where
to go
what to do
Ruthin (14
miles) is a pretty market town looking over the Vale of Clwyd. There
are remains of the castle, built by Edward I in the 13th century, and
most of the centre of the town is an attractive mix of buildings spanning
six centuries. St Peter’s Church in the main square dates from
the 14th century while, along from it, the 16th century Myddelton Arms
has a steeply-pitched roof housing an unusual array of seven dormer
windows, collectively known as the ‘eyes of Ruthin’. Next
door is the Georgian Castle Hotel.
Across the square,
the half-timbered former courthouse built in 1401 now contains the NatWest
Bank – and still displays the remains of a gibbet – and in
front of the mock-Tudor Barclays Bank is Maen Huail, a large limestone
rock on which King Arthur is supposed to have beheaded a rival.
The medieval Nantclwd house in Castle Street is the oldest known townhouse in Wales. Added to over the centuries, it has recently been restored and seven rooms, each representing a different period of its history, are now open to the public. The castle itself, rebuilt in the 19th century, is now a hotel featuring medieval banquets.
The Ruthin
County Gaol by the river is now a museum and a farmers’ market
is held in its courtyard on the last Saturday of every month from May
to October. The
new Craft Centre with workshops, galleries and tourist information centre
is due to open this year (2008) opposite the now-obligatory Tesco (there
are also smaller Somerfield and Co-op stores).
Bala (11miles)
sits at the head of its lake (Llyn Tegid in Welsh), the largest natural
body of water in Wales. It is also within the boundaries of Snowdonia
National Park and, perhaps because of this, its range of shops, inns,
cafés and restaurants on its main street has not, so far, been
standardised.At
one end is Tomen y Bala, a large Norman castle mound, or motte, now
a public garden and worth visiting for its views over Lake Bala and
the mountains beyond. The
lake itself is four miles long and a mile at its widest and is home
to a unique fish, the Gwyniad, apparently a species of herring and
survivor of the Ice Age. There is
also a narrow-gauge railway that runs along its southern
bank.
Plas Newydd, was ‘Gothicised’ by Lady Eleanor Butler and the Hon Sarah Ponsonby. Known as ‘the ladies of Llangollen’, they eloped and lived there together from 1780-1829 in what would now be a civil partnership but in Regency days was little short of a scandal. Notoriety, however, made them notable, especially in literary circles: Wordsworth, Shelley and Byron were friends and even the Duke of Wellington visited. Their house can be visited from Easter to October.
The town
itself is full of gift shops aimed at tourists but it is also a centre
for amateur theatre societies, some of them producing plays, musicals,
cabarets and concerts of a very high calibre.Two miles west of Llangollen
is Valle Crucis, a large Cistercian abbey, built in the 13th century
but largely destroyed during the Reformation. However, many original
features remain and its aura of peace and contemplation is palpable.
Betws-y-Coed has
been a renowned beauty spot since Victorian artists flocked to the
area to record its rivers, waterfalls, bridges, woodland and surrounding
mountains.
The arrival of the railway opened the village up to holidaymakers from
the industrial towns of Lancashire and it is still a holiday resort with
many hotels, pubs, tearooms, restaurants and delicatessens catering to
visitors’ needs. The train station itself is now a railway museum.
On the outskirts
of the village, the River Conwy rushes over the Conwy Falls and through
the narrow gorge of Fairy Glen and is spanned by one of Thomas Telford’s
iron bridges called the Waterloo because it was built in 1815, the year
of the famous battle.
Llandudno,
Wales’ largest seaside resort, still retains much of its Victorian
and Edwardian elegance, especially in the sweep of hotels and boarding
houses along the town’s wide, sandy beaches and the lengthy pier
with its traditional attractions. It’s a real bucket-and-spade
place.Over it looms the Great Orme, most easily climbed by cable car
and home to over half a million of a unique species of butterfly, the
silver studded blue, in summer. Just five miles away is the mighty Conwy
Castle, now a World Heritage Site but built for Edward I in
the 13th century.
Cottage
guests will find a full
information pack covering
horse riding; fishing - fly & course;
quad trails & karting; climbing,
paintballing, canoeing; white water rafting, sailing, surfing; abseiling,
cruises, railways and gardens.If you have a particular interest and want
to know about availability, contact Johanna
Jackson.
