To Wales, where among other place to visit was Harlech, a
small seaside town in Snowdonia best known for its castle which, by virtue of
its cliff-top location, really dominates the surrounding area. It was built at
the orders of Edward I during the 1280s, a time when that king also ordered the
construction of the castles at Conway, Caernarfon and Beaumaris in order to
secure his hold on North Wales; today, those castles (along with the town walls
at Conway and Caernarfon) are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, described (by UNESCO)
as the “finest examples of late 13th century and early 14th
century military architecture in Europe”. It was the work of one James of Saint
George, a master mason from Savoy who became Edward I’s castle-builder-in-chief.
If you’re coming down from the north, Harlech can be
approached by two roads. There’s the high road – the B4573, which takes you
into the town at the top – or you can stick on the A496 to approach it from the
bottom. The latter, I reckon, gives you a better idea of how well the castle is
situated as you approach the place, which I was very keen to explore. Well, it
is one of the finest castles in a country which is renowned for having many, many
castles! It just so happened that I was there on a quiet day, meaning that
after I’d paid my entrance money at the café and visitor centre (the castle is
run by Cadw, the Welsh equivalent of English Heritage) I basically had the
place to myself. That doesn’t happen very often but it really is the best way
to look around a castle!
From the top of the south-west turret of the gatehouse,
the view is spectacular – across the bay (the tidal estuary of the Glaslyn and
and Dwryd rivers), over places like Porthmadog and Portmeririon and towards the
mountains inland – Snowdon, the tallest of the lot, can be seen from Harlech on
a clear day.
The bay itself used to be much bigger; nowadays, the castle is
some distance from the sea but when it was built the sea came up to the cliff
on which the castle stands. Harlech is not the only place to bear witness to
the fact that coastlines change over time.
I had fun climbing the towers and exploring those narrow
stone passages, some of which end rather abruptly at wooden barriers which look out onto courtyards where there were once floors (generally speaking, back in Medieval times the higher-status guests got the higher-up floors).
A walk along the battlements, with more scope for the views of
the coast and the mountains, was something that had to be done. At the gatehouse,
I noted the grooves for the portcullises (Harlech Castle had three) and the
murder-holes above the passageway and even arrow-loops to the sides, so that
the castle’s defenders could fire on any attackers who got that far.
There were plenty of attackers over the years. Harlech
Castle was besieged not long after it was built, during a Welsh rebellion
against the English in 1294, and again during Owen Glendower’s rebellion in the
early 1400s; after he managed to capture it in 1404, Glendower (or, as his name
is written in Welsh, Glyndwr) used it as his headquarters for four years – it would
fall to the English forces under the command of the Prince of Wales (the future
Henry V) in 1409. It was also besieged during the Wars of the Roses, when it
was held by the Lancastrians during the 1460s, becoming the last major Lancastrian
stronghold to hold out against the Yorkists before it finally fell in 1468
after a seven-year siege; it was this event which inspired the song ‘Men of
Harlech’. It was besieged again during the Civil War, becoming one of the last
major Royalist fortresses to hold out before it fell to the Parliamentarians in
1647.
It was a cold day at the castle, though – it was December
after all – so I eventually made it back to the café for a cup of tea and some
lunch; I needed something warm, and thought it appropriate to order something
Welsh; it turns out that the café does a good Welsh rarebit (they even make the
cheese sauce themselves)…
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