Edward I's mightiest Welsh castle, its banded walls and polygonal towers built to overawe — a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Open to visitorscheck opening times and admission before you go
Substantial ruinsruined, but plenty survives above ground
Caernarfon was meant to be more than a fortress. Begun in 1283 as the seat of English power in North Wales, it was given banded masonry and polygonal towers in deliberate echo of the walls of Constantinople — an imperial statement in stone. It was never fully finished, yet the walls and the great Eagle Tower stand to their full height, and a walled town grew up in the castle’s shadow.
The castle and its town walls form part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd. In 1969 it was the stage for the Investiture of the Prince of Wales.
Cadw looks after it, and it is open all year on a paid ticket. Because the castle sits inside the walled town, the natural thing is to combine it with a circuit of the town walls and the quayside on the Menai Strait. The mountains of Eryri rise just inland, and the Wales Coast Path runs along the strait.
