Free entry to all Cadw Sites on 1st March St David's Day - inc Caernarfon, Conwy & Beaumaris Castle + Tintern Abbey

Confirmed from the Cadw fb page, there is free entry to all Cadw sites on 1st March for St David's day. Maybe handy if you fancied visiting one of the various castles or places of historical interest e.g. Caernarfon castle, Conwy castle, Beaumaris castle, Tintern Abbey etc. No pre booking required, just turn up on the day.

Also as a reminder if in the area, it's free entry to Portmeirion village on the 1st as well.

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'To celebrate our Patron Saint – beautifully depicted here by Nathan Wyburn Art – we’re giving you free entry to all Cadw sites on 1st March. Because Welsh history is something for us all, to keep.

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Caernarfon castle

Scores 4.5/5 Tripadvisor

Royal fortress-palace built on legends and bitter medieval conflict

Caernarfon Castle is recognised around the world as one of the greatest buildings of the Middle Ages.

This fortress-palace on the banks of the River Seiont is grouped with Edward I’s other castles at Conwy, Beaumaris and Harlech as a World Heritage Site. But for sheer scale and architectural drama Caernarfon stands alone.

Here Edward and his military architect Master James of St George erected a castle, town walls and a quay all at the same time. This gigantic building project eventually took 47 yers.

The castle was born out of bitter war with Welsh princes. So of course its immense curtain walls and daunting King’s Gate were designed to withstand assault. But the polygonal towers, eagle statues and multi-coloured masonry sent a more subtle message.

These echoed imperial Roman architecture, especially the walls of Constantinople. They also recalled the Welsh myth of Macsen Wledig, who dreamed of a great fort at the mouth of a river – ‘the fairest that man ever saw’.

So Caernarfon is a castle of dreams. A legend brought to life. Even after 700 years it still stirs the imagination like no other Welsh castle.

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Conwy castle

Scores 4.5/5 Tripadvisor

Magnificent medieval fortress still towers over town after 700 years

Thanks to restored spiral staircases in its great towers you can walk a complete circuit around the battlements of Conwy Castle. We highly recommend it. This is one of the most magnificent medieval fortresses in Europe.

In the distance rise the craggy mountains of Eryri (Snowdonia) and spread out below you are the harbour and narrow streets of Conwy – still protected by an unbroken 1,400-yard (1.3km) ring of town walls.

It’s enough to take the breath away. Especially when you consider that King Edward I and his architect Master James of St George built both castle and walls in a barely believable four years between 1283 and 1287.

Conwy takes its place alongside Edward’s other great castles at Beaumaris, Harlech and Caernarfon as a World Heritage Site.

This famous fortress is exceptionally well preserved. It contains the most intact set of medieval royal apartments in Wales. The high curtain wall and eight lofty towers rise almost as impressively as when they were built more than 700 years ago.

So don’t be afraid to climb those staircases, if you can, for the full Conwy experience. There isn’t a better place in Britain to stand on the battlements and dream.

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Beaumaris Castle

Scores 4.5/5 Tripadvisor

Fortress of near-perfect symmetry is an unfinished masterpiece

Beaumaris on the island of Anglesey is famous as the greatest castle neverbuilt. It was the last of the royal strongholds created by Edward I in Wales – and perhaps his masterpiece.

Here Edward and his architect James of St George took full advantage of a blank canvas: the ‘beau mareys’ or ‘beautiful marsh’ beside the Menai Strait. By now they’d already constructed the great castles of Conwy, Caernarfon and Harlech. This was to be their crowning glory, the castle to end all castles.

The result was a fortress of immense size and near-perfect symmetry. No fewer than four concentric rings of formidable defences included a water-filled moat with its very own dock. The outer walls alone bristled with 300 arrow loops.

But lack of money and trouble brewing in Scotland meant building work had petered out by the 1320s. The south gatehouse and the six great towers in the inner ward never reached their intended height. The Llanfaes gate was barely started before being abandoned.

So the distinctive squat shape of Beaumaris tells of a dream that never quite came true. Still it takes its rightful place on the global stage as part of the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd World Heritage Site.

Because this castle is special – both for the scale of its ambition and beauty of its proportions. Gloriously incomplete Beaumaris is perhaps the supreme achievement of the greatest military architect of the age.

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Tintern Abbey

Scores 4.5/5 Tripadvisor

Gothic masterpiece became a Romantic symbol of the sublime

Tintern Abbey is a national icon — still standing in roofless splendour on the banks of the River Wye nearly 500 years since its tragic fall from grace.

It was founded in 1131 by Cistercian monks, who were happy to make do with timber buildings at first. Abbot Henry, a reformed robber, was better known for his habit of crying at the altar than for his architectural ambitions.

A simple stone church and cloisters came later. But then, thanks to the patronage of wealthy Marcher lords, the white-robed monks began to think bigger.

In 1269 they began to build a new abbey church and didn’t stop until they’d created one of the masterpieces of British Gothic architecture. The great west front with its seven-lancet window and the soaring arches of the nave still take the breath away.

So grateful were the monks to their powerful patron Roger Bigod that they were still handing out alms on his behalf in 1535. But by then King Henry VIII’s English Reformation was well underway.

Only a year later Tintern surrendered in the first round of the dissolution of the monasteries — and the great abbey began slowly to turn into a majestic ruin.