Castles and Trains — Why You Should Take Your Kids to North Wales

Conwy Castle, Photo by author

So, I don’t actually have kids. But many of my friends do and I remember well what I loved as a kid.

If you have kids and are looking for a destination that will keep them happy: Consider North Wales. Specifically, Snowdonia National Park and its surrounds.

There are two primary reasons to take your kids there:

Castles

And trains

(And a few secondary reasons too).

Castles, Castles Everywhere

They’re called the Ring of Iron and Edward I built them to subjugate the Welsh. The Welsh now cheerfully use them to get money out of the English.

Seriously, the four castles of the Ring of Iron are considered the very height of the castle buyer’s art. The last to be built, Beaumaris on the Isle of Anglesey is unfinished: The king ran out of money, slowing construction, and then some schmuck invented cannons.

All four — Conwy, Caernarvon, Harlech, and Beaumaris are different, affected by where they were built. Conwy, for example, is narrow with the two wards next to each other, built on a defensible promontory. Beaumaris, built on flat land is a double ring concentric castle. It looks very squat because, as already mentioned?