wales

Our 2026 holiday: Castell Caernarfon

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A photo looking into Caernarfon Castle from one of the tallest towers

Following our visit to Penrhyn Castle, which looks like a fortified castle but isn’t, the next day we went to Castell Caernarfon (Caernarfon Castle), which is a fortified castle. It’s one of the four that make up the UNESCO World Heritage Site; we visited Conwy and Beaumaris last year, leaving Harlech for a future visit.

The castle sits on the edge of the Menai Strait (Caernarfon pretty much translates as ‘castle overlooking Anglesey), and, like Conwy, the town of Caernarfon has walls around it which adjoin the castle.

History of Caernarfon Castle

As per the other three castles that make up the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the current castle at Caernarfon was commissioned by Edward I of England in the 13th Century. However, it was built on the site of an older, 11th Century motte and bailey castle. As Caernarfon was to be Edward’s administrative centre of North Wales, it was built on a much grander scale that the other castles and so is significantly bigger.

However, like Beaumaris, the money ran out before it was completely finished, with work ending in 1330, almost fifty years after it was commissioned. So, parts of Caernarfon castle were never fully completed, such as the King’s Gate which forms the modern day entrance to the castle. Apart from a brief period during the 1294 Welsh rebellion, Caernarfon remained in English hands, including during the Glyndŵr rising in the 15th Century. It played a role in the English Civil War in the 17th Century, but was then abandoned until the 19th Century when repairs began to be undertaken. These repairs were more extensive than to other castles such as Beaumaris, and saw parts of the castle reinstated rather than preserved as ruins.

In the 20th Century, the investiture of the Prince of Wales was conducted twice at Caernarfon. This ceremony was promoted by the local MP David Lloyd George, who later became Prime Minister. The first investiture was of Prince Edward in 1911, who later became King Edward III, and the second was in 1959 which saw Prince Charles (now current King Charles III) be invested by Queen Elizabeth II. This was broadcast on TV and recordings are available to view at the castle, as well as the throne used by Queen. Following Charles’ ascent to King in 2022, Prince William has become Prince of Wales, but I gather neither Charles, William or the Welsh Government have much desire to hold another ceremony.

Visiting Caernarfon Castle

We spent 3-4 hours at the castle, and managed to see most of it. You can walk along the outer walls, and go into most of the towers. Some of the towers have attractions inside them:

  • There’s a museum for the Royal Welch Fusiliers, who are best known for having a goat as their mascot – entry is included as part of your ticket for the whole castle and they have their own gift shop.
  • The North East Tower has a ‘800 years of history in 8 minutes’ looping video.
  • There are also exhibitions about Edward I’s wife, Eleanor of Castille, and a chess board showing the roles of various Welsh princes and how they unsuccessfully challenged Edward I.

When we visited, there were also wooden cannons that you could use to fire ping-pong balls, courtesy of Dan’s Cannons. Our ten-year-old loved these. The courtyard inside the castle is quite large and so events take place there from time to time.

Compared to Beaumaris and Conwy, there is a lot more to see at Caernarfon Castle and you can probably stretch it out to almost a full day.

Accessibility

Caernarfon Castle has undergone a relatively recent accessibility upgrade, and so there is now a lift in the King’s Gate to the battements. This offers step-free access to the top of the King’s Gate and some of the castle walls for the first time. However, much of the rest of the castle is only accessible by stairs, and in some cases, quite narrow spiral staircases. Indeed, the courtyard isn’t all flat and so the video room in the North East Tower is only reachable by steps, even though ramps could probably be installed.

There are disabled toilets on site, and whilst there isn’t a Changing Places toilet in the castle, the nearest one is only a short distance away at the station for the Welsh Highland Railway.

The castle is in the care of Cadw, so Cadw and English Heritage members get in free. I was also able to get free entry with my CSSC membership and some photo ID.

We parked at a long-stay pay-and-display car park next to the castle. This doesn’t offer any electric car charging facilities; the nearest car park with chargers is the Shell Car Park, to the north of the town near Morrisons (which also has two rapid chargers but time limited parking).

