Wales on the Web A flash movie about Criccieth Castle in Gwynedd North Wales, including Tremadoc Bay, Llewellyn The Great, Llewellyn Ap Gruffydd, Criccieth Castle, Edward I, Edwardian Castle, Snowdonia, Owain Glyndwyr, Lleyn Penisinula and more, part of the largest collection of movies on any culture anywhere on the Web.
Wales on the Web Criccieth Castle - wales flash movie Towering above the sea, Criccieth Castle dominates the southern Lleyn Penisinula’s Tremadoc Bay. The original castle was built between 1230 and 1240 by Llewellyn the Great, becoming an important administrative centre. Llewellyn’s grandson Llewellyn ap Gruffydd added to Criccieth’s defences but, in spite of its strong natural position, the castle inevitably fell to Edward I’s army. No castle could hold out for long without the assistance of an army in the field - Welsh strength lay in rapid movement and guerrilla type warfare; castles only concentrated their forces for almost certain defeat. Besieged in 1283, Criccieth was rapidly taken – by March 14th it was in English hands. Even though it has been suggested much now standing was the work of one of the Llewellyns’ and copied from Hubert de Burgh’s stronghold at Montgomery, in fact Criccieth was a new Edwardian castle, part of a strategy to encircle and control Snowdonia. The new stronghold that now arose echoed castle development elsewhere in the kingdom with round towers replacing the easily-undermined square. Completely remodelled, its new inner ward was entered through a powerful twin-towered gatehouse built to the latest design of the period Some £353 – then a considerable sum – was spent to house a garrison of ten cross-bowmen, plus blacksmith, armourer, carpenter and mason, all under the command of a constable paid £100 a year. In spite of later beliefs, castle garrisons were rarely large. Today’s visitor enters across an outer court passing the square “engine tower” whose ruins stand on its flank. Court and tower were also Edwardian features, the latter’s thick walls designed to withstand the massive kick of an “engine” i.e. trebuchet or mangonel, the efficient stone-throwing artillery of the day, or even a giant crossbow-type “ballista” mounted on its summit. Indeed, the Roman name for their mangonel was “Onager” i.e. “Mule” for this very reason. In 1294 the rebuilt castle withstood a long siege during Madog’s uprising when, like other Edwardian strongholds, it would be supplied by sea. Beyond the gateway lies the “Inner Ward”, and ruins of its rectangular south-eastern “Leyburn” tower. Another inner gateway under the tower’s protection led into the “Outer Ward” once dominated by its “Montfort” - south-western tower although only its foundations remain. For over a hundred years Criccieth remained in English hands, but during Glyndwyr’s Revolt of the early fifteenth century, it was taken, burned and left derelict, parts of its walls still bearing evidence of intense heat. From its heights Criccieth’s strategic significance becomes obvious. Southwards across Tremadoc Bay is Harlech, another link in the military chain, with the mountains of Mid-Wales beyond. Eastward rises the true reason for this castle and others, the Snowdon massif and its outliers, the heartland of Welsh resistance that Edward controlled with his ring of stone and steel. Today Criccieth is in Welsh hands once more but now they are those of a non-warlike Cadw.