#Harlech Castle

[gingersnaptaff]

Howdy! Went to Y Wyddfa and Harlech today!!!!

Y Wyddfa (the peak was enveloped in cloud but it was still pretty!)

And then CASTLE

[angiethewitch]

Harlech Castle ♡

[wandering-jana]

Harlech Castle at sunset. Harlech, Wales.

[landschaftsmalerei]

Landschaft mit Harlech Castle von John Varley 

[the-history-of-fighting]

[barnettshale]

Harlech Castle in Wales

[hisforhome]

Property spotlight: Castle views

Property spotlight: Castle views

In our last Property Spotlight post, we featured homes that look out on to cathedrals. This time, we’ve found a quartet of properties for sale spanning the home nations all boasting stunning views of the following castles: Alnwick, in England (where bits of the Harry Potter series, Philosopher’s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets were filmed) Harlech, in Wales (designated a World Heritage…

[lemuseum]

[trevlad-sounds]

Invisible Waves 26.

30.06.2024

Intro 00:00 lofield-suspended in silence 00:12 Chapter 1 04:37 Dark Fidelity Hi Fi-Outcodes 08:16 Anantakara-Wildlife Secret Message 10:24 Chapter 2 18:57 Beefus B-It’s a Matter of Time and Space 22:04 Lone Bison-Talk About It 27:23 Chapter 3 31:23 Mike Dickinson-The Absolute 34:14 The Metamorph-The Maypole Dance 40:19 Chapter 4 44:23 Shinichiroa-Afternoon 47:40

[jurijurijurious]

I'm coming to the end of a week's holiday in Wales. I've been spending time in and around Gwynedd. Had a great time. It's the first time I've visited Wales and heard Welsh spoken widely, really great to hear.

Also using my Cadw membership to its max: CASTLES!

L to R, top row then bottom: Caenarfon, Dolbadarn (don't have to pay for that one anyway but it's still Cadw); Harlech, Beaumaris. Love a castle. 😘

[rhapsodynew]

#rare photos

RARE PHOTOGRAPHS OF GEORGE HARRISON TAKEN BY PAUL MCCARTNEY IN 1959.

Paul McCartney and George Harrison at that time lived just one stop away from each other in the so-called "Trading Estate" in Speke.

During these bus trips, George found out that Paul plays trumpet and got a guitar, and Paul found out that George plays guitar, they got together at night and played songs that Paul remembers, such as "Besame Mucho" and "Don't Rock me Daddy O".

Paul and George became fast friends, even hitchhiking to Wales in August 1959 before they became famous and joined The Beatles.

"Better times with George? We hitchhiked to a place in Wales called Harlech, we were kids." We heard the song "Men Of Harlech", saw it on the sign, yes, there was a big castle. And we just went there. We had guitars everywhere and we ended up in this cafe. You know, we tried to go to some place, to a central meeting place, there was a small cafe in Harlech that had a jukebox. So we sat down there. We met a guy, he started talking, he was into rock and roll, you know, we went and stayed at his house. - Paul McCartney

"One day Paul and I decided to hitchhike. This is something that no one dreams of today. Firstly, you will probably be robbed before you even pass through the Mercy Tunnel, and secondly, everyone has cars and they are already stuck in traffic. I often traveled with my family to the south, to Devon, to Exmouth, so Paul and I decided to go there first. "We didn't have a lot of money. We found a bed and breakfast. We got to a city, walked down the street, it started to get dark. We saw a woman and said, "Excuse me, do you know where we can stay?" She felt sorry for us and said, "My boy has left, come and stay at my house." She took us to her place, she allowed us to stay in her boy's room and cooked breakfast for us the next morning. She was very sweet. I do not know who she was.

"We continued along the south coast towards Exmouth. On the way, we talked at the pub with a customer who told us his name was Oxo Whitney. (He later appears in "A Spaniard in the Works". After we told John this story, he used this name. Most of John's books are based on funny things that were told to him.) Then we went to Paignton. We still had almost no money. We had small backpacks, we stopped at grocery stores. We bought spaghetti bolognese or spaghetti Milanese. They were in striped cans: Milanese with red stripes, bolognese with blue stripes. And rice with Ambrosia cream. We opened the jar, bent the lid and held the jar over the stove to keep it warm. It was what we lived for.

"We arrived in Paignton with no extra money, so we spent the night on the beach, got up in the morning and went for a walk again. We drove through North Devon and took the ferry to South Wales because Paul had a relative, so we decided to go there. "In Chepstow, we went to the police station and asked to stay in the cell. They said, "No." So we went and slept on a hardboard bench. It's damn cold. We left there and hitchhiked on. Moving north through Wales, we were given a lift by truck. Back then, trucks didn't have a passenger seat, so I sat on the engine cover. Paul was sitting on the radiator. He was wearing jeans with zippers on the back pockets and after a while he suddenly jumped up screaming.His zipper connected the positive and negative poles of the battery, heated red hot and left a mark. "When we finally got to Butlins, we couldn't get there. They had barbed wire fences to keep the campers and us out. That's why we had to break in." – George Harrison, The Beatles Anthology.

1960s

George, Paul and Ringo, Vee Caldwell House, Liverpool, 1961

George, Rory Storm, Ringo, Johnny "Guitarist" Byrne and their friends, Vee Caldwell House, Liverpool, 1961

George and Paul, the Cashba Club, February 1961

[gingersnaptaff]

But also, outside the castle they have a statue of Bendigeidfran and Gwern!!!!! If you've ever looked at Brân's wiki page then you'll have seen it.

