The Ring of Castles

Leicester to Conwy is an easy 4 hour 30 minute journey with 1 change, every two hours- Cross Country trains to Birmingham New Street, then Arriva Trains Wales all the way from Birmingham New Street to Conwy.
Leave on the 0950 from Leicester, you'll arrive at Conwy at 1421. After you've checked in, time to see Conwy Castle before closing time.
Beaumaris and Caernarfon are easy from Conwy- use local buses from Conwy.
For Caernarfon take the twice hourly Arriva Bus #5 to Bangor (40 minute journey), then a #5c every 20 minutes to Caernarfon, journey every 20 minutes.
For Beaumaris return to Bangor.
There is Arriva Bus # 58 every hour to Beaumaris, which takes 45 minutes.

For Denbigh take a train from Conwy to Rhyl (20 minute journey) then Arriva Bus #51 every hour, a one hour journey .
Rhuddlan is on your way back on #51.
For Flint Castle take the train 2 stops further from Rhyl to Flint (20 minute journey).

To get to Hawarden Castle take the train to Shotton (about a 55 mile journey).
Change there for the hourly train towards Wrexham, one stop to Hawarden- 4 minute journey.
Aberystwyth and Harlech are harder to do from North Wales by public transport. You really need to relocate to Aberystwyth for one night.
The best way is to take the train from Llandudno Junction to Blaenau Ffestiniog at 1010, change there for bus #58 to Porthmadog, then train to Harlech arriving around 1430.
The next train is two hours later at 1629, change at Dovey Junction, arrive Aberystwyth at 1827.
Then your last castle next morning. Take an early afternoon train to London, changing at Birmingham New Street.
The only pinch point there is your luggage while at Harlech Castle.

It probably would be a bit easier to do this driving as you could do this in a more logical order-
3 hours drive Leicester to Hawarden. Then 20 minutes drive to Flint Castle, following which it is 45 minutes to Conwy.
Then on Day 2 Denbigh Castle is a 45 minute drive- so you could cover Denbigh and Rhuddlan in the morning.
If you can cope with 3 castles in one day Beaumaris Castle is a one hour drive from Rhuddlan.
Then on Day 3 drive from Conwy to Caernarfon- 45 minutes.
Caernarfon Castle to Harlech castle allow 1 hour.
Harlech Castle to Aberystwyth allow 2 hours.
So you won't get there by closing time, but could stay overnight and do Aber Castle on Day 4.

thanks so much It's a lot of info for me to process.

The best castles are Conwy, Caernarfon and third Beaumaris. Harlech is also an excellent castle but is further south and if visiting by train, is a very steep climb up from the station. Conwy has a train station practically under the station. Caernarfon is not on the railway - nearest station is Bangor and then bus the short distance to Caernarfon.

I also recommend these 2 narrow guage steam railways in Snowdonia National Park:> https://www.festrail.co.uk (One way tickets can be booked by phoning the booking office).
A Cheaper alternative way to travel through Snowdonia is:> https://snowdoninfo.com/sherpa-bus-service

Near Porthmadog is >https://portmeirion.wales
https://cadw.gov.wales
https://www.castlewales.com
Not far from Conwy >https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wales/bodnant-garden
https://www.traveline.info
https://www.nationalrail.co.uk

While the castles James mentioned are nice, I wouldn’t say they are the best. I was somewhat disappointed with Harlech castle, although the views are very nice from it. There are so many castles throughout the country, each in a different state of repair, and each with its own merits. It doesn’t help if you don’t want to rent a car, but that’s generally a good way to get around Wales if wanting to avoid using a lot of time waiting for trains and busses. Many castles are not in ideal locations from train or bus stations.

I dearly love the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland railways, and would have so liked to recommend them as transport to you, as they were pre Covid.
However they have now made that all but impossible, it is such a shame. You now have to pre- book return journeys, on a much reduced schedule, and most of the trips only running on certain days.
So you lose a large part of the day doing a round trip on one or the other line. If your primary interest is Castles on a time limited trip it is hard to see how you could build them into your schedule.
I must admit I had to look up which castles formed the ring. A ring which is more like the letter F.
I have not been to all of them. Having family history in Caernarfon and on Anglesey I am embarrassed to admit to not having visited Beaumaris. It is so close, across the Menai Strait.

I am grateful to all who offered such detailed information. I am particularly grateful to isn31c who is just a goldmine (or in Wales, should it be slate mine) of great information. I think that, in reality, we are going to try and get to Conwy, Caernarfon, Beaumaris and Harlech and we will be delighted by that. Because of other celebratory family events. we can't get to London until Oct 5 and I think realistically we are looking at getting into Wales October 16th or so.
While we have driven in England 5 or 6 times, as American drivers it is always a little fraught to be driving down a narrow road on the left hand side. There have been previous comments about the roads in Wales and all that is why we are hoping to use public transportation.
Since it is about the same length of time to get from Leicester to Conwy as it is from London to Conwy, that is what we think we are going to do.
None of this is etched in stone and we all know that sometimes things happen. We have loved all our travels and we are sort of thinking this might be the last one so being able to see part of Wales and visit though 4 castles will truly be going out in a blaze of glory.

Have a great trip.

Hello from Wisconsin,

Do some serious research into the construction and design of these castles. Narrow your selection of which you want to visit to three, maybe four castles. And then have at it. Once you have selected the castles you want to visit you can work out the transportation.

I too dreamed of seeing these magnificent structures from the peak of castle design. After a viewing a few, the excitement died down. They are great structures.

Here are four: "The castles at Harlech, Caernarfon and Conwy, through nearly contemporary, display a unique progression towards the later, highly evolved concentric design of Beaumaris." This quote is from a simple page: https://www.castlewales.com/edwrdcas.html
These four castles are in fine repair. Personally, I enjoy the random castle ruin.

wayne iNWI

I think this trip would probably be easier by car, as the area around these towns is somewhat rural. I would recommend Conwy as a base - it has beautiful Conway Castle (a UNESCO site) and lots of amenities in town. The city also has fully intact city walls, which you can walk. And it's a short drive from there to Caernarfon. In addition to the famous castle, Caernarfon also has brightly painted buildings, a riverside pub and amazing views of Anglesey Island.

A nice little excursion is the ruined Dolbadarn Castle , which is also very close to the National Slate Museum. I also recommend visiting Bodnant Gardens. I really enjoyed this area of Wales - have fun!