A Castle a day gives room for play...
Day two dawned with some random girl running through the camping ground screaming at the top of her lungs, clearly a dare as it finished in much giggling. To be fair, I think even the cock was a bit pissed at being woken so early, so went back to sleep with everyone else.
But we were up and all packed up well before 10am which was good. Clouds looked a bit ominous so after breakfast overlooking a lake, and a quick trip to an outdoors store for a new fuel pump for the stove to replace the melted old one, we decided against hiking up Mt Tryfan which is meant to be a fun scramble over rocks etc, but was enshrouded in cloud. Another day, when we can enjoy the view from the top. So we decided to
go see a real Castle...
Arriving at Caernarfon Castle (and walled town) was an impressive sight half an hour's drive from our breakfast outlook. No longer in the midst of the massive natural fortress that is Snowdonia with it's towering craggy peaks and misty clouds enshrouding the tops and occasionally coming down to m
eet the roads. This was most clearly a man made fortress, impressive in its immensity of scale and so much cooler than the photo's give credit. We probably climbed a fair few hundred metres of turret after turret, marvelling at the sheer immensity of the place, the calm within its walls (it was a bit breezy outside) and the craftmanship as well as clever design so as to make it impregnable from without.
Learned some more vaguely interesting history too. So back in the day (about 1200ish) there was this welsh prince Llywelyn. Llywelyn set about reasserting the authority of Gwynedd and thereafter extending it into a supremacy over much of the rest of Wales. In 1267 his position as overlord was recognized by Henry III in the Treaty of Montgomery when the English king accepted Llywelyn's homage as prince of Wales.
Ten years after his recognition as the prince of Wales by Henry III, Llywelyn was to suffer a humiliating defeat at the hands of the new King Edward I. From the outset, Llywelyn seemed almost to go out of his way to court Edward's anger. In particular, he refused to yield the homage and money payments owing to the king under the terms of the Treaty of Montgomery. Seemingly not paying your taxes has always been a good way to ensure your downfall. And hey the Bible gives such good advice on the subject too (see Matthew 22:14-22). Anyway he tempted fate further by arranging to marry Eleanor, daughter of rebel baron Simon de Montfort, an act destined to strain Edward's patience to the limit.
Enough was enough, and in 1276-77 Edward had decided to settle accounts with the recalcitrant Welsh prince. Edward himself took the field at Chester in July 1277, and by August he had some 15,600 troops in his pay. Against these odds, Llywelyn had no choice but to sue for peace. The ensuing Treaty of Aberconwy represented a comprehensive humiliation for the prince of Wales. Stripped of his overlordship he had won ten years earlier, Gwynedd was again reduced to its traditional heartland to the west of the River Conwy.
On 21 March 1282, Llywelyn's brother, Dafydd, attacked Hawarden Castle and sparked off the war of 1282-83. Llywelyn was faced with an almost impossible dilemma. Torn b
etween his fealty to the king and his loyalty to his brother Dafydd and his people, Llywelyn was to side with his brother and led the Welsh resistance to the inevitable invasion by Edward I. By the end of the year Llywelyn was dead, having been killed on 11 December in a brief engagement with English forces at Irfon
Bridge near Builth Wells. So they made him a memorial stone, and his name stands in history - an ambitious man no doubt, but missed a salient point of leadership - never underestimate your enemies.
Anyway it was in response to this passage of history that King Edward I built his ring of castles to surround north wales. Edward was not really interested in Battle with Llywelyn, so just built massive castles in what was supposed to be Llywelyn's territory to stake his dominance. The Welsh had a couple of goes at destroying these, mid production and on completion but they were exceedingly well built and designed and the poor wee welshmen offered little resistance really. So sayeth history.
So the English have a great and bloody history of getting into other people's lands and taking over somewhat. I guess when you learn about how the brits have treated their nearest neighbors it paints the Treaty of Waitangi in a new light. As well as ensuing land claims and settlements. And I guess as Solomon put it - there is nothing new under the sun. The current struggles in Israel/Lebanon would seem to back ole' Solomon up on that.
