Location: Gwynedd, Wales Map
Tel: 01286 677617
Admissions: Adults £5.10
Family £15.00
Open: 1st Apr.- 31st Oct. 9 am- 5pm daily
1st Nov- 31 Mar 9:30am-
4 pm Mon- Sat, 11 am- 4 pm Sun
Closed 24- 26 Dec, 1st January
Caernarfon Castle (also Caernarvon, Welsh Castell Caernarfon) is a ruined castle in Gwynedd in Wales. Classified as a Grade I cultural monument and protected as a Scheduled Monument, the ruin is considered an outstanding example of European military architecture of the late 13th and early 14th centuries and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Position
Caernarfon castle stands at the southern end of the Menai Strait between North Wales and the island of Anglesey. Together with Beaumaris Castle on Anglesey, which lies at the northern end of the Menai Strait, the castle was able to control this strategically important waterway between the West and North Wales coasts. Anglesey was also the granary of Wales, supplying all of North Wales, so in the event of a Welsh rebellion the two castles could cut off North Wales's grain supply. The castle is located north of the mouth of the River Seiont in the Menai Strait, due to its location it could be supplied with ships in case of defense. North of the castle is the walled city of Caernarfon, also founded by Edward I.
Roman and early medieval foundations
The earliest known
fortification nearby is the Roman auxiliary fort of Segontium, founded
around AD 77–78 by Gnaeus Julius Agricola after the conquest of the
Ordovices. It sat on higher ground a short distance inland, held about a
thousand infantry, and remained occupied until the late fourth century.
The name Caernarfon itself comes from the Welsh y gaer yn Arfon - “the
stronghold in the land opposite Môn” (Anglesey). After the Roman
withdrawal, little is recorded until the late eleventh century.
Around 1090–1093 Hugh d’Avranches, Earl of Chester, built a timber
motte-and-bailey castle on the peninsula itself as part of the first
Norman push into north Wales. The motte was later absorbed into the
upper ward of the stone castle. The Welsh recaptured Gwynedd in 1115 and
held Caernarfon for the next century and a half. Both Llywelyn ab
Iorwerth (Llywelyn the Great) and Llywelyn ap Gruffudd used it as a
residence. During later building work a body was found and identified,
on Edward I’s orders, as that of Magnus Maximus (Macsen Wledig), the
late-Roman usurper whose legendary dream of a great fortress at a river
mouth appears in the Mabinogion. Edward had the remains reburied in the
new town church, deliberately linking his new fortress to both Roman
imperial and native Welsh tradition.
Edward I and the “Iron Ring”
After the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in December 1282 and the capture
of his brother Dafydd in 1283, Edward I moved to lock down Gwynedd. Work
on the present stone castle began in June 1283. Master James of St
George, the Savoyard engineer who also directed Conwy, Harlech and later
Beaumaris, oversaw the project. Edward and Queen Eleanor arrived in July
1283 and lived in temporary timber apartments while foundations were
laid. The castle, the new walled town and a quay were built as a single
operation. By 1285 the town walls were largely complete; the castle’s
southern façade was the first major section finished.
The design is
unique among Edward’s Welsh castles. Instead of the usual round towers,
Caernarfon has polygonal towers and horizontal bands of differently
coloured stone. These features deliberately recall the land walls of
Constantinople, then believed to have been built by Constantine the
Great. Eagle sculptures on the Eagle Tower reinforced the imperial
message. The castle was both fortress and palace: it contained halls,
kitchens, private chambers and even running water and latrines. It was
intended as the administrative capital of north Wales under the Statute
of Rhuddlan (1284).
On 25 April 1284 Queen Eleanor gave birth inside
the still-unfinished castle to a son, Edward of Caernarfon, later Edward
II. In 1301 he was created the first English Prince of Wales. The story
that Edward I presented the infant to the Welsh as “a prince born in
Wales who spoke no English” is a later legend, first recorded in the
sixteenth century, but the political symbolism was real.
Construction, revolt and completion
The first building phase
(1283–1292) cost about £12,000. Work then slowed. In 1294 Madog ap
Llywelyn’s revolt swept through north Wales. The town walls were
breached, the castle taken and everything combustible burned. Edward
retook the site in 1295 and immediately began a second, more expensive
phase that lasted, with interruptions for the Scottish wars, until about
1330. The northern walls, the great King’s Gate (with its multiple
portcullises, murder holes and arrow loops) and the remaining towers
were built or finished in this period. Total expenditure on castle and
town walls reached £20,000–£25,000 - an enormous sum for the age. Even
then the castle was never fully completed: the rear of the King’s Gate
and the Queen’s Gate remain unfinished, and foundations inside the wards
show where more buildings were planned.