British Rail closed the railway line through Caernarfon in 1970 as one of the final Beeching closures. The Welsh Highland Railway runs narrow-gauge tourist trains from Porthmadog, but there are usually only a couple of trains each day. There are regular bus services to the town from Bangor which is the nearest surviving National Rail station.

Free Wi-Fi is available across the site. The café in the King’s Gate is currently closed, but there is another café in the courtyard with outdoor bench seating, selling sandwiches and cakes.

Other things to see in Caernarfon

Whilst me, our ten-year-old and my parents were happy to explore the castle, Christine wasn’t so keen and explored the town instead. By the castle is Cei Llechli, which is home to a number of shops and artist studios. There are, of course, the walls around the town, but you can only walk along short sections.

Our 2026 holiday: Penrhyn Castle

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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.

Our 2026 holiday: Welsh Mountain Zoo

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A photo of a zookeeper holding a kookaburra on her hand at the Welsh Mountain Zoo

Our second day out following our trip to the Llechwedd Slate Caverns was to the Welsh Mountain Zoo, located in the hills above Colwyn Bay and just a short drive from where we were staying in Conwy.

Despite the name, the Welsh Mountain Zoo isn’t atop a mountain; it’s actually on a hill that’s only around 100 metres above sea level. But, as it’s right by the sea, it feels like it’s atop a mountain. You certainly get some nice views across Colwyn Bay, and to the west towards Conwy.

The Welsh Mountain Zoo is actually the national zoo for Wales, and is run by the Zoological Society of Wales. I would have expected the Welsh national zoo to be on the south coast closer to Cardiff, but no, it’s on the north coast. It’s a medium-sized zoo, and similar to Dudley Zoo (which we visited in 2024) in size and layout as they’re both on hills. That means there’s no really big animals like elephants and giraffes, but you can see some big cats, great apes and larger mammals.

A photo of a pair of snow leopards, asleep, at the Welsh Mountain Zoo

Animal highlights at the Welsh Mountain Zoo

In 2021, the Welsh Mountain Zoo became home to some snow leopards, which are classed as vulnerable on the IUCN red list. When we visited, the snow leopards were asleep, but had the good manners to be asleep next to a window where visitors can see them.

There are also red pandas, pretty much next to the snow leopards, and Asian small-clawed otters next to them as well. That’s two of my favourite species of animal next to each other.

In terms of aquatic animals, there are sea-lions and Humboldt penguins. When we visited, the penguins were going through a catastrophic moult where they lose all of their feathers very quickly. It’s natural and happens annually, but means they’re nor waterproof until their feathers regrow after a couple of weeks. Consequently, most were sunbathing on land, rather than swimming.

There’s also a large Eurasian Brown Bear, which was awake when we visited. I think that’s the first time I’ve seen that species of bear in a zoo. New this year is a small butterfly house, the Papilio Forest, which also includes a new habitat for the ring-tailed lemurs.

Shows and talks

Like most zoos, there are shows and talks throughout the day. We only attended one: the birds of prey demonstration, which takes place in a grassy area in the middle of the zoo next to the penguins. I’ll be honest, I was slightly disappointed as there were only two birds on display, which were a Kookaburra and a Barn Owl, and where we were sat, we couldn’t hear the commentary very well. By comparison, Knowsley Safari Park (most recently visited last year) has a better birds of prey show.

The programme of talks changes throughout the year, but in peak season, some of the talks such as the sea-lion demonstration are repeated. The talks also often coincide with the animals being fed, so it’s a good opportunity to see the sleepier animals.

Breeding to release

One recurring criticism of zoos is that the animals should really be back in the wild where they belong. However, zoos have an important role in ensuring the survival of endangered species, especially those already extinct in the wild. If every zoo in the world was closed down and all the animals released into their native habitats, we would probably see several more species go extinct very quickly.

That being said, at the Welsh Mountain Zoo, there are a couple of species of animal which are bred there specifically for release into the wild in the UK: red squirrels and pine martens.

I’ve never seen a pine marten before, but there were four at the Welsh Mountain Zoo and they were very active when we saw them. They’re mustelids, so related to ferrets, stoats and otters, and are about the same size as ferrets. They were very endearing and we’re glad we went to see them in their quieter corner of the zoo.

