THIS week’s column comes from the Snowdonia area of North Wales where my wife and I spent a few days researching the countryside and coastal areas.

It was our first visit to that particular part of Wales although we have enjoyed other Welsh locations. In this case we found the combination and close proximity of mountains and coast to be extremely interesting and stimulating.

Our base was a small sevenbedroom private hotel in the foothills of Snowdon, some five miles south of Conwy Castle. It had a garden full of trees with a small stream and the whole area was rich with wildlife. A pheasant appeared below our bedroom window almost every day apparently expecting to be fed, whilst most of the other birds were those we would expect in our own garden, such as blue tits, great tits, robins and chaffinches.

However, we spotted a huge raven soaring above, easily identified by its large size, dense black colour and duck-like croaking call. Another visitor caused something of a puzzle. It darted from beneath one of the garden shrubs directly beneath our bedroom window and galloped out of sight behind part of the hotel. With only a fraction of a second to assess it, I thought it was a red squirrel. Its size, colour, shape and speed all suggested that.

When I mentioned it to our hosts, they thought it unlikely to be a red squirrel as they were very rare in that area, although they told me that reds were present on the isle of Anglesey. That is less than 12 miles away across country, although to reach the mainland from Anglesey would mean crossing the Menai Strait.

This is certainly possible by a red squirrel, the crossing being over one of Menai’s two neighbouring bridges.

There is ample woodland cover for the presence of red squirrels in that locality and so I await reports that red squirrels have colonised the wooded areas of Snowdonia.

Dominating the area are three major castles – Conwy (sometimes called Conway), Caernarfon (Caernarvon) and Beaumaris, which is on Anglesley. We decided to visit the latter but a shortage of time prevented us visiting the other two and others further away.

Wales is renowned for its defensive castles, some of which were reputed to be impregnable and many can be attributed to the skills of Edward I, who in 1282 broke the power of the Llewellyn dynasty by defeating Llewellyn ap Gruffydd, the grandson of Llewellyn the Great. He celebrated his conquest by ordering the construction of some astonishing castles – Builth Wells, Aberystwyth, Flint, Rhuddlan, Conwy, Caernarfon, Harlech and Beaumaris.

These mighty buildings were renowned for their military architecture and defensive designs, but also for their sumptuous living quarters.

Caernarfon Castle is known to us as the setting for the investiture of Prince Charles as the Prince of Wales in 1969. Conwy Castle is another mighty place which dominates the town that shares its name, i.e. Conway in English. With walls 15ft (c 5m) thick and built in the shape of a Welsh harp, it is still possible to walk along them. The castle provides an unforgettable entrance to the town as the road passes through some of its structure.

Because we wanted to see Beaumaris, a delightful small town on the coast of Anglesey, we opted for a visit to its astonishing castle.

The name of Beaumaris comes from the Norman French meaning beautiful marsh and it is now a popular seaside resort with ample parking space and wonderful coastal views.

After exploring the charming little town, we made for the castle, which is virtually in the town centre. There is a link between Beaumaris and York because some of the Victorian terraces in Beaumaris were designed by the famous English architect, Joseph Hansom, who was born in Micklegate, York, in October 1803.

Born into a Catholic family, he designed more than 200 buildings, including St George’s Church in York, as well as others in Australia and South America. He is known as the founder of a journal called The Builder in 1843 but his name will be forever associated with the small but very safe horsedrawn Hansom cab. Hansom died in 1882 in London.

It is almost certain he would have visited and admired Beaumaris Castle when working in the town. Said to be the most perfect surviving example of a medieval defensive castle, it is one castle within another, and remains in a marvellous state of conservation. On the orders of Edward I, building started in 1295 but the castle was never completed.

Work stopped after 35 years, and what I found astonishing was the sheer amount of stone that had been transported from all corners of both England and Wales. The facilities created from those stones were remarkable.

We visited other famous places such as Bethesda, known for its slate quarries, the breathtaking 80 acres of Bodnant Gardens, then Llandudno with its pier and Great Orme Head, said to be named after a sea monster.

And we learned a few words of Welsh.

THERE is an old Yorkshire saying that October has 21 fine days, and it was also regarded as the month in which wine flows. As its name suggests, October used to be the eighth month of the year but was later transferred to tenth place through the introduction of January and February earlier in the calendar.

Here in the north of England, we tend to regard October not so much as a month of flowing wine, but more as a herald of winter.

Indeed, it was once known as wynterfylleth, which is not a Welsh name but which, like the Welsh language, may have roots in our Celtic past.

Northerners would use the days of October as guides to the weather for the forthcoming winter. For example, a warm October heralded a chilly February, but if both October and November were cold, then the following January and February would be mild.

Farmers and gardeners would say it was wise to manure your land in October because it would produce a good harvest in the year to follow, but if the leaves on Yorkshire trees clung to the branches during October and withered without dropping off, there would be a frosty winter with lots of snow. The number of snowfalls in winter was said to be foretold by the number of mists during October, with the density of the mist indicating whether the snow would be heavy or light.

Much barking by foxes was also said to herald snow.

IHAVE received a query from a reader about my predecessor, Maj Jack Fairfax-Blakeborough, who wrote this column for some 60 years. I knew him well for we both attended the same Catholic church at Lealholm deep in the moors, and he gifted me one of his signed books when I passed my scholarship (11-plus) to Whitby Grammar School.

The query was: when did the Major live at Battersby Hall? My sources show his family moved there in 1901 but I have no date of their departure, although the Major did join the 15th/19th King’s Hussars on November 2, 1914. Maybe someone else knows more about this?