Later medieval and early
modern history
The castle withstood two sieges during Owain Glyndŵr’s
rising (1403 and 1404). After the accession of the Tudor dynasty in
1485, tensions between English and Welsh eased and the castle’s military
importance declined. It was allowed to decay. During the English Civil
War it was held for the king and withstood three Parliamentarian sieges
before surrendering in 1646. That was the last time it saw action.
Revival, investitures and World Heritage status
By the eighteenth
century the ruins had become a Romantic attraction. Systematic repairs
began in the 1840s under Llewellyn Turner; the Office of Works took
responsibility in 1908. In 1911 the castle was the setting for the
investiture of Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII), an event
promoted by David Lloyd George. The ceremony was repeated on a far
larger scale on 1 July 1969 for Charles, Prince of Wales (now Charles
III), watched by hundreds of millions on television.
In 1986
Caernarfon Castle and its town walls, together with Conwy, Harlech and
Beaumaris, were inscribed as the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Castles and
Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd.” Cadw now cares for the monument,
which remains Crown property. The Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum occupies
part of the castle. Visitors can walk the walls, climb the Eagle Tower
and see the unfinished grandeur that Edward I intended as both a
statement of conquest and a new imperial capital in Wales.
The site occupies a narrow peninsula between the River Seiont and
the Menai Strait. An earlier Norman motte-and-bailey of c.1090
dictated the shape of the eastern upper ward (the motte itself was
not levelled until 1872). The resulting plan is a long, irregular
figure-of-eight or hourglass, roughly 175 m east–west and nowhere
more than 71 m wide. A planned cross-range of buildings that would
have separated the western lower ward from the eastern upper ward
was never built; only foundations survive.
Distinctive design
language
Unlike Conwy, Harlech or Beaumaris, Caernarfon uses
polygonal (faceted) rather than round towers and horizontal bands of
contrasting stone. Light local limestone is interrupted by darker
brown sandstone courses on the south and east faces. Historians have
long linked this combination to the Theodosian Walls of
Constantinople; more recent work also points to Roman remains in
Britain, especially York’s Multangular Tower. The choice was
deliberate imperial symbolism. Edward I associated the site with the
Roman fort of Segontium and with the legendary dream of Magnus
Maximus (Macsen Wledig in the Mabinogion), who saw a great castle of
coloured walls and eagle-crowned towers. Stone eagles once stood on
the three turrets of the Eagle Tower; one carving survives.
Curtain walls and defensive circulation
A single massive curtain
wall encloses both wards. On the river side it is at least 3.7 m
thick; elsewhere it is still formidable. Two levels of mural
passages run inside the wall, allowing defenders to move between
arrow-loops without exposing themselves on the wall-walk. The south
face received firing galleries; the north face was intended to have
them but they were never completed. Battlements have loops in every
second merlon. At the north-east end the loops are arranged in
triples, producing overlapping fields of fire that military
historian Allen Brown called “one of the most formidable
concentrations of fire-power in the Middle Ages.”
The towers
Seven large polygonal towers and two smaller ones project from the
curtain, plus two twin-towered gatehouses.
Eagle Tower (west end)
is the keep and the most elaborate structure. Ten-sided, it measures
about 10.5 m across with walls 5.4 m thick. Height to the parapet is
approximately 28–30 m; three polygonal turrets originally raised the
silhouette to about 39 m. It contains a basement (with
water-gate/postern giving onto the Seiont), three main floors and
numerous mural chambers and latrines within the wall thickness. A
spiral stair links the levels. It was almost certainly intended as
lodgings for Sir Otto de Grandson, first Justiciar of North Wales.
Queen’s Tower (south-east) has the highest single turret (once
called the Banner Tower) and controlled the river approach.
Well
Tower contains a 15 m-deep well.
Cistern Tower collected
rainwater in a stone-lined tank.
Chamberlain, Black, Granary and
North-East Towers provided additional high-status accommodation,
each with two or three principal rooms, fireplaces, latrines and, in
several cases, small chapel-like chambers.
A small Watch Tower
overlooks the river upstream.
Most northern towers rise through
four storeys including basement. Communication is by wall-stairs
that also connect to the galleries and wall-walk.