We didn’t get to see the red squirrels, but these are released in Ynys Môn (Anglesey) where grey squirrels were eradicated about ten years ago.

Accessibility

As mentioned, the Welsh Mountain Zoo is atop a hill, and so there are slopes involved. Some paths have steps, but there should be step-free routes to see most (if not all) the animals, albeit with some steeper slopes in some cases. The main car park is a little walk from the entrance, so if you have a blue badge, follow the directions to the smaller car park next to the entrance. There are no electric car chargers nearby; there are some Standard AC chargers in Rhos-on-Sea and the nearest rapid chargers are in Llandudno Junction.

The Welsh Mountain Zoo isn’t particularly well-served by public transport either. There are regular bus and train services to Colwyn Bay and the railway station is about 1.5 miles away, but it’s a steep climb to the zoo entrance. Even though our accommodation in Conwy was only a 12 minute drive away, it would take almost two hours to walk there.

Standard disabled toilets are available on-site, but you’ll need to head back down the hill into Colwyn Bay for the nearest Changing Places toilet, which is at the local council offices and is open during office hours on weekdays.

If you can book online at least two days beforehand, prices are about 15% cheaper than on the gate. We had lunch at the Safari Restaurant, one of two eateries on site (the other is the Penguin Café), and the food is good by zoo standards. Christine and I had bao buns with salad, which were nice. Free Wi-Fi is available across the site.

Overall

Overall, we enjoyed our visit to the Welsh Mountain Zoo. Being smaller and a little more spread out meant that it was relatively quiet and peaceful, and there’s a good mix of animals. Some bits of the zoo looked a little run down, and I did note in my post visit survey that they should consider taller fencing to hide the closed off areas of the zoo. The tickets felt like good value for what was almost a full day out.

If you’re interested, the Welsh word for zoo is ‘sŵ‘ – the letter ‘w’ is a vowel in Welsh, pronounced like ‘oo’ in English, and the Welsh alphabet doesn’t have the letter ‘z’.

Our 2026 holiday: Llechwedd Slate Caverns

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A photo of the inside of the Llechwedd Slate Caverns

Although we arrived in Wales on the Saturday, we had a slow day on the Sunday with just a little stroll around Conwy (which I wrote about last year). The first big thing we did was head to Zip World in Llechwedd, home to the Llechwedd Slate Caverns.

A brief history of the Llechwedd Slate Caverns

In the 19th century, a deep mine was dug at the Llechwedd slate quarry, to access slate deep underground. The mine expanded significantly over the years, and eventually reached 25 miles of tunnels with caverns hundreds of metres below the surface. By the 1970s, demand for Welsh slate was falling, and so it was converted into a tourist attraction.

To improve access to the deep mine, now known as the Llechwedd Slate Caverns, a cable-hauled narrow-gauge railway was built, on a 30º incline.

I last visited with my parents in 1999, when we stayed for a week in the area. Back then, the slate caverns were the only attraction at the Llechwedd site, but in recent years it has expanded. There are now two zip lines – one below ground, one above ground – the ‘Bounce Below’ which is an underground trampoline park, and an underground mini-golf course. We just went for the slate cavern tour; Christine had also been before but it was our ten-year-old’s first time.

The entrance to the Llechwedd Slate Caverns

Down the mine

Some tours include a train ride up and down (and this is also how you access the mini-golf course); on our tour, we walked down and got the train back up at the end. Which, considering it’s a 150 metre (500 feet) climb back up, is very welcome. Your tour guide talks you through the history of the site, how slate was mined, and how the pieces of slate were broken up and shaped into roof tiles to be sold on. There are some audio-visual bits, and a demonstration of what it might have looked like when gunpowder was detonated to break the rocks apart.

A highlight is a cavern with an underwater lake, which is illuminated and looks amazing. It’s quite a different tour from what I remember from when I was 15, and is a good balance of history, education and entertainment. Whilst our guide wasn’t a miner himself, his ancestors worked in the mine, and he was able to tell us some of the stories.

The mine is located near Blaenau Ffestiniog, home to the northern terminus of the Ffestiniog Railway. This was partly built to transport the finished slate products to Porthmadog, for onward distribution by boat.

