For a photographer, there's nothing worse than travelling great distances to a photogenic site—a place where you won't be returning to any time soon—only to find the site covered in scaffolding, with fabric blocking the view even further, no matter how slight the covering is.
Such is what met us at Caerphilly Castle, in southern Wales.
We drove for most of the morning, from Devil's Bridge, reaching Caerphilly before lunch. Originally a fortified Roman settlement that dates back as far as 75 CE, the town is now quite sizeable. At its centre, a castle dates back to 1268 (it was completed in 1290). Caerphilly Castle is the largest castle in Wales and the second-largest in the UK, after Windsor Castle.
While the castle saw major attacks throughout its life, the bombardment by Oliver Cromwell, during the 1642 English Civil War, resulted in the southeast tower splitting open and leaning at an angle that is greater than that of the Tower of Pisa, in Italy, but never fell. In the century that followed, parts of the castle had collapsed and the castle looked like it was headed for total ruin, but in the late 1700s, John Stuart, the Marquess of Bute, took steps to restore the castle. Over the centuries, his heirs made efforts to reroof the great hall and buy back the land around the castle, which by this time had town homes and structures built right up against it.
In 1950, the final marquess gifted the castle and surrounding grounds to the Welsh state, and Caerphilly Castle has been held under its care ever since.
Despite the scaffolding and coverings (okay, there wasn't much that was covered, but still...), it was nice to know that this historic site was being well cared for.
DW and I explored every nook and cranny of this castle, including the biggest cranny of them all.
Our next stop was to visit family, in Cardiff.
Stay tuned.
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