Built on a rocky promontory above the River Conwy between 1287-1292, Conwy Castle today is but the largest attraction in one of Britain s most charming walled towns. Tin iU T7K Grea. ASTL NORT T^'IV^Hftf Stone fortresses across Wales is as imposing today as it; ' 'was 700 years ago / r • \ A • I'l'ROACHING CONWY CASTLE from its all of Wales to the Hnglish king Hdward 1, and got him- overflow parking lot, your view is self killed in the process. blocked hy a high railroad embank- After Hdward Longshanks had received Llywelyn's ment with a long pedestrian tunnel head from his killers, he huilt fnur great castles in the beneath it. This turns out to he a good heart of l.lywclyn's principality: Conwy, Harlech, thing. Now the castle can simply Caernarfon and Beaumaris. They were among the largest spring upon you, its massive southern wall bathed in and most sophisticated castles ever built. Alight. It rises as a black monolith flanked by giant tow- ers, emerging organically from bedrock that erupts from the greensward. From this view, you can get some of the Northwest Wales is dramatically feeling that a l.ith-century Welshman might have felt mountainous, and at Conwy these when he first saw this castle in its glory. You can under- mountains extend to the sea's edge. The stand what the Ktiglish king Hdwnrd I "Longshanks'' north flowing Conwy River marks the wanted it to be when he built it in 1287. eastern border of the mountains, a wide It's a terror weapon. tidal slash that has long been a barrier Two centuries before F.dward built Conwy, Duke to trade and conquest; behind it, the princes of Gwynedd William of Normandy invaded Hngland to become King had long been safe. Mostly, the Conwy River is edged by William I "The Conqueror," muds and marshes, but at and his Norman vassals seized Conwy a hard mountain ridge- Knglish and Welsh estates alike. line runs straight to the river In Wiiles, these new Norman The CASTLE and disappears under its lords took over estates primari- waters. This is the narrowest ly in the south and along the point at the river's mouth, and borders ("marches") with WAS a Noble the only practical crossing for England. These "Marcher miles. It was here, in 1283, that Lords" came and went, some- RESIDENCE Kdward's men started work on times enlarging tht;ir lands, the first of the four castles. sometimes getting their clocks Lip through the 1950s, this cleaned by the natives. In the eastern approach to Conwy 12U)s there was a great deal of presented one of the finest clock-cleaning, as rebellious views in Britain. The castle English bartins forced King BASE rises straight out of the water, a John to sign the Magna tlarta, looming hulk framed by mas- then got him involved in a protracted civil war that sive bare cliffs, with a charming walled town hugging its would lead to his death in 1216. In the confusion, a downstream side. Thomas Tclford's delicate 1826 sus- resurgent Welsh nobility had the chance to get some of pension bridge links it with the eastern shore, a graceful their own back. span whose castellated towers complement the castle. Past Welsh revolts had failed, dissolving into The railroad crosses behind Telford's bridge on an 1848 internecine conflicts that were easily exploited whenever tubular structure whose castellated piers are larger and the English monarchy managed to get its act together. ciunkier than Tclford's, but still attractive. The castle, the This time it would be different. The prince who ruled town and the two bridges made for a stunning set Wales' mountainous northwest, an unconquered region piece—but Telford's S-foot-wide bridge could not handle known then and now as Gwynedd (pronounced gwin- the traffic, and a new bridge opened beside it in 1958. netb), became the unchallenged leader of unconquered It's not an ugly bridge, hut some of the grandeur is gone. Wales. Llyweiyn ap Iorwerth, known as "Llywelyn the Like all true castles, Conwy was both an aristocratic Great," used diplomacy and war to unify the Welsh residence and a military base. It had to meet the daily nobles under him and take lands from the Marcher needs of a fine lord and his lady, it had to house a bunch lords. In 1218 King John's successor, Henry III (then 11 of rough soldiers and it had to withstand the most bru- years old), acknowledged Llywelyn as "Prince of tal and prolonged attacks. These needs converged to Wales." Skillful politics and carefully considered warfare serve one overarching goal: to project power, both prac- kept the title and lands intact, to be inherited by his son tically and psychologically. As a military base, the castle Dafydd, then his