Really successful castles would later be rebuilt in stone. By the 13th century, the palisades had become thick curtain walls hung between high towers, and the inner tower on a mound (“motte”) had evolved into the Great Tower (or donjon in French).

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The Normans brought castles to both England and Wales as instruments of occupation and intimidation. By the late 12th century, the Gwynedd princes had started building castles to protect themselves from the Normans, and some of these survive.

The small castle at Dolbadarn, in the shadow of Wales’ largest mountain, Mount Snowdon, is just down the road from Caernarfon. Built by Llywelyn the Great, it features a round 50-foot great tower that commands a wide view of the surrounding peaks. A modest castle set in great natural beauty, it makes for an evocative visit, the more so after having seen one of Edward’s massive castles at Conwy, Harlech or nearby Caernarfon.

Caernarfon. Biggest and greatest of them all, Caernarfon (pronounced kyre-NAR-vonn) sits on the coast halfway between Conwy and Harlech. It was meant from the first to be a palace as well as a castle, and Edward pulled out all the stops. Like Harlech and Conwy, Caernarfon sits on the sea with tidal access to medieval ships; unlike the others, it occupies flat land on a peninsula then nearly surrounded by water. The castle stretches the length of three football fields along the harbor, with an unbroken curtain wall 36 feet high.

Edward deliberately made the wall and its massive projecting towers to look like the walls of ancient Roman Constantinople (which he had seen on crusade), with different kinds of rocks forming long, colored stripes around the walls. This turned out to be an inspired piece of propaganda, as the Welsh had long since embraced the tall tales of Gregory of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, in which Caernarfon had featured as the site of a widespread Welsh empire during the Roman era. Edward declared Caernarfon to be the seat of his new Welsh government, just as the Welsh believed it had served as the seat of a Welsh empire in the days of King Arthur. As at Conwy, Edward extended the castle walls to enclose a sizable town of English colonists, from which Welshmen were banned for the next 200 years.

To punch up the propaganda value of Caernarfon, Edward and his family were in residence in 1284, only the second year of construction, so that his wife Eleanor could give birth there. The child became known as Edward of Caernarfon, and in 1301 Edward Longshanks bestowed the title of Prince of Wales upon his son. Edward of Caernarfon went on to rule England as Edward II, and the expected heir to the throne has been declared the Prince of Wales ever since.

Despite these royal aspirations for Caernarfon, it was never completed. In the Welsh revolt of 1294, which Harlech survived so handily, Caernarfon village was captured immediately; the rebels simply walked through the unfinished castle gate. They destroyed both castle and town pretty thoroughly, and it took mammoth expenditure to rebuild the battered town and castle and complete the defenses. When the money ran out again, several internal buildings and tower interiors were left permanently unfinished.

Modern Caernarfon Castle sits on the southern edge of a sprawling town, once rich on slate and now rather down at the heels. Its stonework remains almost completely intact, and at high tide its magnificent curtain walls reflect in the still waters of the harbor. Inside it forms nearly a figure eight with the same sort of plan as Conwy: a lower bailey for the garrison and service buildings, and an upper bailey for the royal family. The walls are especially thick, and you can walk nearly around the castle in two interior tunnels as well as along the parapet. Two of the towers hold exhibits—one on the Prince of Wales that includes the slate throne upon which Prince Charles sat so many decades ago, the other on the castle’s history. The old walled town is also worth a visit, with the lane along the inside of the east wall, Hole In The Wall Lane, being particularly scenic.

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