Castell Dinas Bran

Castell Dinas Bran stands on a steep, isolated hill rising more than 300 metres above the market town of Llangollen in north-east Wales. The current stone ruin dates from the thirteenth century and was built by the princes of Powys Fadog, but the summit was already an important site long before that, with traces of an Iron Age hillfort enclosing the same commanding ridge.

The castle had a short active life. Completed in the 1260s, it was deliberately burned and abandoned within a generation during the Edwardian conquest of Wales, leaving the dramatic broken walls and gatehouse that visitors see today. Despite its ruinous state, enough survives to make out the great hall, towers and curtain wall, and the romantic outline has inspired writers and painters from Wordsworth to Turner.

The reward for the climb is one of the finest views in Wales. The Dee Valley stretches east and west, the limestone cliffs of the Eglwyseg escarpment rise to the north, and the Berwyn mountains roll away to the south. Several waymarked paths lead up from Llangollen, typically taking around forty minutes from the town centre, and the site is freely accessible at any reasonable time.