| Criccieth Castle | |
|---|---|
Castell Cricieth (Welsh) | |
| Criccieth,Gwynedd, Wales | |
.png) The castle from the north-west | |
| Site information | |
| Owner | Cadw |
| Open to the public | yes |
| Condition | ruinous |
| Website | Castell Cricieth |
| Location | |
  Criccieth Castle Location in Wales | |
| Coordinates | 52°54′58″N4°13′57″W / 52.916°N 4.2325°W /52.916; -4.2325 |
| Site history | |
| Built | phase one:c. 1230 phase two between 1255 and 1282 phase three: 1283–1292, 1307–1327 |
| Built by | phase one:Llywelyn ab Iorwerth phase two:Llywelyn ap Gruffudd phase three:Edward I andEdward II |
| Battles/wars | |
| Garrison information | |
| Past commanders |
|
| Garrison | 60, including 10 crossbowmen, in 1283–84 |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
| Official name | Criccieth Castle |
| Designated | 2 August 1949 |
| Reference no. | 4396[1] |
| Official name | Castell Cricieth |
| Reference no. | CN015[2] |
| Official name | Criccieth Castle, Outer Bank Defences |
| Reference no. | CN173[3] |
Criccieth Castle (Welsh:Castell Cricieth;Welsh pronunciation:[kastɛɬˈkrɪkjɛθ]) is aruined thirteenth-century castle inCriccieth,Gwynedd, Wales. It is located on a rocky headland overlookingTremadog Bay and consists of an innerward almost surrounded by an outer ward. The twin-towered innergatehouse is the most prominent remaining feature and survives to almost its full height, as does the innercurtain wall. The outer curtain wall, the inner ward buildings, and the castle's other three towers are significantly more ruinous, and in places survive only as foundations.
The castle was begun in the 1230s byLlywelyn ap Iorwerth, theprince of Gwynedd, who probably built the inner ward and gatehouse. It was extended by his grandson,Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, who probably constructed the outer ward. The castle was captured byEdward I of England in 1283 during hisconquest of Wales and afterwards repaired and improved, work which included heightening the towers and inner gatehouse. The castle was besieged in 1294–1295 duringan unsuccessful revolt against English rule byMadog ap Llywelyn, and further repairs took place underEdward II in the early fourteenth century. It was captured in 1404 duringanother unsuccessful revolt, led byOwain Glyndŵr. It may have been burnt after the latter attack and was certainly ruinous by the 1450s. Until it was destroyed the castle was frequently used as a prison, housing high-status prisoners of the princes of Gwynedd and Scottish prisoners of Edward I.
The castle was subsequently left to decay, and was considered aromantic ruin by the time it was sketched byJ. M. W. Turner in 1798. It was sold bythe Crown in 1858 but returned to state care in 1933, after which extensiveconsolidation andarchaeological excavations took place. The castle is now maintained byCadw, the historic environment service of theWelsh Government, and is open to the public. It was designated a grade Ilisted building in 1949, and both the castle proper and its outer defences arescheduled monuments.
