nationaltrust Archives - Neil Turner's Blog

Biddulph Grange Garden

September 7, 2026 by Neil Turner

When I was writing up about our visit to the Plas Cadnant Hidden Garden in July, I realised that I’d forgotten to write about when we went to Biddulph Grange Garden in May. We went there on the May Day Bank Holiday Monday, which also happened to be our wedding anniversary. I assume I had intended to write up about the visit later that week, but then everything went wrong and that visit turned out to be the last bit of long distance driving that I would be doing until at least next year.

I’ve been to Biddulph Grange Garden many times. I have family in the area, and my aunt was a volunteer there for many years, so I went there a lot as a kid. This year’s visit was also the third time we’d been as a household; we first went in 2019, and again during lockdown in the summer of 2020, seeing as it’s mostly outdoors.

A quick history of Biddulph Grange

The National Trust has a more detailed history, but what we now know as Biddulph Grange and its garden first came into being in the mid 19th Century. This included a large house, part of which burnt down and was rebuilt in a different style in 1897.

In the 20th Century, the house was sold and became a hospital, first run by the “North Staffordshire Cripples Aid Society” and later by Lancashire County Council as a children’s orthopaedic hospital. This led to some of the garden’s glasshouses being demolished and replaced with modern hospital wards.

By 1991, the hospital had closed. The National Trust took over the garden, and at the time it was one of its biggest restoration projects ever undertaken. The house remained derelict for a while longer, but is now apartments and separate from the gardens, whilst the rest of the land passed to Staffordshire Moorlands District Council and is now the Biddulph Country Park.

As it wasn’t opened to the public until May 1991, when I was seven years old, this probably explains why I remember visiting it so vividly.

The gardens

The garden at Biddulph Grange is split into several themed areas. My favourite is the Chinese Garden, pictured above, which underwent a restoration last year. The garden is home to a number of follies, including the Cheshire Cottage and the Egyptian Court, complete with sphinxes. A more recent addition (in so far as I don’t remember it being there when I was a child) is a woodland play area.

A small and curious indoor part of the garden is the Geological Gallery, a Victorian display of fossils laid out to follow the seven days of Genesis in the Bible. Originally, visitors to the garden would have entered the garden through this gallery, which at one time would have been bigger, but it was partly demolished during its time as a hospital.

I think there’s always a worry when, as an adult, you revisit places you enjoy as a kid to find that they’re not as good as you remember. I’m pleased that Biddulph Grange is a definite exception – it’s still just as fun following the winding paths into the different themed areas. If anything, the addition of the woodland play area makes it better than it was when I was young. It’s a really fun and beautiful place to explore.

Accessibility

Biddulph Grange isn’t flat, and not all areas of the garden have step-free access. However, there is a step-free route marked out on the map which lets you see most of the garden. A disabled toilet is available on site, but the nearest Changing Places toilet is at a Tesco in Kidsgrove, about 4 miles away.

There is a car park on site, but it can get full at busy times. Six ‘Standard-Plus’ electric car chargers are available on the RAW Power network. The nearest rapid chargers are in Congleton, which have hopefully been fixed since last summer’s visit to nearby Little Moreton Hall.

The nearest railway station is at Congleton, which is served by stopping services on the West Coast Main Line – from there, it’s about 2 ½ miles to Biddulph Grange. Alternatively, there’s the number 94 bus from Congleton to Newcastle-under-Lyme, which runs hourly Monday-Friday and two-hourly on Saturdays.

As National Trust entry prices go, Biddulph Grange is mid-tier, so expect to pay £14 each for adults if you’re not members of the National Trust like we are. The garden is big enough to spend half a day at, but it’s not quite a full day out. There is a café on site, which offers free Wi-Fi.

Our 2026 holiday: Penrhyn Castle

August 11, 2026 by Neil Turner

A photo of the outside of Penrhyn Castle

As National Trust members, it’s inevitable that we would end up at a National Trust property in Wales. We didn’t manage to squeeze in Pehrhyn Castle on last year’s holiday, but we made an afternoon visit this year.