Gatehouses
The King’s Gate (north, from the town) is a three-storey
twin-towered structure of exceptional complexity. It was designed
with two drawbridges, five doorways, six portcullises, a 90-degree
turn (to negate an attacker’s shield), murder holes and arrow-loops.
The rear ranges were never finished. A statue of Edward II was added
to the façade in 1320.
Interior and unfinished state
The
lower ward retains foundations of the Great Hall and kitchens built
against the inner face of the south wall. The upper ward was planned
for royal lodgings that were never erected. Projecting “toothing”
stones on several towers show where unbuilt walls would have bonded.
The castle therefore looks complete from the outside while remaining
internally fragmentary – a reminder that even Edward I’s resources
had limits after the 1294–95 Welsh revolt and later Scottish wars.
The castle is physically joined to the contemporary town walls (734
m circuit, eight towers, two twin-towered gates), creating a unified
defensive system around the planned grid-plan borough. Together they
form part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Castles and Town Walls
of King Edward in Gwynedd.”
Practical snapshot
Address: Castle Ditch, Caernarfon, Gwynedd LL55
2AY
what3words: ///quite.hats.candle
Phone: 01286 677 617 / 03000
252239
Email: castellcaernarfon@llyw.cymru
Opening hours (2026
pattern)
1 Mar - 30 Jun: 09:30-17:00
1 Jul - 31 Aug: 09:30-18:00
1 Sep - 31 Oct: 09:30-17:00
1 Nov - 28 Feb: 10:00-16:00
Closed 24,
25, 26 Dec and 1 Jan. Last admission 30 minutes before closing.
Tickets (1 Sep 2026 - 31 Mar 2027)
Adult £14.90
Senior (65+)
£13.40
Junior 5-17 / student (photo ID) £10.40
Family 2 adults +
up to 3 children £47.70
Family 1 adult + up to 3 children £32.80
Under 5 free
Disabled visitor + companion free
Cadw members free
Cadw £1 ticket for Universal Credit and named benefits
Blue Light /
HM Armed Forces and veterans: 10% off individual admission (not online)
Book on the Cadw site for 5% off. Online tickets are non-refundable.
Walk-up tickets are sold at the gate. Transport for Wales same-day rail
tickets can give 2-for-1 entry (show the ticket at the desk). If you
plan several Cadw sites, an Explorer Pass usually beats single tickets.
How to get there
By car. Follow the A55 then A487 into
Caernarfon. There is no castle car park. Use town pay-and-display. The
most convenient is the long-stay waterfront / Slate Quay (Cei Llechi)
lot beside the castle and the Welsh Highland Railway station. From that
quay there is a short, steep pavement climb to the King’s Gate. Other
lots sit around Castle Square, Galeri / Victoria Dock and Glan y Môr
Uchaf. Blue Badge holders park free in council lots. Arrive before 10:00
in July-August if you want a close space.
By train + bus. Nearest
mainline station is Bangor (about 10 miles / 16 km). Frequent buses 5,
5A and 5B run Bangor-Caernarfon; alight at Penllyn / Pool Side, then
walk about 4 minutes to the castle. Traveline Cymru: 0800 464 0000.
By heritage railway. The Welsh Highland Railway terminus sits under the
castle walls on St Helen’s Road. A steam arrival from Porthmadog or
Beddgelert puts you a few minutes’ walk from the gate. Combine a morning
train with an afternoon in the castle.
On foot / bike. National Cycle
Network Route 8 passes the site. The old town is compact: Castle Square,
High Street and the quay form a tight loop.
What to see inside (a
logical circuit)
Enter through the King’s Gate, one of the most
elaborate castle gatehouses in Europe: a sequence of doorways,
portcullis slots and murder holes that was never fully finished. Even
incomplete it reads as a killing corridor. A statue of Edward II sits in
a niche facing the town. The new viewing levels above the gate were
designed for lift access; until the lift returns you reach them only by
steep stairs. Contact the site in advance if you need evacuation
support; the emergency route is a narrow spiral stair and capacity is
limited.
Walk the lower ward first. Foundations of the great hall and
kitchens lie here. Then work clockwise or anticlockwise around the
curtain.
Eagle Tower is the one to climb if you only have energy for
a single tower. Ten-sided, walls up to about 18 ft / 5.5 m thick, three
turrets that once carried stone eagles. Royal-grade apartments, chapel,
window seats and a basement water gate toward the Seiont. Views take in
the Menai Strait, Anglesey and, on a clear day, the foothills of Eryri
(Snowdonia). Look for weathered eagle fragments and the dummy stone
figures meant to inflate the garrison’s apparent size when seen from the
quay.
