Criccieth Castledetails

The first place of note you come to over the undulating road from Portmadoc is Criccieth, of which the demure aspect proclaims a watering-place of the better class, for it isnot big or noisy enough to attract the tripper. The houses which line its two bays are more beseem a parlimentary borough than the group of cottages which used to huddle beneath its castle. Of this ancient fortress, two towers and a gateway alone remain, looking landward from a steep rock between the bays, to preserve the memory of its doughty constable, Sir Howel y Fwyall (Sir Howel of the Axe) who was invested with the castle by the Black Prince, in return for valient services at Poietiers, where he is said to have cleft the neck of the French king’s horse at one blow, and to have taken the king himself prisoner. (p. 142)