Dolbadarn Castle, north Wales

This castle was built by a Welsh prince
- Llewelyn ap Iorwerth -
in the early 1200s.
It is built of slate and rubble,
and stands about 80ft above the nearby lakes,
guarding one of the main routes through
the mountains of north Wales.


The castle as seen from the main road.
It is very near the town of Llanberis,
which is where the Snowdon mountain railway trains
collect passengers to take them up to the top of Snowdon:

http://www.snowdonrailway.co.uk/



A closer view of the castle,
which is not in bad condition
for it's age of 800 years...
shame all the wooden floors and roofs are long gone.



This is Lake Peris, to the south of the castle - you can
see the huge slate quarry worls on the opposite shore.
Llanberis is famous for its slate,
and has a museum, where workers
demonstrate how to cut and split slate:

http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/slate/


This is the view to the north,
Lake Padarn - from which the castle gets its name,
Dolbadarn means Padarn meadow.
You can see Llanberis town on the
lake shore to the left of the picture.