Conwy Castle

Conwy Castle is a fortress whose compact design was determined by the rocky outcrop on which it stands. Roughly rectangular in plan, it comprises a curtain wall with eight higher round towers enclosing an outer ward on the west side and a smaller, near-square inner ward to the east overlooking the river. Additional defence was provided by barbicans at the east and west entrances. The walls are built of coursed rubble with freestone dressings of pink sandstone. They are embattled with saddleback copings to the merlons, which also incorporate arrow loops on the towers. The round towers feature loops and openings with two-light mullioned windows, although few of the mullions have survived, and higher round stair turrets. Many features are consistent throughout the building, including freestone fireplaces with raked stone hoods and window seats.

Western Entrance and Barbican

The main entrance from the town is on the west side. It retains part of a ramp on the north side from the modern Castle Square. The gap over which the drawbridge was lowered has been covered by a timber platform. The entrance arch to the west barbican has a pointed arch with portcullis slots, flanked by round turrets with corbel tables. Inside the gateway are later stone steps leading to a gate passage, where there is a modern breach in the wall for visitor access, and the springers and draw-bar sockets of another gateway. The west barbican has an almost straight wall with three turrets. The town wall is attached to the southernmost turret.

Eastern Entrance and Barbican

Entrance to the east barbican was from the Water Gate. The outer steps have disappeared, probably lost when Thomas Telford built the suspension bridge in 1822–26, but they are shown on the Buck brothers' 1742 engraving of the castle. Steps inside the barbican have survived, but of the doorway in the barbican wall only the draw-bar sockets remain. The faceted east barbican wall has three turrets similar to the west side.

Towers and Curtain Walls

The castle has eight towers, of which six enclose the outer ward—one at each corner and one halfway along each of the north and south walls—and four enclose the inner ward, of which two (the Stockhouse Tower and Bakehouse Tower) are common to both inner and outer wards. In the outer ward the south wall is faceted and the west wall is narrower than the east. Otherwise the whole castle is rectangular in plan. The west wall of the outer ward has a pointed arch below deep corbels of former machicolations. On the north side of the outer ward, both sections of wall have two loops and two latrine shafts, including one on the west side contained within a shallow projection and low round turret. Attached to the Stockhouse Tower, between the inner and outer wards, is the town wall. The inner ward north wall has two loops and two low-level outlets of latrine shafts. On the south side, each section of the outer ward has three windows, two loops to the cellar, and a latrine shaft at wall-walk level. The Bakehouse Tower between inner and outer wards is partly rebuilt in snecked stone with a battered plinth of rock-faced stone—repairs carried out by the London and North Western Railway in the 1870s of the deliberate breach made in 1655. The inner ward south wall has a doorway at ground-floor level above a battered rubble plinth (the only section not built directly on bedrock). At first-floor level are two loops, a larger opening centre-right, and a former doorway at the right end. Above first-floor level are three latrine shafts. The east wall, from the east barbican, has a shoulder-headed doorway, four first-floor windows with stepped lintels, and deep corbelled machicolations, although the embattled parapet has not survived.

Outer Ward

In the outer ward, the gate passage has portcullis slots and draw-bar sockets, and a high-level door on the south side leading to stone steps up to the wall walk. The inner side of the wall is corbelled out at parapet level. The northwest and southwest towers form a pair. They each have two superimposed newel stairs restored in concrete. Both have fireplaces to the first and second floors. In addition, the southwest tower has a domed bread oven at ground floor and a latrine to the first floor. The Kitchen Tower in the centre of the north side of the outer ward has a ruined newel stair. The wall walk is corbelled out around its faceted inner side. The Prison Tower on the corresponding south side has a dungeon but otherwise similar details to the other towers, including restored newel stairs and ruined fireplaces, except for a second-floor fireplace with a flat stone arch instead of a corbelled lintel.