If you approach Bangor going west on the A55 North Wales Expressway, you get a decent view of Penrhyn Castle on your right. Unlike the other castles in North Wales that make up the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Penrhyn Castle isn’t a fortified castle and mostly dates from the early 19th Century.

History of Penrhyn Castle

There has been a country house on the site of Penrhyn Castle at least since the 15th Century, built by Gwilym ap Griffith who assisted Owain Glyndŵr in the Glyndŵr rebellion. By the 18th Century, the estate had come into the ownership of the Pennant family, and Richard Pennant commissioned an architect to remodel the house as a Gothic villa.

In the early 19th Century, Richard’s heir George Hay Dawkins-Pennant went further and commissioned the castle we see today. On the outside, it resembles the aforementioned fortified castles, but inside it is a very opulent country house with intricately carved stonework, plasterwork and wood carvings. At the time, this cost £123,000, which is equivalent to over £100 million today, and it shows.

The Pennant family earned their vast fortunes primarily via two means: slate, and slavery. The slate came from the nearby Penrhyn Quarry, now also a Zip World attraction like the Llechwedd Slate Caverns. It, and almost all the surrounding land viewable from the castle, were owned by the Pennant family, many of whom spent time as representatives in the Houses of Parliament as either MPs or Lords.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic Ocean, the Pennant family owned multiple slave plantations in Jamaica. Slavery was abolished in 1834, against the Pennants’ wishes who were outspoken against abolition. Compensation was paid to the slave owners (not the now-freed slaves themselves); the Pennants owned 764 slaves, and received £14,683 compensation (around £18 million today). In 1951, ownership of Penrhyn Castle passed to the National Trust, so it has been in their care for 75 years.

It’s the National Trust’s largest property in Wales, and has been heated by biomass since 2016.

A photo taken inside the Great Hall at Penrhyn Castle

Inside Penrhyn Castle

A visit to the castle itself starts off in the Great Hall, which is huge and resembles a church, thanks to its stained glass windows, vaulted ceilings and stone carving. It’s very much a show of wealth and power, and indicative of the sorts of guests that the Pennant family sought to entertain. Queen Victoria stayed there in 1832, before the castle was completely finished, and in later years, William Gladstone visited.

You also get to see the library, with its carved wooden ceilings as an entertaining space primarily for male guests. There’s a huge dining room, and an opportunity to see many of the bedrooms.

It’s perhaps unsurprising that the castle became Grade I listed in 1966.

The castle also used to house a small museum about narrow gauge railways, which are common in Wales. That has now closed, but one of the steam locomotives remains, and the space is due to be redeveloped into a museum that has a wider focus on North Wales’ industrial past.

The Gardens

I would love to tell you about the gardens at Penrhyn Castle, but our visit was just in the afternoon and so we didn’t have time to see them. After we had been around the house, and given our ten-year-old time to burn off energy in the adventure playground, there wasn’t time.

The walled garden is a short walk from the castle itself, and you can read about it on the National Trust’s web site.

Accessibility

Penrhyn Castle is mostly on flat ground, and there is step free access to the ground floor of the castle and the rest of the grounds – presumably including the gardens. The upper floors of the castle are only accessible by climbing stairs; visitors unable to manage these can instead watch a video tour. Standard disabled toilets are available; the nearest Changing Places toilet is a short distance away at Bangor University.

There’s a large, free car park on site, which includes four Standard-Plus AC chargers for electric vehicles, on the RAW Power network. The half-hourly number 5 bus from Llandudno to Bangor calls at the end of the driveway, from which it’s a mostly flat one mile walk to the main entrance. The nearest railway station is in Bangor, which to the south of the city centre and is around 500 metres from the bus station.

Being one of the National Trust’s upper tier properties, entry prices are a little higher than some (currently £18 per adult) but National Trust members get in free. If you’re not a member, it’s worth keeping an eye on Money Saving Expert’s Deals Page, as you can sometimes get free or discounted day passes, and Octopus Energy often give away discounted passes to their customers through their Octoplus Rewards programme.

