Harlech Castle

Wind comes in off the bay here with a taste of salt. Underfoot, the stone is rough and grey, worn smooth only where centuries of hands and boots have passed. Look out from the walls and the land falls away sharply. Below you, a strip of green and dune runs toward the sea. Behind you, the mountains of Eryri, also known as Snowdonia, rise in folds of blue and brown.

A quick note on where you are. Harlech Castle does not stand in Portmeirion itself. It sits on its own rock in the town of Harlech, south across the estuary and the wide curve of Tremadog Bay. On a clear day, you can see each place from the other. Many visitors pair the two — the Italianate fantasy village on one shore, and this hard medieval fortress on the other.

The castle was built for King Edward the First of England, in the 1280s. Edward had just conquered the native Welsh princes of Gwynedd, the mountain kingdom of the north-west. To hold the land, he built a ring of new castles along the coast. Harlech is one of them. Today it forms part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, together with Edward's castles at Caernarfon, Conwy and Beaumaris.

The man behind the design was Master James of Saint George, a master mason from Savoy, in the western Alps. He was one of the great military architects of his age. Work here moved fast. In only a few years, hundreds of labourers, quarrymen and craftsmen raised these walls. They came from across England and beyond, and they worked under the eye of a king in a hurry.

Now look at the shape of the place. Harlech is a concentric castle. That means one ring of walls sits inside another. An attacker who broke through the outer line would find himself trapped in a narrow space, with defenders above him on the higher inner wall. The inner ward is almost square. A strong round tower stands at each corner. It is a simple plan, and that simplicity made it very hard to take.

The great gatehouse is the heart of the castle. It faces east, toward the town and the hills, not toward the sea. Inside, the passage was once guarded by a series of doors, portcullises and murder holes — openings in the ceiling where defenders could attack anyone below. Above the passage were fine rooms. These were probably used by the constable, the officer who ran the castle, or by important guests.

Here is something many visitors miss. When the castle was built, the sea came much closer than it does today. Waves reached almost to the foot of the rock. A fortified stairway, known as the Way from the Sea, ran down the cliff to a small water gate. Ships could bring in food and soldiers even when the land was cut off. Today the water has pulled back far across the flats. The stairway now leads down toward fields, roads and a railway line.

That sea route mattered. In the early 1400s, the Welsh leader Owain Glyndŵr rose against English rule. His forces captured Harlech in 1404, after a long blockade. For several years the castle became his base, and his family lived inside these walls. English forces took it back around 1409. For a short time, this fortress built to control the Welsh became a centre of Welsh independence.

Later in the fifteenth century, the castle saw another long struggle. During the Wars of the Roses, the civil wars between the houses of Lancaster and York, a Lancastrian garrison held Harlech for years against Yorkist forces. It is often described as one of the longest sieges in British history. Popular tradition links this siege to the stirring song Men of Harlech. That connection is more legend than record, but the song is still sung with pride across Wales.

The castle had one more war to see. In the seventeenth century, during the English Civil War, Harlech held out for King Charles the First. It is usually said to be the last royalist castle to surrender, in 1647. After that, its military life was over. The walls were left to the weather, and slowly the castle became a place for artists, poets and travellers rather than soldiers.

The rock also carries much older stories. In the Mabinogion, a collection of medieval Welsh tales, Harlech is the court of the giant king Bendigeidfran and his sister Branwen. These are myths, not history. Outside the castle, look for a bronze sculpture of a figure on horseback carrying a limp young body. It recalls this sad tale of war and loss. The myth and the masonry sit side by side here.

As you walk the wall walks, take your time on the narrow stairs. They are steep and uneven. From the towers, turn slowly in a full circle. To the north, the Llŷn Peninsula reaches out into the Irish Sea. Across the bay, look for the distant pastel shapes of Portmeirion. To the east, the hills rise toward the high peaks. Each direction tells you why Edward chose this rock.

Notice the stone itself. Most of the walls are built from dark local rock, cut from the ground close by. In places you can see patches of different colour and texture. These mark repairs made over the centuries, from medieval patching to modern conservation. The castle is cared for today by Cadw, the Welsh government's historic environment service.

Before you leave, stand for a moment by the gatehouse and listen. You may hear gulls, the wind in the grass, perhaps a train moving along the coast far below. Seven centuries ago, this was a place of fear and power. Now it is quiet. As you walk back down into the town, look over your shoulder once more. Those grey towers will stay on the skyline long after the road turns.