Men of Harlech

“Men of Harlech, stop your dreaming
Can't you see their spear points gleaming
See their warrior pennants streaming
To this battle field”

    On to Harlech. Our Welsh adventure continued with a drive up to the Northern lands along the Irish Sea. Our reasons for visiting this rugged, remote, region were; to see Harlech castle, visit Snowdonia and take the Ferry to Ireland.

    Harlech castle is one of a series of castles built on the order of Edward I in the 13th century. I had asked specifically to see this one as it was the model for the book and film Castle which I used when I taught world history. It was a seven year siege on this castle that inspired the song Men of Harlech. This song is widely used as a regimental march, especially by British Army and Commonwealth regiments historically associated with Wales. Notably, it is the slow march of the Welsh Guards, and the quick march of the Royal Welsh. There is also an amazing story of the song as a symbol of inspiration during 9/11 tower evacuations.

 The castle did not disappoint. High on a cliff overlooking the sea the walls seemed impenetrable. A strong wind blowing in made walking on the ramparts a bit intimidating while the on again /off again rain created slippery stone steps.s. Like Chepstow, the semi ruined state of the castle allowed my imagination to fill in the picture of the men and women who lived and fought and died here. Truly inspiring.

    We stayed at a bed and breakfast with a room that overlooked the sea. https://www.dolaur.com/  Watching the sunset from our room was the perfect way to end the day.

  After a full Welsh breakfast (don't forget the baked beans) we drove the winding mountain roads to Snowdonia, the Welsh National Park. We intended to hike some of the trails but cold weather,lack of proper gear and our inability to find the trailhead kept us closer to the town. We did find to our delight and no one's surprise another castle! It was only about a mile in the woods from the parking lot but felt millions of miles away. This smaller castle was an outpost overlooking a river in case of an invasion by water.  
We spent our last hours in Wales on the coast at Hollyhead. As we waited for our evening ferry to take us to our next destination we already began to miss the beauty and spirit of this country.