Great british castles

12 min read

Looking for a castle to visit? You could do no better than to add these spectacular structures to your checklist

WORDS: SPENCER MIZEN

HARLECH GWYNEDD

MAIN: A view of Harlech Castle, with its southeast tower in the foreground. The fortification took seven years to build

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A Welsh landmark and the site of bravery in the face of terrible odds The song ‘Men of Harlech’ is as synonymous with Welsh culture as ‘Bread of Heaven’ and ‘The Green, Green Grass of Home’. And at the heart of this rousing regimental march is a tale of heroism and defiance – and one spectacular castle.

Sitting on a rocky crag in Gwynedd, Harlech is arguably the most spectacular of all the fortifications that Edward I built in north Wales during his campaign to subdue the country. The castle took just six years to build (in the 1280s) and is a classic example of the ‘walls within walls’ design.

The Men of Harlech referred to in the famous song are believed to be the Lancastrian defenders who, in the 1460s, held out against a massive Yorkist army during the Wars of the

Roses before succumbing to overwhelming odds, the defenders (in the words of one poet) “shattered by the sound of guns”.

Yet this was far from the first time that the castle had come under attack. In 1404, Owain Glyndŵr, iconic leader of the resistance to the English occupation of Wales, captured Harlech and made it his main residence and court. This was too much for the English to endure, and in 1409 Henry of Monmouth (later to be Henry V) laid siege to the castle. This time, Harlech’s defenders were forced into surrender by a punishing bombardment. The castle fell under English control again but Glyndŵr escaped to fight another day.

LEFT: Part of the castle’s ruined interior; a fireplace is visible on the first floor level

KENILWORTH WARWICKSHIRE

Kenilworth Castle was heavily modified over the course of several centuries

Later owned by Elizabeth I’s favourite, the fortress was once at the centre of a huge rebellion

Kenilworth Castle, which stands sentinel over the rolling Warwickshire countryside, was once owned by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the famed admirer of Elizabeth I. Yet it was under a previous Earl of Leicester, Simon de Montfort, that the castle, whose massive keep dates to the 1120s, made its greatest contribution to English history.

It was from Kenilworth that de Montfort planned a huge rebellion against Henry III, lighting the touch paper for the Second Barons’ War (1264–67). De Montfort briefly got the better of the king before being killed at

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