Bryn Caled Cottages - Fun Days Out

Plas Newydd in Llangollen was the home of Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, two Irish ladies who eloped and set up house together in the late 18th century. It began as a five-roomed stone cottage and was enlarged with many Gothic features. It is now a museum.

The most unusual feature is the exterior, where reclaimed oak carvings from broken-up furniture and church fittings are set patchwork-style over much of the outside, alongside black-and-white trim and stained glass. The ladies also developed the gardens, adding a "ruined" archway, rustic bridges and a temple. Visitors included Wordsworth, Sir Walter Scott and the Duke of Wellington. Those interested in the story of the house and its famous residents will find plenty to look at.

Tip: Look closely at the outside of the house as well as the rooms, since the patchwork of reclaimed oak carvings is its most unusual feature.

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct carries the Llangollen Canal across the River Dee in the Vale of Llangollen. Designed by Thomas Telford and William Jessop, it is a cast iron trough held 127 ft (39 m) above the river on eighteen hollow masonry piers, with 19 arched spans. It is 336 yards (307 m) long and about 12 feet wide.

The aqueduct is made for narrowboats, and a towpath runs alongside the water on one side, so you can see the structure from the canal itself. It is a Grade I listed building and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Trevor Basin sits just over the aqueduct, at the end of the canal route that was completed.

Harlech Castle is a medieval fortification in Gwynedd, built onto a rocky knoll close to the Irish Sea. Edward I had it built during his invasion of Wales, and it is one of the castles UNESCO includes in its World Heritage listing for the finest late 13th and early 14th century military architecture in Europe.

The castle is concentric in design and built of local stone, with a massive gatehouse that probably once housed the constable and visiting dignitaries. A water-gate and a long flight of steps lead down towards the former shore, where the sea once came much closer. The castle has seen plenty of action, from Owain Glyndŵr's occupation to the siege remembered in the song "Men of Harlech" and the Civil War, when it was the last fortification to surrender to Parliament. It's a good pick if you enjoy castle history.

The Conwy Valley Railway Museum sits beside Betws-y-Coed railway station, on the site of the old goods yard. The museum building holds a collection of railway artefacts, and the attraction began with a former standard gauge railway carriage, which is a licensed buffet and restaurant car.

Outside there are two small railways. A 7¼ in gauge miniature steam railway runs for a mile around the edge of the site. Passing loops let more than one train use the circuit at once. There is also a one-third full-size electric tramcar running along half a mile of 15 in gauge track. It is one of only two electric tramways in Wales, so it is a good one for tram and railway fans to tick off.

Dolwyddelan Castle is a thirteenth-century castle in Conwy County Borough, probably begun by Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, ruler of the Kingdom of Gwynedd, to guard an east-west route through his lands. It stands on a small knoll, with a keep on the east side and a tower on the west, joined by walls to form a roughly circular enclosure.

The keep is the oldest part and was restored and reconstructed in the nineteenth century. The castle was captured by Edward I of England in 1283 and was a ruin by the mid-nineteenth century. Nearby, on a rocky outcrop above the Afon Lledr, are the fragmentary remains of Tomen Castell, a late twelfth-century tower. It is the likely birthplace of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, though tradition says he was born in the castle itself. It suits anyone interested in Welsh medieval history.