Look at this lovely place! It was sunny and warm and absolutely fabulous on Saturday April 10th. Mark and Luz and I left the small little town of Oswestry (in Shropshire) where we were staying with Mark's mother Kay and drove about an hour south to Conwy (con wee) in North Wales. As you can see it's up on the northern coast of Wales and there are all sorts of water craft coming and going around here.
Conwy is famous for it's Medieval castle--appropriately named Conwy Castle. It was built by Edward I between 1283 and 1289 as one of the many castles in the 'iron ring' he designed to contain and humble the wild and rebellious Welsh. It has very high curtain walls and eight round towers. The above picture does not do it justice and I wish I had taken a picture of it from the opposite side where it looms above the little town and the harbor. By the time I thought of that it was too late and we had to go. The above picture is taken from the car park up on the hill behind the castle. Not the best view of it since you don't get even a remote idea of how big the castle is.
This next picture is of the castle looking away from the car park and down towards the harbor. They are holding a medieval festival inside and you can learn about all sorts of interesting medieval activities--archery, dance, fighting skills and so on. I like those festivals and have seen several in my jaunts around England.
This picture was taken from one of the highest towers of the castle. I am looking back towards the car park now and away from the harbor. An off-duty tour guide (Bob from Preston) told us that the castle was designed so that if attackers got through the gates (down by the car park) that defenders could escape back into the furthest side of the castle (by the harbor) by blocking off the entrances to that middle wall you can see there and maintain themselves. The towers on this side are higher than the ones on the other side so that defenders would always be above the attackers and would still have the advantage. Very wise.
Here I am atop one of the tallest towers and you can see the harbor behind me. It was so lovely up there, but a bit breezy and cool. Bob (the tour guide man) also told us that Conwy Castle had only ever been taken by enemies once and that was done by stealth, not by military might. It appears that a handful of men knocked on the castle gates one fine Sunday afternoon while the bulk of the garrison was at church down in the town. They pretended to be a fix-it crew come to make some needed repairs to the wooden beams. Once inside, they killed the guards who were left behind from church and took over the castle. They were able to defend the place from the rightful owners for nearly three months even with their small numbers. So, that says something about the strength of the castle's defenses and design. Anyway, it was an interesting place and I enjoyed the visit. I'm a bit of a castle freak, so I'm afraid that will be a common theme on this blog! Sorry about that.
Look at this lovely place! It was sunny and warm and absolutely fabulous on Saturday April 10th. Mark and Luz and I left the small little town of Oswestry (in Shropshire) where we were staying with Mark's mother Kay and drove about an hour south to Conwy (con wee) in North Wales. As you can see it's up on the northern coast of Wales and there are all sorts of water craft coming and going around here.
Conwy is famous for it's Medieval castle--appropriately named Conwy Castle. It was built by Edward I between 1283 and 1289 as one of the many castles in the 'iron ring' he designed to contain and humble the wild and rebellious Welsh. It has very high curtain walls and eight round towers. The above picture does not do it justice and I wish I had taken a picture of it from the opposite side where it looms above the little town and the harbor. By the time I thought of that it was too late and we had to go. The above picture is taken from the car park up on the hill behind the castle. Not the best view of it since you don't get even a remote idea of how big the castle is.
This next picture is of the castle looking away from the car park and down towards the harbor. They are holding a medieval festival inside and you can learn about all sorts of interesting medieval activities--archery, dance, fighting skills and so on. I like those festivals and have seen several in my jaunts around England.
This picture was taken from one of the highest towers of the castle. I am looking back towards the car park now and away from the harbor. An off-duty tour guide (Bob from Preston) told us that the castle was designed so that if attackers got through the gates (down by the car park) that defenders could escape back into the furthest side of the castle (by the harbor) by blocking off the entrances to that middle wall you can see there and maintain themselves. The towers on this side are higher than the ones on the other side so that defenders would always be above the attackers and would still have the advantage. Very wise.
Here I am atop one of the tallest towers and you can see the harbor behind me. It was so lovely up there, but a bit breezy and cool. Bob (the tour guide man) also told us that Conwy Castle had only ever been taken by enemies once and that was done by stealth, not by military might. It appears that a handful of men knocked on the castle gates one fine Sunday afternoon while the bulk of the garrison was at church down in the town. They pretended to be a fix-it crew come to make some needed repairs to the wooden beams. Once inside, they killed the guards who were left behind from church and took over the castle. They were able to defend the place from the rightful owners for nearly three months even with their small numbers. So, that says something about the strength of the castle's defenses and design. Anyway, it was an interesting place and I enjoyed the visit. I'm a bit of a castle freak, so I'm afraid that will be a common theme on this blog! Sorry about that.
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