North Wales

I took half a day to drive up to North Wales to meet some acquaintances of a friend. Bridie Przibram and her husband Ian and son Kyle were kind enough to let me stay at their home on the outskirts of Wrexham and to take me castle hopping the next day.

Bridie is a professional theatrical costume designer and Ian supervises a group of answering service professionals. Kyle is eight and goes to school. He also takes fencing lessons so he and Bridie were off to class after we had a lovely dinner of homemade chicken curry. Ian and I chatted about fencing, books, being Goth parents and books.

This family reads a lot. Part of the new extension on their house includes floor to ceiling bookshelves. They have all kinds of books from a medieval who’s who to classic literature to cutting edge science fiction and horror. The nice thing is they encourage Kyle to have the imagination that only comes from reading books. After fencing, Ian sat down for an hour and read a really cool story with Kyle. It’s great to know that bedtime reading is still an important part of family life. I also got a short lesson in speaking Welsh. That “w” that looks like it’s in a weird place is a vowel. It has a sound like “oo” in “Boo”. At least now I can pronounce a lot of those place names on the map.

Next day we rose early, had a full English breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, grilled mushrooms, and baked beans (Bridie had the beans. Ian disagreed as to whether breakfast had to include the beans to be considered “full”), then we were on our way to Caergwrle Castle. 

  

 Caergwrle is a beautiful castle at the top of a good sized hill.  From the crest you can see how the village eventually formed around the fortification. Like many castles in Wales it is a ruin, but you can still feel the history of the place. 

Built between 1277 and 1282, it was the stronghold of Dafydd a Graffydd who started an ill fated rebellion which led England’s Edward I to launch his successful military campaign in Wales. 

 We managed to get in a bit of sword fighting before descending the hill and moving on to Flint Castle.

Flint Castle is a much larger fortification situated on the Dee Estuary, a bit further north. It is part of Edward I’s Iron Ring of Fortresses built in the 13^th century.

  

As the next day was Mothering Sunday, Bridie, Ian and Kyle were off to visit family and I was on my way home.

Thanks to this great family for giving me a taste of Northern Welsh hospitality. 

For more Pics of Caergwrle and Flint check out Part 2.

 

Next Time: Pembroke Castle