A wonderful maze of a place, Oystermouth Castle began its life in the 12th century. It was built by William de Londres, who also owned Ogmore Castle. The castle was destroyed twice by the Welsh, and the De Londres line ended in 1215 when the Welsh retook the Gower. The Barony of the Gower was then given to John de Braose by Henry II in the 13th century and with it Oystermouth castle. The de Braose’s not only rebuilt Oystermouth in stone but increased its size, extravagance, and defensive capabilities. It was one of the last DeBraos’s, Aline de Braose, who revamped the chapel and put it on the map as one of the finest examples of a castle chapel in South Wales. It was her marriage to John de Mowbray that passed the castle and the Lordship of Gower to the de Mowbrays. She is said to haunt the castle to this day. It fell into decline in the middle ages, but was restored once more in the 19th century, and again in the early 21st. Upon completion of these restorations, Oystermouth was opened to the public.
Tag: south wales
Tretower Court and Castle
A Castle Tower AND an Intact Medieval Manor House!
The castle, a motte and bailey was founded by Picard, a follower of Bernard de Neufmarché in the 12th century. Picard’s son, Roger Picard I, replaced the motte with a shell keep. By about 1230 a tall cylindrical keep was added to the inside of the shell keep, possibly by his great-grandson, Roger Picard II. At the beginning of the 14th century, the Picards tired of loving in a cramped castle, and so the north range of Tretower Court was built. They sit in the village of Tretower, near Crickhowell in modern-day Powys, previously within the historical county of Breconshire or Brecknockshire.
The Beautiful, but Windy, Ogmore Castle
Ogmore Castle, or to give it it’s Welsh name- Castell Ogwr, is a 12th-century ruin near Bridgend in Glamorgan, South Wales. It sits on the banks of the River Ewenny but takes its name from the nearby River Ogmore.
It’s a blowy but very sunny day and the castle looks stunning. There are pony trekkers crossing the river at the all-important ford heading for a ride on the beach at Ogmore By Sea. Despite the cold, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit to this castle.
Construction of the castle is thought to have begun in 1106 prior to the Norman conquest. It was in use until the 19th century, latterly as a court of justice and a prison.
Exploring The Beautiful Bronllys Castle
This Motte and Baily castle in Powys, Wales was founded c. 1110 by Richard Fitz Pons a marcher lord on the border with Wales. The original castle was built of wood but was replaced with a stone structure by Walter de Clifford sometime between 1144 and 1165 when it is reported that the tower caught fire.
Even though there are no ceilings or floors left, you can go right to the top of its tower, where there are some lovely views.
Bronllys Castle Potted History
Today we are visiting Bronllys Castle! In around 1144, Walter de Clifford, an Angelo Norman marcher lord, founded a fortress on the banks of Afon Llynfi- a tributary of the River Wye.
All that remains of what was once a Motte and Bailey were the round stone keep and separate hall, are the impressive motte and 80-foot tall keep.
Everything else is gone. The keep has three floors, all of which are still accessible, although the floors themselves have long since rotted away. The third floor was a later more lavish addition, complete with latrine.
Over the years the castle passed from the Cliffords to the Giffords to the de Bohun earls of Hereford, and eventually in 1399, to King Henry IV. In the early 15th century the fortifications were improved to withstand the forces of Owain Glyndwr. By 1521 however, the castle was considered beyond repair after a century of neglect.
The Motte
I’m standing in front of the motte, and you can just see some stone poking out the bottom of it that looks quite hefty, so I should imagine there’s quite a bit of stone in it as well. And on top of it is a tower, and you can go around the outside on a spiral staircase, there really aren’t very many mottes that still have stuff on them.
There was a castle next to it- but that’s no longer there. I’m gonna go and climb it now.
Motte aesthetics
The views from up here are really lovely. You’ve got all the nice autumnal trees in the background, and you’ve got a view over the river and it’s quite peaceful from up here actually as well. You can just hear the bubbling of the river over the road.
I think of all the mottes I’ve been to this is definitely my favourite.
And this is the perfect day to see it because it’s just absolutely, even though it’s grey and overcast, it’s kind of made it because it’s just kind of misty and ethereal. I like it anyway.
Top of the Motte
I’m at the top of the motte and this is still pretty high, not taking into account the fact that you can go into the tower and get higher still. You’ve got a pretty good view across the countryside if you want to get rid of the trees that are in the way. So, as a defensive point, it’s fantastic. You really can see what’s out there. The other advantage of this is that you can be seen from a long way off. So people can go- “Oh I’m not going anywhere near there because there’s a thing with probably people with bows and arrows and that sort of stuff”
So, it’s a good defence, and it’s a good deterrent.
