Thursday 25 November 2010

Dolbadarn and Dolwyddelan, Snowdonia






I recently made a trip to Snowdonia, where I climbed Mount Snowdon via the pyg track and came down the miners' track. I stayed in the village of Llanberis, and I visited Dolbadarn castle which is basically a turret with remains of the courtyard. However it is a very spectacular site. There is some heather growing at its foot and although there is only one turret left it feels like a site of historic importance. To testify to this there was a party of welsh schoolchildren with their teacher who were obviously learning about their own heritage. The site is overlooking Llanberis lake and some mountains.

We then explored Dolwyddelan castle which has most of the keep still intact, and this was in a very remote location. We met some walkers along the way and followed a path to the top where we had views of mountains and it felt very remote. Like Dolbadarn this is an original castle of the welsh princes, which pre-dates the world heritage site of Edward I's castles, and it is said to be the birth place of Llywelyn the Great.

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