Dolbadarn Castle

Dolbadarn Castle stands on a rocky knoll above Llyn Padarn, a few minutes from the centre of Llanberis, and gives one of the easiest short walks to a mountain view anywhere in Eryri. Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (Llywelyn the Great) built it in the 1220s and 1230s specifically to hold the Llanberis Pass, the main historic route between the coast at Caernarfon and the Conwy valley. His son Dafydd added the round keep and curtain walls in the 1240s after marrying into the powerful Anglo-Norman de Braose family, a deliberate show of status built in a style borrowed from Norman military architecture. The keep, standing 46 feet, has been called the finest surviving example of a Welsh round tower.

Edward I captured the castle in 1284 during his conquest of Wales, and timber taken from it was reportedly reused in building Caernarfon Castle. It later became a farmhouse before falling into ruin, and its picturesque decay attracted painters through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, J.M.W. Turner among them. Sir Michael Duff gave the castle to the state in 1941; Cadw now looks after it, and entry is free.

The approach from the nearest car park crosses a footbridge and climbs a short but steep concrete path through trees, and the last few feet to the top of the keep are up a narrow, steep original stair, so this is not a step-free visit. The reward is a near 360-degree view: Llyn Padarn directly below, the Llanberis Pass running south-east towards Yr Wyddfa, and the terraced scars of the old Dinorwig quarry across the water. It suits an hour in Llanberis before or after a hill, and anyone who wants the Pass laid out in front of them for almost no effort. It does not suit a wheelchair or a pushchair, and the keep stair rules it out for anyone unsteady on steps. For a level lakeside alternative, the path along Llyn Padarn’s north shore needs no climbing at all.