Ground Floor of Bronllys Tower
Come into the tower and this is the first floor you come into, which I suppose you might think of as the ground floor? Even though you’ve come up the motte, below us there’s a basement but you can’t go into that because that’s a hibernaculum for bats and well, it’s all cordoned off so you can’t get in there. Which is good, because the bats don’t want to be disturbed. Now, this would be kind of an anti-chamber- a place that you would come and wait to be taken upstairs to the nice bits where the fireplaces are and it’s a bit more luxurious. So let’s head up now.
Bronllys Tower’s First Floor
That is the ground floor down there; that makes this the first floor and what they’ve very cleverly done to deal with the fact that the floor that was originally in here has rotted away- centuries ago probably- they’ve put in a nice little platform so that you can have a look not only at what this floor would have looked like level-wise, but you could also see the lack of floor in the rest of it, and you can look out of a window over there and see just what people would have been able to see from here back in ‘the day’. We visit quite a few of these places that have got towers and most of them you can’t go into. So the fact that you can go into this one it’s really exciting.
All the Windows
That is the ground floor down there; that makes this the first floor and what they’ve very cleverly done to deal with the fact that the floor that was originally in here has rotted away- centuries ago probably- they’ve put in a nice little platform so that you can have a look not only at what this floor would have looked like level-wise, but you could also see the lack of floor in the rest of it, and you can look out of a window over there and see just what people would have been able to see from here back in ‘the day’. We visit quite a few of these places that have got towers and most of them you can’t go into. So the fact that you can go into this one it’s really exciting.
Views from the top of Bronllys Castles’ Tower
We were promised fantastic views at the top and that’s what it’s delivered. I mean, it’s a misty day and yet you can see the mountains in the distance. It’s just stunning. Imagine, because that’s all I can offer you, imagine what it would look like on a beautiful clear sunny day. Middle of summer. Green trees, the whole nine yards. I quite want a tower now to live in. I mean, the stairs would keep you fit and you get a great view. I’m not seeing a downside here
The Best Castle Location? – Llansteffan Castle
On a hill above the estuary of the River Towy in Carmarthenshire sits the magnificent Llansteffan Castle. It was built on the site of an older Iron Age Promontory Fort and has been in use for millennia, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s not only a highly defensible location, but affords some stunning views over the River Towy, and the village of Llansteffan itself. If you go to the top of the tower at the right time, you might even get to see a train in the distance.
Today, it’s all about location, and Llansteffan has got one of the best views of the sea we’ve seen from a castle. It isn’t actually the sea, it’s the estuary of the River Towy with the sea in the distance. Whatever it is, it’s beautiful.
Llansteffan Castle- A Potted History
Today we are visiting Llansteffan Castle!
The current castle, built sometime after 1100 by the invading Normans, sits on a much older iron age promontory fort.
It looks out onto the estuary of the River Towy. In its day it was a formidable defensive position because the only approach possible was via the steep hillside that, at the time, was stripped of trees making the attacking soldiers vulnerable to archers.
Llansteffan Castle’s Exterior
As you can see just from this bit here it is really quite steep a hill to climb up. Especially if you’re wearing full armour. One of the nice things about castles- one of the things that I find interesting about them at any rate- is that you can see, sometimes quite clearly, how use of the building has changed over the years. Now, this is a prime example. This used to be the gatehouse but now there’s no gate in it, there’s no doorway, the doorway is now over there, but you can still see the old doorway because it was lined with a different type of stone. You can quite clearly see the arch up at the top. Maybe that’s just me, but I find that fascinating. Behind me, you can see the current entranceway and above you can see where the gate would have been. Of course, there’s no gate there now but there are all the holes and dinks and what have you to show where the gate once was.
Inside Llansteffan
Our luck with the weather seems to be improving, the sun’s coming out! Which is great, because this castle looks cracking in the sunshine so it does. At one point there would have been a lot of buildings in here, people would have been living in here, and it would have been quite a lot of people living in here. So, you need a lot of room for them all to live and work and you know do the things that they do. Whatever it is that they do.
The Upper Ward
I am currently standing in the upper ward and the upper ward is quite small from the inside it’s got this, the ground floor, and then it’s got two other levels. I would say a middle floor, or an upper floor, and perhaps a walkway along the top. So this is the west tower. It’s the first time I’ve been in the towers actually, last time I went straight up the stairs and got stuck with the views. So this time I’m exploring on the ground floor before I go all the way up to the top.
