built between 1283 and 1287 under the orders of Edward I as part of his conquest of Wales it’s an impressive medieval fortress that absolutely dominates the skyline and is very well preserved for its age, including the most intact set of medieval royal apartments in Wales.
I visited St. John’s Church in Carrington back when we had some snow in March. The doors were locked so I couldn’t go inside but the graveyard proved to be quite interesting on its own. Building of the church began in 1841 thanks to an endowment from Ichabod Wright, a local banker who lived in Mapperley Hall not far from the church and which has since been turned into flats.
I first spotted St Grwst’s Church from across the Conwy River when I was photographing the area and that reminded me that I’d read in the history of St Mary’s Church in Conwy that a connection to Llywelyn the Great could be found at St Grwst’s and it was somewhere worth visiting. According to legend a Welsh nobleman called Nefydd Hardd murdered a son of Owain Gwynedd, king of Gwynedd, North Wales and in atonement for his actions Nefydd’s son had the church built in 1170. It was dedicated to Grwst, a saint who had set up a church nearby in the 6th century.
Just to the left of Llanrwst Railway Station, heading towards the town, is the Llanrwst War Memorial. The memorial commemorates the dead of both World Wars including Janet Jones, who was a teacher before enlisting as one of the early members of the Women’s Royal Air Force. She died on 21 December 1918, after the war had ended, aged only 28. Her brother Hugh is also remembered here, he died in Gallipoli in 1915 aged just 23.
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