Harlech Townscape

Summary

A small north Wales hill town above Cardigan Bay — Harlech Castle on its rock above the coastal plain, a handful of streets, the expansive view over Tremadog Bay to the Llŷn Peninsula, and the Cambrian Mountains behind.

About this location

Harlech is a small town in Gwynedd, north Wales, built on and around the rocky outcrop that Harlech Castle (14th century, World Heritage Site managed by Cadw) occupies above the coastal plain. The town consists of a few streets on the hillside below the castle — High Street, the square, and a scatter of houses — with the main railway line and the flat coastal plain of the Morfa Harlech dune system between the rock and the sea.

The view from the castle and the town is extensive — Tremadog Bay and the Llŷn Peninsula to the north-west, the Rhinog mountains to the south-east, and (on clear days) the Wicklow Hills of Ireland. The dune system below — Morfa Harlech — is a National Nature Reserve of open dune and slack.

For productions, Harlech gives a compressed north Wales castle-town environment — the castle on its rock, the small townscape, and the bay panorama in a single compact geography. Gwynedd Council handles filming permits for public spaces; Cadw manages the castle separately.