The port of Conway is a dry harbour, frequented by a few coasting vessels; and the river is navigable up to the village of Trefriw, which is about twelve miles from its mouth. A quay extends along the east side of the town wall. The principal inns are the Castle and the Newborough Arms.
The castle, built in 1284, under the eye of Edward the First, by the architect, it is supposed, whom he employed in the erection of Caernarvon, is very justly regarded as one of the most beautiful fortresses in a country distinguished for the splendour and magnificence of its military structures. Though more extensive and better preserved, it somewhat resembles the castle of Falaise, in Normandy. Its base, however, is less wooded, and there is no brawling streamlet leaping, as there, from rock to rock, at its foot; but instead, a broad, majestic river, and a creek full at high water, swoop round two of its sides. The other two face the town. Within the walls are two spacious courts; and the external line of the fortifications contains eight lofty towers, each with a slender turret, singularly graceful and elegant in form, springing from its summit.
The great hall on the right measures 130 feet long and 30 broad, and is lighted by six lancet-shaped windows, opening out upon the creek, and three pointed windows, of exquisite tracery, looking towards the ample court. Eight Gothic arches, four of which remain entire, supported the roof of this magnificent apartment. A lofty Norman arched window at each end, and two broad carved fire-places, completed the architectural decorations and appearances of the hall. The spacious hall was the scene of the Christmas revelries to which Edward and his queen invited the English nobility and their high-spirited dames, while the monarch was forging the chain that was for ever to enslave the prostrate Principality. The walls, on all sides, are covered with a green drapery of luxuriant ivy, and a meadow of grass lies in the open area of the courts. The warder’s duty is supplied by a whole tribe of crows, whose solemn parley is heard the instant a stranger’s foot approaches the domain they have usurped; and the ivied walls are nearly alive with blackbirds, and birds of all colour, whose notes resound for the live-long day throughout these otherwise deserted ruins. Two entrances, both contrived for security, led into the fortress; one by winding narrow stairs, up a steep rock, from the Conway, and terminating in a small advanced work before one of the castle-gates, covered by two round towers—the other towards the town, protected by similar works, with the addition of a drawbridge over a broad moat.