Caernarfon Castle and the Prince of Wales

Wales is excellent for castle-finding. Caernarfon Castle was built in 1283 and was the site for the coronation of the current Prince Charles. There is a splendid overview of the castles in Wales at www.castlewales.com/caernarf, and at www.3dphoto.net/world/topics/castles/wales.

There is an old photo and a fine write-up at www.data-wales.co.uk/castle1.

Beaumaris Castle - and long lists of others

Beaumaris is distinguished by its fine moat. See www.castlewales.com/beaumar. There was a long campaign by the English King Edward I to subdue the Welsh, and he built rings of castles to do that. We found castle signs all over. www.castlewales.com/home.

Conwy Castle and Beaumaris have towers in the common round form, but Caernarvon has angular towers. See www.data-wales.co.uk/castle1. Climbing around many castles is never dull - there is always another detail that suddenly pops out. Then, we add that detail as we look at the next castle.

Spellings can differ for many places. We also saw Beaumarais as a spelling.

Harlech Castle

Harlech is one of the castles in the chain built by Edward I in the 13th Century, in order to help subdue the Welsh. It is in northwest Wales. See www.harlech.com. There is a splendid inland route through the mountains to the northern coast areas from Cardiff. There is a full list of castles at this website. You could start anywhere and see a castle sign. Good resource: www.castlewales.com/harlech.

"Men of Harlech" is a poem, a hymn of sorts, commemorating the valor of a small regiment fighting for the Crown in South Africa. See www.data-wales.co.uk/harlech.

To get here, go through the town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllantysiliogogogoch, northwest Wales. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllantysiliogogogoch.

That is the longest town name I can find. As a fourth grade teacher years ago, I used a train ticket from here dating from 1961, for spelling contests. Should have stayed teaching? Not with the regimentation required now. Another topic entirely - how to foster creativity in a time of universal smother-testing. I would rather have kids figure out how to handle a task, even learning Llanfair.... than just have them memorize for a test that says there is only one right answer.

Tintern Abbey

Look too hastily at the map, and miss something that is really on the other roadway. We missed Tintern Abbey because its dot looked on one road, when it turned out to be on the other. Here it is: go to www.castlewales.com/tintern. It is Cistercian, from 1131 or so. It is the subject of a poem by William Wordsworth from 1798 - read it at bartleby.com/145/ww138. The consolation is that there are other ruins, but this is supposed to be in such fine condition.

Back to Wordsworth: his poem is in blank verse - 10 syllables to a line. Count them. Now try it. Now, read your own verses. Not sound the same? Go back to Wordsworth. See where the emphasis always is - da DUM, da DUM, da DUM, da Dum, da DUM. Five dums.

Not anything else. Like Shakespeare - try reading his lines the same way, when he uses that iambic pentameter. Look up iambic (the pattern of stressed syllables) pentameter (in groupings of 5) at ca.essortment.com/blankversepoet_rjwh and see that you can represent that da DUM in fancy form - as x /. The unstressed foot followed by the stressed foot. Fun, huh? See how you can miss a sight and still get a great deal out of following up on it anyway.

To Wales! The tourist cries when close at hand.
Head west, then north, to castles and their moats.
The language locked against your ken. But give
Not up, but order anything you see.
A leek, some lamb, a chorus. Fine, these Celts.

Links, posts, archives

Use of direct linking has moved beyond initial cautions at www.bitlaw.com. Or www.wikipedia.org., a general starting point for many issues and topics. Also look up SLAPP at www.prwatch.org for a really grim view on consequences.  We use them cautiously, offering the address for supporting information in the nature of a footnote.

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Itinerary After The Fact

We began in south Wales, from England, and headed north to the castles there: big northern castles include Harlech, Caernarfon, Beaumaris, Conwy. See www.castlewales.com/wales_n. There is a good map at www.castlewales.com/wales_nw.

Then we returned east along the resort coast, back to England and Chester.