CAERNARFON CASTLE PROJECT COMPLETES

[FOLLOWING THREE YEARS of work, the conservation and development project at Caernarfon Castle’s principal gatehouse has been completed – providing access to areas of the castle not seen close-up for centuries.

The £5m investment has seen a rooftop deck installed and new flooring in the gatehouse towers. It also includes the installation of a lift that allows access for all to the upper levels, which Cadw believes is a first for any similar UK World Heritage site. The project will ensure that the castle is welcoming and accessible and continues to make a valuable contribution to the economy of the surrounding area.

A new catering offer, educational and retail spaces, and accessible visitor facilities have also been included in the works, including a Changing Places facility. The scheme is supported by the Welsh Government and by £1.04m from the European Regional Development Fund through the Tourism Attractor Destination Programme, managed by Visit Wales.

Central to the enhancement project is new artistic interpretation, focusing on the theme ‘the hands that built the Castle’. In 1969 the castle was the venue for the investiture of the new King Charles III as Price of Wales.

The project has been delivered by Buttress Architects and Grosvenor Construction, who have re-installed the floor levels of the gatehouse towers, built new steps from the first floor to the new rooftop deck and installed a lightweight glazed glass lift to provide step-free access to the rooftop.

Dawn Bowden MS, Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport, said: “Making our historic sites more accessible is a fantastic – and necessary – way of caring for Wales’s historical monuments for the benefit of present and future generations.

“Enhancement projects like this one ensures that everybody can access Welsh history and learn more about the nation’s heritage. Cadw’s new interpretation will further support this, inviting visitors to discover the lesser-known stories of the castle’s history.” q bedding, which is indicative of the geological conditions in which the sandstone was formed and which is characteristic of sandstone of the Scone Sandstone Formation. The many tooling marks evident from original working of the stone and areas of wear and tear can now also be seen more clearly, as well as further details of the 1951 repair.

The digital scanning has also been used to create an exact scale 3D-printed replica of the stone, which was used to help preparations for placing it in the Coronation Chair.

Ewan Hyslop, head of research and climate change at HES, explained:

“It’s very exciting to discover new information about an object as unique and important to Scotland’s history as the Stone of Destiny.

“The high level of detail we’ve been able to capture through the digital imaging has enabled us to re-examine the tooling marks on the surface of the stone, which has helped confirm that the stone has been roughly worked by more than one stonemason with a number of different tools, as was previously thought.

“The discovery of previously unrecorded markings is also significant; and while at this point we’re unable to say for certain what their purpose or meaning might be, they offer the exciting opportunity for further areas of study.”

The new scientific analysis has also uncovered additional information about the stone, which has enhanced the results of the previous investigation in 1998, when fragments from the stone underwent detailed examination by the British Geological Survey. That work identified the stone as being indistinguishable from sandstones of the Scone Sandstone Formation, which outcrop in the area around Scone Palace, near Perth. q