Harlech Castle

I have been very busy of late, and have rather neglected this blog,
so I thought I'd post some pictures of Harlech Castle, in north Wales.



The castle is accessed by wooden bridge in the location of the original drawbridge.
It looks formidable. This castle was rendered and painted white when it was built, as was Cricieth. They were meant to be highly visible as symbols of domination, from a long way off.



These were the grand apartments of the castle,
as viewed from the inner courtyard.


This is the remains of the Great Hall, you can see the fireplace and doorways on the left, and more holes in the walls, where beams would have supported the floors above.


You can see the potlug holes in the curved wall - large beams were insierted into these holes when the castle was being built - these beams then supported a ramp made of smaller pieces of wood, and the builders used the ramp to access the higher levels as they built the castle. The square structure where the curved wall meets the flat wall is the lavatory chute....


This view of a small window opening shows the thickness of the walls, about 10 feet, I think.


The view to the north from the castle. When the castle was built, the sea lapped at the base of the rocks it was built on, and it was supplied by sea, as this was easier and safer than trying to bring supplies through a difficult geographic region full of hostile Welsh people.


The remains of a grand fireplace and chimneys. See the corbels (stones standing out of the wall) which would once have supported a ceiling or floor or part of a roof.


Some steps within the castle - made from huge slabs of local Welsh slate.

Dolbadarn Castle, north Wales

This castle was built by a Welsh prince
- Llewelyn ap Iorwerth -
in the early 1200s.
It is built of slate and rubble,
and stands about 80ft above the nearby lakes,
guarding one of the main routes through
the mountains of north Wales.


The castle as seen from the main road.
It is very near the town of Llanberis,
which is where the Snowdon mountain railway trains
collect passengers to take them up to the top of Snowdon:

http://www.snowdonrailway.co.uk/



A closer view of the castle,
which is not in bad condition
for it's age of 800 years...
shame all the wooden floors and roofs are long gone.



This is Lake Peris, to the south of the castle - you can
see the huge slate quarry worls on the opposite shore.
Llanberis is famous for its slate,
and has a museum, where workers
demonstrate how to cut and split slate:

http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/slate/


This is the view to the north,
Lake Padarn - from which the castle gets its name,
Dolbadarn means Padarn meadow.
You can see Llanberis town on the
lake shore to the left of the picture.

Gwydir Chapel

Gwydir Chapel is near Gwydir Castle,
just outside Llanrwst, north Wales.
It was once a place of worship for the Wynn family,
who owned and lived in the castle,
but is now in the care of Cadw
(the Welsh Assembly Government's historic environment service).

It has a plain and simple exterior,
which gives no clue about the treasures hidden inside.

The door into the chapel has a stone carved
with the date the chapel was built -1673.

The chapel interior is richly decorated with slightly
naive paintings of angels, clouds, stars and suns.

The colours are fabulous, still vibrant after over 300 years.
The ceiling designs were inspired by Italian baroque designs of the time.

This inscription reminds us of our own
mortality - 'watch for ye know not ye day or how'

Below is the gallery and ceiling at the back of the chapel.

Part of the downstairs of the chapel,
showing the imposing coat of arms of King Charles II.

The stained glass windows of this chapel
appear relatively plain from a distance,
just showing a little pastel colour.

However, when you look more closely,
in addition to the Tudor rose shown above,
there are small painted panels dotted all over the
windows - the paintings are of animals and birds.

This is a beautiful building, and well worth a visit.

Dyffryn Ardudwy burial chamber

Dyffryn Ardudwy is a small town on the north west coast of Wales between Barmouth and Harlech. It has a picturesque old church and graveyard on the on the shore, and hidden away behind the victorian primary school buildings, it has an ancient burial chamber. Thus chamber was built somewhere around 3,500 BC, and the upright stones acted as portal (doorway) stones with the cap stone acting as a roof. All the stones were put in place by sheer effort and human strength.


The smaller stones lying all around them would once have covered the large stones, and earth would have been piled over the whole thing. This 'building' served the same purpose as churches have done for the last 2000 years or so. The cremated remains of people from pre-history were kept safely inside, along with ceremonial offerings of broken pottery.

Caernarfon Castle

Caernarfon Castle - built by Edward the First to dominate the Welsh.
The castle was built on the site of an old Roman Fort,
which had been replaced by a motte and bailey castle.

