WEIRD WALES TRAVEL

Wales is beautiful. Wales is historic. Wales is also completely unwilling to behave normally.

In WEIRD WALES TRAVEL, Guy Wann follows trains, ferries, buses, mountain railways, bicycles, and his own increasingly suspicious feet through a country packed with haunted castles, ancient curses, saints, dragons, shipwrecks, mining towns, flooded valleys, bizarre legends, and enough medieval stonework to make your knees file a complaint.

This is not a standard travel guide. It is a funny, story-rich journey through the stranger side of Wales.

Travel from Cardiff’s Roman walls and Victorian fantasy rooms to the giant fortress at Caerphilly, where one tower appears to have simply given up. Wander through the Wye Valley, ruined abbeys, border towns, and medieval bridges. Stay in Tenby, where old walls wrap around one of the prettiest seaside towns in Britain and the harbor practically disappears when the tide goes out.

Head into Pembrokeshire for fishing boats, country lanes, saints, castles, and the gloriously unsuccessful French invasion of 1797, which ended with local legend giving a pitchfork-wielding cobbler a starring role.

Farther north, things become even stranger.

Ride a steam railway toward Devil’s Bridge, where Satan supposedly tried his hand at civil engineering. Visit Beddgelert and discover why thousands of travelers walk to the grave of a dog who may never have existed. Explore Portmeirion, the colorful Italian-style fantasy village made famous by The Prisoner. Follow slate railways into mountain country, climb toward Yr Wyddfa, and stand beneath castles built to make political statements with several thousand tons of stone.

Then there is Anglesey, where Romans fought druids, storms wrecked ships, engineers stretched enormous bridges across the Menai Strait, and lovers once consulted sacred eels for romantic advice.

Along the way, WEIRD WALES TRAVEL explores the real history behind the legends without ruining the fun. You will meet rebellious princes, eccentric architects, prehistoric miners, monks, poets, ghosts, railway engineers, royal troublemakers, shipwreck survivors, and several people who made decisions that probably seemed reasonable at the time.

Part travel book, part strange-history collection, and part affectionate argument with Welsh weather, this is Wales for travelers who want more than castles and postcards.

If you like ruined fortresses, bizarre true stories, local legends, historic railways, coastal towns, strange traditions, and travel writing with a sense of humor, pack comfortable shoes.

Wales has been waiting several thousand years to confuse you.