There’s a café in the castle – again, we didn’t visit, but I imagine it’ll be standard National Trust café food, including their Scone of the Month. I also didn’t check for Wi-Fi, as I had a decent enough phone signal, but usually this is available in National Trust cafés and ticket kiosks and is typically free.

Nunnington Hall

May 3, 2026 by Neil Turner

On Easter Monday, we took advantage of the nice weather on Easter Monday to visit Nunnington Hall. Yes, I am aware it has taken me a month to get this published. I’ve been to Nunnington Hall before, but it was many, many years ago. Such that I don’t really remember it, and certainly didn’t have any photos of it.

History of Nunnington Hall

Nunnington Hall gets its name from the village of Nunnington, itself named after a nunnery that once stood in the village. There has been a hall in Nunnington since the 13th Century and in the 14th Century, it passed to the Grene family. In 1499, Maud Grene, the lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth of York (wife to King Henry VII) married Sir Thomas Parr, and so the property passed to him. He had a daughter, Catherine Parr, who followed in her mother’s footsteps by marrying Henry VII’s son, King Henry VIII. Catherine Parr was famously the last of Henry VIII’s six wives and outlived him.

In the 16th Century, the property passed to Catherine Parr’s brother, William, Marquess of Northampton. He started a trend of choosing the wrong side in royal conflicts, by favouring the succession of Lady Jane Grey over Mary Tudor. As such, he forfeited Nunnington Hall to the crown.

About a hundred years later, Ranald Graham bought Nunnington Hall for £9500 – around £2.5million in today’s money. He made many changes to the hall, which resulted in many of the historical features still seen today. Another member of the Graham family, Sir Richard Graham, was the second to get a bit of pickle with royalty, being a supporter of Catholic King James II when the Protestant William and Mary ascended to the throne. He was arrested, imprisoned, and only avoided the death penalty for high treason by being an informant for his accomplices. He was stripped of his land and titles and quietly retired to Nunnington Hall. The Graham family sold Nunnington Hall in 1839.

The buyers were the Rutson family, with whom it remained until 1952 when it was left to the National Trust. However, whilst the National Trust took ownership, family members remained living there as tenants until 1978, after which more rooms could be opened to the public.

The hall

Whilst much of the hall dates from Tudor times, it has been renovated several times over the years. Inside, it mostly appears as renovated in the 1920s in the Arts and Crafts style. This included the addition of indoor plumbing. Most of the hall is open to the public, including the main entertaining rooms and the bedrooms. The servants would have lived in the attic, and this has been opened up as an exhibition space. At present, it’s a series of nature pieces by a collective called Diverse Threads 2; later this month, you’ll be able to see entries from the British Wildlife Photography Awards.

Nunnington Hall is also home to the Carlisle Collection of miniature rooms. These are essentially small rooms, like those in a doll house, but not part of an overall house. Some are very intricate – there’s one of a music shop, where each miniature instrument can be played.

The gardens

Nunnington Hall’s gardens are modest; you can walk around the entirety in about half an hour. The National Trust switched to organic gardening at Nunnington Hall in 2002.

They are laid out mostly as they would have been in the 17th Century, with some nods to its 20th Century heyday. This includes a kitchen garden, and a new iris garden that was added last year. There is also a children’s play area, hidden away in the trees.

The house sits next to the River Rye, which gives its name to Ryedale which was the former name of the district council until it was abolished in 2023. Apparently, wild otters have been spotted on the river, but we didn’t see any.

Accessibility

As alluded to above, Nunnington Hall has been altered significantly over the years. And whilst it’s not as higgledy-piggledy as, for example, Little Moreton Hall or Bolling Hall, there is almost no step-free access inside the hall beyond the ground floor. The grounds are largely step-free, but not always on hard surfaces. A disabled toilet is available, but the nearest Changing Places toilets as several miles away in either Pickering or Malton.

Nunnington Hall is a mid-tier National Trust property, so entry prices are currently around £13 for adults. National Trust members get in free, as do RHS members and National Art Pass Holders.

