Conwy Castle

Conwy Castle: Edward I’s Welsh Campaign in Stone

Conwy Castle was built between 1283 and 1289 at the command of Edward I of England, who used it as part of his military strategy to control northern Wales following his conquest of the Welsh princes. The architect was James of St George, a Savoyard master builder who designed multiple castles for Edward in Wales and Gascony. The Conwy commission produced one of the most complete surviving medieval fortifications in Britain: eight round towers, two barbicans, walls up to 4.5 metres thick, and an integrated town wall circuit of 1.3km enclosing the medieval borough.

Cadw (Welsh Government’s historic environment service) manages the castle. Entry costs GBP 15.50 for adults (2024 pricing). Open daily from 09:30, with last entry one hour before closing. The site is compact enough to cover in 90 minutes.

What makes Conwy interesting

The castle and town walls were built simultaneously as a single defensive system - the castle walls and the town walls share two of the castle’s towers directly. This integration means walking the town walls gives continuous access from the castle’s outer perimeter to the harbour and back. The full circuit of the town walls (about 1.3km) is walkable independently of the castle admission and provides the best overview of how the fortification system worked.

The Great Hall inside the castle’s eastern division retains its corbels and window openings in the original positions. The inner ward, where Edward I’s royal apartments were located, has enough standing fabric to convey the building’s original scale. The Great Tower has a spiral stair to a roof with unobstructed views over the estuary, Snowdonia to the south, and the Great Orme headland to the west.

The Smallest House in Great Britain

On the quayside immediately below the castle walls is a terraced house of approximately 3.05 x 1.8 metres with two rooms - the ground floor around a metre square, an upper sleeping space accessible by a ladder. It was inhabited until 1900. Entry costs GBP 1; a tall woman in period costume takes the admission and explains the house’s history. It is a mild attraction but costs nothing to look at from outside.

Conwy town and food

The walled town has a main street of independent shops and several pubs along the quay. The Chandlery restaurant on the quayside does straightforward modern Welsh cooking - local lamb, Conwy mussels - at GBP 16-24 per main. The Conwy Mussels, cultivated in the estuary visible from the quay, are the local produce of note; they appear on menus throughout the town.

The nearest National Trust property is Bodnant Garden (12km south in the Conwy Valley, GBP 17 entry, open April through October), one of the most significant gardens in Wales with 80 acres of terraced and informal planting that is particularly good in May when the laburnum arch and rhododendrons are in bloom.

Getting there

Conwy is on the North Wales coast railway line between Chester and Holyhead. The station is a five-minute walk from the castle. Journey time from Chester is approximately 1 hour 15 minutes. From Bangor (25 minutes west) connections to Snowdonia are easier. Road access via the A55 expressway is straightforward; the narrow town streets within the walls are best avoided by car.