Harlech Castle

About this place

The sea this castle was built to guard has walked away from it. When Edward I raised Harlech between 1282 and 1289, waves broke against the base of the crag and supply ships tied up beneath it, feeding the garrison up a flight of 108 steps cut into the rock that is still called the Way from the Sea. Today half a mile of dunes and a golf course lie between the walls and the water, and the castle sits on its rock as if waiting for a tide that will never come back. That view alone, with the Snowdon massif behind you and Cardigan Bay in front, justifies the drive. Harlech is one of four Welsh castles inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1986 alongside Conwy, Caernarfon and Beaumaris, and it is the most compact and tightly planned of them: a concentric plan and a huge gatehouse that saw off the siege of 1294, fell to Owain Glyndwr in 1404 and became his headquarters, then held out for seven years against the Yorkists in the Wars of the Roses, long enough for tradition to attach to it the anthem Men of Harlech that Welsh crowds still sing. You enter over a modern 'floating' footbridge that reinstated the original entrance after six centuries. Inside the walls there is not much: a broad courtyard, the footprints of halls, and the real reward on the wall-walk. The spiral stair up is narrow and steep with uneven historic steps, and the walk above runs as a circuit, so plan on going round rather than turning back; it is no place for a pushchair or anyone uneasy with heights, and the ground below is gravel and uneven cobbles. An hour covers the castle, stretching to two if you add the cafe and shop at the visitor centre across the road and then drop down to Harlech beach, one of the widest and finest in Wales at low tide. Harlech is a small town on the south-western edge of Snowdonia: roughly half an hour by car from Porthmadog and about an hour and a quarter from Betws-y-Coed in the heart of the park. The coastal A496 is narrow and twisting, and the pay-and-display car park by the visitor centre runs about £4 for three hours. Without a car, the Cambrian Coast line stops at Harlech station right below the castle rock, a short but steep climb up to the gate, though trains are infrequent, so check the timetable first. Adults pay £10.40, a family of two adults and three children £33.30, with 5% off online, and no advance booking is needed even in summer. In winter the gates open at 10:00 and shut at 16:00 and the wind on the walls is merciless, so save it for May to September.