Also cute Robin bud.

And, finally,

That's the castle from the beach. All the grass and town would've been filled with water.

[angiethewitch]

I am absolutely disgusted to learn that crown owns our castles and the profits are sent to Westminster. Wales is struggling, our economy is struggling, our people are struggling, our health services are struggling, and that money could go to the betterment of our lives - instead it goes to England.

despite the fact we maintain the castles and land, we don't own them. they are in OUR country. ownership should belong to us, the people who built them. we maintain them. we work in them. theyre ours and we should be able to use the profits generated by them to help welsh people, not allow the money be funnelled into the monarchy.

the fact the crown owns so much of wales is such an outdated and medieval concept and has no place in modern society.

petition here:

please sign. I am disgusted.

[whencyclopedia]

Harlech Castle

Harlech Castle, located in North Wales, was first built by Edward I of England (r. 1272-1307 CE) from 1283 CE. Largely completed by 1290 CE, the castle received some further additions up to 1330 CE. A classic example of a concentric medieval castle, Harlech skilfully used local topography, the sea, and imposing towers to represent a formidable challenge to any attackers, as proven in the lengthy sieges of the Welsh rebellions and the Wars of the Roses during the turbulent 15th century CE. Harlech Castle is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Edward I's Castle Building

From 1272 CE Edward I, the new king of England, conquered most of Wales and joined it with the county system present in England. Following the death of Llywelyn, the Prince of Wales, in 1282 CE, the only part of Wales which remained free was the wild mountainous north and here the king built several major castles which included Caernarfon Castle, Conwy Castle, and Harlech Castle. Work began on Harlech Castle in June 1283 CE, the vast team of labourers, masons, and craftsmen being supervised by Master James of Saint Georges (c. 1235-1308 CE), the experienced architect and engineer who had previously built castles in Europe and who would be involved in many of Edward's other Welsh castles.

As with any major castle, the choice of location would be the key to its chances of withstanding siege or attacks. Harlech was built on one of the most secure spots any castle was erected upon, sited on a rocky crag which rose straight out of the sea (today the sea has receded). There was also vital access to a small port or quay which meant that in times of trouble the castle could easily be supplied by boats (although one does not envy the porters who had to climb the 100+ steps with their heavy loads). The king visited the site in person to check progress over three days in August 1283 CE, and by the end of the first major building phase, he must have been happy with the results as he made Master James constable of the castle in 1290 CE, a position he would hold until 1293 CE.

Harlech would, by 1303 CE, eventually cost 8,184 pounds to construct (around $11 million today) but that was still a third cheaper than the cost of Caernarfon or Conwy. This is because the castle was both smaller and less ornate in its stonework and design. Even more significantly, the castle used local stone and so avoided the heavy costs of transportation of cumbersome materials. Another 400 pounds were spent on the castle between 1303 and 1330 CE.

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[highqueenofprydain]

“I should imagine he’s still alive. Otherwise Achren would have fed him to the ravens.”

My Wales travel buddy and fellow Prydain fic author channeling Evil Queen like a goddess at Harlech Castle.

[richmond-rex]

Hi, I wondered about this obvious but puzzling question, did Henry VII speak Welsh?

Hi! There is no evidence per se that he did, but some hints suggest he spoke Welsh to some degree or at least understood it. There is evidence that Herbert's court in Raglan Castle, where Henry was raised from ages 4 to 13, was Welsh-speaking. William Herbert was a great patron of Welsh poets who wrote for his family: a great example is the poem by Hywel Swrdwal in celebration of William Herbert Jr's marriage to Mary Woodville and his knighting by the king at Windsor. According to the Welsh poetry tradition of that time, those poems were made to be read aloud to audiences in a gathering. That specific poet says William Herbert spoke their tongue (translation below):

The stag of noble Raglan is strongest, / A mighty reach, against any mere fawn / No man under his authority / Will take his golden collar away to play with it / The foremost king of Britain and its realm / Gave his sister to him / He held a great wedding-feast in Windsor / For this man, in his royalty / A generous feast for our lord who is of our tongue, / May he be seen again as a prince!*

So Henry VII would have grown up in that kind of Welsh-speaking environment. It's also known that Herbert took Henry with him around Wales, such as the time he besieged Henry's uncle at Harlech and took the boy with him to see his uncle's defeat (awkward......).

Another hint is that Henry had a Welsh nurse whom he rewarded after Bosworth named Joan, wife of Philip ap Howell, who was from Carmarthen, a region that was mostly Welsh-speaking. It's plausible that she would have taught him some Welsh. Less conclusive, there's a Welsh poem that wishes that the young Earl of Richmond would never become a 'Saesnaeg', that is a Saxon, an Englishman. I think the poet could only mean it symbolically, which might suggest Henry grew up in a strong, culturally Welsh, environment.

Thanks to Vergil we know Henry had a formal education in English and Latin, but he doesn't tell us if Henry ever learned Welsh by being raised by Welsh-speaking people (which is likely in my opinion). Judging from his march to Bosworth and how he made use of Welsh prophecies, it's very clear Henry had a strong formation in Welsh culture. In my opinion it's likely that he at least understood some of it.

*‘Urddo Wiliam Herbert Ieuanc yn Farchog o’r badd gan Hywel Swrdwal’; translation by Dr Barry Lewis. Notice how the poet calls Mary Woodville the king's sister. Another interesting detail that I speculate on is that Herbert took Henry to Windsor for that feast, and this is how the Earl of Nottingham was able to say to the pope in 1486 that he knew Henry VII for 20 years.