Following Thomas Telford
In May of 2023, to celebrate my fortieth year and also my parents' anniversary, we travelled to England, Wales, and Ireland. This is the third segment of our trip.
On May 14th we visited Conwy Castle. Situated on a rocky outcrop overlooking the River Conwy, the castle has long been regarded as one of Wales' most scenic. In 1822, construction started on a suspension bridge located so close to the castle that it's essentially integrated into it; the bridge was finished in 1828. It was designed by Thomas Telford; in whose footsteps my trip was meant to travel, as he's an engineering hero of mine. In 1848 another bridge was integrated with the castle; a tubular rail bridge (which we would travel through later in the trip). Adjacent to the castle is a new road bridge, too, replacing the function of Telford's suspension bridge.
Inside the castle we found tight spiral staircases leading up to the towers and narrow ramparts with uncomfortably low parapets. They may have been fine in the 1280s, but as someone used to evaluating buildings for the building code worthiness, I might have had some words with its designers! While exploring the place was a bit scary, standing in a spot of such history was exhilarating.
After the castle we checked out the historic town walls, which are among the best-preserved in the world. I could have wandered them for hours, but there was plenty to see down on the ground, too.
We walked around the castle toward the quayside, marvelling at the confidence of a truck driver passing through a medieval gate. Not long afterwards, we got to navigate a narrow alley to find a rather deeply-set fish and chip shop. I also toured the smallest historic house in Great Britain.
By the time we crossed the bridge again, heading back to the train station, the tide was out and revealed a rippled sandbank.
We continued down the line to the town of Betws-Y-Coed.
The name, 'Betws-Y-Coed' means "The Forest Chapel". The area around the train station certainly reflected a woodsy and naturalist aesthetic with a theme of habitat protection.
Betws-Y-Coed was our first taste of Snowdonia National Park. Eryri, as the park is called in Welsh, is a major tourism draw. It's no wonder why, with the lush forests, impressive mountains, and hip villages.
We did not go to Betws-Y-Coed merely for the sculptures and the ice cream, though. Once again, a Thomas Telford bridge was on the agenda.
I am not sure if Mr. T. was trolling the speakers of Welsh or not - it is a famously agglutinative language. The text along the bridge reads, THIS.ARCH.WAS.CONSTRUCTED.IN.THE.SAME.YEAR.THE.BATTLE.OF.WATERLOO.WAS.FOUGHT.
The next day, we decamped from our base in lovely Llandudno. More or less on the way to our next stop in Caernarfon, we went to a place I've been longing to pronounce correctly (which, with lots of practice I can indeed do!), Llanfairpwllgwyngwychgogerychwrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
That fantastically-titled town is located on the island of Anglesey, which meant we got a peek at Telford's masterpiece, the Menai Suspension Bridge. The world's first suspension bridge, it spans the Menai Strait and was designed tall enough to allow sailing ships to pass beneath. Without Menai, there would be no Halifax Bridges, and no Golden Gate.
In the next segment of our trip, we visited the Ring Of Iron's centrepiece, Caernarfon Castle.