NORTH WALES FROM ALL ANGLES

Peter Baber finds Palladian splendour, mighty castles and fashionable hotspots on a tour of North Wales

- Peter Baber

IN THE ROLL call of great English monarchs, I don't know why Edward I isn't far better known. We never stop hearing about Henry VIII and Victoria, and even Charles II (aka The Merry Monarch) gets a frequent look in. But you could argue that the Plantagenet king, Edward, left just as much of a legacy on our small island as any of those rulers. Particularly when it came to relations between England and Wales.

Edward's immediate predecessor, Henry III, had recognised one Llywelyn ap Gruffudd as Prince of Wales in 1267. Ten years later, Edward reneged on that and invaded Wales, confining Llywelyn's authority to Snowdonia and Anglesey.

That wasn't enough, either, because in 1282, Edward invaded that region too, in a war that resulted in the death of Llywelyn and the capture and eventual execution of his brother Dafydd.

To cement his authority, Edward had a new castle built on an old Norman site at Caernarfon. Although this was attacked and burned during an uprising led by Madog ap Llywelyn in 1294, Edward recaptured it in 1295, firmly consolidating English rule from then on, with only one slight hiccup just over 100 years later, in the form of the nationalist leader Owain Glyndŵr.

Conwy and Caernarfon

I decided I wanted to explore this historic edifice on a trip to North Wales earlier this year. I had already been impressed by Conwy Castle, another of the four fortifications Edward built to show the locals who was boss. But Caernarfon somehow seemed to have an even greater allure.

I'd been past Conwy, with its impressive walls that you can walk entirely around, on my way to to my campsite. The A55 makes a great drive most of the time, but it's especially impressive on a sunny day, as it was when I visited.