The only other castle site near Criccieth is amotte atDolbenmaen, approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) north of the town, which may have been built by theNormans in the eleventh century but was soon occupied by the Welsh. Dolbenmaen was probably the administrative centre (maerdref) of thecommote ofEifionydd, and the motte is associated with thecourt (llys) of the commote's rulers.[4] Eifionydd's administrative centre was transferred to Criccieth in the 1230s, whenLlywelyn ap Iorwerth built the current castle; prior to this the only structures in Criccieth were the parish church of St Catherine and its associated buildings.[5]
It is probable that the inner ward of the current castle was built by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth in the 1230s and the outer ward between 1255 and 1282 during the rule of his grandson,Llywelyn ap Gruffudd.[6] In 1239Dafydd ap Llywelyn, the son and heir of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, imprisonedGruffudd ap Llywelyn ap Iorwerth andOwain Goch ap Gruffydd, his half-brother and half-nephew, at Criccieth. It is probable that the castle was used to house them.[7] Gruffudd ap Llywelyn ap Iorwerth is also described as "Pendefic crukyeith", or 'Lord of Criccieth' in a contemporary eulogisticawdl poem by Einion ap Madog ap Rhahawd.[8] The castle is again recorded as a prison in 1259, when it housedMaredudd ap Rhys Gryg, a prince ofDeheubarth who rebelled against Llywelyn ap Gruffudd.[9] One of the last Welsh records of the castle is a letter from Llywelyn ap Gruffudd toEdward I, sent from Criccieth in 1273 or 1274.[10]
By March 1283 the castle had been captured by the English as part of Edward I'sconquest of Wales, and the king visited in that year and in 1284. Between 1283 and 1292 thePipe rolls record that £332 was spent at the castle, and the final expenditure for this period may have been closer to £500.[11] This mostly consisted of improvements to existing structures, particularly the towers, which were heightened and had ground-floor doors inserted. External stairs were also constructed to give access to their first floors and the wall-walks. These changes brought the castle up to date militarily by making each floor of the towers a self-contained defensive unit.[12] Aborough was established next to the castle in November 1284; it had 23burgage plots, the same number as Caernarfon, but does not appear to have beenwalled.[10]
In 1283–1284, when the Welsh castles were particularly well-manned, the Criccieth garrison contained 30homines defensabiles (garrison men), 10baslistarii (crossbowmen), 15residui (residents, including sentinels, a doorkeeper, and caretaker), 1attilliator (superintendent of arms), 1capellanus (chaplain), 1cementarius (stonemason), 1carpentarius (carpenter), and 1faber (artisan). Sir William Leyburn was the constable and paid £100 yearly.[13][a]
In 1294 Criccieth was besieged as part ofa revolt against English rule byMadog ap Llywelyn. The revolt tookCaernarfon Castle and sacked the town, and the castles atHarlech andAberystwyth were also sieged. The garrison at the time consisted of Sir William Leyburn, who was still the constable, 29 men, and 41 townsfolk who had taken refuge in the castle. The siege was lifted in April 1295 and the castle resupplied by sea from Ireland.[14] After this the castle was again used as a prison; further repairs took place between 1307 and 1327 under Edward II, which included raising the gatehouse a second time.[15] Nevertheless, whenEdward the Black Prince commissioned a survey of the castle in 1343 it was again dilapidated and in need of repairs which would cost £96 in total. The same document names the castle towers as the great tower, "sister (cistern) tour", Leyburn tower, and "le gynnetour". The English archaeologistBryan O'Neil identifies these as the inner gatehouse, south-west tower (which contained a cistern), south-east tower, and north tower respectively.[16] Fromc. 1359 to 1381 the castle constable wasSyr Hywel y Fwyall ('of the Battleaxe'), who may have commanded a corps of Welshmen at theBattle of Crécy and certainly fought forEdward III at theBattle of Poitiers in 1356.[17]
The castle's downfall came in the first half of the fifteenth century, when it was destroyed by fire. The walls of the inner gatehouse, south-west tower, and south-east tower are burnt red, and a layer of burnt material has been found during excavations in each. It is probable that the fire occurred in 1404, when the castle was captured during therebellion of Owain Glyndŵr and, according to a document of 1450, "totally destroyed". Nevertheless, that same document enlarged the castle's garrison and does not mention repairs to the structure, so it is possible that the revolt did not cause total ruin. If this is the case then the fires took place not long after 1450, as there are no further references to the castle being used as a fortress and no record of constables being appointed after Glyndŵr's sacking.[18] The adjacent borough also suffered; it was described as "clene decayed" byJohn Leland, who travelled through Wales between 1535 and 1545, and byThomas Pennant inc. 1784 as a "poor borough town".[19]
