Caernarfon Castle

Built: Late 11th Century

Location: Caernarfon, Gwynedd, North-West Wales

History: While the castle was under construction, town walls were built around Caernarfon. The work cost between £20,000 and £25,000 from the start until the end of work in 1330.

Despite Caernarfon Castle’s external appearance of being mostly complete, the interior buildings no longer survive and many of the building plans were never finished. The town and castle were sacked in 1294 when Madog ap Llywelyn led a rebellion against the English. Caernarfon was recaptured the following year.

During the Glyndŵr Rising of 1400–1415, the castle was besieged. When the Tudor dynasty ascended to the English throne in 1485, tensions between the Welsh and English began to diminish and castles were considered less important. As a result, Caernarfon Castle was allowed to fall into a state of disrepair.

Review: So firstly, I know this castle is awesome because my mum actually enjoyed exploring it and that is very VERY rare.

So with that in mind, I’ll tell you why my mum (for the first time ever) enjoyed this castle as much as my dad and I. It is for starters just so huge! Then you have the whole fact that you basically drive right by it, with this vast amount of water on one side. It’s stunning even before you’ve stepped inside.

It probably helps that it is just so huge. There is so much to take in at first, which is great because it means that there is a whole lot of exploring to do.

We didn’t take the guided tour, instead we just brought the guide book which I felt is enough because there isn’t much history to be discovered (or any ghost stories either). Besides if you do have a question there are plenty of people around and there are enough reading boards with a loads of details on to satify any questions you have.

There are so many long corridors when you do actually explore the inside of the castle – and also so many steps if you do all the towers (like I did – exploring castles is clearly a good keep fit). Now walking up all the towers really are worth it. The views are amazing from all of them and they are all slightly different then the last. It sounds silly, but just a little further down the way, or at a slightly different angle really does make a difference AND the views are spectular. They really are worth getting out of breath by walking up every tower.

Lastly, at whatever time you finish exploring (and I suggest you give it a few hours), there is still loads to do outside the castle and I suggest that you go to the most amazing ice-cream place, which is just outside the castle. My favourite, and again I suggest you try it, is the Jaffa Cake ice-cream, it is absolutely divine.

The feature picture was taken from http://handluggageonly.co.uk/2015/02/23/15-fairytale-castles-you-must-see-in-wales/