These are the whole of the works proper to the castle, but a few yards to the north of the rock a steep road has been cut by which men and horses could be led up from the castle landing-place to the village without entering the enceinte, though commanded from it.
No one acquainted with Caerphilly can visit Harlech without observing the close resemblance between the two castles, so far as regards the plan of the interior and middle wards. The court, rectangular, or nearly so, the absence of a keep, the drum-towers capping the four angles, the general character of the gatehouse and its position in the centre of one side, and the domestic buildings placed against the wall of the inner court, are peculiarities common to both. In each also the gatehouse is the grand feature of the building. Further, there is to be observed in both the excessive narrowness of the middle ward, its revetment rendering more than a parapet unnecessary, its slender and subordinate gatehouse, and its lateral postern opening direct through both wards. As Harlech did not need the outworks and exterior gate of Caerphilly, nor Caerphilly the water-gate of Harlech, here the resemblance ceases, but it is such as to justify the conclusion that Henry of Elfreton, who was the architect of Harlech, had studied Caerphilly, if indeed he was not also its architect.
The defences of Harlech seem calculated for protection against a surprise by the Welsh, who were probably as active as they were fearless. Hence the very lofty curtains, the long entrance bridge, the ascending steps to the main entrance, and the dimensions of the middle ward, too narrow to allow any considerable body of men to effect a lodgment there for an attack upon the inner ward, and the water-gates and covered way, in the construction of which the natural strength of the rock was enhanced by the occupation of its various points of vantage. Whether in the reign of Edward I. Morfa Harlech was more than a marsh is a question for a geologist to solve; but either by the shallow sea or by a canal cut across the low ground, it seems certain that in planning the castle Edward counted upon the means of reaching it by a quarter quite independent of the Welsh.
Although the general plan of Harlech is evidently the work of one mind and its execution generally of one date, there are some appearances in the work which show that alterations and additions were introduced affecting, not the general plan, but certain of its parts. It is evident that parts of the curtain have been thickened about 2 feet,—the north and south walls by additions inside; the west, on the outside. Also this thickening seems to have been decided upon when the walls were 30 feet high, as above that level they are of one mass and date. The exterior stair on the inner face of the great gatehouse was also an afterthought, and the doorway at its head clearly was not originally introduced. Besides this, the six windows on that front of the gatehouse, in the two upper floors, have been reduced in height by the insertion of a segmental arch between 2 feet and 3 feet below the original head; but the pattern is the same, and the masonry filling up the space seems of the date of the window, or very nearly so. These windows are of a peculiar pattern. Their two lights are trefoiled; and in the spandrels are also trefoils pierced. The mouldings are concave; and one is a small hollow, as in the early Perpendicular style. They must, however, be original.
The inference from these alterations seems to be, that Edward visited the castle when the works were far advanced, and the hall, gatehouse, and the lower part of the north, south, and west curtains built. The gatehouse curtain was probably always intended to be of its present height, as at Caerphilly. He ordered the other three curtains to be thickened and raised to the full height of the gatehouse curtain; to obey which order, the thickening was applied where possible on the inside, but where the hall prevented this, on the outside. The upper part of the walls so raised would, of course, be of one date, and solid. At the same time it was decided to make the rooms of the upper floors of the gatehouse those of state; and as the ways up the well-staircases were not thought suitable, a new and more direct staircase was built and a new door opened in the wall. The chapel in the inner ward seems a still later addition.
The character of the masonry throughout is exceedingly rough, as though hastily executed. It is rubble, and some of it very poor rubble indeed. The towers are of far better work than the curtains. The stones are larger, and their interstices filled in with more care. The ashlar is very good, but is sparingly used, and confined to the dressings, window-cases, chimney-hoods and heads, and a few of the more important doorways. The ordinary doors are mere openings to the walls, without rebates or chamfer, with shouldered heads of a rude character; and the sewer-openings, seen under the garderobes, have merely long stones for lintels. The masonry of the covered way and water-gates is also very inferior, and much of the side wall has, in consequence, slipped away from the rock.
The turret-heads of the gatehouse and two western towers have parapets projecting upon a corbel-table about 6 inches. There are no traces of holes for brattices; but upon the exterior of these two towers the putlog-holes are arranged in a spiral ascending form, east to north. In the north-west tower, on its east face, at the height of the old curtain, is a row of round holes about a foot apart, and from this level the spiral commences. It is pretty clear that having built the curtain, the masons here threw out a platform, and that the spiral round, by which the materials were raised for the upper part of the tower, began here. The tower of Coucy was scaffolded in the same way. There is throughout the building a remarkable absence of vaulting. It was confined to the oratory and to parts of the entrance passage.
The bird’s-eye view here given is taken from the east or landward side, and shows the entrance, with its great gatehouse, here, as at Caerphilly, seen to cross and close the narrow outer ward. The northern postern is also shown.
The castle seems to have escaped the usual dismantling that followed upon the civil wars, and no part has been blown up. It has, however, been freely used as a quarry by the people around; and, with its iron and timber, much of its ashlar has been rudely detached and stolen. There is but little evidence of any material addition to, or alteration in, the work of Edward I., which is singular, seeing that the place was long the seat of an assize, and the judges lodged here. It was then also a prison, and the windows were heavily barred, the bars forming shallow cages in front of the windows, as in some of the Italian palaces. Any later work introduced for the judicial or prison arrangements has either fallen down or been removed. The quarry whence the castle was built is pointed out on the hill-side, a short distance to the south-east. Although the present castle certainly is not older than the reign of Edward I., probably about 1280, the Welsh claim to have been the founders of an older fortress on the same spot, called by them Caer Gollwyn, from Collwyn ab Tangno, a Welsh chief who lived A.D. 877. Possibly a spot so inviting might have been occupied by a camp; but all that is now seen, whether of earthwork or masonry, is evidently not older than the thirteenth century. In 1404 the castle is said to have been taken by Owen Glyndwr; and Margaret of Anjou was sheltered here in 1460, in memory of which event the south-east tower for some time bore her name. There does not seem to be any detailed account of the siege of 1468, when the governor was Dafydd ab Ievan ab Einion, the same who had received Queen Margaret, and whose boast it was, that as he had held a castle in France till all the old women in Wales had heard of it, so he would hold his Welsh trust till it had become equally well known in France. He seems to have redeemed his pledge by standing a long siege, and yielding at last, on honourable terms, to Sir Richard Herbert, the commander for Edward IV. Harlech was held for Charles I., and surrendered on articles to General Mytton in 1647. The borough seal represents a castle triple towered, but the design is evidently conventional. The first constable was Hugh de Wonkeslow, appointed about 1283 by Edward I.; the last was the late W. W. E. Wynne, Esq., of Peniarth, as good a man as he was an eminent antiquary.