You're watching Vagabrothers, and this
is the tiniest house in Great Britain.
Well, it's actually the smallest house,
but it's pretty tiny. Let's go.
What's up Vagabuddies? Welcome back.
Day two in our exploration of Wales.
We've left St Davids, and we are driving
north. Today's going to be a fun episode.
We're going to be exploring more of
Welsh identity and culture by
checking out its ancient roots, exploring
one of the finest castles in the land, and
then diving into the local food movement.
We're going to start things off here at
Pentre Ifan, which is kind of like the
Stonehenge of Wales. Let's go.
Thousands of years ago across Europe,
there was a culture that originated
in the Germanic areas
and spread out to the far corners of
Europe called the Celts.
There's not a lot known about them,
apart from the fact that the culture
was still around during the time of Rome.
When Julius Caesar arrived in the
British Isles, he was fighting off the Celts,
as well.
It's kind of fascinating to me that
this culture was so wide spread,
and there's still so little really known.
My name's Pete Crane.
I'm the former archaeologist for the
Pentre Ifan National Park.
We're at the burial chamber at Pentre Ifan
This was the first ancient
monument that was protected in Wales.
So it's number one. It's only the upper
end of society that seem to be being
buried, and they're buried in these
chambers. Pentre even probably had
dry stoned walling going up the sides
of it. As you look at the monument now,
all we've got is the major stones there.
It was excavated in the past, but a long
time ago..probably by treasure hunters.
Basically, the grave had been robbed by
the time the archaeologist had gotten at it.
We know a lot of the early stones at
Stonehenge are coming from the Preseli Hills
just behind us.
The stones from Stonehenge are from Wales?
The small, blue stones are from Wales.
How many miles is it from here to Stonehenge?
I have no idea, but a long way if
you're carrying a stone.
While we're here, it's worth mentioning
the myth of King Arthur who is a
hero of unknown origins, but who
a lot of people associate with Wales.
What's most likely true is that he was a
Romanized Celt, and the Welsh who
evoke the story of King Arthur many
times throughout their history as they
repel the next wave of invasion from England.
So to learn more about the story of
Wales and England, we're heading north
to Conwy Castle.
It is in there.
Well a little change of events.
We pulled over to take a nice shot,
and the car is now stuck in mud.
We're trying to figure out how to get it out.
This is not good.
All right guys. We've driven
a couple hours north.
We're officially in North Wales,
and we're in the town of Conwy,
which is one of the best preserved
medieval walled towns in all of Europe.
Right now we are strolling
along the city walls on our way to
Conwy Castle.
This is a symbol of a major point in the story of
Wales because in the 1200s, Edward the
First came back from the Crusades and
he was the King of England.
He wanted to put down the Welsh
rebellion once and for all.
It was said the the Welsh were really
easy to beat in a battle, but hard to beat
in a war. To solve that, they basically
went about creating some really imposing
castles in what was known as
The Ring of Iron.
That's why Wales has more castles than
any other country in Europe.
These castles were built, not so much
to defend the occupants,
but as to symbolize the presence of
England and to put down any rebellions
that the Welsh might have against
English rule.
Standing up here it's really easy to
put yourself in the shoes of
a person almost a thousand years ago.
You've got the mountains in Snowdonia
off in the distance with snow covered
peaks. You've got the ocean behind us.
And just over there is Conwy Castle.
We're going to continue walking along
the city walls until we get into
the castle itself.
Well, this has to be.......
my favorite castle I think I've visited.
It has the perfect balance between
preservation and accessibility
and ruin.
Yeah, it's just the right amount of ruin.
It's in tact, but it's kind of rustic.
Plus I love that you can wander the
whole thing. Every single tower
is pretty much open, and they have
all the little circular staircases going up.
So you can really get lost in here.
I would have to say, though......
if you were living here back in the day,
and your role was to guard the castle,
what do you think you'd do to pass the time?
Drink ale.
Obviously. That's just me, personally.
Back in the day, there would have been
a lot of conflict here. I know that.....
we said the castle was built in late 1280s.
It took four years to build;
it cost fifteen thousand pounds, and that
was equivalent to forty five thousand .......
forty five million pounds today.
Forty five trillion, billion pounds.
Thank you Doctor Evil.
The point being that they built
these castles fast.
This is only one of many castles being
built at the same time.
In the 1400s, they had another rebellion.
The Welsh rose up again,
and this place was actually captured
through a pretty tricky little maneuver.
The local Welsh almost
like the Trojans and the Trojan horse
dressed up as carpenters, talked
themselves through the first gate,
killed the secondary guards, and then
eventually captured the entire castle.
They held out for about six months, I think,
until they finally surrendered, and
nine of those guys were put to death.
I don't know if any of you are movie buffs,
I hope you are. This reminds me of
the scene in Willow,
George Lucas' sleeper classic.
Madmartigan, played by Val Kilmer,
battles off all those weird little creature,
evil creature things, in the abandoned
castle. I walked in here and I was like......
Willow.
Every time we come to the U.K.,
we "dork-out" so hard on history
because this country is just so
chalk- a- block full of
amazing historical stories.
Every town you go to has a thousand
plus years of history, and some really
interesting turn of events that shaped
the country that the U.K. is today.
Bear with us, if you're not too into history,
we are going to be doing a lot of other
stuff, but when we come to places like
this, we tend to get pretty excited.
You know what else to get excited about?
What? Lunch.
Conwy is known for its mussels, which
are caught right here in the estuary.
We're going to head over to the
Castle Hotel and try to find some
local seafood for lunch.
For lunch, we've ordered
local Conwy mussels, which come
with a cream white wine sauce.
These are so good.
Conwy mussels are really good because
they have a perfect mixture of
salt water and fresh water in this estuary.
This is where a river meets the sea.
We saw some fishermen going right
underneath the castle,
and they unload here on the quay
and then served fresh for this restaurant.
Thank you.
I's definitely time for a coffee.
This is such a pretty little town, though.
Honestly.
All these colorful, little buildings......
castle, walls, good food.
Good beer.
And a coffee and a bookshop.
Should we go in?
It's a P.L.T. a pretty little town.
Mark likes making acronyms and
abbreviations.
Coffee and Bookshop.
Well, that was delicious.
It's been a really cool day here in Conwy,
learning a little bit more about the roots
of Welsh culture and how it survived
to this day.
Not to mention exploring ruined castles,
eating amazing seafood,
and getting a little bit of our minimalist
inspiration going with the
smallest house in the U.K. #tinyhouse.
Anyway, guys, if you enjoyed this video,
you know what to do: give it a thumbs-up,
share it with your friends, subscribe,
and turn on notifications if you have not
already, and stay tuned for the rest
of the series. Tomorrow we're going to
the mountains up here, Snowdonia.
In the meantime, stay curious,
keep exploring, and
we'll see you guys on the road. Peace.