Details for papawin.

Basic floorplan from the Ministry of Works guidebook to "Caernarvon Castle" by A.J. Taylor, published in 1953 and reprinted in 1954.

A birds'-eye view of the castle taken from the Cadw guidebook to "Caernarfon Castle" by A.J. Taylor, published in 1986 and reprinted in 1997.

A cutaway view of the Eagle Tower taken from the Cadw guidebook to "Caernarfon Castle" by A.J. Taylor, published in 1986 and reprinted in 1997.

A floorplan of the castle taken from the Cadw guidebook to "Caernarfon Castle" by A.J. Taylor, published in 1986 and reprinted in 1997.

A cutaway view of the Chamberlain Tower taken from the Cadw guidebook to "Caernarfon Castle" by A.J. Taylor, published in 1986 and reprinted in 1997.

An old postcard of Caernarfon Castle, recently purchased.

This castle is one of my favourites - built sometime shortly after Edward I's conquest of Wales in 1283, this stunning castle was described by the Welsh Naturalist and Antiquarian Thomas Pennant as 'the magnificent badge of our subjection' - and magnificent is certainly is.

I love the castles built by Edward - and today they stand as monuments to the terrible fate that befell Wales at his hands; Edward effectively tried to strip Wales of its culture, identity, customs, and institutions, and this castle dominated the local land as Edward intended to dominate Wales. This castle let people know that he was here to stay. But still, as a feat of building it is truly staggering.

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As he tried in Scotland too. Caernarvon is as you say a truly magnificent place, and I'm long overdue to pay it another visit.
A cracking picture John, is it one of yours?

Not one of my pics Gordon - I was scouring the web for one which I thought showed the scale of it, and came across this on the wikipedia entry for Caernarvon. I don't get around to many castles at the moment, so I'm currently doing the next best thing (after browsing here of course), which is building a collection of photos which are in the public domain.

When I lived in North Wales I never actually visited Caernarvon, only saw it in passing, but it made more of an impression on me than those those I did actually visit (although Conwy was quite amazing). I'd love to actually get back down there and get up close to it.

I'm surprised to learn this isn't one of James of St. George's creations, I've always associated him with the boldest and most brilliant of Edward's castles so always assumed he was behind this one.

Have you seen many of the north Wales castles then, Gordon? It's a magnificent area, and you get a feeling of how it may have felt 700 years ago when in places such as Conwy, with it's beautiful castle and stunning town walls - I suppose one benefit of being conquered by someone like Edward is that future generations can appreciate the architecture

I haven't been to Wales since I was sixteen......and that's a longggg time ago. I did get to visit Caernarvon when I was there, and saw a few others from a distance, but in those days I was only particularly interested in finding one castle and tended to disregard others in search of it, see Cardross manor in Scottish. The only exceptions were Bedlay, close to where I lived, and Pitsligo, close to my maternal grandmothers original home town/a regular holiday haunt.