Anyway, I digress. The left is about a 3om movable section of bridge that is manned and swings out of the way to let ships into the harbour and allows great access on foot to the rest of the coastland when closed. Really cool to watch from above and from on the bridge too. Slides closed within millimetres. Engineering at its finest. Really impressive. Had some great lunch in the sun, beside the beach before exiting Caernarfon for the island of Anglesey.
After a truly impressive play in the castle grounds we've decided that we will have to build one when we get back to NZ. All we need now is about 40 million dollars, give or take a few million, and a nice seaside property. But the idea of having a massive grassed area behind the walls of your property is a good one, particularly when the walls are about 100 foot high and block ALL the wind, I think the concept could really take off in Wellington at least.
So after a great expe
rience with that attraction we decided to take in one of the other top ten attractions in North Wales. The Anglesey Sea Zoo. To be fair, kids would probably love it, but it had nothing on Ocean Park Hong Kong. Had an exceedingly large crayfish and some lobsters but otherwise pretty boring. From there we headed off for a drive around the island of Anglesey. Passing through this town with this ridiculous name - my comment was simply that there would never be any need to speak the name of the place because it's quicker and easier just to say 'i went to the place with the long name' than say the name of the place. Crazy stuff. Holyhead (where you can catch a ferry to Dublin for a m
ere 46 pound per person - ouch!) was unimpressive in the rain which was by now falling steadily, and so we just enjoyed a quick drive around the island which took all of about an hour and a half.
Mez found us a great campsite, just as the rain subsided, beside a wee river with FANTASTIC hot showers for only 30p - easily the best 30p we spent all weekend!!! (The photo doesn't really do it justice!) Thankfully the stove worked a treat as the rain started to fall again, and so we ate and slept the night with the sounds of rushing water and the occasional gentle patter on our roof.
But we were up and all packed up well before 10am which was good. Clouds looked a bit ominous so after breakfast overlooking a lake, and a quick trip to an outdoors store for a new fuel pump for the stove to replace the melted old one, we decided against hiking up Mt Tryfan which is meant to be a fun scramble over rocks etc, but was enshrouded in cloud. Another day, when we can enjoy the view from the top. So we decided to
go see a real Castle...Arriving at Caernarfon Castle (and walled town) was an impressive sight half an hour's drive from our breakfast outlook. No longer in the midst of the massive natural fortress that is Snowdonia with it's towering craggy peaks and misty clouds enshrouding the tops and occasionally coming down to m
eet the roads. This was most clearly a man made fortress, impressive in its immensity of scale and so much cooler than the photo's give credit. We probably climbed a fair few hundred metres of turret after turret, marvelling at the sheer immensity of the place, the calm within its walls (it was a bit breezy outside) and the craftmanship as well as clever design so as to make it impregnable from without.Learned some more vaguely interesting history too. So back in the day (about 1200ish) there was this welsh prince Llywelyn. Llywelyn set about reasserting the authority of Gwynedd and thereafter extending it into a supremacy over much of the rest of Wales. In 1267 his position as overlord was recognized by Henry III in the Treaty of Montgomery when the English king accepted Llywelyn's homage as prince of Wales.
Ten years after his recognition as the prince of Wales by Henry III, Llywelyn was to suffer a humiliating defeat at the hands of the new King Edward I. From the outset, Llywelyn seemed almost to go out of his way to court Edward's anger. In particular, he refused to yield the homage and money payments owing to the king under the terms of the Treaty of Montgomery. Seemingly not paying your taxes has always been a good way to ensure your downfall. And hey the Bible gives such good advice on the subject too (see Matthew 22:14-22). Anyway he tempted fate further by arranging to marry Eleanor, daughter of rebel baron Simon de Montfort, an act destined to strain Edward's patience to the limit.