There is a car park on the other side of the River Rye from the hall, linked by a footbridge, and this includes electric vehicle charging. There are four Standard (7kW AC, Type 2) chargers, although two were out of order when we visited. A £5 donation is requested if using the chargers. Additional charging is available in Nunnington village.

Bus services run on weekends and bank holidays only, from April to September. Two bus services run in each direction, setting off from Helmsley and heading to Castle Howard. Until the 1950s, Nunnington had a railway station, but it’s long gone now.

Hardwick Hall

January 16, 2026 by Neil Turner

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire. It’s a National Trust property to the east of Chesterfield, and I’ll be honest, I hadn’t heard of it until a few weeks ago.

I came across it via this YouTube video from Auto Shenanigans. The M1 passes by Hardwick Hall, and when it was upgraded to be a ‘smart’ motorway a few years ago, the National Trust insisted that the new gantries must be painted brown, to blend in better. Anyway, it turns out Hardwick Hall is doable as a day trip for us, even though I didn’t include it in my list from last year. And, it’s something of a new year’s resolution for me to visit more National Trust places this year, so that we make the most of our annual membership.

History of Hardwick Hall

You can read a more detailed history of Hardwick Hall on the National Trust web site, but the building owes much of its design to Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury who lived in the Elizabethan period. She was more commonly known as ‘Bess of Hardwick’, and her initials ‘ES’ appear all over the building. She had four husbands during her life, the second of which was William Cavendish. If the Cavendish name sounds familiar, it’s because the Cavendish family owned nearby Chatsworth and Bolton Abbey. Indeed, following Bess’ death in 1607, the hall passed to the Cavendish family’s ownership, where it remained until after the Second World War. Faced with a large tax bill, the Cavendish family bequeathed Hardwick Hall to the National Trust in 1956.

More recently, Hardwick Hall has been used as a filming location. You may recognise it as ‘Malfoy Manor’ in the film adaptations of the books-that-shall-not-be-named.

Nowadays, it is one of the National Trust’s ‘top tier’ properties, and so there are regular events there during school holidays. We visited towards the end of ‘Wintertide’, which saw the rooms decorated for an Elizabethan winter and a seasonable tale of mischief installed throughout the house and gardens. During the half term break next month, there’s a planned Valentines event for kids.

Hardwick Old Hall

On the same site are the remnants of an older grand house, now known as Hardwick Old Hall. Most of the outer walls remain, but there’s no overall roof or window panes. It didn’t burn down; instead, the stonework was gradually removed and shipped over to Chatsworth to support work there. It would have been cheaper to use existing carved stones, than to have new stone quarried. Whilst the wider Hardwick site is managed by the National Trust, Hardwick Old Hall is in the care of English Heritage. It was closed when we went, but re-opens in February.

Gardens and estate

The Hardwick estate covers around 2500 acres of parkland, and there are a number of signposted walks. This includes a sculpture walk, which we would have considered doing on a warmer day but decided not to.

The formal gardens around the house are enclosed within walls, and will probably look fabulous later in the year. Alas, there’s not much to see mid-winter,

Accessibility

There are two car parks at Hardwick Hall; the main one, close to the hall and the stableyard, and a second one at Hardwick Park Centre which is further away and down a hill. If you have accessibility needs, park at the main car park; there is also an accessible buggy that can take visitors to the hall. The stableyard includes a Changing Places toilet.

At present, there is one electric vehicle charging socket in the lower car park (type 2). Planning permission for chargers in the main car park has apparently been granted, but work hadn’t started yet as I type this.

Google Maps gave up when I asked it to work out public transport directions to Hardwick Hall; there doesn’t appear to be any local bus services and the nearest railway station is in Chesterfield.

Entry to the whole site is free for National Trust members, and English Heritage members get free entry to both Hardwick Hall itself and Hardwick Old Hall. A cheaper ticket that just covers the estate and stableyard (not the houses or gardens) is also available to non-members.

Castlefield Viaduct

October 24, 2025 by Neil Turner

In my review of local National Trust properties, I somehow missed out Castlefield Viaduct in Manchester. It’s one of the newest, having only been open for a few years, and occupies an abandoned railway viaduct that crosses the Castlefield area of Manchester.

