Around 10 years after King Louis IX of France built Ste. Chapelle in Paris; King Edward I of England started building a castle at Caernarfon. It was finished around 1285. He already had castles at Beaumaris and Harlech. He wanted to build another castle in order to maintain the English presence in Wales.
King Edward built over the ruins of a Norman fort and a an even older Roman fort. He created a town too and enclosed it and the castle within a wall. You can still see parts of the wall around the town of Caernarfon today.
Caernarfon sits at the western end of the Menai straits and looks on to the Irish Sea. Across the straitsto the north of Caernarfon lies Anglesey island. The castle is in remarkably good condition. The best time to see it, however, is outside the tourist season. You wouldn’t want to get caught going up or down one of the turrets when there’s a crowd.
Big Guy and Emlyn were like kids, playing on the ramparts. I watched from below; just looking gave me a nose bleed. Grams took the picture. At the castle there’s a motion picture presentation about the history of Wales, and the usual gift shop (Grams made a bee-line for that).
As you can see, it was a spectacular day. But then, every day in Wales is spectacular.
A la prochaine. Moochas smoochas, Gweeds
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