Historic Places in Gwynedd

Bryn Bras Castle near Brynrefail in Gwynedd is a nineteenth-century Romanesque Revival castle in the foothills of Snowdonia, built in the 1830s on the site of an earlier structure and representing the early Victorian enthusiasm for romantic castle architecture in the Welsh landscape. The castle is privately owned and has been available as a luxury self-catering holiday let, providing accommodation within an authentic nineteenth-century castle with views toward Snowdon and the surrounding mountains. The setting in the lower foothills of Snowdonia with its mountain backdrop, mature gardens and parkland views provides an unusually scenic base for exploring Snowdonia National Park, with the summit of Snowdon, the Welsh Highland Railway and the medieval castles of Gwynedd all within easy reach of this attractively situated historic property.

Caernarfon Castle on the northwest coast of Wales is one of the most formidable and architecturally magnificent of the castles built by Edward I of England during his conquest and subjugation of Wales in the late thirteenth century, a vast fortress of polygonal towers and distinctive banded masonry that served simultaneously as a military stronghold, a seat of royal administration and a symbolic statement of English power over the conquered Welsh nation. Together with its companion fortresses at Conwy, Beaumaris and Harlech, Caernarfon forms part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site recognised as the finest surviving ensemble of medieval military architecture in Europe. The castle was begun in 1283 and continued under construction for several decades, its design departing significantly from the conventional round tower plan of English castle-building in favour of the distinctive polygonal towers and the banded masonry of dark and light stone that Edward directed in conscious imitation of the Theodosian walls of Constantinople, which he had seen during his crusade to the Holy Land. The symbolic reference to imperial architecture was entirely deliberate: Edward was building an English Jerusalem in Wales, a seat of power that would proclaim the permanence of his conquest in the most visible and architecturally prestigious terms available. The birth of Edward's son in the castle in 1284, subsequently presented to the Welsh as a prince who had been born in Wales and could speak no English, established the tradition of investing the eldest son of the English monarch as Prince of Wales, a ceremony that has been performed at Caernarfon on several occasions and most recently in 1969 when the investiture of Prince Charles was a major televised event. The castle's connection to this tradition of investiture has become an important part of its significance as a symbol of the constitutional relationship between England and Wales.

Architectural ingenuity and natural advantages combine in a must-visit Welsh-built fortress It may be remote. But it’s a magnet for all castle lovers. Strung along a jagged rocky outcrop in the Dysynni Valley at the foot of Cader Idris, Castell y Bere is especially good at evoking the spirit and atmosphere of Wales’s native castles. Built by Welsh ruler Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (Llywelyn the Great) to protect Gwynedd’s southern frontier, construction began in 1221 with the castle remaining in use until 1294. Though much of the Castell y Bere’s strength can be attributed to its commanding location, its design is a testament to the ingenuity of its Welsh architects. The sophisticated entrance featuring two gatehouses with drawbridges and possibly portcullises was extremely advanced for its time, even by the standards of English fortifications.

Spectacular coastal castle built – and destroyed – by powerful Welsh princes Cricieth is truly a castle to capture the imagination. Crowning its own rocky headland between two beaches it commands astonishing views over the town and across the wide sweep of Cardigan Bay. No wonder Turner felt moved to paint it. By then it was a picturesque ruin – destroyed by one of Wales’s most powerful medieval princes, Owain Glyndŵr. But it was built by two of his illustrious predecessors. First Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (Llywelyn the Great) created the immense gatehouse flanked by D-shaped stone towers. Then his grandson Llywelyn ap Gruffudd – or Llywelyn the Last – added the outer ward, curtain walls and two new towers. Still this craggy fortress wasn’t enough to withstand the invasion of Edward I. The English king made a few improvements of his own, equipping the north tower with a stone-throwing machine to deter Welsh attacks. It was still in English hands in 1404 when the towers were burnt red by Owain Glyndŵr. Without a garrison to protect it, the town became entirely Welsh once more.

