JMW Turner's Conwy Castle viewpoint
The renowned painter JMW Turner depicted Conwy Castle several times, from different angles, around 1800. The painting below, reproduced by kind permission of the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, records the area west of the castle before the railway was constructed.
The photo below shows the view from a similar position in 2019 while the riverbank beside Llanrwst Road was still being kept clear of trees. Conwy County Borough Council now has a statutory duty, under the Environment (Wales) Act 2016, to manage trees and habitats to protect, maintain and enhance biodiversity.
The bridge in the painting is a little upstream of the bridge that now carries Llanrwst Road over the Gyffin stream. The road in Turner’s time would have led up to Porth y Felin, one of three original main entrances to the walled town. In the painting, the bridge hides the area at the mouth of the Gyffin stream where ships and boats unloaded goods, before the suspension bridge and present quay were built.
Turner also depicts how the base of the bakehouse tower, on the castle’s south side, was missing. The damage was caused deliberately in 1655, to prevent the castle being used again as a defence. The tower was repaired in the 1880s by the London & North Western Railway.
Beyond the castle in the painting lies the wooded island which Thomas Telford used as the foundation for the eastern abutment of his suspension bridge, which opened in 1826.
Postcode: LL32 8HR View Location Map
Website of the Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester