King of Castles (and home to The Smallest House in Great Britain): Wales may not be in the World Cup, but the medieval town of Conwy is a winner

On the Conwy waterfront, a dense crowd gathers around a red-fronted house on the small promenade of this picturesque North Wales village.

A cheerful autumn sun gives a glimpse of the mud flats of the Conwy estuary and greedy Gulls wheel and scream overhead.

The source of the crowd’s magnetic appeal (besides a cheerful lady in traditional Welsh costume at the entrance)?

A small property at the end of a terrace, which is believed to be – as the sign above the Quay House announces – ‘the smallest house in Britain’.

But although it is only 220cm wide and 122cm high, a visitor to Conwy, a walled market town on the edge of Snowdonia, is unlikely to overlook this small tourist centre.

Bumped into a hole by ill-calculated 16th-century buildings, it houses a row of much larger white houses. The house is painted a cheery scarlet, sticking out like a little, not a sore thumb.

Mind you, it’s amazing what you can cram into this two-story (two-story!) des res. Last but not least, a single bed, a tiny stove, a table and some hooks to hang clothes. It’s hard to believe that the last person to live in it was a burly, six-foot-tall local fisherman named Robert Jones.

But on the other hand, as my husband Martin and I discover as we walk through the town, Conwy has a wealth of contrasts – perhaps best expressed by the fact that behind “the smallest house in Britain” the skyline is framed by one of the biggest and best in the country – surviving pieces of medieval architecture.

Pictured is ‘The Smallest House in Britain’ which is just 72 inches wide and 122 inches high. “The house sticks out like a sore thumb, not a sore thumb,” says Angela

“Everyone seems to love living here,” says Angela from Conwy (above)

Conwy Castle was the architectural brainchild of Edward I, whose plan was to build a chain of fortified towns around Wales to protect the lands he had just invaded.

Both Conwy and its castle were founded in 1283. We first catch a glimpse of the latter from the bedroom window of the Quay Hotel & Spa in Deganwy, a six-minute drive away, where we’ve chosen to stay as much of the luxury spec as possible. like the view over the water. The evening of our arrival, the castle shines majestically in pink and rosé colours.

A tour of the castle means climbing spiral staircases to reach the top of its eight round towers, some of which are 22 meters high. Sometimes only a vertical rope helps with the ascent, but the vertigo is rewarded with a panoramic view of the estuary and the mountains of Snowdonia beyond.

Angela’s base is the Quay Hotel & Spa in Deganwy (above), six minutes’ drive from Conwy

Edward I also ordered stone walls to be built to surround Conwy and it is still possible to walk a 3/4 mile along these largely uninterrupted barriers which float and fall over the town center like a static rollercoaster.

The town center buzzes with independent shops on the high street (visit Edwards of Conwy, an award-winning master butcher, as the refrigerated display case is a work of art) alongside pieces of architectural history such as the late 16th-century Plas Mawr manor house.

Everyone seems to love living here (earlier this year Conwy was voted one of the best places to live in the UK).

As a waitress at our hotel in her 20s summed it up: “We can go to big cities if we want. But beyond that, what more do we need.”