Welsh castle and solitary guardian of Eryri's (Snowdonia’s) Llanberis Pass Occupying a lofty, lonely spot overlooking the waters of Llyn Padarn, native-built Castell Dolbadarn was once a vital link in the defences of the ancient kingdom of Gwynedd. Most likely constructed by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (Llywelyn the Great) in the late 12th or early 13th century, it stood watch over the strategic route inland from Caernarfon to the upper Conwy Valley. Today the site is dominated by the sturdy round tower, very different in style to the unmortared slate slabs which make up the castle’s curtain walls. Standing 50ft/15.2m high, the tower’s design was probably inspired by that of similar fortresses built by Llywelyn’s rivals in the borderlands of the southern Marches.

Harlech Castle on the Gwynedd coast of North Wales is among the most dramatically sited and most symbolically loaded of the castles built by Edward I during his conquest of Wales, a great concentric fortress rising above the coastal plain with views across Cardigan Bay toward the Llŷn Peninsula and back to the mountains of Snowdonia that make it one of the most magnificent positions of any medieval castle in Wales. Together with Caernarfon, Conwy and Beaumaris it forms the UNESCO World Heritage Site recognised as the finest ensemble of medieval military architecture in Europe. The castle was built between 1283 and 1289 by the master mason James of St George on a rock promontory that was then separated from the sea below by only a short stretch of water, the sea gate in the wall allowing supplies to be brought directly to the castle by boat. The concentric design, with a powerful inner ward of four massive round towers and a great gatehouse surrounded by a lower outer ward, represents the most sophisticated defensive planning of the period and was capable of resisting siege under conditions where the garrison could be resupplied by sea even if the land approaches were entirely controlled by an enemy. The castle's most famous historical moment came with Owain Glyndŵr's rebellion of 1400 to 1415, when it served as the headquarters and court of the last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales. Glyndŵr's brief independent Welsh state had Harlech as its capital from 1404 to 1409, and the castle's fall ended the last serious attempt to reverse English rule in Wales. The song Men of Harlech, celebrating a later siege during the Wars of the Roses, became one of the great Welsh patriotic songs. The views from the castle walls across Cardigan Bay to Snowdonia are exceptional in all conditions of weather and light.

Penrhyn Castle near Bangor in Gwynedd is one of the most extraordinary neo-Norman country houses in Britain, a vast castle built between 1820 and 1845 for George Pennant, heir to the Penrhyn slate quarry fortune, to designs by Thomas Hopper. The building is on a monumental scale, its Norman-style towers, great hall, library and staterooms constructed with the profits of the slate quarrying industry that made Pennant one of the wealthiest men in Britain. The interior contains exceptional collections of paintings, furniture and natural history specimens, and the one-ton slate bed made for a royal visit is among the more remarkable objects in any British country house. The castle is managed by the National Trust and is open to visitors, with the Victorian walled garden, railway museum with industrial locomotives and extensive grounds providing additional attractions. The castle's history is inseparable from the contentious heritage of the Penrhyn slate quarry and its famous labour disputes.

Tomen y Mur near Gellilydan in Gwynedd is a remarkable archaeological site combining a Roman auxiliary fort of the first and second centuries AD with a Norman motte constructed within the Roman ramparts in the early twelfth century, creating an unusual double-heritage monument in the remote upland landscape of the Merioneth mountains. The Roman fort was established around 78 AD and remained in use for over a century, controlling the military route through the mountains of northwest Wales. The Norman motte added to the fort many centuries later reflects the medieval military reuse of an earlier fortification. The combination of Roman and Norman heritage in a single monument and the remote upland setting give Tomen y Mur a unique archaeological character. The site is freely accessible and forms part of a wider landscape of Roman roads, practice camps and infrastructure that gives the mountains around Blaenau Ffestiniog an unusually rich Roman heritage.

Twthill Castle is a small earthwork motte-and-bailey castle in the centre of Caernarfon in Gwynedd, North Wales, built at the command of William the Conqueror by Robert of Rhuddlan in the 1080s as part of the initial Norman advance into north Wales. The castle predates the great Edwardian fortification of Caernarfon by two centuries and represents the earliest phase of Norman fortification in this part of Wales, when earthwork mottes were quickly thrown up to establish control over newly seized territories. The motte stands within walking distance of the magnificent Caernarfon Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, providing an interesting contrast between the earliest and most developed phases of Norman and Plantagenet castle construction in north Wales. The name derives from the Welsh Tŵr Twll meaning the hollow tower.