Enough was enough, and in 1276-77 Edward had decided to settle accounts with the recalcitrant Welsh prince. Edward himself took the field at Chester in July 1277, and by August he had some 15,600 troops in his pay. Against these odds, Llywelyn had no choice but to sue for peace. The ensuing Treaty of Aberconwy represented a comprehensive humiliation for the prince of Wales. Stripped of his overlordship he had won ten years earlier, Gwynedd was again reduced to its traditional heartland to the west of the River Conwy.
On 21 March 1282, Llywelyn's brother, Dafydd, attacked Hawarden Castle and sparked off the war of 1282-83. Llywelyn was faced with an almost impossible dilemma. Torn b
etween his fealty to the king and his loyalty to his brother Dafydd and his people, Llywelyn was to side with his brother and led the Welsh resistance to the inevitable invasion by Edward I. By the end of the year Llywelyn was dead, having been killed on 11 December in a brief engagement with English forces at Irfon
Bridge near Builth Wells. So they made him a memorial stone, and his name stands in history - an ambitious man no doubt, but missed a salient point of leadership - never underestimate your enemies.Anyway it was in response to this passage of history that King Edward I built his ring of castles to surround north wales. Edward was not really interested in Battle with Llywelyn, so just built massive castles in what was supposed to be Llywelyn's territory to stake his dominance. The Welsh had a couple of goes at destroying these, mid production and on completion but they were exceedingly well built and designed and the poor wee welshmen offered little resistance really. So sayeth history.
So the English have a great and bloody history of getting into other people's lands and taking over somewhat. I guess when you learn about how the brits have treated their nearest neighbors it paints the Treaty of Waitangi in a new light. As well as ensuing land claims and settlements. And I guess as Solomon put it - there is nothing new under the sun. The current struggles in Israel/Lebanon would seem to back ole' Solomon up on that.
Anyway, I digress. The left is about a 3om movable section of bridge that is manned and swings out of the way to let ships into the harbour and allows great access on foot to the rest of the coastland when closed. Really cool to watch from above and from on the bridge too. Slides closed within millimetres. Engineering at its finest. Really impressive. Had some great lunch in the sun, beside the beach before exiting Caernarfon for the island of Anglesey.
After a truly impressive play in the castle grounds we've decided that we will have to build one when we get back to NZ. All we need now is about 40 million dollars, give or take a few million, and a nice seaside property. But the idea of having a massive grassed area behind the walls of your property is a good one, particularly when the walls are about 100 foot high and block ALL the wind, I think the concept could really take off in Wellington at least.
So after a great expe
rience with that attraction we decided to take in one of the other top ten attractions in North Wales. The Anglesey Sea Zoo. To be fair, kids would probably love it, but it had nothing on Ocean Park Hong Kong. Had an exceedingly large crayfish and some lobsters but otherwise pretty boring. From there we headed off for a drive around the island of Anglesey. Passing through this town with this ridiculous name - my comment was simply that there would never be any need to speak the name of the place because it's quicker and easier just to say 'i went to the place with the long name' than say the name of the place. Crazy stuff. Holyhead (where you can catch a ferry to Dublin for a m
ere 46 pound per person - ouch!) was unimpressive in the rain which was by now falling steadily, and so we just enjoyed a quick drive around the island which took all of about an hour and a half.Mez found us a great campsite, just as the rain subsided, beside a wee river with FANTASTIC hot showers for only 30p - easily the best 30p we spent all weekend!!! (The photo doesn't really do it justice!) Thankfully the stove worked a treat as the rain started to fall again, and so we ate and slept the night with the sounds of rushing water and the occasional gentle patter on our roof.
posted by Ryan and Mez at
10:16 AM
1 Comments:
if you are interested in the last prince of wales then there is a great series of books by sharon penman, the first one is call here be dragons
Cate Pratt
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southerngirrrrl, at 2:57 AM
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