14c Mostly Cloudy
Barmouth Viaduct at Sunset 
Llanberis from Penllyn 
Morfa Bychan beach near Porthmadog 
SO history is dusty, boring and irrelevant, is it? Well, it certainly can be. It's all a matter of presentation. There can be few places where history comes more alive than Caernarfon's medieval walled town, with Edward I's magnificent castle its piece de resistance.
While much detested in some nationalistic quarters as a symbol of English oppression, which was why it was built in the first place, it nonetheless remains an almost mystical architectural masterpiece said to have been modelled on the walls of Constantinople.
Others feel more disposed to think of it as having failed to meet its objectives, proven by the fact that Caernarfon is still the world's Welsh-speaking stronghold.
It has certainly managed to remain a bone of contention for its entire existence, and was a target for protest action back in 1969 when Prince Charles was invested here as Prince of Wales, to the chagrin of many.
To walk around its walls, either outside on the roadway or atop them, imparts an eerie feeling of making close contact with the distant past.
Largely completed by 1320, construction having started in 1283 within months of the fall of the Welsh royal line with the murder of Llywelyn II at Cilmeri, the mindset of its architects and builders still stands out clearly seven centuries later.
Look for the defensive arrow slits, and the deep moat - albeit now dry - which still separates it from the rest of the walled town. A weather-beaten statue of Edward still stands above the King's Gate.
But look, too, for more mundane considerations. There's the drainage channels still visible in the walls, and the intended extension to the castle at the western end overlooking the Menai Strait, the incomplete wall still jutting out as if waiting impatiently to have it scars covered in soothing mortar.
Step inside and the noise of the traffic outside is muffled into almost complete silence by its thick-set stone walls.
The circular staircases winding their way up the polygonal towers guarding its flanks can be breathtaking, in more ways than one, but the views over the town and out to Snowdonia and Anglesey make the effort well worthwhile.
At one end of the castle lies the slate dais where Charles was crowned 39 years ago, while inside two of the towers you'll find the regimental museum of the Royal Welch Fusiliers.
The museum tells the story of the Fusiliers over the three centuries they've been together, through film, sound, models and exhibits. It relates how acclaimed poet Hedd Wyn, posthumously awarded the chair at the National Eisteddfod in 1917, lost his life in the World War I trenches while serving the regiment.
Meanwhile, in the castle's shadow just outside those forbidding town walls, work to spruce up the famous old market square - in the pipeline for decades - is finally progressing apace.
Tread warily over the new paving and between the safety fencing to take your place in Caffi Maes, a long-standing staple in the town's daytime dining provision.
While the statue of former prime minister David Lloyd George across the square shakes his fist angrily at the seagulls who dare mock him in their own inimitable way, settle down to enjoy a snack and a cuppa or a full blown meal.
With traditional bangers and mash costing £3.25, all day breakfast £4.95 or a simple meal of egg, chips and beans just £1.70, it needn't cost you the earth either.
