Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd

Wikipedia contributors · CC BY-SA · EN · 04/10/2026

The Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd is a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site located in North West Wales (specifically Gwynedd until 1996). It includes the castles of Beaumaris and Harlech and the castles and town walls of Caernarfon and Conwy. UNESCO considers the sites to be the "finest examples of late 13th century and early 14th century military architecture in Europe".

The fortifications form part of the Ring of Iron built by Edward I after his invasion of North Wales in 1282. Edward defeated the local Welsh princes in a major campaign and set about permanently colonising the area. He created new fortified towns, protected by castles, in which English immigrants could settle and administer the territories. The project was hugely expensive and stretched royal resources to the limit. Fresh Welsh revolts followed in 1294 under the leadership of Madog ap Llywelyn. Conwy and Harlech were kept supplied by sea and held out against the attack, but Caernarfon, still only partially completed, was stormed. In the aftermath, Edward reinvigorated the building programme and ordered the commencement of work at Beaumaris. Edward's wars in Scotland began to consume royal funding, however, and work soon slowed once again. Building work on all the fortifications had ceased by 1330, without Caernarfon and Beaumaris having been fully completed.

The fortifications played an important part in the conflicts in North Wales over the coming centuries. They were involved in the Welsh Revolt of the early 15th century and the Wars of the Roses in the late 15th century. Despite declining in military significance following the succession of the Tudor dynasty to the throne in 1485, they were pressed back into service during the English Civil War in the 17th century. In the aftermath of the conflict, Parliament ordered the slighting, or deliberate destruction, of parts of Conwy and Harlech, but the threat of a pro-Royalist invasion from Scotland ensured that Caernarfon and Beaumaris remained intact. By the end of the 17th century, however, the castles were ruinous. They became popular with visiting artists during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and visitor numbers increased as access to the region improved during the Victorian era. The British state invested heavily in the castles and town walls during the 20th century, restoring many of their medieval features. In 1986, the sites were collectively declared to be a World Heritage Site, as outstanding examples of fortifications and military architecture built in the 13th century, and are now operated as tourist attractions by the Welsh heritage agency Cadw.

For much of the 20th century, the castles and walls were considered primarily from a military perspective. Their use of concentric defences, barbicans, and substantial gatehouses led D. J. Cathcart King to describe them as the "zenith of English castle-building", and Sidney Toy to assess them as "some of the most powerful castles of any age or country". In the late 20th and 21st centuries, historians such as Michael Prestwich and Abigail Wheatley also highlighted the sites' roles as palaces and symbols of royal power. The location of castles such as Caernarfon and Conwy were chosen for their political significance as well as military functions, being built on top of sites belonging to the Welsh princes. The castles incorporated luxury apartments and gardens, with the intention of supporting large royal courts in splendour. Caernarfon's castle and town walls incorporated expensive stonework, probably intended to evoke images of Arthurian or Roman imperial power in order to bolster Edward's personal prestige. The precise role of the royal architect James of Saint George in the construction projects, and the influence of his native County of Savoy on the designs, also continues to be debated by academics. However, the primary sources do indicate he played a key role, describing him as "Magistro Jacobo de sancto Georgio, Magistro operacionum Regis in Wallia" or "Master James of Saint George, Master of the King’s Works in Wales."

History

13th–14th centuries

Background

The Edwardian castles and town walls in Gwynedd were built as a consequence of the wars fought for the control of Wales in the late 13th century. The kings of England and the Welsh princes had vied for control of the region since the 1070s, with Norman and English nobles and settlers slowly expanding their territories over several centuries. In the 1260s, however, the Welsh leader Llywelyn ap Gruffudd exploited a civil war between Henry III and rebel barons in England to become the dominant power, and was formally recognised as the prince of Wales under the Treaty of Montgomery.

Edward I became the king of England in 1272. Edward had extensive experience of warfare and sieges, having fought in Wales in 1257, led the six-month siege of Kenilworth Castle in 1266 and joined the crusade to North Africa in 1270. He had seen numerous European fortifications, including the planned walled town and castle design at Aigues-Mortes. On assuming the throne, one of Edward's first actions was to renovate and extend the royal fortress of the Tower of London. Edward was also responsible for building a sequence of planned, usually walled, towns called bastides across Gascony as part of his attempt to strengthen his authority in the region. Edward also authorised new planned towns to be built across England.

Meanwhile, relations between Edward and Llywelyn rapidly collapsed, leading to Edward invading North Wales in 1276 in an attempt to break Llywelyn's hold on power. During the war Edward built several major castles in order to better control the region and act as bases for campaigning. Edward was successful, and the Treaty of Aberconwy in 1277 reaffirmed English dominance, dividing up most of Llwelyn's lands amongst his brothers and Edward.

War of 1282–83

Edward and his allies amongst the Welsh princes soon began to quarrel, and in early 1282 rebellion broke out, led by Llywelyn's brother, Dafydd ap Gruffydd. Edward responded to the revolt by mobilising a royal army of 8,000 foot soldiers and 750 cavalry, which he marched north to Rhuddlan, while in South and mid-Wales Marcher Lord forces advanced from Carmarthen and Montgomery. Edward then mounted a naval invasion of the Isle of Anglesey and formed a temporary bridge to cross over onto the mainland, taking the war into the Welsh heartlands of Snowdonia. Llywelyn was killed that December, and in early 1283 Dafydd was captured and executed.

Rather than repeating the devolved arrangements of previous treaties, Edward chose to permanently colonise North Wales instead. The remaining royal family of Llywelyn and Dafydd was crushed and their lands divided amongst major English nobles. The governance of Wales was reformed, and the arrangements set out in the Statute of Rhuddlan, enacted on 3 March 1284. Wales was divided into counties and shires, emulating how England was governed, with three new shires created in the north-west: Caernarfon, Merioneth and Anglesey.

