wales

In early July for the last few years we’ve had a holiday in Brittany. This year traveling for six hours on a ferry and having to quarantine for 10 days on return (UK restrictions) wasn’t appealing so we decided on Wales. Everyone in the UK seems to be traveling to desirable coast locations so...

By Eleanor from UK, Summer 2013 Four days spent revisiting old haunts in Gwynedd. This trip report was originally posted on SlowTrav. Introduction We love the LLyn Peninsula and for 25 years used to spend two weeks there every Easter, self catering on a farm near Nefyn. It was a great place...

St Winefride’s Well, Holywell, North Wales. St Winefride's Well has been a site of pilgrimage for over 1,300 years. It has survived the Reformation and the Puritan zeal to destroy ‘Popish’ shrines. It is still visited by pilgrims today, not just from Wales but across Europe. It has been...

Set on a wooded peninsula on the North Wales coast, many people still identify Portmeirion to the iconic 1960s ITV series “The Prisoner”. It is one of the major tourist attractions in the area and a feast for the eyes. As well as the village itself there are miles of footpaths through the...

A small C17th manor house - a time warp in a delightful setting. Plas yn Rhiw is a delightful small C17th stone manor house set high on the wooded hillside above Porth Neigl beach, hidden from the road by a stone wall and tall box hedge. The house was bought by the three Keating sisters in...

Architectural gardens designed by Cough Williams Ellis of Portmeirion fame. Anyone who has visited and enjoyed Portmeirion designed by Clough Williams-Ellis will enjoy these gardens too, especially as they are off the tourist beat and get few visitors. Sir Clough Williams-Ellis was given Plas...

A delightful garden on the edge of Snowdonia. Bodnant Garden is described as one of the most spectacular and admired gardens in Britain with their laburnum walk, so have a reputation to live up to. They have been on our list of places to visit for many years, so we were a bit concerned that...

An attractive Victorian sea side resort which is still popular today. Set on the North Coast of North Wales, Llandudno is often described as the Queen of Holiday resorts. It is dominated by the massive limestone bulk of the Great Orme and still retains much of its Victorian grandeur. It was...

Medieval town walls, a ruined castle and an Elizabethan Town House. Visitors to North Wales speed along the A55 and through the Conwy tunnel without a glimpse of the town. Long gone are the days of bottlenecks through Conwy when all traffic had to negotiate Telford’s narrow suspension bridge...

Penmon Priory is a delightful spot at the south eastern tip of Anglesey. Part of its charm is that it has yet to reach the tick list of must see sights and doesn’t get many visitors. Although the Romans brought Christianity to Wales, it never really became established until the arrival of...

The rapid development of towns during the Industrial Revolution led to to an enormous demand for slate for roofs of houses and factories. Welsh Slate was highly prized as the best as it was very durable and split easily. The National Slate Museum on the site of the workshops of the mighty...

Introduction The Talyllyn Railway is a narrow gauge railway in Meirionnydd, Mid Wales that was originally built to carry slate from the hills above Abergynolwyn to the wharves at Tywyn. It was made famous as Skarloey’s railway by Rev Awdry in his Thomas the Tank engine books. The railway still...

At 26 miles, the Welsh Highland Railway is the longest of the Welsh Narrow Gauge Railways and runs through Snowdonia National Park between Porthmadog and Caernarfon. The line has been rebuilt along the trackbed of a line that closed in the 1930s and runs through an area of disperse settlement...

The Ffestiniog Railway is a preserved narrow gauge railway in the top in the top left hand corner of Wales. It was originally built to carry slate from the hills above Blaenau Ffestiniog to the slate wharves at Porthmadog. It is now a popular tourist attraction, providing much needed employment...