It’s a similar concept to the High Line in New York; take an abandoned elevated piece of railway infrastructure, plant things on it and open it to the public. The Castlefield Viaduct isn’t as long – around 330 metres, rather than 2.3 kilometres – and it’s not yet open as a through route. That will come in time, with work hopefully starting as soon as this year. When complete, it will open up a segregated walking route from the Manchester Central exhibition centre (still often known by its former name of G-Mex) towards Cornbrook.

History

The viaduct was built in 1892, by the same firm that built the Blackpool Tower. Trains would use the viaduct to access Manchester Central station (as was) and the Great Northern Warehouse. It was closed in 1969, after becoming surplus to requirements, and has stood empty ever since. A second viaduct runs parallel; this is still in use by Metrolink trams and forms the core section of the network.

Inside Castlefield Viaduct

About a third of the viaduct is open now, and it’s being managed by the National Trust. The first section has been largely left untouched – a hard path has been laid, but the original ballast has been left behind to show the wild plants that have grown there. The second section is a series of small gardens, each managed by a different local community group. These vary – one has various native Manchester trees whilst another incorporates a pond. Finally, there’s an indoor bit, where you can find out more about the extension plans. The back wall of this is glass, so you can see the rest of the viaduct beyond.

If it weren’t for the neighbouring Metrolink viaduct alongside, this would be a quiet and tranquil place, but trams pass about every two minutes. The viaduct also crosses a railway line that is frequently used, so there are regular rumbles as trains pass.

Accessibility

The viaduct is open between 10am and 5pm every day except Mondays and Tuesdays. Though it’s managed by the National Trust, entry is free even if you’re not a member. Donations are encouraged to support the next phase of work to open it as a through route.

As it was designed for trains, it’s all on one level, and you can get up to the viaduct by using the lift at the nearby Deansgate-Castlefield Metrolink stop. Accessible toilets are also provided.

Little Moreton Hall

September 23, 2025 by Neil Turner

Back in March, I listed the National Trust properties reachable from our home that we hadn’t been to. Last month, we were able to tick Little Moreton Hall off that list.

Now, I’m reasonably sure that I’ve visited Little Moreton Hall before, but if I did, it would’ve been in the 1990s. Certainly, I don’t have any photos of it saved anywhere. In any case, neither Christine, nor our nine-year-old had visited before.

Little Moreton Hall probably classes as being one of the National Trust’s medium-sized properties. During the English Civil War in the 17th Century, the Moreton family backed the Royalists loyal to Charles I. The hall was later confiscated by the government, and much of the surrounding land ended up being used for farming. So whilst the hall itself has survived, it sits on a relatively small site – unlike other grand homes in the countryside, you don’t spend five minutes driving through parkland full of deer.

Wonky

What Little Moreton Hall is best known for is that it’s very wonky. If you look at the photo above, it’s as if someone accidentally dropped the hall from a height, and it’s got bent out of shape. The reason for its wonkiness is partly due to a lack of deep foundations, but also its owners adding a third floor on top without taking the extra load into account. As such, the Long Gallery on the top floor has a very uneven floor, and until quite recently remained out of bounds for visitors. The National Trust has had to work hard to sure up the building and allow all parts to be opened to the public.

Originally the hall was H-shaped, with the dining hall and what is now a tea room in the oldest part. Subsequent extensions have made it look like an inverse ‘C’ from above. Around the hall is a moat, and access is via a bridge and through a gateway, above which sits the Long Gallery. Oh, and the original toilets, which opened out onto the moat. Lovely.

As well as the hall, on the island formed by the moat are some small formal gardens. They’re not very extensive – it’s a small site after all – but they’re well maintained. The moat itself is home to a number of different species of duck.

Inside Little Moreton Hall

The interior is laid out largely as it would have been during its heydays in Tudor times. The family crest for the Moreton family features a wolf, and so there are a number of toy wolves, dressed in different outfits, dotted around the rooms. There’s also a focus on how people in Tudor times slept, as a result of a research project with the University of Manchester. In those days, people would sleep propped up on pillows, to aid digestion, and have various sleepy herbs around to help them nod off. One of the beds has an embroidered bed spread featuring these herbs.

