Experience the best of Bangor

Bangor's cathedral, dedicated to St Deiniol, stands on a site where a church is said to have stood since the sixth century. The university, founded in 1884, dominates the hillside above the high street, and the Victorian pier, stretching far into the strait, looks across to Anglesey.

Penrhyn Castle, a huge neo-Norman mansion built on slate and sugar wealth, lies on the eastern edge of the city, and the Menai Suspension Bridge, which Thomas Telford completed in 1826, and the Britannia Bridge carry traffic to Anglesey a few minutes away. The peaks of Snowdonia rise to the south, with the slate-quarry town of Bethesda and Llyn Ogwen on the way into the mountains.

Welsh is heard in the streets, shops and university, and the local table follows: cawl, lamb, bara brith, Welsh cakes and mussels from the Menai Strait. The climate is mild but wet, snow dusts the mountains in winter, and spring brings lambs and long light evenings on the strait.