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Caernarfon seen across the foreshore at low tide, the full run of its medieval town wall leading to the castle at the far end

Gwynedd · Menai Strait

Caernarfon

A walled medieval borough that never turned into a museum, with houses built against the town wall and a working quay on the Strait below.

  • Type of placeHistoric royal town
  • Best forWalls, quay & steam railway
  • Visit lengthHalf a day, easily a full one
  • SettingMenai Strait, Eryri behind
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01The town

An ordinary town inside a medieval wall

Caernarfon is a compact rectangle of streets on the Menai Strait, held inside a wall built at the same time as the castle in the 1280s. Everything in this guide except the Roman fort sits within about fifteen minutes’ walk of the square, and the wall is not a fenced-off relic: shops, houses and a church are built directly against it.

Why it matters

The walls carry the same UNESCO World Heritage inscription as the castle, but the town inside them is the reason to come: a working county town where the working language is Welsh, and where the medieval plan is still the street plan.

A round medieval wall tower on Bank Quay, Caernarfon, with a row of pastel-painted terraced houses running away from it

Character

A Welsh-speaking county town

At the 2021 Census one Caernarfon small area recorded 86.3% Welsh speakers: the highest density anywhere in Wales.

Pace

Walkable inside the wall

734 metres of wall, eight towers and two medieval gates enclose a centre you can cross in a few minutes.

Landscape

Water on one side, mountains behind

The town faces the Menai Strait where the Afon Seiont meets it, with the edge of Eryri rising immediately inland.

Best for

Free heritage, ticketed extras

The walls, the square, the quay, the dock and the Roman fort cost nothing; the castle and the railway are separate tickets.

02Discover

The moments that define a visit

Caernarfon's town wall running the length of the waterfront at low tide, the castle at the far end

A wall the town still lives against

A complete circuit of medieval wall with front doors, shopfronts and a church built into the same stone.

Painted shopfronts and pavement tables on the east side of Y Maes, Caernarfon, with the town wall at the left edge

The square inside the walls

The square between the castle gate and the shops, where the town does its everyday business in Welsh.

Yachts moored along the Slate Quay at Caernarfon, directly below the castle's curtain wall

The quay the slate left from

An open quay under the castle wall where the town, the Strait and the mountains line up at once.

A green Garratt locomotive at the Welsh Highland Railway platform in Caernarfon, below the retaining wall of Segontium Terrace

A train out of a cutting

A steam train leaves from a platform sunk below the street and climbs south into Eryri.

Beyond the first defining moments, the fuller Caernarfon catalogue continues below.

Find your bearings

Seven stops inside or beside the walls, and one Roman fort a kilometre uphill: the square is the point everything else is measured from.

Caernarfon Castle seen from the west across the water, its banded towers above the quay No verified image yet

Caernarfon Castle

At the south-west corner of the walls, straight ahead as you come up from the quay.

Heritage

What to see and do

Eight destinations: a castle, a walled circuit, a market square, a working quay, a garrison church, a marina quarter with an arts centre, a steam-railway terminus and a Roman fort. No cafés, pubs or shops are recommended here. See Local life for the town’s everyday character.

Caernarfon Castle seen from the west across the water, its banded towers above the quay

Heritage

Caernarfon Castle

Polygonal banded towers rising straight off the quay, deliberately echoing the walls of Constantinople rather than any English keep. Cadw runs it as a ticketed site.

1.5–2 hoursSW corner, on the water

Check opening times and admission (opens in a new tab)
Yachts moored along the Slate Quay at Caernarfon, directly below the castle's curtain wall

Waterfront

Slate Quay & the harbour

Yachts now lie against the wall that once loaded slate out of the valleys. It is where most people arrive, and the free, open edge of the town.

20–30 minSouth, below the castle

Painted shopfronts and pavement tables on the east side of Y Maes, Caernarfon, with the town wall at the left edge

Town centre

Y Maes & the town centre

The open square where the castle gate, the shops and the bus route all arrive at the same ground. Still the town’s meeting point, not a monument.

20–40 minCentre, east of the castle

Caernarfon's town wall running the length of the waterfront at low tide, the castle at the far end

Heritage

The Town Walls & Porth yr Aur

A remarkably intact circuit of eight towers and two medieval gates. Only a short stretch of the wall-walk is open, so this is a street-level lap.

30–45 minEncircles the centre

St Mary's Church, Caernarfon, its gable set against the round north-west tower of the town wall

Working church

St Mary’s Church

The clearest proof that wall and town are one thing: the church is built hard against it, and the wall’s round tower serves as its belfry.

15–20 minNW corner, Church Street

Yachts in the marina at Doc Fictoria, Caernarfon, the Galeri building and waterside apartments behind

Waterfront & arts

Doc Fictoria & Galeri

A short walk north of the walls the town changes register entirely: a working marina, a quayside you can walk end to end, and an arts centre on it.