The Long Gallery at the top is probably the highlight – it has plenty of windows and so is a very light space, especially on the sunny day that we visited.

Accessibility

As befits an old house known for its wonkiness, access isn’t great. There is step-free access to the hall, where you can view photos of the other rooms, but to see them in person you’ll need to be able use steps. The Long Gallery is atop quite a narrow spiral staircase.

Limited parking is available on site; you may struggle to find a space on weekend afternoons in the summer. There are no electric parking facilities; we ended up charging our car in nearby Congleton where there are two sites with rapid chargers (though neither were working). An infrequent bus service between Alsager and Congleton runs Monday-Saturday, and at three miles away, Kidsgrove is the nearest railway station.

Our 2025 holiday: Bodnant Garden

August 31, 2025 by Neil Turner

The next place we went to on our 2025 holiday to North Wales was Bodnant Garden. It’s another National Trust property, and consists of the formal gardens attached to the larger Bodnant Estate.

Bodnant Garden is located to the south of where we were staying, in the Conwy Valley. The garden itself began to be developed in 1874 (so just over 150 years ago), when the Pochin family bought the estate at auction. Over time, the garden was extended multiple times, and is now home to a number of prize-winning trees. It came into the National Trust’s care in 1949, but the rest of the Bodnant Estate remains family-owned.

If you look at the prices for Bodnant Garden, you’ll see that they’re towards the higher end of the scale compared to some National Trust properties. That’s no accident – Bodnant Garden is huge, and we ended up spending all day here. Being as it was the summer holidays, there was a Wallace and Gromit Augmented Reality Trail running, although today was its last day, sorry. Our nine-year-old really enjoyed doing the trail, which included some hands-on activities too.

The Wallace and Gromit trail took us to the far end of the site, and then we made our way steadily back along the stream that flows through it. There’s lots to see – even if you’re not a big horticulturalist, it’s still very pretty.

In all, we probably saw about two thirds of what was there – we missed some of the fringes as it is just so big. Indeed, there is more than one café there; one at the entrance, and another near the Old Mill towards the middle of the site. It’s definitely somewhere I’d consider going to again, and taking a different route around.

Accessibility

You enter the site at the top, and then there are slopes down to the stream – some more gentle than others. The map shows a couple of step-free routes that encompass most of the site, but there are some steep slopes. Most of the paths are gravel.

There are two electric car charging sockets in the car park. On the plus side, they’re both completely free to use, however, one is a medium-speed 7 kW Type-2 charger, and one is just a 3-pin plug. We ended up having to use the latter with our granny charger, but then we were there all day, and it was free after all. It managed to charge our Nissan Leaf up from 31% to 59% over around five hours.

The nearest railway station is Tal-y-Cafn on the Conwy Valley Line, however, it’s a 40 minute walk, it’s a request stop, and there are only 6 trains per day (4 on Sundays). If arriving by public transport, a better bet is the number 25 bus, which runs from Llandudno and calls at Llandudno Junction station. That being said, there’s still only one bus every two hours.

Nearby attractions

The Bodnant Estate also runs an adjacent garden centre, and Bodnant Welsh Food is a short drive away. We nipped into the shop there, although it was rather expensive and didn’t have a great range.

On the other side of the valley, and about a ten minute drive away, are the Conwy Water Gardens. We didn’t go as the TripAdvisor reviews aren’t great; it seems like somewhere that used to be better than it is now.

National Trust Tracker app

August 21, 2025 by Neil Turner

If you’re a member of the National Trust like we are, and want to get the most out of your membership, then there’s an app for that.

The app is, appropriately enough, called National Trust Tracker, and it lets you view nearby National Trust properties and track those that you have visited. You can either view them as a list, split by county, or on a map.

