Woolly says – I was up with the lark, although I couldn’t actually see one only our robin who pops round on a daily basis. For once I wasn’t the only one up and moving early and as the sun was climbing into the sky for what appeared to be a lovely day we set off. Today was going to be busy and our first stop was a family one. Now many of you will know or have read about daughter Zoe, Nanty Carys and Nuncle Les, there are however a lot more family, hundreds in fact although Jo and Zoe don’t actually know many of them.
My Dad’s side of the family is Welsh and my Nain (Grandmother), was the eldest of 10 so there are an immense number of relatives who we have never met, Carys is brilliant at knowing who is who and is able to link everyone together.
Woolly says – Before Jo could start on the reminiscing and long tales of the known family, I quickly interrupted her and asked to program the sat nav so we might actually get there. As we headed north, I decided that Alfie the Dog might like to know a little abut the place we were aiming for. Llanllyfni is a small village and a community in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a largely Welsh-speaking village as 85% of the villagers speak Welsh as their first language, Jo and Zoe are disappointments on this front as neither them can mutter more than two words of the language. Based at the bottom of Snowden, Llanllyfni existed before the slate quarries opened but grew bigger and bigger during the slate quarrying period which provided employment for most of the village. Jo’s family members had at one point been the minister and the post mistress for the people. There are five cemeteries in Llanllyfni and no shops, pubs or anything else so it’s not the busiest of towns these days. It was to one of the cemeteries that we were going. Nanty Carys had provided a list of grave stones to look for including Jo’s Nain and Taid (Grandmother and Grandfather), her great Grandparents, Cary’s second sister who sadly died when she was 9 months old and a few others.
Our search took quite a while and having finally been able to put flowers on most of the graves I felt we had done the family proud.
Woolly says – Onwards we went heading further north and into the outskirts of the city of Caernarfon, the castle was on our list but during my searches I had come across a Roman fort, well what can I say except of course we needed to go there. Segontium survived until the end of the Roman occupation of Britain and was garrisoned by Roman auxiliaries from present-day Belgium and Germany. It was the most important military base and administrative centre in this part of Britain. Founded by ad 77 or 78 it was designed to hold about a thousand auxiliary infantry and had a direct road link to Chester. Today it had got lost in a housing estate and having driven round several times I was beginning to despair of ever finding it when Jo slewed the car into the side of the road and declared we were there. I looked around but failed to see anything remotely Roman but being an obliging mammoth, I climbed out the vehicle, waited for the panting beast to be untied and headed through some gates. Low and behold behind a small squat building sat a small piece of Roman history.
With only the base foundations to look at it was tricky to work out what had been what but I’m sure Emperor Hadrian would have made it a stunning place to be in his time.
My small companion is completely convinced that Hadrian built every Roman city and fort in the world!
Woolly says – Of course he did he was amazing! Just as we started to walk towards what might have been some baths a huge dog appeared from nowhere and attacked our small pooch. A few minutes of frenzy ensued as Jo kicked and belted the attacker whilst trying to grab poor Alife the Dog who was being mauled and thrown about like a rag doll or in his case rag dog. Another human appeared and leapt onto the ravaging beast and poor little Alfie sat shaking with blood on several parts of his fur. As Jo checked him over, he crawled onto her lap and I stood looking at the assailant with the evilest eyes I could summon.
Very very luckily Alfie had only received a small cut on his lip, but like many small cuts it produced a lot of blood for a short while. As I sat holding the poor fella and having serious words with the other dog’s owner, it appeared that Alfie had survived the assault.
Woolly says – I offered the panting machine one of my snacks which he eagerly took and with a nod from Jo we finished our walk round the fort before heading back to the car and our next port of call.
Caernarfon Castle is a medieval fortress from 1283 when King Edward I of England began to build the current stone structure at a cost of £25,000. The town and castle acted as the administrative centre of north Wales, and as a result the defences were built on a grand scale. There was a deliberate link with Caernarfon’s Roman past and the Roman fort of Segontium. The legend goes that Macsen the Emperor at the time, had a dream where he fell in love with a beautiful princess, the daughter of a great King. When he awoke, he sent soldiers out to find his princess and according to the story she was found at Caernarfon castle and was named Elen, the young lady in question didn’t want to go to Rome with her suitor so once married the ruled for Rome from the castle grounds.
Although the castle appears mostly complete from the outside, the interior buildings no longer survive and many of the building plans were never finished. The castle was used for the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1911 and again in 1969 and as Jo was quick to point out her Nain and Taid attended this incredible event – 1969 one not the 1911 one -, there used to be a photograph where she could actually point them out!
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Nearly half of the castle is currently being dug up as we were able to see, it didn’t stop me from climbing every tower and peering through every window as we wandered around. It had a very regal feel and it was easy to imagine the ladies of the court swishing along the corridors in all of their finery whilst those that had done wrong to the ruler were being beheaded outside on the grassy area.
We both agreed that it was a splendid castle and as we climbed back into the car and greeted the very happy pooch, we only had a few more miles to go before bedding down for the night before tomorrows adventure begins.