The North Tower
I am now heading over to the north tower. So there’s quite a lot left of the north tower in comparison to the west tower and that there is a doorway that you can no longer get up to they’ve got some stairs in it. I’m too short to go up there. I’m in the north tower, and it’s quite interesting to read the room. Where I saw the stairs from the outside that, goes up to there. And then above that you’ve got a doorway- just up there that’s obviously where they come out. This had three floors by the looks of it, and possibly, a walkway. Two of the floors have got fireplaces on. But there’s these things stuck to the side of the wall and they’re quite fancy and ornate. They look kind of like candle holders but they’re equidistant, and there are four of them. We’re wondering whether they were candleholders or maybe some more fancy arch supports- you know for decorative purposes. It can’t be anything for roof purposes because they’re just flimsy. I thought initially that the ruins with the round tower and the rectangular room was the east bastion. However, that there- possibly extending along this wall here- is the east bastion. The bastion is a fortification that is designed to be built at an angle from the main wall so that you can fire in any direction. Which seems about right here to me, because you can fire from this section, or from the top there, or you can fire from that way. So yes, this kind of makes sense. And in front of me now I am walking towards what is possibly the end of that wall. There’s all sorts of little snippets that are left.
East Bastion
I thought initially that the ruins with the round tower and the rectangular room was the east bastion. However, that there- possibly extending along this wall here- is the east bastion. The bastion is a fortification that is designed to be built at an angle from the main wall so that you can fire in any direction. Which seems about right here to me, because you can fire from this section, or from the top there, or you can fire from that way. So yes, this kind of makes sense. And in front of me now I am walking towards what is possibly the end of that wall. There’s all sorts of little snippets that are left.
The Gatehouse
This is part of the gatehouse, and behind these gates- just to make sure that nosy people like me don’t go in and hurt myself- is a spiral staircase and some of the steps have been stolen away. Somebody’s thought ‘You know what? That would make a nice lintel or door frame or something’. Doorstep perhaps! Who knows. Either way, because of the fact that somebody’s thought, ‘know what I’m, having that’it’s gone and so you can’t go up there anymore. And it’s probably a good thing too because the floors inside the gatehouse are no longer there and this would lead up to those. This gatehouse was, once upon a time, the main accommodation for the lord and lady. And it’s a peculiar arrangement because this floor here had the holes for the portcullis to drop down to shut the gates. Which means that anytime they wanted to open the gates you had portcullises sat in well… I could only assume it was your living room. Upstairs would probably have been bedrooms. I mean maybe that’s the way they did it. I would have thought so. I mean, it’s a bit odd isn’t it? Imagine sitting there in your living room and somebody wants to come in so therefore you have to draw up two whacking great portcullises. I can’t imagine it was ideal with keeping the cold out either. The other thing of course, that every living room couldn’t do without, is the occasional murder hole. These were holes that you could pour stuff down through, or maybe shoot through. What self-respecting living room doesn’t need that, eh?
Guard’s Rooms
Behind me now is the interior of the original gatehouse and you can see in the ceiling there are a series of murder holes, which is quite fascinating. And off to the side here- they are the guard’s rooms. In the 15th century apparently, it became more important to have more comfortable accommodation than it did to have more fighting accommodation. So this was all made a bit more lavish. Which could explain the nice cushy interior of the north tower there but that might not have anything to do with it. However, let’s go now a look inside. This is the second of two chambers on the original inside of the gate. This one actually has a fireplace in it, the other one doesn’t. Which suggests that people who weren’t liked very much were sent in that one. But the other one is a bit more spacious so swings of roundabouts I guess. A bit drippy but quite nice.
The Tower
While the stairs on that side of the gatehouse have been robbed out the stairs on this side of the gatehouse have fared somewhat better. So much so in fact that you can go all the way to the top of the tower, and there are some stunning views up there.
The Biggest Castle in Wales – Caerphilly Castle
A medieval fortification built by Gilbert de Clare in the 13th century in the town of Caerphilly in South Wales. Loads of moats and lakes, it is said to have the most elaborate water defences in Britain. Occupying around 30 acres (12 hectares) it is the second-largest castle in the United Kingdom. One of its defining features is its leaning tower. The south-east tower in the Inner Ward leans outwards at an angle of 10 degrees.
Introducing Caerphilly Castle
Today we are visiting Caerphilly Castle.
This is the largest castle of Wales, covering an area of around 30 acres.
It was built by Gilbert declare in the 13th century to conquer Glamorgan.
It has the most elaborate water defences in Britain
It’s famous for its large gatehouses and because it introduced concentric castle defences to Britain.
Work on the castle began in 1268 following Gilbert’s occupation of the north of Glamorgan.
The castle was largely built at an amazing rate over the next three years.
Gilbert’s Welsh rival, Llewelyn app Grufudd burnt the castle in 1270, but Gilbert prevailed and managed to complete the castle and took control of the region.
The center of the castle six on an island surrounded by a number of artificial lakes and contains luxurious accommodation.