Criccieth is the subject of four colour studies by theRomantic artist J. M. W. Turner, as well as one full watercolour depicting salvage on Criccieth beach with the castle in the background. The sketches were undertaken when Turner visited the coast of North Wales in 1798, and the watercolour dates from 1835. Turner took someartistic licence with the latter, depicting the cliffs higher than in reality and depicting the sea in an unlikely position according to the usual pattern of Criccieth's tides.[20]
It is possible that some restoration work took place under the Crown before the sale of the castle in 1858 toWilliam Ormsby-Gore, 2nd Baron Harlech, and Lord Harlech certainly undertook some restoration work in 1879. More work took place in 1933 beforeGeorge Ormsby-Gore, 3rd Baron Harlech, placed the castle under the guardianship of theOffice of Works.[21] The state carried out extensive consolidation of the fabric, and the castle was excavated under the supervision of Bryan O'Neil; prior to these excavations much of the outer ward and part of the south-east tower were buried. Some parts of the site may have been covered deliberately, as the north tower contained "modern" bricks and china and there was a local tradition that it was infilled in the nineteenth century to prevent children playing in the remains.[22] The castle is now maintained byCadw, the historic environment service of theWelsh Government, and includes exhibits and information on Welsh castles as well as the 12th-centuryAnglo-Norman writerGerald of Wales.[23] It typically receives between 42,000 and 48,000 visitors per year; this number dropped during theCOVID-19 pandemic, and 31,527 people visited in 2021.[24][b]
The building sequence of the castle is the subject of debate and relies heavily on analysis of the surviving fabric; the Welsh building work is poorly documented, and although English accounts of expenditure on the castle survive they do not record what the sums were spent on.[26]
An early attempt to date the castle by observing its fabric was made by the antiquarianThomas Pennant in his 1784Tour in Wales. Despite Edward I being the "supposed founder" of the castle, Pennant would "entertain no doubt" that Criccieth was built by a native Welsh prince because of the similarity of the inner gatehouse toDolwyddelan Castle. He did, however, incorrectly believe that the rounded outer faces of the gatehouse towers were an Edwardian addition.[27] A more thorough survey of the castle byHarold Hughes, published inArchaeologia Cambrensis in 1905, gives some idea of the state of the castle before it was excavated later that century. The above-ground fabric was obscured by ivy, modern restoration, and a cairn, and much of the outer ward and the south-east tower were buried. This made it difficult to ascertain the date and original plan of the castle, particularly that of the outer ward — for example, Hughes speculates that what is now identified as the south-east tower may have been a gateway.[28]
When Criccieth was placed in state care in 1933 extensive archaeological excavations were begun, under the direction of Bryan O'Neil, and continued until shortly after the outbreak ofWorld War II.[29] During this time the buried portions of the castle were uncovered and many objects were recovered; a significant find was acrucifix made ofgiltbronze andLimoges enamel, found in the western inner gatehouse tower and now in the collection ofAmgueddfa Cymru.[30] O'Neil concluded from these discoveries that there were three primary building phases: the first dated to the early thirteenth century and included most of the inner ward, the second was dated toc. 1260 and included most of the outer ward, and the third consisted of later additions to the first two phases undertaken by Edward I and Edward II after the English capture of the castle.[31] O'Neil's identification of three building phases is widely accepted, and together with the excavations forms the basis of the contemporary understanding of the castle.[32] The academic debate has since shifted to identifying which parts of the fabric belong to which phase. In his 1970 guide to the castle, C. N. Johns suggested that the outer ward predated the inner ward; however, this theory was not supported by later historians andRichard Avent reverted to O'Neil's building sequence in his 1989 guide.[33] For his part, in 1983 Avent thought it likely that the north tower was English work, but by 1989 considered Llywelyn ab Iorwerth to be the more probable builder.[34]
