THE LOVELY CAERPHILLY CASTLE.

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Hi Friends and Family!

Today, we left Cardiff in order to get to our next destination: The Brecons!

As many of you know, I am a very great lover of using local transport however, in coming to Wales, I chose to go to small obscure places in the middle of no-where and thereby reducing the possibilities of actually getting there!

Especially on the weekends.

In one hostel in the West of Wales, the owners told me that the only way to get there from the Brecons is to either take the ferry going to Ireland or go all the way back to England and take a train in the opposite direction!

So since (with an 8 year old boy and only three weeks to work with) we decided to.....gulp!

Hire a car!

I booked on-line with a company called "Travel Jigsaw" and so for our Welsh journey we would use the car and dump it when we got to England as England is fairly civilised and although not perfect, has transport a-plenty!

So for €350, we had a fairly nice "family" car for 14 days and boy, did we appreciate the fact that we had it.....!

And so, before we left Cardiff, we went to our pick up point in some industrial estate to get our wheels and then we were off.

It was lovely to get out of the city and into the country and we didn't have far to go before we were already pretty much on the hills!

We stopped for a snack at the “Mountain View Snack Lodge” which is probably the longest established snack bar in the UK. You can even follow then on Facebook apparently!

Whatever the case, their buns were lovely and filling and the place was packed with people heading out on their journeys. You just had to stop there and stop we did for sausage, bacon and eggs buns and strong, hot mugs of tea my friend!

The good thing about having some wheels is that you can stop and look at interesting sights on the way so we drove to Caerphilly Castle. It was a little difficult to find based on the instructions on the leaflet…..

.....‘cos there weren’t any but we managed to find it LOL!

Caerphilly is the largest castle in Wales and one of the biggest in Britain, covering 30 acres (12 hectares) with its extensive lake defences. Built mainly between 1268 and 1271, it is considered to be the earliest and possibly the finest example of a true regular concentric fortification in the British Isles.

The castle is vast in size, spread over some 30 acres of land. This makes it the second largest castle in the UK after Windsor Castle!

Unlike many other 13th-century Welsh castles, Caerphilly Castle was not built by Edward I in his crack-down on the Welsh lords, but begun in 1268 by the powerful lord of Glamorgan Gilbert 'the Red' de Clare, a powerful, red-headed nobleman of Norman descent, as a response to a dispute between him and the Prince of Gwynedd, Llewellyn the Last.

It was never completely finished in his lifetime and from the 15th century was allowed slowly to decay.

As one of Henry III's most powerful and ambitious barons, Gilbert de Clare’s purpose was to secure the area and prevent lowland South Wales from falling into the hands of the Welsh leader Llewellyn the Last, who controlled most of Mid and North Wales.

Llewellyn realised the threat and tried but failed to prevent the castle from being built; it was begun on 11 April 1268, was attacked by Llewellyn in 1270, and was begun again in 1271. This time it was completed without hindrance. Its message was not lost on Llewellyn, who retreated northwards.

Apart from the remodelling of the great hall and other domestic works in 1322-6 for Hugh le Despenser, no more alterations were carried out, making it a very pure example of late 13th-century military architecture.

In 1270, these structures were razed to the ground by the army of Llewellyn ein Llyw olaf.
This Edwardian style castle is a fine example of advanced military architecture with its combination of land and water defences, including an enormous barrage that also acted as a dam to the east of the castle.

Each of the towers and gatehouses were constructed as independent forts, well able to easily defend themselves. Caerphilly really was at the forefront of the military technology of its day. The first deliberately planned concentric castle, with the new 'walls-within-walls' defensive system, it was additionally surrounded by lakes to make a forced approach doubly difficult

The castle’s strength is indicated by the presence of numerous portcullises. Features of this formidable fortress include the splendid Great Hall and the ruined tower.

Much of what you see today is restoration work in the 1930s, carried out by the 4th Marquess of Bute, who then owned the castle. The lakes were restored in 1958.

The Bute family seemed to be a family with a real love for history and culture as they were also the builders of Cardiff Castle and restored many other castles in and around Wales. In this day and age, lots of people don’t see the need to spend millions of pounds / Euros on stately homes and castles. I beg to disagree. There is EVERY need to preserve our history and the Bute family used their own money to do so, spending millions and millions of pounds in today’s currency.

I admire them to the hilt and would do the same if I were so fortunate although the locals in the 1930’s didn’t agree and even went as far as to protest, and complain!

80 years on, Caerphilly Castle is Caerphilly and Caerphilly is the Castle. There is nothing to do or see in that little place in the 21st century except in connection to the castle and thank goodness for that! Without tourism the town would be a dead one.

A scourge and plague of many little places in Wales now that mining and industry have fallen away.

However, without a doubt, the castle is grand and beautiful. I loved it.

One could even see the locals fishing on the banks. Fringe benefits!

Time to go.

See ya!

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