Stepping Caerphilly into the Past

With Her in Canada , He and I had to entertain ourselves for a whole ten days. Fortunately he never gets tired of kicking a soccer ball around. But Dad does so one day I piled him into the car and drove up to Merthyr Tydfil, home of Caerphilly castle (accent on the philly). It's the largest in Wales and one of the biggest in the UK. It covers more than 30 acres.

It was built in 1268 and in its day was the most formidable castle in the land. It incorporated the best defense systems from all previous built castles including outer and inner moats.Once more into the breach

It'd be tough to get across, put up a ladder and get inside while the guy on top of the wall keeps shooting at you

A popular spot for weddings. Perhaps it's where she found her knight in shining armour

They think it was gunpowder that knocked that big tower off kilter but there's no record of such an attack.

Somebody didn't read their geotechnical reports.

The inner castle viewed from the outer castle

Watching out for bad guys

In the mid 1200's King Henry's barons were being naughty boys and not playing well together. Gilbert de Clare, theLord of Glamorgan was getting crowded by the prince of Gwynedd, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and decided this castle was needed to let the prince know these were his lands. It was a huge undertaking and wasn't completed when he died. His kids liked it though. They kept it for a couple hundred years but by the 1500's they'd moved into deluxe apartments in town and the castle started to decay.

Nice place to visit but without central heating, I wouldn't want to live there.