Accessibility

As you would expect from a 19th century mine, accessibility is restricted to people able to walk and handle low ceilings. And even on a warm July day like when we visited, the mine is cold so bring warm clothing. When you book, you’ll be asked to sign a waiver, and it highlights any medical conditions that would preclude you from entering, or that you need to make staff aware of. Some of the walking surfaces can be slippery and there are uneven steps in places.

There are disabled toilets, but no Changing Places toilet. In fact, the nearest Changing Places toilet is in Caernafon which is over 17 miles away. I suppose if you require a Changing Places toilet, then you’re not going to get much out of the activities at Zip World, but I was surprised that there wasn’t anywhere closer.

Car parking is available on site, at a cost of £3 per car – if you book in advance, you can pre-pay, or use the RingGo app on arrival. There aren’t any electric car chargers in the Zip World car parks, but there is an InstaVolt Rapid charger nearby with two CCS2 and one CHAdeMO plugs, just on the way in.

It’s a two mile uphill walk from Blaenau Ffestiniog railway station, which has trains every two hours from Llandudno Junction, or narrow-gauge heritage trains from Porthmadog. You can also get to Blaenau Ffestiniog on the T22 Transcymru bus service, but you’ll have the same two mile uphill walk.

Booking online is cheaper, and as it’s underground, it’s good for a rainy day. I was also able to get an additional 10% discount through one of my employee benefit schemes at work. There is a café which sells the sort of food you would expect from an outdoor activities centre. Above ground, music is played at a moderate volume across the site; I didn’t mind this as it was mostly 1990s and 2000s music which I listen to anyway, but my probably-but-undiagnosed autistic mother found it a bit much. There’s free Wi-Fi available across the site – handy if you need to pay for parking.

Unblogged July

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Time for another round-up of things that I’ve been up to this month that I didn’t blog about. As with June’s update, it’s back to being a little longer than May as I’ve been able to do more things as I gradually recover.

Back from Wales

Our holiday in Wales was once again just a week, and so we got back last Saturday – all of this week’s blog posts were written before we left. Blog posts about what we did whilst we were away will start appearing next week, once I’ve had chance to write them.

We’ve decided collectively (our household plus my parents) that we won’t be making it a third year in Wales, having been there last year as well. So there will probably be a ‘what we didn’t do in Wales’ post, like 2024’s Northumberland post, coming later next month.

Returning to the office

Me standing in City Park in Bradford

Another update on my recovery is that I’m back to working full-time hours, and back to hybrid working. This means I’ve successfully managed the commute by train to Bradford and back a few times now, and made it through a work day in the office.

I realise that I’ve touched on this in my review of my OneLife ID wristband but it’s been nice to get out of the house and see my colleagues again. Working all the time at home was okay when we were all doing it (because we had to during lockdown), but when only some of us are at home, it can be a bit isolating.

At present, I’m (mostly) just working two days a week in the office, but this will go up to three days a week from September, as part of a wider policy change at work. To be fair, I’ve often gone into the office on extra days before, so it’s not a huge change for me, and I’m glad that we get to retain our hybrid working privileges.

This week also marked the first time I’ve taken my backpack into work. Since the fall, I’d previously not been able to get the straps onto both shoulders, and so I’ve just had a smaller shoulder bag in the meantime. However, my mobility has improved so that I can finally wear my backpack properly, albeit by putting it on in a rather inelegant way. Still, it’s progress.

Octopus Electroverse Plunge Pricing

On the way back from Wales, we got to take advantage of Octopus Electroverse Plunge Pricing for the first time. When electricity supply is exceeding demand, then public car charging providers who partner with Octopus Electroverse offer a discount when you charge your electric car (or plug-in hybrid). For us, this was 30% – we saved £2 on a quick 15 minute top-up – but can be anything from 20% to as high as 50%.

Generally this happens when it’s particularly sunny and/or windy, and so the electricity being generated by solar panels and wind turbines is higher than the demand. Whilst wind turbines are usually commercially owned and can be turned off (despite this being a massive waste of green energy), energy companies will still pay out for exported electricity from domestic solar installations (like ours). So, offering lower prices for electric vehicle charging gives electric car owners an incentive to charge their cars at a time when supply needs taking out of the grid.