Queen’s Tower and Chamberlain Tower house the Royal Welch
Fusiliers Museum, included in castle admission. Three centuries of the
regiment: uniforms, medals, Victoria Crosses, and the quirks of a Welsh
line infantry unit. Ground-floor WWII / postwar galleries are the most
accessible part of the museum; upper floors use the usual spiral stairs.
Allow 30-60 minutes if military history interests you. Museum desk:
01286 673 362.
Northeast Tower usually screens a short film on the
site from Roman Segontium onward. Expect loud audio and flashing lights.
Queen’s Gate faces the river and was meant as a water-side entrance that
did not force visitors through the town. The rear of several towers was
never completed; that “unfinished” quality is part of the story, not a
defect.
Wall-walks and spiral stairs link most towers. Surfaces are
uneven, steps worn, door heads low. In rain the stone is slick. High
winds on the battlements are common even in summer. Cadw rates the
terrain Level 4 - Strenuous. Ground-level courtyards and the exterior
still give a strong visit if you skip the climbs.
Accessibility,
families, dogs
Ramp from pavement into the King’s Gate admissions
area.
Lift to King’s Gate upper levels exists but is currently
offline.
One toilet block is ramp-accessible with cubicles and
changing space; other toilets involve steps.
Portable induction loop
available. Audio guide sold at the visitor centre (free for Cadw
members).
Under-5s free. Baby-changing on site. Pushchairs struggle
on cobbles and stairs; consider a carrier.
Picnics are not allowed
inside the walls. Eat on the quay or in town.
Dogs: assistance dogs
only from April to October. From 1 November to 27 March dogs on short
leads may use ground-floor areas only. No dog bowl listed for general
pets.
If you need staff help in an evacuation, book a timed slot by
phone first.
Facilities on site
Visitor centre, gift shop,
guidebook, free Cadw Wi-Fi, exhibitions, defibrillator, benches. From 1
September the pop-up refreshment kiosk runs Friday-Sunday only; the
King’s Gate café is closed. Water refill is not listed as a public
station on the access sheet, so carry a bottle. No smoking. Recreational
drones may not take off or land on Cadw land; flying over the monument
is tightly restricted. Personal photography is fine; commercial work
needs Cadw permission.
Custodian-led walking tours (about 45 minutes)
run on selected days at 11:00 and 15:00 for an extra £5. Ask at the
desk; they fill on busy weekends.
Best time, weather, crowds
Shoulder months May-June and September give full hours, milder light and
fewer coach parties than July-August school holidays. Winter is quiet
and photogenic (low sun on the banded masonry) but hours shrink to
10:00-16:00 and towers feel raw in Atlantic wind. Arrive at opening if
you want Eagle Tower without a queue. Late afternoon light on the
seaward face is the classic shot.
Wear grippy shoes and a wind layer
even on warm days. Pack light: large bags are awkward on spiral stairs.
Combine with the town (do not skip this)
The castle was built
with the walled borough as one project. Town walls can be viewed from
street level year-round; walking on top of the walls is currently closed
for safety. Porth Mawr Tower can be entered with a key collected from
Siop Lwsi, 4 Pepper Lane, 10:00-15:00 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and
Saturdays from 31 March to the end of October.
Walk Castle Square
(Saturday market), the narrow streets inside the walls, then down to the
slate quay. The best exterior photographs are from the waterfront near
the Anglesey Arms or from the far bank of the Seiont: the Eagle Tower
and banded walls reflected in the water. Black Boy Inn (16th century)
and the harbour cafés sit a few minutes away. Segontium Roman fort is a
short uphill walk if you want the pre-Edwardian layer.
A realistic
half-day: 60-90 minutes inside the castle, 20-30 minutes of lanes and
shops, 20 minutes on the quay for photos and coffee. Add the Welsh
Highland Railway if you want a full day.
Nearby if you are
castle-hopping
Same UNESCO group: Conwy (complete town walls you can
walk), Beaumaris (the “perfect” concentric plan, never finished),
Harlech (the cliff-top setting). Snowdon Mountain Railway and the
National Slate Museum at Llanberis are 20-25 minutes by car. A Cadw
Explorer Pass pays for itself if you do two or more paid sites in a
week.