30–45 minNorth, outside the wall

Check what is on (opens in a new tab)
A green Garratt locomotive at the Welsh Highland Railway platform in Caernarfon, below the retaining wall of Segontium Terrace

Heritage railway

Welsh Highland Railway Terminus

Narrow-gauge steam leaves from a platform in a cutting under the terrace and runs south through Eryri to Porthmadog. Easy to miss from the street above.

Half a day for a return tripSE, St Helen’s Road

Check timetables and book tickets (opens in a new tab)
The excavated stone foundations of Segontium Roman Fort laid out in grass, with the modern town beyond

Heritage

Segontium Roman Fort

Low footings on a grass platform above the town map out a Roman fort that held a thousand men. Free, and open all year.

30–45 min1km east, uphill

Castle admission, railway fares and the railway’s operating season all change through the year. Confirm current details before you build a day around either.

Castell Caernarfon, Cadw

Sources

03Story

Two empires chose the same riverbank

Rome held this crossing point for three centuries before the Normans had a word for Wales. Edward I built on top of that memory deliberately, and everything since has been added inside the plan he drew.

  1. Segontium, AD 77–c.394

    Agricola founded the fort after crushing the Ordovices, and a thousand auxiliary infantry held it. The garrison lasted longer than at any other Roman fort in Wales, and the place survived in the Mabinogion as Caer aber Seint.

  2. The borough of 1283

    Edward I began castle, town walls and quay as a single project and chartered the borough in the same year. The 734-metre wall enclosed a grid of streets meant for English settlers, laid out where the Roman road had come down to the water.

  3. Madog’s rising, 1294

    Welsh forces under Madog ap Llywelyn took the town and destroyed nearly half the walls. Rebuilding them cost about £1,195 by November 1295: the repairs are why parts of the circuit look different from others.

  4. Slate port and county town, 1800s

    Slate from the valleys inland came down to the quay, and the town became the administrative centre of Caernarfonshire. St Mary’s was rebuilt in 1811–14 by Benjamin Wyatt, architect to the Penrhyn Estate.

  5. Royal town, working town

    Royal status came in 1963 and the “Royal Town” title in 1974. The railway returned in 1997, Galeri opened in 2004, the dock reopened in 2008 and the square was reworked in 2009: each addition fitted around the same medieval outline.

Looking down from Caernarfon Castle over the town's painted houses, the town wall and the street below, with the mountains of Eryri on the horizon

The wall was built to keep the Welsh out of the town. Seven hundred years on, it is the Welsh-speaking town that has kept the wall.

Atlas of Wales

Local life & everyday character

Where Welsh is the working language

Cafés, pubs and independent shops face onto the square and fill the streets behind it, and the conversation across the counter is far more likely to be in Welsh than in English. At the 2021 Census one small area of this town returned the highest density of Welsh speakers recorded anywhere in Wales.

Visitors and residents use the same few hundred metres. The square and the quay are busiest at midday through the summer; the streets behind them stay ordinary all year.

Local tip

Most of the wall-walk on top of the circuit is closed. Plan a walk around the outside of the walls, not along them.

Y Maes, Caernarfon, with benches and paving in the foreground, the castle to the left and a Georgian terrace of shops to the right
Y Maes carries the everyday traffic of a county town, with a 13th-century gatehouse at one end of it.

Where the town lives

The square and the streets off it

Painted shopfronts and pavement seating on the edge of Y Maes, Caernarfon
The square and the streets off it: Caernarfon
The working middle

Cafés and independent shops occupy the painted frontages facing the castle, with more running back into the walled grid behind. This is the part of Caernarfon people use daily, not a preserved parade.

The water, from quay to dock

A boat alongside the pontoon at Victoria Dock marina, Caernarfon, with the quayside buildings behind
The water, from quay to dock: Caernarfon
Two working edges

The town keeps two waterfronts: the old slate quay under the castle, and the marina at Doc Fictoria ten minutes north. Both stay in use through the winter, when the visitor traffic has gone.

Living against the wall

A round medieval wall tower on Bank Quay, Caernarfon, with a row of pastel-painted terraced houses beside it
Living against the wall: Caernarfon
Homes, not exhibits

Terraces run straight up to the medieval towers on Bank Quay, and a scheduled monument forms one side of an ordinary residential street. Nothing here is fenced off from the town it encloses.

Town rhythm

Morning
The first train is raising steam in the cutting before the square has properly filled.
Through the day
The castle and the quay take the crowds; the walled streets behind them stay quieter.
Evening & off-season
The ticketed sites shut and the railway stops for winter, but the town does not.

The town in one walk

Caernarfon rewards going round the outside.

The circuit of the wall is the walk that explains the place: water on one flank, houses built into the stone on the other, and two gates that still tell you which side the money came from. Everything else is a short detour off it.

Plan your time
  • The town roofs and the Menai Strait seen from Twthill, a war memorial column standing above Caernarfon
    The view from Twthill, Caernarfon
  • A blue Garratt locomotive in steam beside the retaining wall at Caernarfon
    A Garratt in steam, Caernarfon
  • St Mary's Church, Caernarfon, against the round tower of the town wall
    St Mary’s Church, Caernarfon
  • The marina at Doc Fictoria, Caernarfon, with the Galeri building behind
    Doc Fictoria, Caernarfon

One gate was named for the land, the other for the gold that came in off the water.