It’s still not as cheap as charging at home, but being able to save a little money is always welcome.

New glasses

I’ll blog about them in more detail when they arrive, but earlier this week I had a routine eye test and found my prescription has changed slightly, again, so I’ll be getting new glasses next month. I’ve been wearing glasses for five years now, and these will be my third pair. My current (second) pair will then become my backup glasses, and I’ll be donating my first pair (current backup pair) to charity.

We’re in Wales

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

As mentioned at the start of the month, we’re off to Wales again for our summer holiday, and by the time you read this, we should have been there a couple of days. We’re staying near Conwy again, in a rented holiday cottage, as a group of five – me, Christine, our ten-year-old and my parents.

We were unsure whether this holiday would happen; I’ve had my injuries to recover from, and my Dad was unwell earlier in the year too. And there was a major wildfire not far from where we’re staying. But my Dad and I have recovered sufficiently, and the fire seems to be under control and has not spread to the cottage we’re renting for the week.

Weather-wise, it looks like quite a nice week, but cooler than it has been recently. Which I’m appreciating.

There will still be regular blog posts going live whilst I’m away, as I’ve written plenty in advance. Having spent most of the month working part-time, as part of a phased return to work, has meant I’ve had more time for writing new blog posts. So, I’ve made the most of it and ensured that there’s content for the rest of this week and next.

Once I’m back, I’ll start writing about the places we visited and what we got up to. See you then.

Jumping into July

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A photo of Conwy castle taken through the gap in the town wall.

Here we are, into the latter half of the year. I’m continuing to recover, and this month sees us go on our annual summer holiday.

Recovery update

I’m slowly regaining mobility in my arms, following my fall, and I’m generally in less pain now. I’m still not fully back to normal, but may be closer to normal mobility by the end of the month. At least I’ve been able to help out with more of the housework; Christine and I normally split tasks relatively evenly, so a lot has fallen on her.

This month should also see me returning to work in the office on occasional days – until now, all my work has been at home.

I have a bone density (Dexa) scan coming up this month, as for someone to break both arms in the way I did at my age is unusual. I expect it won’t show anything concerning but my GP wants me to have one anyway.

Summer holiday

In the latter half of the month, once the schools have broken up, we’re off for a week’s holiday in North Wales. We’re actually staying in the exact same place as last year – it was nice, convenient, and there are plenty of things that we didn’t get to do last time. In fact, my potential to-do list has enough for a potential third holiday next year, although I doubt we’ll make it three years in a row.

Weather permitting, we’d like to go up Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), although we’ll probably be taking the train to do so. We also plan to go down some kind of mine one day, and visit the Welsh Mountain Zoo.

As I’m not currently permitted to drive, Christine will be doing all of the driving this time. Which part of me feels bad about; however, I did all of the driving on our 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 holidays, so maybe this will help balance things.

New tech

I mentioned at the start of the year that we’d be looking at getting a replacement laptop for home use. Christine bought one earlier this year, and now I have one on the way too so that we each have our own device. I’ll blog about it once it has arrived and I’ve had a chance to play with it.

Miscellaneous notes on North Wales

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This is the one final holiday post before I get on with writing about the other things we’ve done on this holiday. It’s a few assorted notes and observations from our time away.

North Wales is popular with dog owners

If you want to bring your dog on holiday, then North Wales seems to a popular choice. The cottage we rented was dog-friendly, with hard floors in most of the rooms, and in Llandudno we saw at least one hotel specifically marketing itself as dog-friendly. In fact, there was even a dog toileting area to the side. Alas, I didn’t catch the name of it, and can’t find it on Google Street View, but I think it was on Church Street.

We certainly saw plenty of people out and about with their dogs.

Charging our electric car wasn’t much of an issue

Getting a new electric car less than a week before we went on holiday was an interesting decision in retrospect, but we coped well. Whilst there are literally no public chargers in Conwy, and we weren’t permitted to charge it at the cottage we rented, there were a couple of rapid chargers a few minutes away in Llandudno Junction. These kept us going when we couldn’t charge on days out, however, several of the places that we visited did offer public charging. We only had to go out of way once to charge up; the rest of the time, we fitted our charges around the activities that we’d planned.