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The source for the design of the inner gatehouse has been another topic of debate. There is consensus thatBeeston Castle in Cheshire was the primary source, a theory supported by archaeologists including Richard Avent,Laurence Keen, andRachel Swallow. Beeston was built in the 1220s byRanulf de Blondeville, an ally of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth,[c] and is broadly similar to Criccieth. It was built on a crag and its inner gatehouse consists of two D-shaped towers, each containing a chamber with two arrowloops facing the approach, and a gate passage guarded by a portcullis and a pair of doors. There are differences: Criccieth has three arrowloops to each guardroom, had a stone–vaulted gate passage rather than a wooden ceiling, and its towers were longer and similar to apsidal keeps.[36] Similarities have also been noted between the Criccieth gatehouse and that atBolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, also built by Ranulf de Blondeville; withMontgomery Castle inPowys, which was attacked by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth in 1228 and 1231; and withWhite Castle in Monmouthshire. The second and third castles were associated withHubert de Burgh, a marcher lord and major power in South Wales.[37]Whatever the exact inspiration for the gatehouse, the result, according to Avent, is that at Criccieth "the latest advances in military technology" are combined with the "somewhat haphazard Welsh castle building style".[38]
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The castle occupies a rocky headland on the coast. It is almostconcentric, with an inner ward surrounded by an outer ward on all sides but the south-east. The inner ward forms an irregular six-sided enclosure and contains a twin-towered gatehouse on the north side and a tower on the south-east. The outer ward is roughly triangular, following the shape of the headland, and contains towers in the north and south-west corners and a modest gatehouse in the south-east. The landward side of the castle is defended by two ditches.[40]
As noted above, the general consensus is that the castle was built in three main phases. The first phase consists of the work undertaken in the 1230s for Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, probably consisting of the inner ward. The second phase was undertaken some time between 1255 and 1282 for Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, and the third phase of work undertaken between 1283 and 1292 for Edward I of England and between 1307 and 1327 for Edward II of England.[26] The first two phases account for the majority of the fabric, with the third mainly consisting of improvements to the Welsh structure.[10]
The inner gatehouse is the most prominent surviving castle structure, as it survives to almost full height on its three outer sides. It consists of two D-shaped towers with a gate passage between them and was built in three phases. The first was Llywelyn ap Iorwerth's initial construction, which consists of approximately the bottom three-quarters of the building. The second phase was probably undertaken by Edward I and raised the height of the structure, creating new battlements and holes for ahoarding. The third phase is probably part of the repairs undertaken by Edward II; it heightened the gatehouse again, blocking the second-phase battlements and creating new ones above, one of which survives on the eastern tower. The gate arch is a reconstruction.[41] The rear wall of the gatehouse is ruinous, but the remains of the stair to the first floor survive on the east side. The stair was also constructed in three phases, the first two consisting of the original stair and a subsequent widening under Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. Under Edward I the stair was widened again and the first phase built up to form a platform, which probably formed the base for a wooden stair which led up to the wall-walk of the curtain wall. A lobby off this wall-walk gave access to the second floor of the gatehouse and to a straight stair in the thickness of the gatehouse wall, which led to its own wall-walk.[10]
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The centre of the ground floor of the gatehouse is occupied by the gate passage. It was protected by a portcullis, the grooves for which partially survive just within the gate arch, and a pair of doors approximately halfway along. There is a water cistern at the rear of the passage, fed by a natural spring. Just before the cistern are the doors into two near-identical guard chambers, which occupy the ground floors of the towers. Each chamber contains three arrowslits which guard the approach to the gatehouse.[42] The first and second storeys were probably divided by wooden partitions into smaller chambers, but it is possible that the first floor was undivided and used as a hall. At each level there is alatrine accessed from a projection on the west tower.[43] One of the chambers in the west tower may have been a chapel, as a crucifix was found during excavations of the ground floor.[44] It is probable that both upper floors were primarily lit by windows in the ruined rear wall; the only surviving window is at first-floor level in the east tower. The rear wall may also have contained fireplaces, as fragments of late thirteenth- or early fourteenth-century chimney were also found during excavations.[45]
