Castles in Wales - Hawarden Castle

I said a little while ago that I was planning to write a series of little diary entries about Castles In Wales. If you don't live in Wales you probably wouldn't believe just how many castles there are here... it seems that almost every town (and lots of villages) have a castles either in them or close by.

A couple of weeks ago Vicky and I went to visit Hawarden Castle. The castle is only about ten minutes drive from home, on the  the estate of former British Prime Minister William Gladstone. From the top of the castle you get a great view of what was once his house...

The castle itself is only open for a few hours on three days of the year - so it's not an easy place to visit. We had the date down in our diary for quite a while - fortunately, it was a lovely sunny day so we didn't miss our chance to go. 

Hawarden castle has played important roles in the history of Wales over the years - probably most notably during the wars for independence during in the 13th century - and during the civil war between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians in the 17th Century, after which the castle was all but destroyed for fear of it being used again as a stronghold.

I'm not going to go into detail about the castle's history here because there's lots of information on the Internet and in books about it. It would take me ages to go into detail. A good place to start looking is this website all about Welsh Castles... click here to go and take a look. 

 

It was great having the chance to look round the ruins of the castle - especially as it has been left almost untouched, unlike other castles that you can visit. This makes it interesting but it also means you have to be careful when walking around. As a writer it's good to be able to visit  places like this as it can help fill your imagination. I wonder who was the last person to step through this ancient door? I wonder what lies on the other side of it??

Happy New Year and Snow, Snow, Snow...

We've had quite a lot of snow over the weekend but that didn't stop us getting out of the house. On Saturday, Vicky and I went for a walk through Wepre Woods and up to Ewloe Castle... It was lovely walking through the crisp, crunchy snow. The rest of this diary entry is going to be brightened up by a few pictures that I took as we walked along... There are hundreds of castles here in Wales and I'm planning to write a few diary entries about the different one's I come across as I travel around so I will tell you more about Ewloe Caste very soon....

Can't believe that it's been so long since I posted anything in my diary. I had planned to make a New Years Resolution to write a diary post each week.... at least one and hopefully more. So far not so good. This is the first post of the New Year. The time just seems to be flying by.

We had a lovely Christmas and hope that you did too... Right now I'm busy working on some new stories - books of my own and some books for educational reading series that you might see in your schools very soon.

I've had quite a bit of good news over the last few weeks - my Rob-runners books are going to be reprinted with nice new covers - and they are going to be available to download onto Kobo and Kindle e-readers very soon too... I will let you have a look at the new covers soon.

Tomorrow I will be visiting St Anne's Catholic Primary School in Ormskirk (hopefully the snow will stay away until then) and on Thursday I 'm off to the Venerable Edward Morgan Primary School in Shotton (just down the road).

See you all soon....