Atlas of Wales

04Plan

Choose the pace that fits your day

  1. Boats along the Slate Quay below the castle 1

    Start on the quay

    Park on Slate Quay or arrive at the bus station just outside the wall.

  2. Caernarfon Castle from the west 2

    Read the castle from outside

    The banded towers make more sense from the water than from within.

  3. The town wall along the waterfront 3

    Through Porth Mawr

    The landward gate, and the point the walled grid begins.

  4. Shopfronts on Y Maes 4

    Stop on Y Maes

    The square, the shopfronts, and the town going about its day.

  1. The Slate Quay 1

    Quay and castle

    Start on the water; step inside the castle here if you want the ticketed visit.

  2. Y Maes 2

    Y Maes

    Cross the square and pick up the wall on its far side.

  3. Bank Quay, wall tower and terraces 3

    Round to Bank Quay

    Where the terraces meet the towers: the best stretch for seeing how the two grew together.

  4. The seaward wall and Porth yr Aur 4

    Porth yr Aur

    The water gate, on the Promenade, facing Anglesey across the Strait.

  5. St Mary's Church 5

    St Mary’s

    The church using the wall’s own tower as a belfry, at the north-west corner.

  6. Doc Fictoria marina and Galeri 6

    Doc Fictoria

    Out of the walls to the marina and Galeri, and a different century entirely.

  1. Segontium Roman Fort 1

    Segontium first

    A kilometre uphill, free and open all year, and quiet early.

  2. The view from Twthill over the town 2

    Down past Twthill

    The rise above the town gives the whole walled plan in one view.

  3. Caernarfon Castle 3

    Inside the castle

    The ticketed visit, and the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum with it.

  4. The town wall 4

    The wall and the square

    The outside circuit, both gates, and a stop on Y Maes.

  5. A Garratt at the Welsh Highland Railway platform 5

    Board at St Helen’s Road

    Down into the cutting for the train south. Book ahead in season.

  6. A Garratt locomotive in steam 6

    Into Eryri

    The line climbs to Beddgelert and Porthmadog; a return fills the rest of the day.

Practical

Plan your visit

Everything you need for arriving and getting around.

Getting here

By car

The A487 runs through the town, with the A4085 in from Beddgelert and the A4086 from Llanberis. Slate Quay is the largest car park and sits opposite the castle; Gwynedd Council runs the others.

Open Slate Quay in Google Maps

By bus

Caernarfon bus station is at Poolside, immediately outside the walls on the east side: a two-minute walk from Y Maes. Arriva’s route 5 (Llandudno–Bangor–Caernarfon) and the TrawsCymru T2 and T22 all call here. Routes and times change; check before travelling.

Arriva route 5 timetable

By heritage railway

There is no national-rail station here. The Welsh Highland Railway runs to and from Porthmadog for visitors, not commuters: daily from late March to the end of October.

Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways

Practical details

Parking

Slate Quay, on the water directly below the castle, is the obvious arrival car park — it is run by the Caernarfon Harbour Trust, so its charges and payment methods are set separately from the council’s. Eight Cyngor Gwynedd car parks ring the walled town behind it, two of them multi-storey.

Check Cyngor Gwynedd’s car parks and charges

Charges and restrictions can change. Check the signs when you arrive.

See them on the map
Once you arrive

Everything in this guide except Segontium is inside, or immediately beside, the town walls.

Use Caernarfon as a base

Where to go next

Four real Atlas destinations pair with a Caernarfon visit: distances are straight-line from the town centre, not driving times.

The road down to Dinas Dinlle with the Iron Age hillfort mound rising behind the seafront houses

Dinas Dinlle

A long shingle beach under an Iron Age hillfort whose western rampart is falling into the sea: the nearest open coast, and a different kind of fortification entirely.

About 4.5 miles south-west (straight-line) Llyn Padarn's still water reflecting Llanberis village and the mountains of Eryri behind it

Llanberis

The slate village at the foot of Yr Wyddfa, on a lake between two quarry mountains: the source of much of the slate that once left Caernarfon’s quay.

About 6.1 miles east (straight-line) Caernarfon Castle's full silhouette seen from the southeast, its towers and curtain walls rising above the harbour.

Caernarfon Castle

Edward I’s Gwynedd fortress, its banded towers still standing whole above the strait.

About 0.1 miles west (straight-line) Ynys Llanddwyn seen from Newborough Beach at low tide: a tidal island at the far end of a three and a half mile sweep of sand, Anglesey.

Newborough Beach

A long sweep of sand and pine forest opening toward Llanddwyn and the mountains beyond.

About 4.7 miles west (straight-line)

On the Atlas

Continue from Caernarfon.

On the Strait facing Anglesey, where the Llŷn meets Eryri.

Open Caernarfon on the map

Before you go

A conqueror’s town that answers in Welsh.

Walk the outside of the wall and you are following an argument that the town has already won.

Open Caernarfon on the map Explore the Gwynedd Atlas