Signage is in Welsh first, then English

North Wales has a higher concentration of people who speak Welsh as their first language, than other parts of Wales. So, Welsh tends to appear first on road signs with English beneath. This isn’t universal, and elsewhere in Wales it’s English first. And whereas in Ireland, where the Irish text on road signs is in italics, both the English and Welsh are in the same font, same colour and not italicised. I don’t speak Welsh – I tried it on Duolingo for a couple of weeks before going back to French – and so reading signs took a little longer as I had to look where the Welsh stopped and the English started.

Christine, meanwhile, is still learning Welsh on Duolingo.

It’s also notable that all the Welsh signs instantly disappear as soon as you cross the border back into England.

The Welsh NHS is separate to the English NHS

I forgot to pack any spare hearing aid batteries, and so needed to find somewhere that sold them. Being English, I went to the nhs.uk web site to find somewhere that would sell them, but it turns out that, despite ending in ‘.uk’, nhs.uk is just the web site for NHS England. So when I searched for nearby pharmacies, for example, all the results were in Cheshire and Merseyside.

Healthcare is a ‘devolved’ matter in the UK, and so the regional governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own branches of the NHS. (Technically, it’s not the NHS in Northern Ireland but HSC instead).

NHS Wales confusingly has two web sites. The main NHS Wales web site, at nhs.wales, is more of a corporate web site – if you want health advice, or to find services, you need NHS 111 Wales, which is at 111.wales.nhs.uk.

I know NHS England is being abolished but you would expect a web site called ‘nhs.uk’ to apply to the whole of the UK, and not just England.

For completeness, health advice in Scotland comes from NHS Inform, at nhsinform.scot, and in Northern Ireland, it’s part of NIDirect.

Our 2025 holiday: RSPB Conwy

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A photo of some birds at RSPB Conwy

I’m almost done with our holiday posts – this is the penultimate one, and is about the RSPB Nature Reserve at Conwy. It’s relatively new, having opened in 1995, and exists because of the building of the A55 North Wales Expressway.

Tunnel spoil

When the A55 Conwy tunnel was built, the spoil created from the excavation needed to go somewhere. Major tunnelling projects often result in the spoil being used to create nature reserves: Samphire Hoe was created from the Channel Tunnel, RSPB Wallasea Island from the Elizabeth Line, and when HS2 is finished, it’ll result in new chalk grassland in the Chilterns. For the A55, the spoil was placed along the side of the Conwy Estuary, to create a new wetland habitat during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Many birds have now made this wetland their home, and we saw plenty of white egrets, lapwings and whimbrels that you wouldn’t often see elsewhere. The site consists of two large lagoons, with paths and bird hides around them, although the smaller of the two lagoons was completely dry when we visited, as a result of the exceptionally dry summer that we’ve had this year.

A photo of a six-spot burnet at RSPB Conwy

Visitor centre

There’s a large visitor centre at the site, home to the shop as well as information about what you can expect to see. Obviously, the birds there are wild, and so nothing is guaranteed, but we saw a good variety. You can also pick up maps for the trials around the lagoons – we didn’t do the longest path, as we were just visiting for the afternoon. There’s also a café, plenty of places to eat a picnic, and a small playground.

One of the hides that we visited also had an extensive history of the building of the road tunnel, and how that led to the establishment of the nature reserve.

We had a nice, relatively peaceful afternoon at RSPB Conwy. There is the background noise of traffic on the A55, but it was nice to go somewhere with a slower pace.

Accessibility

The site is mostly flat, although the paths are mainly gravel, or wooden boards across the wetter areas. There are various colour-coded trails that you can follow, and the maps provide information about gradients.

Access to the site is from Junction 18 of the A55 – it’s directly connected to the roundabout here. Work was ongoing to improve cycle access when we visited, and it’s a about a half mile walk from Llandudno Junction railway station. RSPB members get free entry.

Our 2025 holiday: Bodnant Garden

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A photo of Bodnant Garden.

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.

A photo of Bodnant Garden.

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.

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