Castle (39 page)

Harlech, with the mountains of Snowdonia in the distance.

An artist’s impression of Harlech in its prime, showing the pathway that led to the watergate.

Caernarfon – the Eagle Tower.

The castle at Chillon, on the shores of Lake Geneva, with the Swiss Alps behind.

Caernarfon – the castle and the town.

Beaumaris – Edward I’s great unfinished fortress.

An artist’s impression shows how the completed castle might have looked.

Bodiam, viewed from the north-east. The chapel interrupts the castle’s symmetry, and flaunts its large, vulnerable window.

Bodiam’s main gate.

The great hall at Penshurst Place in Kent is nearly contemporary with Bodiam Castle. Bodiam’s Hall, although somewhat smaller than the one at Penshurst, was built to an identical design, with a hearth at its centre, and a screens passage and minstrels’ gallery at the far end.

Threave – the fourteenth-century tower house with its fifteenth-century artillery wall.

Threave Island, as it might have appeared at the close of the fourteenth century.

Castle Urquhart – the Grant Tower.

The hall at Craigievar, showing the moulded plaster ceiling, and the tiny screens passage at the far end.