Day 11 – Llechwedd Slate Mine, Conwy Castle, Rhuddlan Castle, Dolwyddelan Castle

The day started with a heavy downpour of rain.  Many other days have had showers, but today it was looking like this would settle in and stay for a while.  The plan had been to head to the castles first, but instead we decided to go underground.  This part of Wales is extensively underlain with deposits of shale from which so many British roofs are made, and the Llechwedd Slate Mine was nearby with a public tour.  We headed out of Harlech (through some very tiny, very steep roads) into the hills to  see the mine.

When we got there we had two choices – a shallow mine tour on a small mine train or a deep mine tour that would involve walking out several staircases.  They told us that parts of the deep mine tour might be flooded, so that made our decision easy.  We toured a little of the mine village (done up to simulate what life might have been like in the heyday of the mine, when hundreds of laborers were involved in the blasting, digging, splitting and stacking of the slate) then took our tour.  We climbed into little cars, wearing hardhats, and rolled into the mine.  I couldn't help but think of the Donkey Kong video game that Matt and Chili had played so much - “Mine Cart Carnage” - where the mine cart careened off the track.  Inside the mine they had mannequins dressed in period costume (turn of the 20^th century) and tried to show us what it was like to blast the slate off the ceiling, chip it up then load the mine carts.  Most of the miners didn't last too long – silicosis was their fate.

When we came out of the mine we headed to Conwy Castle, perhaps the best preserved of all Edward I's structures in Wales.  The city walls were largely intact and we hid from a passing shower next to them while we indulged in a fish and chips lunch.  Then we toured the castle overlooking the river.  The coastal castles were the norm because it was just too dangerous to supply them by land; all needed some kind of port so they could be stocked by ship.

The next castle we visited was Rhuddlan Castle, nearby but much smaller in size and more in ruins.  It had a curious moat and we were trying to figure out how they watered it.  Apparently not all moats held water, but the deep ditches offered the defenders inside the castle considerable strategic advantage over any outside attackers.  On the way back to our room, we tried to visit Dolwyddelan Castle but it was getting late and the ticket office had closed.  We looked at it on the hill above as the sun went down.  Finally we made it back to Harlech where we had an excellent meal at our hotel and, as was par for the course, a proper pint or two.

I've taken way too many photos of all the castles we saw and in the coming days I'll make sure and post them on my Flicker site.  I don't know if it comes through in these photos but we had so much fun with Bob and Jackie on this trip, they are great travel buddies.  Tomorrow: more castles, more rain, more funny photos...