Aberconwy House

Aberconwy House is the only medieval merchant's house in Conwy to have survived nearly six centuries of the walled town's turbulent history, and the Trust calls it the oldest secular domestic building in Wales. Two lower floors of stone carry a half-timbered upper storey that jetties out over Castle Street, with timbers dated to 1417. Trade carried on for centuries: Evan David sold produce from his Benarth farm here in the 1600s, Captain Samuel Williams dealt in slate, copper and lead in the 1800s, and by the turn of the 20th century Jane and William Jones ran it as a Temperance Hotel. It later fell into disrepair and was nearly dismantled and shipped to the USA, until Alexander Campbell-Blair bought it and bequeathed it to the National Trust in 1934. Today it houses a second-hand bookshop, where dogs are welcome, while the Trust works with the community on reinterpreting the house. Reviewers praise the friendly volunteers and the characterful building, and note that it is a short visit best combined with a day in Conwy.