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The other major feature of the inner ward is the south-west tower, which is contemporary with the gatehouse but was refaced both internally and externally under Edward I.[10] Its western wall stands to approximately 6.1 m (20 ft) and contains the remains of a fireplace, but it is otherwise ruined.[46] The ground floor would originally have been accessed via a ladder from the floor above, but was later entered from a doorway which was probably inserted by Llywelyn ap Gruffudd.[47] The interior of the tower contains the base of a staircase contemporary with the refacing, but this was either left incomplete or later dismantled.[48] There are latrine chutes on the east and west sides of the tower, which suggest that it was of three storeys. Four chutes in the adjoining section of curtain wall to the north are part of the original construction, and served latrines at ground and first-floor level.[49] A staircase was built over the ground-floor entrance to these latrines when the tower was refaced, and provided access to the wall-walk and possibly the first floor of the tower.[49] A stone channel for a lead pipe survives on the exterior of the east side, which fed a cistern.[50]
The remainder of the ward is enclosed by a curtain wall, which stands to almost its full height except for the stretch between the gatehouse and south-east tower. The wall-walk survives on the southern and western stretches, as well as the parapet and half an embrasure where the wall meets the west gatehouse tower. Little trace remains of the buildings which stood against the wall, but footings and beam-holes indicate that they existed, as does a 1292 reference to the "king's hall". In the south-east corner, adjacent to the tower, is the south gate, a simple opening which originally served as apostern and later as a means of communication between the two wards. It is uncertain what the square area of cobbles adjacent to the gate represents, but it may have been an oven.[51]
The north tower survives to the base of its first floor, the level of which is indicated by beam-holes in the south-east corner. It is battered on its three outer sides and the north-east wall contains two pairs of latrine chutes, suggesting that the tower had two floors. A flight of wide, shallow steps was built against the inner wall by Edward I, and running south-west from their base is a cobbled platform. These features have been interpreted as being for the transportation of ammunition for an engine mounted on the tower.[52]
The south-west tower is the largest in the outer ward, but the most ruinous. Its lower walls are contemporary with the rest of the outer ward, but the western corner has almost entirely vanished. As originally built the tower may have consisted of two storeys and resembled the original form of the east tower ofDolwyddelan Castle, built by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth. There are flat stones on the ground which probably carried a wooden floor. The upper walls have been refaced, probably under Edward I; at the same time a doorway was inserted into the ground floor, a staircase built against the north-east wall to give access to the first floor, and a second floor probably added. The staircase blocked a pre-existing embrasure in the curtain wall. The tower was richly decorated; the doors to the staircase and first floor arechamfered and decorated withball-stops, and archaeological finds from the interior include twocorbels, one carved with foliage and the other with a human head, and a foliatecapital.[53]
The outer gatehouse was originally a simple passage through the curtain wall with a doorway at its inner end. Shortly afterward a second gate was added at the outer end of the passage and its eastern wall thickened, which necessitated lengthening the embrasure on this side. The thickened wall may have extended to the southern corner of the inner ward, controlling access to its southern gate. Finally, under Edward I a simplebarbican was constructed in front of the gatehouse.[54]
In contrast to the inner curtain wall, the outer curtain wall does not survive to a high level and as a result few features remain. Between the south-east tower and the inner gatehouse is a thicker portion of wall which probably marks the site of a stair to the wall-walk. The stretch between the south-west and north towers contains the bases of several embrasures, including the one blocked by the south-west tower stair. The centre of this section of wall is narrow to accommodate a passage between the curtains, which was originally roofed over; the narrowness of the outer wall here is an indication that it post-dates the inner.[55]
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Source: Rickard[56]
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| Built byLlywelyn ab Iorwerth | .jpg) | |
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