Go on Tour with the Princes of Gwynedd and author Sharon Penman

13^th Century Medieval Wales and the novels of Sharon Penman

13^th Century medieval Wales was a time when the Princes of Gwynedd ruled much of Wales; a time when battle cries rang out as brother fought brother, and the Welsh sought to defend their territory against the English King.  Castles rose all over North Wales, together with churches, and the courts and palaces of the Princes.  Many of these sites can still be explored and www.princesofgwynedd.com provides self-guided driving tours, with a host of historical facts, to appeal to historians, the fans of the novels of Sharon Penman (published by Penguin) and the cultural tourist.

Llewelyn Fawr took the title of Prince of Gwynedd forcibly from his uncles by 1200 and through negotiation and sword tried to unite Wales.  Llewelyn succeeded in getting his son, Dafydd, acknowledged Prince of Wales by the lesser Welsh princes but it was Dafydd’s heir, Llewelyn ap Gruffydd who was recognised as Prince of Wales by Henry III in 1267 under the Treaty of Montgomery. The Welsh Trilogy of novels written by Sharon Penman follows the lives, loves and traumas of the Welsh Princes as they rise and fall from power; find out which castle was Llewelyn Fawr’s favourite, the church built to save his pregnant wife from a walk up a steep hill and the home of the Princes from Llewelyn Fawr to his grandson, Llewelyn the Last.  The answers to all these questions are available on www.princesofgwynedd.com together with self-guided driving tours around the sites referred to in the books and still welcoming visitors today, such as Llewelyn’s sarcophagus in Llanrwst. Conwy Castle and Caernarfon Castle, and the fabulous Swallow Falls.

On seeing the website, Sharon Penman’s reaction was “All I can say is WOW!  It looks spectacular.”

‘Wales has more castles per head than anywhere else in the world.’ Quote from BBC website. 

www.princesofgwynedd.com has been produced by the Betws-y-Coed & District Tourism Association, an association formed to promote tourism in Betws-y-Coed and the upper Conwy Valley.  The Association’s website at www.betws-y-coed.co.uk provides information for tourists including details of accommodation providers.

Image courtesy of Ysgol Casmael.