Having made its way up from London, we join the A5 with Phil Carradic as he travels to the road's end, across North West Wales to the sea at Holyhead.

He's joined on the journey by Jamie Quarterman, project manager for Oxford Archaeology North who's conducted extensive research into the road's past, and David de Haan, director of learning at Ironbridge Gorge Museum, home to many Telford artefacts.

Betws for lunch
After dispelling the myth that Betws-y-Coed's Waterloo Bridge was built in the same year as the famous battle, Phil meets John Richmond from North Wales Tourism for lunch at the Royal Oak, one of the many coaching inns along the A5 to discuss the road's impact on the small town.
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An ancient bridge
Stopping off at the Nant Ffrancon embankment, Phil and Jamie climb down beneath the Pen-y-Benglog Bridge to view the old turnpike bridge hiding beneath.
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The jewel in the crown
Now to the iconic symbol of Telford's A5, Menai Bridge. Spanning the dangerous waters of the Menai Strait at a cost of £185,000, David and Jamie tell Phil how the ferrymen were bought off and Anglesey prospered in the wake of the A5.
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End of the road
The team reach the end of the A5 and discover that, rather than take a detour at the end of his engineering feat, Telford chose to build the Stanley Embankment, a huge earthwork and stone construction across the tidal way at Holyhead.

Built by hand at huge expense, this embankment soon became host to Telford's nemesis, the railway. Would this new form of swifter transport be the death of his road to Ireland?
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