Category: Heritage & Culture

Be Robin Hood for a day or unleash your inner Viking with our open field archery and axe throwing sessions. Our good friends at Bearded Man Adventurers have all you need to have a great day learning to shoot a bow and arrow or throw an axe!

In 1682, Joshua Edisbury was appointed High Sheriff of Denbighshire and began bulding Erddig; Edisbury was unable to finish before going bankrupt. Erddig Hall is a Grade-I listed National Trust property in Wrexham. Located 2 miles south of Wrexham town centre, it comprises a country house built during the 17th and 18th centuries amidst a 1,900 acre estate, which includes a 1,200-acre landscaped pleasure park and the earthworks of a Norman motte-and-bailey castle. Erddig's gardens have an astorment of rare fruit trees including 180 different type of apple trees! Eddrig's owners have had a bumpy financial history. The National Trust took ownership  in 1973 and began a four year period of restoration.

Chirk was never planned as a family home, the castle was built by King Edward to keep control of the Welsh people. The King gave Roger Mortimer the Chirklands, and was built by master-builder James of St. George (the builder of Harlech, Beaumaris, Caernarfon and Conwy castles). The castle was a symbol of English power and might, controlling the border and it dominating the surrounding land. Originally lime washed white, Chirk Castle stood out prominently in the treeless landscape. The castle was purchased in 1595 for about £5,000 by Sir Thomas Myddelton, a son of the governor of Denbigh Castle and successful London merchant. As a founder of the East India Company, an investor in the expeditions of Drake, Raleigh and Hawkins, he had the means to convert Chirk into a comfortable Tudor residence. His new stone north range contained a hall, buttery and kitchen, with upstairs drawing and dining rooms. This range, with alterations, became the main living quarters of the castle, while the old south range was gradually given over to servants. Inside the Castle rooms of different periods rub up against each other unlike the usual suite of rooms that flow seamlessly. As you walk through the State Rooms, you will pass historic interiors that are examples of the latest fashions of their time, and a collection that has grown through the centuries.

Valle Crucis was truly Welsh from the moment it was founded in 1201 by Prince Madog ap Gruffydd and the ‘white monks’ of the Cistercian order. Its Latin name (Valley of the Cross) refers to the nearby ninth-century Pillar of Eliseg, erected for the glory of a Welsh chieftain. Monks had names like Tudur and Hywel. Such home-grown sympathies might well explain the damage suffered during the wars of the English King Edward I and the uprising of Owain Glyndŵr. But it remains one of our best-preserved and most atmospheric medieval abbeys. Valle Crucis began in austerity but was later celebrated by poets for its lavish hospitality – meals served in silver vessels and ale ‘flowing like a river’. In Wales, only Tintern Abbey was richer when it was dissolved by royal decree in 1537. You’ll believe it when you first glimpse the majestic west front of the abbey church. Elsewhere among the romantic ruins (painted by Turner) are the rib-vaulted chapter house and the only surviving monastic fishpond in Wales.

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is a World Heritage Site. You can walk across, or save your legs and take a leisurely boat ride over 'the stream in the sky'. But there's one thing you have to take with you. A camera. The views are something else.

Llangollen Fringe Festival offers a week-long eclectic mix of Music, Arts & Crafts, Comedy, Workshops, Storytelling, Theatre & Exhibitions.

Plas Newydd is a stone house converted into a gothic ‘fantasy’ by its most famous inhabitants – ‘The Ladies of Llangollen'. The Ladies of Llangollen - Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby ran away from Ireland in 1778 to start a new life together in Wales. Eleanor and Sarah arrived at Plas Newydd in 1780 and lived there for the next 50 years. Notable visitors included The Duke of Wellington, Wordsworth, Sir Walter Scott and Josiah Wedgewood. Plas Newydd continues to welcome visitors to the house and garden today. The 'garden' is ten acres of grounds ranging from formal ‘parterre’ and rose gardens to beautiful woodland and dell areas where the ‘Cyflymen’ (fast flowing one) stream is to be found, all this set against the backdrop of the beautiful Welsh hills in this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The first International Musical Eisteddfod was held in Llangollen in June 1947. In the following 70 years its celebration of “Peace and Harmony” has made it one of the world’s great music festivals. It began with a vision that the ancient Welsh eisteddfod tradition could provide a means of healing the wounds of the Second World War, and help to  promote lasting peace. People come from around the world to showcase their songs, dance and culture. There is also a parade through Llangollen where everyone wears their country's traditional clothes. More than 300,000 competitors from over 100 nationalities have performed enthusiastically on the Llangollen stage.

Llangollen railway once stretched as far as London, today its a very much shorter, stopping off at Stations in Berwyn, Carrog, Glyndyfrdwy and Corwen. The line takes you through the Clwydian Range Area of Outstanding Beauty and often has special event arranged throughout the year.