grandson Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, could completely control a 20-mile radius with just a "LIvwclyn the I ast." It was iJywclvn the Last who lost small force of mounted knights, and it could defend Itself 38 • BRITISH HERITAGE MARCH 2008 so well that only the most powerful would dare chal- encloses and protects the sea approach at the bottom of lenge it. As a noble residence, it demonstrated the over- the cliff, then a stunning inner wall (a "curtain wall" in whelming power, prestige and wealth of its owner. In this castle parlance, as it seems to hang like a curtain case, its owner was Edward I, the richest and most pow- between the towers) rising 35 feet above its leveled plat- erful lord of them all, and the era's greatest warrior. form on the knoll's top. Conwy wasn't just meant to awe; it was meant to scare Inside, it has a single large inner bailey, with one of the the living daylights out of anyone who dared challenge most massive gatehouses in Britain, providing housing its power. for its lord and its garrison, as well as protection from Bear in mind that Edward started Conwy Castle after attack. It worked; in 1294,37 men held off a determined he had killed Llywelyn and won all of Wales for himself. attack and long siege by Welsh insurrectionists. Today, Although anti-insurgency operations would continue for its mountainous location makes it an impressive and another 13 years, Edward didn't need a castle on this romantic sight, even though two miles of sand deposits scale to fight insurgents. He needed it to sciirc them. To now separate this former headland from the sea. gain the site, Edward demolished a palace of Llywelyn's Castles such as Harlech and Conwy were not only for- and a monastery In which Llywelyn the Great was eign intrusions in Wales, they were foreign to all Britain. buried. Eight mammoth cylindrical towers bulge out Castles evolved on the Continent during the 9th century from the walls, each one seven stories high and 30 feet in along the Rhone and Rhine rivers, from hill forts built diameter, set so close together that the castle appears to using a design that placed wood palisade walls around a be little more than a collec- large enclosed area ("outer tion of towers. Outside, bailey"), then a wood tower more walls enclosed—and on a high spot protected by its enclose to this day—a siz- own inner palisade, which able town, first populated formed an inner bailey wholly by English colonists around the tower. intent on profiting from the During the 10th century, newly conquered lands. All French warriors discovered this construction was plas- that they could throw up one tered and whitewashed, a of these compounds any- gleaming intrusion from an where, in just a few weeks, by enemy state. impressing the conquered And it was al! ludicrously locals as a slave labor force. expensive. Built in just five From inside, they could send years, Conwy Castle con- parties of mounted knights sumed an amount of money equal to the English govern- out to protect or oppress the countryside and be back in ment's entire tax receipts for a year. It was not only phys- time for dinner. ically and technologically beyond anything Gwynedd Really successful castles would later be rebuilt in could have produced, it required more wealth than the stone. By the 13th century, the palisades had become principality could have hoped to produce in a century. thick curtain walls hung l>etween high towers, and the No one could hope to succeed against anyone powerful inner tower on a mound ("motte") had evolved into the enough to build such a castle; at Conwy, no one even Great Tower (or donjon in Erench). tried. And Edward built three more castles nearby, just The Normans brought castles to both England and like it. Wales as instruments of occupation and intimidation. By the late 12th century, the Gwynedd princes had started ARLEt:n. Amazingly, Edward started building castles to protect themselves from the Normans, Harlech at the same time as Conwy, and some of these survive. finishing it in 1289. Its purpose was The small castle at Dolbadarn, in the shadow of straightforward; it anchored the Wales' largest mountain. Mount Snowdon, is just down southwest corner of Gwynedd, just the road from Caernarfon. Built by Llywelyn the Great, as Conwy anchored its northeast. it features a round 50-foot great tower that commands a HThis squarish castle occupies the top of a tall, rocky out- wide view of the surrounding peaks. A modest castle set crop that, at the time, rose as a near-cliff 200 feet out of in great natural beauty, it makes for an evocative visit, the sea.