Edward I ordered the castle as part of his conquest of north Wales, and James of St George, master of the king's works in Wales, designed it. Work began in the summer of 1295 and stopped around 1300 because of the Scottish wars. It resumed around 1306 and ended around 1330. The castle was never fully completed.
The article calls the concentric plan, with walls within walls, Britain's most perfect example of symmetrical concentric planning. The inner ward walls are 36 feet (11 m) high and 15.5 feet (4.7 m) thick, with six massive towers and two D-shaped gatehouses. The north gatehouse was meant to have two floors but has one, and the south gatehouse was never finished.
The outer and inner gates are not aligned, so attackers would cross an exposed area. UNESCO inscribed it in 1986. Cadw manages it, and it had 75,000 visitors in 2007 and 2008.
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