There’s also a Statistics tab, which gives you some insights into the properties I’ve visited. I’ve recorded visits to 29 in the app – the actual number will be higher, but I’ve limited it to those where I can record an exact date that I last went. That means that I’ve not included any visited in childhood. Overall, I’ve been to 4.6% of all National Trust properties in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

You can also see how many visits you’ve made each year, your top region (which is Cheshire for me) and your favourite day to visit (Sundays, perhaps unsurprisingly).

The app is for iOS only, although there appears to be an unrelated app for Android which doesn’t look as nice.

Our 2025 holiday: Plas Newydd

August 19, 2025 by Neil Turner

A photo of Plas Newydd, looking up from the sea wall along the Menai Strait

After visiting Beaumaris Castle in the morning, the second place we visited on Anglesey was Plas Newydd (Welsh for ‘New House’). It’s a large country house overlooking the Menai Strait, originally started in the 15th Century but substantially rebuilt in the 18th Century. Nowadays, it’s in the care of the National Trust, who look after both the house and its gardens. The house is presented largely as it would have been in the 1950s.

We went around the house first. Not all of the rooms are open to view; though the National Trust have cared for it since 1976, until around 10 years ago people still lived in the property. The dining room is home to a huge painting by Rex Whistler, which was the largest ever canvas painting in the UK when it was unveiled in the 1930s. A previous owner of Plas Newydd, Henry William Paget, fought in the Battle of Waterloo where he lost a leg – the house has an exhibition about him including one of his prosthetic legs. He was awarded the title of ‘Marquess of Anglesey’ for his bravery.

The 5th Marquess of Anglesey, Henry Cyril Paget, was a rather flamboyant character who inherited Plas Newydd in 1898. He converted the chapel into a theatre, where he performed in what we would now most likely describe as drag. Whilst he was born into great wealth, ultimately he ended up bankrupt six years later in 1904, and died the following year. Many of his costumes were subsequently sold in the ‘Great Anglesey Sale’. However, some photographs survive, and visitors are invited to dance in one of the rooms, as the 5th Marquess would have done.

Gardens

There are some formal gardens at Plas Newydd, on the slope down to the Menai Strait, and there are great views across the Strait towards Caernarfon. There’s also plenty of parkland, including an arboretum. Anglesey is also one of the few remaining places in Britain with wild populations of native red squirrels, and there’s a feeding station in the arboretum. We didn’t get a chance to visit this, unfortunately, and we didn’t see any red squirrels during our time in Anglesey.

As it’s the summer holidays, there were plenty of activities for kids as part of the Summer of Play event that runs until the end of this month.

Accessibility

For the house, only the ground floor is accessible to those who can’t use stairs. There is a step-free route from the car park to the house, but not all routes across the parkland are step-free and it is on a slope.

When we visited, five electric car chargers were being installed in the car park – these appear to be operational now, offering 7 kW medium-speed charging on the RAW Power network. Bus services pass the site on Mondays-Saturdays, or it’s a roughly 2 mile walk from Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch station, if you want to catch the train.

Our 2025 Holiday: Llandudno & The Great Orme

August 7, 2025 by Neil Turner

A photo of Mostyn Street in Llandudno in Wales, looking towards the Great Orme

Directly north of Conwy, where we were staying, is Llandudno, a seaside resort that was largely developed in the mid 19th Century. Much of the land that Llandudno stands on was marshlands, owned by Lord Mostyn, and many of the buildings were planned and designed around the same time. As such, particularly along the seafront, there’s an aesthetically pleasing uniformity across the town.

Away from the seafront, the main street is Mostyn Street, and many shops have glass overhangs like those in Harrogate. However, it’s clear that the decline of the high street has affected Llandudno and I noticed a number of empty shops, including what looked like a large M&S. It turns out M&S merely moved to a new store a little further out of town, rather than leave the town entirely as it has done with Bradford, Hull and Huddersfield in recent years.

Llandudno Pier

Stretching out into the Irish Sea is the Grade II listed Llandudno Pier, dating from 1877. It’s the longest in Wales, and remains privately owned. It was also voted Pier of the Year this year, despite it recovering from damage from Storm Darragh at the end of last year. As piers go, there’s a decent mixture of shops – our nine-year-old particularly appreciated the Lego minifigures shop. At various times in its history, it’s been possible to catch ferry services from the far end of the pier, but no such services are currently running.

