Harlech Castle is a World Heritage site and one of the four great castles in Wales constructed by Edward I to help contain the Welsh in the North. The castle is now an imposing ruin, but once had the military advantage of an impregnable prime location on the edge of a cliff.

Harlech's battlements have a  near vertical cliff face, while any attackers from land would be confronted by a massive twin-towered gatehouse. Like Caernarfon Castle, Edward used the seaborne access to his gain, as it was then possible to get supplies to the castle by water - the waters of Tremadog Bay may have touched the base of  the cliffs beneath the castle in those days.

The Castle has had a long history of occupation and assault. In 1404, it was taken by the Welsh nationalist Owain Glyn Dwr and after its capture he defiantly held a parliament there. In 1647 it was the last Welsh fortress surrendered to the Parliamentary armies in the English Civil War.

It still has an impressive inner curtain wall with huge round towers on the corners, surrounded by an outer perimeter of much lower walls. The inner walls contained domestic buildings, including a great hall, and the more vulnerable east side of the castle was strengthened by a massive gatehouse that once contained comfortable residential quarters.

Information English Heritage