WALLS & BRIDGES: AN OVERVIEW OF CONWY (Conwy)

Member Name: stephenrastin

Product:	Conwy
Date:	21/12/02 (91 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Plenty to see and do, Everything is within strolling distance, Picturesque

Disadvantages: Parking is a nightmare, Take care with small children

I've always had a fascination with walled towns and Conwy has been a particular favourite of mine since childhood.

I've come to appreciate it even more in recent years since the construction of a bypass eased the worst of the traffic congestion that had blighted the town for decades, and I'd recommend the town to anybody who appreciates a place that is determined to live its life at its own pace.

If you're driving into the town and are expecting to breeze into a multi-storey facility where you can leave the car, forget it - parking in Conwy is very much a lottery and can be nigh on impossible during the peak weeks.

There is limited space on the harbour, to the south and to the west of the castle and immediately outside the railway station but demand usually exceeds supply and it may be an idea to park up outside the railway station at Llandudno Junction and instead walk the relatively short distance across the famous suspension bridge that was built by Thomas Telford and opened in 1826 - there's even a Telford exhibition centre that's worth a visit on the way into town.

It is now possible to reach Conwy by train again, though the beautiful Victorian railway station that originally served the town was short-sightedly demolished in the 1960s (thanks, Dr Beeching!) and the facility that has been built to replace it is little more than up and down platforms, each with a shelter, and there isn't even a connecting footbridge, each platform served by a seperate entrance gate!

For such a relatively small town there is plenty to explore within the walls and the immediate environs and it is inevitably the castle that is the dominating feature.

There are plenty of enclosed passages to explore, some of them quite labyrinthine, and the grassed areas within the Outer and Inner Wards and the East Barbican are ideal picnic spots, but it is the views from the castle's eight towers that are its crow
ning glory - my favourites are those from the King's Tower across the estuary and from the Kitchen Tower across the town itself.

A word of warning though: the towers and the ramparts that connect them have very low retaining walls and children should be supervised at all times.

It's worth checking wih the castle's staff about special events that are sometimes staged there too because the period minstrels and outdoor theatre companies that occasionally perform there will always make a visit extra special.

The walls that enclose the town can also be walked for the greater part but again the warning about letting children run free applies - the walls on the western edge of the town in particular are precipitous in the extreme.

If period buildings are your thing, you'll have to check out Aberconwy House on the corner of Castle Street and High Street and Plas Mawr which nestles between High Street and Crown Lane, the former a National Trust-owned 14th century merchant's house and the latter a Cadw-owned Elizabethan town house, while art students should visit the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art Gallery on the High Street, particularly in the summer when it hosts an annual open exhibition which has been running for well over a century.

The harbour is small but generally very busy with attractions such as a small aquarium, riverboat trips and the smallest house in Britain to tempt you but in recent years I've found eating on the quayside a life-threatening experience thanks to the homicidal tendencies of the area's herring gull population!

Butterfly World, located just outside the town walls in Bodlondeb Park, is a lovely experience as it is a hothouse crammed to bursting point with exotic plants and has streams filled with koi carp as well as hundreds of large and brlliantly coloured butterflies flying freely around your head - a word of warning to arachnaphobiacs though: DON'T look in
the glass cases!

A more unusual attraction can be found at the end of a small, almost hidden alleyway that runs off Castle Street.

The Teapot Museum is just that, a small building that houses a wonderful collection of teapots and tea-making ephemera that could just inspire you to start a new collecting mania when the car boot sale season opens!

A final piece of advice to maximise your enjoyment of the town: try and visit during the festival week toward the end of August as there is plenty going on in and around the town, including some of the very best street music and theatre to be found anywhere.

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