At this point, the end of the main ditch lies just below the bastion wall, and was reached from it by a small door and some steps, now gone. The road now makes a complete turn, and commences a new traverse which rises much more gently than that below. When abreast of the mid-front of the castle it is supported by a retaining wall and two small square buttresses or buttress turrets, traces of which are seen upon a ledge of rock. Passing these, where the road comes opposite to the north-west bastion of the middle ward, it was crossed by a wall and doorway, of which traces remain, which divided the outer ward into two parts. Above this, the way turned eastward and ascended to the centre of the north front, where it reached the postern of the middle ward and there ended. These are the whole of the works proper to the castle, but a few yards to the north of the rock a steep road has been cut by which men and horses could be led up from the castle landing-place to the village without entering the _enceinte_, though commanded from it. No one acquainted with Caerphilly can visit Harlech without observing the close resemblance between the two castles, so far as regards the plan of the interior and middle wards. The court, rectangular, or nearly so, the absence of a keep, the drum-towers capping the four angles, the general character of the gatehouse and its position in the centre of one side, and the domestic buildings placed against the wall of the inner court, are peculiarities common to both. In each also the gatehouse is the grand feature of the building. Further, there is to be observed in both the excessive narrowness of the middle ward, its revetment rendering more than a parapet unnecessary, its slender and subordinate gatehouse, and its lateral postern opening direct through both wards. As Harlech did not need the outworks and exterior gate of Caerphilly, nor Caerphilly the water-gate of Harlech, here the resemblance ceases, but it is such as to justify the conclusion that Henry of Elfreton, who was the architect of Harlech, had studied Caerphilly, if indeed he was not also its architect. The defences of Harlech seem calculated for protection against a surprise by the Welsh, who were probably as active as they were fearless. Hence the very lofty curtains, the long entrance bridge, the ascending steps to the main entrance, and the dimensions of the middle ward, too narrow to allow any considerable body of men to effect a lodgment there for an attack upon the inner ward, and the water-gates and covered way, in the construction of which the natural strength of the rock was enhanced by the occupation of its various points of vantage. Whether in the reign of Edward I. Morfa Harlech was more than a marsh is a question for a geologist to solve; but either by the shallow sea or by a canal cut across the low ground, it seems certain that in planning the castle Edward counted upon the means of reaching it by a quarter quite independent of the Welsh.