The name Caernarfon means - fort (Caer) yn Arfon
(by the Arfon, the name of the river next to the Castle).

Edward had been to the middle east as a Crusader,
and modelled the striped walls on those of Constantinople,
where huge striped walls dominated the straights of the Bosphorus.

It cost him a fortune to build Caernarfon Castle,
over £12,000 in the 1280s,
and he had to bring craftsmen from all over England to do it.
(well, you couldn't expect the Welsh to co-operate!!!).

Several hundred years later,
the castle brings lots of visitors and their spending money into the town,
so what began as a symbol of dominance over the Welsh
has ended up being an asset to Caernarfon.

Don't forget you can click on the photos for a better view.

The wall above the main entrance,
with a carving of Edward 1st.

The windows were beautiful,
and may even have had glass in them once.
Many windows of this time were shuttered as glass
was new technology and very expensive!

A view of the inner ward of the castle,
looking from the Eagle tower.

This block houses the Welsh Fusiliers regimental museum.

Views of part of the castle walls (above & below)

The Eagle Tower - so called because there was a large carved eagle on one of the turrets - it is still there, but is so weathered that you might not recognise it as an eagle. There may have been eagles flying free in north Wales at the time the castle was built, but they have been extinct in Wales for many many years.

As well as building the castle,
Edward built a town wall - to keep the Welsh out.
Only the privileged and English lived in the town!

You can see some of the wall above, and below.

Cymer Abbey

It was a wild, wet, windy, Welsh winter's day, when I visited the remains of Cymer Abbey, just north of Dolgellau. I will come back and see if I can get better images in the summer....

The Abbey as seen from the car park.
This was once home to many Cistercian monks.
These ruins are more than 800 years old.
The Abbey was dissolved over 500 years ago.
If you want to know more about the Abbey,
have a look at this website:

http://www.castlewales.com/cymer.html

A doorway looking out over what was once a cloister?

An arch in the wall - I must find out what this was.

A set of 3 beautiful arches.

Cricieth Castle

The castle from afar - don't forget you can click on photos to enlarge them and have a closer look! Once upon a time, this castle would have been rendered with lime mortar and limewashed white, so it would have been a visible from a long way away. This castle was built in 1230, and was obviously difficult for enemies to approach without being seen.

The view of the front entrance to the castle, from the outside.

The view of the front entrance to the castle, from the inside. Much of this castle is ruined.

You can see the holes in the wall where the ends of huge wooden beams
once were, supporting a floor.

Wonder where the stairway originally went?

Looking from the castle at Cricieth town - notice the differences between the roofs - the original roofs are in local slate, the refurbished darker ones are not. Sad that it is cheaper and easier to import slate form China and other far away places than to bring it 20 miles from the local slate mines.

The view of Snowdonia from the castle

Trip to north Wales

Travelling north from Brecon, after 50 miles or so I reach Llanidloes, and find this old market hall right in the middle of town. It's amazing it has survived so well when you see how much traffic travels around it each day.

Leaving Llanidloes on a small mountain road, this is the view of the Dylife valley.
Photographs somehow don't capture how breathtaking it looks when you are there!

A view of the upland area between Llanidloes & Machynlleth

Llyn Clweddog, which has a scenic drive around it, and is also used for yachting

Beautiful, isn't it?

A viewpoint along the way - on really clear days you can further,
and can also see Snowdon - but too hazy for that today!

Another photo taken from almost the same spot


This is the building in Machynlleth where Owain Glyndwr
held the first all-Wales parliament. Built in the late 1400s.

The road between Machynlleth & Corris. We're in Snowdonia now. Splendid view?

An old tin building in Blaenau Ffestiniog. They don't make them like this any more!
This town developed around slate mines, which used to be very labour intensive. Slate mining isn't what it used to be, and there is also much more mechanisation, so this town has plenty of unemployed and is quite deprived these days.

Looking north from Blaenau Ffestiniog - the mountains of Snowdonia are getting closer

Looking south from Anglesey to Snowdonia near the end of the day. This journey has been about 120 miles, and took 3 and a half hours. Most Welsh roads are more for enjoying the view than for getting anywhere fast!

A Snowdonia sunrise....