Conwy

The day was warm enough to bring out a Peacock butterfly in my Mum's garden, so we headed to the coast as planned for my first visit to Conwy castle since the 70s. There were enough half-termers about for it to be fairly busy, and there was plenty of shouting up and town the tower steps making sure the way ahead was clear.

This view is taken from the top of Bakehouse Tower, looking across to Stockhouse Tower and the town and estuary beyond. The Great Orme sits on the far skyline, and somewhere below that lies the beach where I last blipped this stretch of coast about eighteen months ago.

I probably took all of these castles for granted when I grew up next to them, and I'd forgotten that they'd now been collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd. Of course Edward is not the most popular figure in Wales, as it was he that annexed Wales to the English state in 1282. Contemporary interpretation at the castle emphasise the times when the Welsh princes briefly reclaimed Conwy.

Through all the history, a classic medieval castle remains.

eye high
with the mountains
on seven centuries
of stone
the estuary ebbs and flows