Smith Family Adventures: Northern Wales - Castles, Mountains and Slate

With school out for Tyler and the kids, we packed up the week before Christmas and drove four hours northwest to the north coast of Wales. We rented a small house through airbnb near the city of Caernarfon. It was a lovely area, peaceful and scenic nestled between the foothills of Snowdonia National Park and the Strait of Menai.

Everyone except Laura had some sort of ailment as we departed on the trip: Claire was still recovering from a ruptured ear drum and on antibiotics, Callum had a racking cough and fever and Tyler could barely swallow with a very sore throat. However, we pressed on knowing that we would be sitting at home or sitting in the car seeing something interesting.

Our first stop was in Betws-y-Coed in the heart of Snowdonia, Wales most visited park and home to the tallest mountain in Britain. As we exited our car we heard the distinct whistle of a steam engine train and investigated. We found a mini train that wound through an interestingly convoluted landscape, and Tyler and the kids rode it round.

We then browsed through a few stores and hopped back in the car to try and make it to the house before it was too dark. We caught a beautiful sunset on the way through the rest of Snowdonia and arrived at our little bungalow in a quiet neighborhood called Bethel.

The next morning we had a lazy morning and Laura fixed a big breakfast. Our first stop of the day was the town of Conwy. Situated at the heart of the city was an ancient castle built by Edward I in the 1200s. Finished in an astounding four years, the castle sits along the shore and connects to a surprisingly intact town wall that encircles the old town centre.

The castle had a very good children's clue hunt that kept Callum interested as we climbed up and down stairs and across the castle walls.

Afterwards, we bought a few things at the Cadw store for Christmas presents and then we walked down the main street in town and stopped in for a spot of tea.

Claire is perfecting her photo bomb look here.

We decided that this was a quintessential picture in that it had the red phone booth, red mail box and a castle in the background. All it is missing is a double-decker bus and someone sipping tea in a tweed coat to make it complete.

Afterward finishing our wandering in Conwy, we drove back towards the mountains to browse in a specialty wool store. Unfurtunately, we didn't find anything we liked or needed, so we drove home the long way and passed back through Betws-y-Coed and stopped for a memorable meal at the Royal Oak Inn. Tyler ordered a 'whole roasted local teal' which turned out to be slightly more interesting than he was expecting as the bird included the flipper feet. In the end, it was a funny memory for us and actually tasted kinda nice.

The next day we drove north to the Menai bridge and crossed over onto the Isle of Angelsey. This bridge was finished in 1826 and was a marvel in its time as it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. It sat 100' above the Menai Strait at high tide to enable the Royal Navy ships of the day to sail beneath it.

Just around the corner from the bridge was the village with the long name, otherwise known as LLanfairpwllgwyngyll. Actually, that is the short version of the town name. The long version is LLanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantsiliogogogoch which means "The Church of Mary in the hollow of the white hazel near the fierce whirlpool and Church of Tysilio by the red cave."

We then drove a few miles along the southern shore of the island eastward until we reached Beaumaris Castle. It was a pleasant route along the water with a splendid view of the mountains across the strait and a cute town.

Also commissioned by Edward I, this castle was never completed as the king's attention and pocketbook turned towards Scotland in the 1290s.

In the old, filled in moat, there was a nice playground that entertained the children for a while. It was a very scenic backdrop to the swings and balance course.

The interesting thing about Beaumaris, is that it would have been a very defensible fortress. Unlike some of the other castles in the area, it was built upon an open piece of land and wasn't constrained by the geography. Thus, it was a perfectly symmetrical design with concentric walls. In fact, the inner walls were thicker, taller and more robust than the outer walls. If invaders did manage to get past the moat and outer walls, they would be very exposed to the defenders still on the inner walls.

We found a few 'secret' passages in the inner walls leading to multiple small rooms with windows facing outwards as well as ruined and open spaces meant to be royal chambers.

About halfway through our tour, the golden sun emerged just above the Snowdonia mountains and cast a golden glow turning the cold grey stones a warm beige.

From the top of the walls, we were breathless from the spectacular view (and maybe a little bit from all the stairs). The castle was just a few hundred feet from the Straits of Menai with vivid green, rolling hills behind and a backdrop of dramatic mountains behind the water out front.

We watched an interesting video inside about the story and construction of the castle with special attention on the struggle of the Welsh versus Kind Edward I of England.

After our perusal was over, we walked down the High street and into a small deli to buy some food. We had pasties and sausage rolls on the go as we drove along the shore to Penmon, an ancient priory complete with a lighthouse, dovecote and ancient ruins from a dark ages church.

We took a walk out onto a pebbly beach and a rocky outcropping looking for sea life in the tidal pools. We didn't see any critters, but did find some cool shells and rocks. Just off the shore was Puffin Island, which fascinated the kids since they often watched a cartoon called Puffin Rock.

With just a little bit of daylight left, we zoomed back to Caernarfon Castle to see if we could sneak in before they closed. Claire had fallen asleep on the 40 minute drive, so Laure snuck in for a quick whirlwind tour while Tyler and the kids stayed in the car.

Caernarfon was a formidable castle and palace with huge 50 - 75 foot walls that looked very solid in comparison with the other castles we'd seen. It was famous in that wasn't ruined and had been the location of the investiture of Charles, Prince of Wales when he was 17.

Afterwards, we drove around the town a few times before we decided to park and walk about. Unfortunately, a very windy, cold and rainy storm was just hitting. The kids were not excited about being out in the elements so we decided to pack up and buy some pizzas at the grocery store and eat at home with a family movie night.

The morning we managed to pack out the house and leave just after 10. Our destination for the day was the National Slate Museum. One of Wales primary exports for several hundred years, slate was found in abundance in the mountains of Snowdonia.

We witnessed a very informative demonstration of how slate was split and made into very thing roof tiles by hand. The brittle rock, made long ago in the earth from compressed mud could be split with hammer and chisel by an skilled craftsman until it was about a millimeter thick!

The gentleman that demonstrated for us was a retired slate craftsman and had worked in the quarries for forty years. He showed us a beautiful and delicate spiral fan of carved and chiseled blades of thin slate. He sold them from his own shop and we arranged to meet him on our drive back home to purchase one.

The drive back was the prettiest of the trip as a front was moving through and the bright sun lit up the golden valleys and dark rocks. The heavy rain created hundreds of frothy white cascades coming down from the hills every direction you looked as we drove up and over the pass towards Capel Curig.