HARLECH CASTLE, MERIONETHSHIRE (in part restored).

HARLECH CASTLE.

Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.

This middle ward is narrow and of unequal breadth, varying from 8 feet to 30 feet. It is rather below the level of the inner ward, and the ground outside it is from 10 feet to 15 feet lower still; and its walls are revetments crested with a parapet which seems to have ranged from 6 feet to 12 feet in height; in the latter case having a rampart-walk reached by open steps. The several bastions seem to have risen a little higher than the parapet, and to have contained each a low chamber, probably with a flat roof. This ward is protected on the east and south sides by a broad and deep dry ditch, quarried in the rock, and running out until it ends on the cliff. The other two sides are covered by an outer ward of considerable breadth, but composed for the most part of steep slopes and abrupt ledges of rock. A part of this ward towards the west or sea front contains a long passage which ascends by a lower traverse from a water-gate at the foot of the rock, resting partly upon a shelf of rock, and which by a second and upper traverse reaches the postern of the middle ward.

Passing into details, the court of the inner ward is about 164 feet north and south, by 132 feet east and west. The opposite sides are not quite equal, nor are its angles right angles, though nearly so. The curtains are about 40 feet high; that to the west is 10 feet thick, the others are 11 feet. The parapet was 3 feet thick, and the rear wall 2 feet, leaving 5 feet to 6 feet for the walk. The two western towers are circular, and 34 feet diameter, having three-fourths of their circumference exposed outside. Within, the gorge wall fills up the angle of meeting of the curtains and contains the entrance-door. The basement chamber is below the inner ward level and circular. The first floor, at the ward level, is polygonal, as are the two upper floors. None are vaulted, and the basement has neither loops nor stairs of access. Each of these two towers has a well-stair at its junction with the western curtain, lighted by five loops placed one over the other in the hollow angle between the tower and the curtain, outside. The stairs ascend 20 feet above the tower, in a round turret, battlemented on small corbels. Each turret has a door upon the tower roof. The staircases commence at the first floor, on or level with the inner ward, and open on each floor, but not upon the ramparts of the curtain. The upper floor has fireplaces with hoods.

Outside, these towers rise from the ground without slope or cordon; two string-courses, however, mark the level of the two upper floors. The stairs are broken away, and the upper rooms inaccessible; but certain exterior loops show the existence of two tiers of small chambers (no doubt garderobes) in the north and south curtains, where they join the towers. Moreover, on the outside of each of these curtains, next to the tower, is a broad, flat buttress, thrown out to give space and support to these chambers and to contain the sewer-shaft from them. On the north wall, the buttress is of good ashlar of the age of the tower. On the south wall, it is of rude, inferior work, as though an addition. It may have been rebuilt. In the north curtain there seems to be a third chamber at a lower level. The drain here is not seen; on the south face it is open. Where these towers meet the rampart-walk they block it up; a sort of gallery is, therefore, thrown out on corbels, across the angle, and thus, as at Conway, the rampart-walk is carried on.

The two eastern towers resemble the others in general features and dimensions, but differ in details. Their basements have one loop towards the middle ward, and their first floor, at the inner ward level, is an irregular pentagon in plan, one angle being square. The doors are in the gorge wall, but do not lead direct into the tower, only into the staircase. In the south-east tower, a stair ascends in the northern wall, curving with it, and forks, the right branch leading to the second floor of the tower, from which alone, by a trap and descending ladder, the first floor and basement were accessible. This floor, like all the rest, was of timber, and from it, on the west side, a second stair commences, and curving with the wall, and having a small garderobe by the way, ascends to the ramparts of the south curtain. Reverting to the lower stair, the branch to the left opens upon the inner face of the east curtain, and ascends by a narrow, open stair, supported on corbels, across the gorge wall of the tower, and up the inner face of the south curtain to its ramparts. The roof and ramparts of the tower are reached by an exterior stair from the rampart of the east curtain. A loop in the hollow between the junction of this tower with the south curtain marks the place of the garderobe already mentioned. Above it was a second upon the battlements of the tower, and at the base of the wall is a large flat-topped sewer descending from the two. The south-east tower bears the name of Mortimer, the south-west that of Bronwen, the fair-bosomed, sister of Brân the Blessed.