Remains of buildings can be seen against each of the outer ward walls. Of the guard rooms to the west, flanking the gate passage, and the kitchen and stables on the north, only footings have survived. Against the south wall is a long faceted range housing a lesser hall and a small chamber in the west facet, a great hall in the central facet, and a passage and chapel in the east facet. At the west end are stone steps leading down to a pointed cellar doorway with continuous chamfer. To its left is a pointed window, its tracery missing but originally two-light. Further left is a similar former two-light window to the great hall that retains fragments of bar tracery. In the east facet are the passage doorway, the dressings of which are mostly missing and with modern stone steps, and a two-light chapel window, also with fragments of bar tracery. The chapel has a similar former three-light east window. Inside, this range has one transverse arch and the springers and haunches of seven others, all inserted in the mid-14th century to support the roof. The lesser hall has a fireplace in its west end wall; the small chamber between halls has a north fireplace; the great hall has a fireplace against the Prison Tower. Access to the Prison Tower is from the embrasure of one of the south windows of the great hall. The cellar has a dividing wall below the chapel with a doorway.

On the east side of the outer ward is a stone-lined well, approximately 91 feet deep. Behind the well was a drawbridge to a small gatehouse at the middle gate between the inner and outer wards. The gatehouse is square in plan with a narrow loop in the west wall. The middle gate has a doorway with a shouldered lintel to each end of its passage and a draw-bar socket.

Inner Ward

The other entrance to the inner ward, the east gate, has draw-bar sockets and a passage giving access to mural stairs to the King's Tower and Chapel Tower. The Stockhouse and Bakehouse Towers are similar to the towers in the outer ward. The Bakehouse Tower has a domed oven behind the ground-floor fireplace and restored newel stairs. The Stockhouse Tower has ruined newel stairs. The northeast Chapel Tower has a restored conical slate roof. From the inner ward is a 19th-century restored doorway with red sandstone jamb to the ground floor. It also has a passage and doorway above the Water Gate on the outer (east) side. A mural stair leads to the first-floor chapel, where there is also a separate latrine. The rib-vaulted chapel is round with an apsidal sanctuary. The sanctuary has wall shafts and cusped arcading, incorporating sedilia on the south side, below three pointed windows with leaded glazing. On the south side is a squint from a small cell. On the north side of the chapel is a deep window seat, which also features a squint to the sanctuary. A restored mural stair leads to the upper chamber. The southwest King's Tower has a restored newel stair. At first-floor level is a small keeled tunnel-vaulted chamber.

Buildings are ranged against the walls of the inner ward, including the king's private apartments. Against the south wall are the first-floor king's chamber on the east and king's hall on the west (known as presence chamber and privy chamber respectively in a survey of 1627), with a passage to the Bakehouse Tower at the west end. This passage has a segmental-pointed arch. Two windows to its left have dressings mostly missing, and further left is a segmental-headed ground-floor doorway and another window. Entrance to the first-floor hall is by a doorway above the passage, which has a two-light cusped square-headed window immediately to its left. Further left are two hall windows and a third to the king's chamber, all square-headed with relieving arches, bar-tracery fragments, and fragments of sunk spandrels. Next left is the wall over the passage to the east gate (later used as a buttery). From inside the passage, the range has a ground-floor doorway with chamfered dressings and springers of a possible cambered arch, and at the left end a first-floor doorway with a segmental head. The west wall of the hall has two first-floor doorways with segmental heads. Inside, beneath the hall is a ground-floor fireplace to the west wall and a larger former corbelled first-floor fireplace in the south wall. One floor-length window reveal in the south wall has a short passage to a latrine. The hall and chamber have one complete and the springers of three other 14th-century stone transverse arches supporting the former roof. In the king's chamber, the first floor has floor-length south and east window reveals opening to mural passages to a latrine and the King's Tower.

Against the east wall of the inner ward are the passage to the east gate and what was known in 1627 as the first-floor great chamber. The passage on the right has a pointed segmental arch, to the left of which the ground floor has a segmental-headed window and a small window further left. The first-floor great chamber was entered by a doorway at the right end over the passage, which has a cambered head. The chamber has one large square-headed west window under a relieving arch. Inside, fireplaces were built into the west walls, with a tripartite lintel in the ground floor. The springers and haunches survive of two former transverse arches added in the mid-14th century to support the roof.