The south platform is defended on the east by the mill leat. It was walled in, and seems to have been about 170 yards long by 130 yards broad. Part of the wall remains on the west side and on the north, along the edge of the branch ditch. At the south end, the approach still lies through the outer gatehouse, part only of which is destroyed. The portal, a drop arch with portcullis grooves, remains; above it are three windows with flat, segmental arches. From the sill of the central window a hole opens upon the outside of the portal, probably for the passage of missiles. The building has a ground and upper floor. There are no traces of ditch or drawbridge. The work is rubble. There does not appear to have been any ashlar. The style is Perpendicular—possibly of the date of the great gatehouse, probably later. Grose gives a drawing of this gatehouse in 1786, in which it appears much in its present condition. The northern platform covers the north and west quarters of the castle. It measures about 130 yards long by 90 yards broad, and is enclosed within a wet ditch, a branch of which nearly cuts off its northern portion, leaving a narrow neck towards the river, across which lay the approach to the south entrance. Within the ditches of this work are high banks, and indications of a slight wall, and perhaps of a tower, near the entrance passage. This castle has sustained less injury than might have been expected. It has been dismantled, and the ironwork and timber removed, but none of its towers or walls appear to have been blown up. The mural tower missing from the outer ward has probably slipped into the ditch from some defect in its foundation. The castle is easy of access and examination, not being overgrown with ivy or brushwood. [Illustration: KIDWELLY CASTLE. MAIN ENTRANCE. GATEWAY. _H. Smyth del._ _J. H. Le Keux. sc._] The details of Kidwelly afford some general indications of the age of its several portions. There is nothing which can safely be pronounced to be Norman work, although no doubt the present was preceded by a structure partaking both of this and the early English style. The general plan or arrangement of the castle seems, from its style, to be of one date—probably that of Henry III., or early in the reign of Edward I. The chapel is of this age. Its west wall, however, appears, from the peculiarities of its bond, to be of earlier date than the rest, and of the same date with the south-eastern drum tower, say 1260–80, which would be the date of all the towers and curtains of the inner ward, for all are in the same style. The great hall seems a little later than the south-eastern tower, the face of which has been flattened to suit its gable. The walls and mural towers of the outer ward may be a little later than the inner ward. That they are part of the original plan may be inferred from the want of strength in the inner gatehouses.