The fortification that stands today, Caernarfon Castle, was probably one of the most ambitious military construction projects of the middle ages, spawned by two 13th century conflicts with Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, prince of the ancient kingdom of Gwynedd. Caernarfon is part of a network of fortifications that include Conway, Rhuddlan, Denby, Flint, Roofen, Hope, Harley, Aberest, Gwynedd and Buell. How it all came about is explained in an excellent permanent exhibition within the castle walls.

The Prince of Wales’ investiture was held in Caernarfon Castle in 1969. When Prince Charles was invested at that time, an obituary was secretly written in case he was assassinated, although the Welsh seemed to have accepted the English more easily than either the Irish or the Scottish - more on that later.

Caernarfon, like Conwy, is a walled castle and walled city. Beaumaris is not a walled city and neither Beaumaris nor Caernarfon were ever completely finished. Most of the large castles are between 20 and 25 miles apart and also in this part of Wales there are thousands of foothills between them. Rhuddlan is not on scale of either of the castles that we are going to see today, nor was it on the scale of Conwy, which we saw yesterday. One thing to not forget about Caernarfon is that Edward meant it to be a fortress/palace.

Coming up to the castle - and yes, we almost got lost but didn't - we saw another of those awe-inspiring sights where you see it from a slight distance and the majesty and sheer size of the place makes you forget to breathe.

Begun by Edward I in 1283 during his conquest of Wales, Caernarfon was both fortress and palace in the principle sea of government for North Wales. It was the birthplace of the first English Prince of Wales in 1284 and has accommodated the investitures of the last two Princes in 1911 and 1969.

We are waiting to catch a tour from the inside keep. It’s very impressive, even in the pouring rain. There is so much to say about Caernarfon, it’s hard to know where to start. The pronunciation of it is "Canarvin." While the first Prince of Wales may have been born here, he wasn’t actually born in the castle, as the myth goes, because it wouldn’t have been built yet. It was just starting to have been built. There are no dungeons because they didn’t actually take prisoners, they just killed people.

The entryway had three complete portcullis' and two big sets of doors, plus murder holes in two separate places to kill people from above. The fourth portcullis (and the wall on the other side) was never completed, so it doesn’t exist. All around the castle, the towers and the doorways have protrusions that would have been fit from the other side had they finished the castle. Edward ran out of money and had pretty much taken care of the rebellions; the first was so bloodthirsty that there wasn't really a second. And, his attention was taken away by the Scottish rebellions of William Wallace. Still, it’s more complete than the castle at Beaumaris, and is a larger castle than that we saw at Conwy.

Something we found very interesting was the hot water system. They had lead-lined gullies leading into the kitchen. One set was over a fire so that the water could be heated while the other was not, so could be used for cold water. They didn't know at the time that lead was poisonous, of course, and as the castle ceased to be occupied, the lead was stolen from it. This is part of the kitchen.

Something I didn't know was that the castle ceased to be occupied (in 1485) when Henry VII ascended to the throne. Henry was Welsh...but I digress. Let's get back to the castle itself.

By the time Henry VII assumed the throne, there were no more Welsh rebellions - unlike the Scottish and Irish, the Welsh seemed to have given in earlier. The first rebellion occurred when Edward had just started the castle. Because of it he built a whole other internal wall to keep the Welsh out. It's a walled city and on one wall they have a very unique set-up for shooting arrows, as you'll see below. You can shoot one out at an angle to the left, another straight, and another at an angle to the right, effectively tripling coverage.

Amazingly, the largest force at the castle was only 28 men. There are five sets of those three arrow slits, which made it quite impossible for the Welsh to attack. In fact, after that first rebellion when they destroyed the castle, they were never able to get back in.

There are 11 staircases. Seven are the so-called right handed, four were the so-called left handed, but this particular tour guide did not buy that theory of clockwise and counterclockwise.

We are upstairs in the Eagle’s Tower now waiting for the film about Welsh history to begin. This would, no doubt, have been the king’s multi-media room.  Edward fancied himself quite the emperor so he used the Roman eagle, which was the symbol of Rome, on top of the Eagle’s Tower. Another reason why there is such strong Roman influence is that after the Romans had been here for so many years, the Welsh had begun to meld their history into that of their own people. It is this influence Edward used to worm his way into the area.

The castle itself was modeled after a castle in Constantinople where he had been in the crusades. I have definitively learned with a buttery is. It’s attached to the main dining hall and where liquor was stored. The word "butler" comes from the "buttle" in "buttery."

The word "threshold" comes from the thresh you would put on the other side of the door and they would cover it up in a box and that’s where the term "thresh-hold" comes from. Whether or not the 28 soldiers who were garrisoned here actually made it to the garderobes is not known. They perhaps would have used the rushes at the side of the room, which would cause, of course, for them to be changed quite often. Only the English and French were allowed to live in the walled towns. The colored stone parts of the building was something that was only done here and so was the octagonal shape of the towers.

One of the reasons why Edward built all these castles is that the local Welsh prince would not swear fealty to him as other Welsh princes had. The English, of course, had come through Wales earlier with Harold, who was killed in the Battle of Hastings, but then the Welsh had retaken the land until Edward and his ring of castles.

We are on the other side of the moat now and are watching a mama swan and five baby swans. The babies, as you can see, are not white like their mother and must be in that "ugly duckling phase," although I think they're quite graceful looking myself.

From this position we can look up at the King's tower, which is tremendous in size. It is at least five stories (five windows) and then a battlement on top with at least two narrow towers going up above that. The baby swans, of course, are not white and they remind you of the Hans Christian Anderson story of the ugly duckling because they certainly don't look as beautiful as swans, although they have nice long necks, but they are rather grayish brown.

We stopped in a store so I could look at the Celtic jewelry and found myself the dragon bracelet, broach with a purple stone at the center, and the Celtic cross I’ve always wanted.

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