Wales- Castles, Coast & Steam Trains with Darren & Rachel

Wales- Castles, Coast & Steam Trains

A very exciting first steam train ride at Devil's Bridge where we first had a look around the station. We soon heard the train pull in through a cloud of steam. 

 It was lovely exploring the local town, Builth Wells. We walked down to the river and saw a huge bull standing his ground in his field. Luckily he wasn't interested in us! 

Richard took us on a tour of the local area. The first part of our history lesson was about Prince Llywelyn. We stood by the statue of him that overlooked our cottages before moving onto his memorial where Richard told us that this was where the Prince had been killed and also where his head was said to have been washed before being sent to the Tower of London.

 We found a pretty little tea room that had a gorgeous secret garden. It was lovely sitting out in the sunshine, relaxing and nothing beats a slice of homemade cake! 

 

On our adventures we came across the oldest yew tree in Europe which has completely split into two trees! 

 All aboard and ready to go, we waved to other passengers on the platform and we set off to Aberystwyth. Looking out of the window we saw some spectacular views of the mountains and the lush green valleys. 

 

 There was so much to see and do and we loved exploring the coast and countryside. 

 We rode on the cliff railway up to Constitution Hill where the views were simply spectacular. We ate our picnic on the cliff top and went up onto the viewing tower where we could see for miles. 

 We had a good explore of the ruins and we couldn’t believe we were stood in the remains of an actual castle.

A walk along the pier, treating ourselves to a delicious ice cream was the perfect way to end our day.

 We went up into the Black Mountains where we visited a tiny church – Capel-y-ffin, it was the smallest church some of us had ever seen. Our next stop was Llanthony Priory which are ruins of an old priory that monks used to live in.

 Next was a building of historical interest that was really wonky due to a landslide! Our last stop of the day was at Trebower Court and Castle, where we went inside the court.

We went on a canal boat cruising along the river, looking at all the wildlife that passed us by. We even went through a lock and under lots of tiny bridges.