As part of this scheme, in 1283 Edward ordered the construction of new castles and walled towns across the occupied territories, in part to encourage substantial migration to the region from England. Amongst these were the future World Heritage sites of Caernarfon Castle and its walled town, overlooking the River Seiont; Conwy Castle and its walled town, controlling a crossing point over the River Conwy; and Harlech Castle, protecting a sea port and newly established English town. Plans were probably made to establish a castle and walled settlement near the strategically important town of Llanfaes on Anglesey—the future Beaumaris—but were postponed due to the costs of the other projects.

The new towns were important administrative centres for the new English governmental structures: Caernarfon and Harlech were the centres of new shires, and Conwy responsible for a new county. The castles were key military centres, but were also designed to function as royal palaces, capable of supporting the king and queen's households in secure comfort. Several of the projects also carried special symbolic importance. Conwy was deliberately sited on the top of Aberconwy Abbey, the traditional burial place of the Welsh princes; the abbey was relocated eight miles inland. The native Welsh rulers had prized the former Roman site at Caernarfon for its imperial symbolism, and parts of the fortifications of the Welsh princes were seized and symbolically reused to build Edward's new castle there. The site of Harlech Castle was associated with the legend of Branwen, a Welsh princess.

Edward employed trusted architects and engineers to run the projects, most prominently the Savoyard Master James of St George, but also Edward's close friend Otto de Grandson, the soldier Sir John de Bonvillars and the master mason John Francis. The English had built castles in the wake of the 1272 conflict, usually larger and more expensive than those of the local Welsh rulers, but the new fortifications were on a still grander scale. Carpenters, ditch diggers and stonemasons were gathered by local sheriffs from across England and mustered at Chester and Bristol, before being sent on to North Wales in the spring, returning home each winter. The number of workers involved was so great that it placed a significant strain on England's national labour force. The costs were huge: Caernarfon's castle and walls cost £15,500, Conwy's castle and walls came to around £15,000 and Harlech Castle cost £8,190 to construct.

The walled towns were planned out in a regular fashion, drawing both on the experience of equivalent bastides in France and on various English planned settlements. Their new residents were English migrants, with the local Welsh banned from living inside the walls. The towns had varying levels of success. Measured in terms of burgages, town properties rented from the Crown by citizens, Conwy had 99 around 1295, and Caernarfon had 57 in 1298. Harlech lagged badly behind in terms of growth, and the town had only 24 and a half burgages in 1305. The castles were entrusted by Edward to constables, charged to defend them and, in some cases, also empowered to defend the town walls as well. Permanent garrisons of soldiers were established, 40 at Caernarfon, 30 at Conwy and 36 at Harlech, equipped with crossbows and armour. The castles and towns were all ports and could be supplied by sea if necessary, an important strategic advantage as Edward's navy had near total dominance around the Welsh coastline. The castles were each equipped with a rear or postern gate that would allow them to resupplied directly by sea even if the town had fallen.

Rebellion of 1294–95

Edwards's fortifications were tested in 1294 when Madog ap Llywelyn rebelled against English rule, the first major insurrection since the conquest. The Welsh appear to have risen up over the introduction of taxation, and Madog had considerable popular support. By the end of the year, Edward had returned to Wales with a large army and marched west from Chester, reaching his castle at Conwy by Christmas. Here he was trapped and besieged until January 1295, supplied only by sea, before forces arrived to relieve him in February. Harlech was also besieged but was saved from defeat by the arrival of supplies by sea from Ireland. Caernarfon, however, was still only partially completed and was stormed by Welsh forces and the castle and town set alight. In Anglesey, Welsh forces killed the royal sheriff. In the spring Edward pressed home his counterattack with a force of 35,000 soldiers, putting down the uprising and killing Madog.

In the aftermath of the rebellion, Edward ordered work to recommence on repairing and completing Caernarfon. Once Anglesey was reoccupied he also began to progress the delayed plans to fortify the area. The chosen site was called Beaumaris and was about 1 mi from the Welsh town of Llanfaes. The decision was therefore taken to move the Welsh population some 12 mi south-west, where a settlement by the name of Newborough was created for them. The deportation of the local Welsh opened the way for the construction of an English town, protected by a substantial castle. A furious programme of building work commenced on the site under the direction of James of St George, the workforce sheltering in temporary huts in the centre of the half-built fortification. The project was very expensive, frequently falling into arrears, and by 1300 had cost around £11,000. Despite the absence of town walls, the surrounding settlement grew quickly and by 1305 it had 132 and a quarter burgages paying rent to the Crown.

By 1300 only Harlech and Conwy had been properly completed: Caernarfon's town walls were finished, but much of the castle was still incomplete and at Beaumaris Castle the inner walls was only half their intended height, with gaps in the outer walls. By 1304 the total building programme in Wales had come to at least £80,000, almost six times Edward's annual income. Edward had meanwhile become embroiled in a long-running sequence of wars in Scotland which began to consume his attention and financial resources, and as a result further work on the Welsh castles slowed to a crawl. In 1306 Edward became concerned about a possible Scottish invasion of North Wales, spurring fresh construction work, but money remained much more limited than before. By 1330 all new work had finally ceased, and Caernarfon and Beaumaris were never fully completed.

Source and attribution

Adapted from “Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd” by English Wikipedia contributors. Main paragraphs and sections are retained; tables, reference markers and technical markup are omitted. This is an encyclopedic adaptation, not a personal review. Original revision and contributor history ↗. Text is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗. Check current visitor access, tickets and transport with the relevant operator.