Harlech

Harlech formed part of a bold military strategy and its power and might are unquestioned even today, 700 years after the castle was built. Set on its towering rock above Tremadog bay, Harlech is the most dramatically sited of all the castles raised by Edward I to overawe Wales. Its soaring walls and towers are challenged for supremacy only by the purple mass of distant Snowdon Mountain. These rugged peaks played a large part in determining Harlech's siting as one of the so-called 'Iron Ring' of fortresses, built to contain the Welsh in their mountain fastness.

The castle was designed by the brillant James of St.George, it was raised between 1283 and 1290 by an army of craftsmen and labourers: at one stage nearly a thousand men were hard at work here. They came from far and wide: masons from Savoy and Ireland, carpenters and blacksmiths from all over England. Between them they created a seemingly impregnable fortress, naturally protected on three sides by cliffs and defended by concentric lines of mutually supporting fortifications. The castle's great glory is the massive, twin towered gatehouse:  attackers who reach it, a stronghold in itself, must penetrate its devilish complex of gates, portcullies and loopholes.

No wonder Harlech became the castle of lost causes, where diehard garrisons could defy thousands of besiegers. But it's one of history ironies that this castle, built to subdue the Welsh by an English king, was captured in 1404 by Owain Glyndwr. It was the final refuge of his Welsh patriots and later of Welsh Lancastrians. Owever, Harlech was the very last Royalist stronghold to fall during the Civil War.

Despite the assault of war and time, this masterpiece of medieval fortification has survived remarkably intact. Views from the battlements and wall-walks are truly panoramic with the high peaks of Snowdonia that are just one ingredient in a scene which extends across the waters of Tremadog bay, to the long Lleyn Penisula. The castle is now a World Heritage Site and in the care of CADW.