As we tour Caernarfon Castle, perhaps Wales’ most famous royal residence, we are reminded of the long journey King Charles took to become our reigning monarch.
For it was in this medieval masterpiece that our then 17-year-old monarch was invested as Prince of Wales.
In 1283, Edward I ordered the construction of this great fortress in North Wales, which stands on the banks of the River Seiont as it flows northwards towards the Menai Strait.
Angela Epstein visits Caernarfon Castle (pictured), “perhaps Wales’ most famous royal residence”
Above, a young Charles being invested as Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle.
It’s hard not to be impressed by the scale of the project, which took 47 years to complete, with its rounded towers, high walls and detailed stonework.
To travel even further back in time, we leave the castle and take a ten-minute walk up a hill to the east of the fortress to look for the remains of a Roman fort, Segontium.
It takes imagination, as we walk around the stone contours and remaining walls, to picture the fort, founded in 77 AD and designed to house around a thousand infantrymen.
After all the effort, we return to the main square next to the castle to enjoy a coffee before taking a stroll around Cei Llechi, the old Port Office building, now transformed into a craft shopping village.
Angela explores the remains of Segontium (seen above), a Roman fort founded in AD 77.
Above, Dinas Dinlle, a “long sandy and pebble beach where dolphins and porpoises are said to hang out,” says Angela.
Angela is staying at Plas Dinas Country House Hotel (above), the former home of Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret. There, she “eats and sleeps like a king.”
To see more of this part of Wales, you can take the Welsh Highland Railway, whose narrow-gauge steam locomotives chug from beneath the castle walls for a 25-mile journey to the charming harbour of Porthmadog, slowly winding its way through the pleasant hills of Snowdonia (Yr Wydffa).
Or, as we do, walk the 10km to Dinas Dinlle, a long sandy and pebbly beach where dolphins and porpoises are said to hang out. And, as a history buff, it’s rewarding to find the remains of an Iron Age hill fort on the cliff overlooking the beach (wear appropriate footwear, as the path to the top is a bit steep).
Keeping in mind the royal theme of our trip, we booked the Plas Dinas Country House hotel for our stay. The ancestral home of the Armstrong-Jones family, Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret both lived in this historic country house, three miles south of Caernarfon.
The family’s footprints are everywhere, most notably in our luxurious room, called The Lady Armstrong Jones, fitted with a four-poster super king bed and a free-standing bath.
We eat and sleep like kings, but in Caernarfon, that’s the least you can expect.
