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Pirates at the Castle Quay!
Conwy Pirate Festival 2025
I took the chance to make the best of some unusually good spring Welsh weather to check out the Conwy Pirate Festival.
(Conway Castle) was one of the chain of castles built by Edward I to keep the Welsh in check back in the thirteenth century. It has arguably the best visual location of all the castles. The main keep sits alongside the River Conwy. Hills rise up behind the castle to give it a fairytale setting. Approaching from the East, the castle rises up in front of you impressively as you cross the bridge.
The outer walls of Conwy surround the town, and the quayside lies along the river front within their stoney embrace — all the better to foil any siege the disgruntled natives might try. It was no Welsh uprising that threatened the town today, but an invasion of pirates!
Even as I made my way from the car park, it was clear that things were more piratical than normal. Amongst the stream of visitors funneling through the…