CONWY. Towns Walls, Chimney Pots & A Castle.

Where I live in the North West of England I’m lucky to have really good transport connections into North Wales, particularly by rail along the coast through towns like Rhyl, Prestatyn and Llandudno.

The weather had been doing its usual see-sawing between excellent weather and awful but the forecast suggested that there was going to be an improvement for a few days so I took a chance and booked myself a train ticket.

You’ll have to excuse a bit of train travel geekery here. The railway line passes to the south of Llandudno proper on it’s way to the ferry port town of Holyhead. At Llandudno Junction a branch line leaves and carries on up alongside the River Conway to Llandudno proper. Just on the opposite side of the river from Llandudno Junction, a brisk ten minutes walk is the historic town of Conwy, dominated by one of the ring of castles built by King Edward 1^st as part of his campaign to conquer Wales in the latter part of the 1300’s.

My plan was to take the train to Llandudno Junction, walk over to Conwy to take a look at the town and then take the walk up the River Conwy to Llandudno. This post is that first part.

As you cross the bridge into Conwy the town is dominated by it’s castle and the encircling ring of walls which were built at the same time. You can take an almost uninterrupted walk around the walls from the castle around to the quayside. The only gap being the one made by the railway which came through the town in the late 1840’s.

CONWY. Conwy Castle, built in the late twelve hundreds by King Edward 1st as part of his conquest of Wales. The encircling town walls were also built at the same time.

CONWY. The Postern Gate in the town walls.

The lie of the land slopes upwards towards the west of the town and naturally so does the line of the walls, you walk along on a level with the chimney pots and circling gulls while below you the streets jostle about within the confines of their stone girdle.

CONWY. The staircase leading up the interior of one of the towers to the walkway along the top of the walls.

Lancaster Square and the statue of Edward 1st

19/09/19 CONWY. Town Walls. Llewellyn's Tower

CONWY. Looking along the line of the town walls towards the remains of Llewellyn’s Tower. This was one of the Palaces built by the native Welsh Prince Llewellyn the Great and incorperated into the town’s walls by Edward 1st’s builders.