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Dolbadarn Castle
Spiral stairs within the keep of Dolbadarn Castle, Llanberis. Dolbadarn was the seat of power of the princes of Gwynedd who defied the might of the English until the castle was seized by the English in 1282 by an overwhelming force lead by the Earl of Pembroke on behalf of Edward I.

Such spiral stairways nearly always spiral clockwise when rising. This puts an attacker, who would be fighting his way to the top of the tower and assumed to be right handed at a disadvantage by restricting the swing of his sword arm whereas the defender above him would have unhindered action with his sword arm. At Dolbadarn where there is a small stone platform halfway up the spiral, the spiral starts anti-clockwise and only becomes clockwise after the platform. I have no idea why this should be so. Statistically, one in eight of the population are left handed. At Conwy Castle, seven of the spiral stairways are clockwise but one is anti-clockwise.

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The image on this page is © Denis Egan