Today's Place to Daydream about: Snowdonia

Snowdonia, Eryri in Welsh, is mountainous region in North Wales. Most of it is now within Snowdonia National Park, which has an area of 823 square miles (2,130 km2). 

The park contains a diversity of landscapes, including protected glens where rare plants thrive, vast sheep meadows, steep bare hills, 

wooded valleys, lakes, and towns.

It rains a lot in Wales, so there are many lovely waterfalls.

It is a famous spot for hiking, and you can choose from hundreds of trails, some of which have been used by tourists since the 1600s.

It also a remarkable historic record, including Bronze Age burial cairns

and a Roman Fort called Tomen y Mur – Mound and Wall, I think – within which is a Norman motte about which absolutely nothing is known, since there isn't any historical record of Normans in this area.

Hidden in a valley on the west side of Mount Snowdon is Dinas Emrys. This is a steep hill on top of which stood an Iron Age hillfort. Not much to see, but the spot looms large in British legend. It was here, we read, that the boy Merlin first revealed his prophetic gifts. I'm using this 18th-century rendering because modern pictures aren't nearly so impressive, I suspect because the area is now too heavily wooded for clear views from this distance.

Anyway King Vortigern was trying to build a castle on the hill, but the walls kept falling down. Merlin explained that this was because two dragons were fighting in the earth. A hole was dug and the dragons were revealed. Merlin said that the white dragon, which represented the Saxons, was winning for now, but the red dragon of Wales would stage a comeback.

In the 1200s Snowdonia was the stronghold of Llewellyn the Great, the last important native ruler of Wales. He built or improved, a series of castles, including Dolbadarn

Castell y Berre

and Dolwyddelan.

In the nineteenth century there was mining here for slate, copper, and gold, and there are historic mine sites one can visit.

There is wildlife, including otters, ravens, and feral goats.

A wonderful place to imagine on this rainy Maryland evening.