The Great Orme

The Great Orme is the name given to the headland to the north of Llandudno. As mentioned, Llandudno itself is former marshland and so is very flat, and mostly at sea level. Meanwhile, the Great Orme rises to a height of just over 200 metres and is a prominent feature on the landscape. Because it’s surrounded by low-lying land, the Great Orme feels like a mountain, but it isn’t – parts of the village of Queensbury, near Bradford, are twice as high for example. It would need to be around three times taller – 610 metres – to be considered a proper mountain.

Much of the Great Orme is owned by the National Trust, but it’s managed on a day-to-day basis by the local authority who operate the facilities there. In the Summit Complex, there’s a café and a shop; there also appeared to be a bar, but this was closed when we visited. There’s also a visitor centre with history about the Great Orme, including its lighthouse.

Across the Great Orme are plenty of sheep, and some Kashmir goats which are descended from a pair gifted to Queen Victoria. There’s also a species of shrub called the Wild Cotoneaster, which is critically endangered and only found on the Great Orme.

The Great Orme Mines

Inside the Great Orme are seams of malachite, a copper ore, mixed amongst the sandstone. These have been mined for over 4000 years, although mining activity ended in the late 19th Century. In 1987, ahead of the building of a new car park, an archaeological dig was ordered, and the mines were rediscovered. That car park never got built, as the dig is still ongoing, with part of it opened as the Great Orme Bronze Age Copper Mines.

The opening up of the mines changed our understanding of Bronze Age history; it was previously thought that bronze tools weren’t used in Britain until the arrival of the Romans. But tools were found in the mines, made using copper from the mine and tin imported from Cornwall.

Today, you can go into the first two levels of the mines, which go around 18 metres underground. This includes a huge cavern, which was excavated by hand and is now home to several stalagmites and stalactites. So far, nine levels have been excavated, with more likely to be found as the excavation continues. Our nine-year-old enjoyed it, and it was good to compare it with the 19th and 20th Century mines that we visited last year at Beamish and the National Coal Mining Museum for England.

The Great Orme tramway

There are a few ways up the Great Orme. If you’re feeling especially athletic, you can walk up, but it’s quite a steep climb. You can drive – there’s a car park at the summit – or catch a bus. Both standard public buses, and an open top minibus for tourists, run to the summit.

You can also travel by cable car, from just above the pier in Llandudno. But, for me, the best way up is on the Great Orme Tramway. Opened in 1902, this runs from Llandudno up to the summit, and is Britain’s last surviving cable-powered tramway. It’s actually two separate tramways; passengers have to alight at the halfway station to switch from one tram to the other. The halfway station, rebuilt in 2001, also doubles as the workshops, and there are large windows so that you can see the winding gear for the cables.

The tramcars are all original, although the 2001 upgrade did introduce some modern equipment. Whilst the tramcars were hauled using cables, they also previously used overhead cables for communication. The 2001 upgrade replaced this with a radio system, so whilst the tramcars retain short trolley poles at each end, they’re no longer used in service.

The lower section of the line runs along several streets, which is unusual for a cable-powered tramway. Both sections operate on the funicular principal, so as one tramcar goes up, another goes down. It’s mostly single track, with each section having a passing place in the middle.

Accessibility

Llandudno station is at the end of a short branch line from Llandudno Junction, and receives regular local services from Chester and Manchester. Less frequent services run to Cardiff; in the past, direct trains to London Euston have operated but not since 2008.

We parked at the Victoria Shopping Centre, which is central to the town and has a multi-storey car park. We didn’t need to charge our electric car there, but there are 12 Type 2 chargers offering up to 22 kW available, on the Roam network. As mentioned, there is also a car park at the top of the Great Orme.

The pier is all on one level. The Great Orme tramway has limited capacity for wheelchairs, which need to be folded whilst on board, and there are steps up to the tramcars.