Caerphilly Concentric Castle
As you enter Caerphilly, you get to see how the concentric thing works much more clearly. You come in through the east gatehouse; the East outer gate, to be precise. And then you’ve got an inner moat to go with your massive outer moat. Once you’ve come in through that you reach another gatehouse, and then another one. Here.
The Leaning Tower of Caerphilly Castle
This tower has, as you can tell, something of a lean on it. Apparently, the lean of this tower is greater than the lean of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I don’t really know quite why it’s still standing it doesn’t really look like it ought to be. But I’m taking a leap of faith and I’m standing basically, where it will I should imagine eventually, fall. I mean you can tell that it leans out a long way because, where I’m standing now, which is a good several feet from the wall, I’m getting dripped on by the top of the tower. It leans out far enough that it drips here. Standing behind the tower might give you some clue as to just how much it’s leaning. I don’t think that catching it on film really does it justice it’s really hanging out there.
Trebuchets and Perriers
Behind me is a trebuchet- the siege engine that is used to lob bits of rock and flaming things into the castle to either knock bits of the walls down or to cause as much carnage as possible. And if fire got into the castle then that was pretty catastrophic because there’s an awful lot of wood in it. This slightly more slender looking beast behind me here is what is called a Perrier and a Perrier is used for quick fire rounds. It’s got a slingshot on it that you can draw back and *whoosh ping* So you’ve got your rapid fire and you’ve got your big punch.
The Many Gatehouses of Caerphilly Castle
Gatehouses! Gatehouses everywhere! Caerphilly Castle is inundated with them. This is one behind me there are a load of them over there. In fact basically, if you approach the castle from any direction chances are you’re going to hit a gatehouse. And it’s not really surprising, although this was quite a defensible looking structure, and the moats and the lakes and what-have-you made it incredibly defensible it was also somewhere that was really quite luxurious and if you’re going to have somewhere that’s really quite luxurious. It would be a bit of a pain in the neck if anytime you wanted to go in and out of it you had to walk all the way around the thing. Much easier to have a gatehouse here in the gatehouse there and a gatehouse there so gatehouses! Gatehouses everywhere!
What’s up the East gatehouse spiral staircase?
I’m in one of the rooms of the east gatehouse. In this room they’ve got a flight of stairs that goes up quite a long way I would say. I’ll wonder where these lead. Before you reach the roof you come out on to this, which is a walkway that goes around to the inner ward. Now, I’m not going to go this way just yet I’m going to go up to the roof first, because this place is a maze, and if you go off on a tangent you end up missing parts, so I’m going to methodically go upstairs, and then come back down, and then do the walkway. I made it to the roof! Finally! The stairs are long. When you get up here the views aren’t as vast as most other castles you see. You can’t see that far over the landscape, but what you can see is quite a way over the castle, and that’s quite something because you get a bird’s-eye view of what’s going on down below.
Caerphilly’s Walkway
Just over halfway up the steps- or a little way down, is this walkway and I am going to see what’s on the other side. There are some spectacular views over the walkway of the moats, and lakes, and ducks, and swans, and geese. The inner ward is really quite interesting because there’s this real mishmash of styles. We come in through the inner east gate and the inner east gate is really nicely finished off and it looks really well polished. In fact, it could almost look new. But on the other side, you’ve got the inner west gate and that’s all raggedy and falling apart, and then you go past the great hall and the great hall is a lovely building, it’s got these massive windows, it’s got lovely polished stone on the outside. And I suspect that they felt that they could have those big windows there because on the other side of that is South Tower so it’s protected from there as well. But next to the Great Hall you’ve got the apartments and again that’s all raggedy and tumble down. So yeah, in this very small area you’ve got lots of different building styles. And through the ruins now you can just see the towers over there- the one that’s leaning.
Caerphilly’s Lavish Living Side
This is a lot of the point of this place. It’s all about lavish living and entertainment. That’s one hell of a fireplace, isn’t it? I mean, it’s kind of artificial now. It is a projection. But in its day, I would have kicked out some heat. The wooden structure you see behind me that is a minstrels gallery, and the idea is you stick your musicians up there and they can play and entertain and take advantage of the fact that the acoustics in here are really quite something. Stick your musicians up there they can be heard down here throughout the hall without you and your chums sitting and chatting too loudly. It’s a great idea. I mean basically, it’s the forerunner of the modern day stage.
So, off the Great Hall you’ve got this. Basically a set of posh apartments. On the ground floor, this is where the servants would have been, and then upstairs, that is where Gilbert de Clare the posh folks, would enjoy the riches of life. It had glass in the windows, we’re talking end of the 13th century here, and glass was quite expensive. It’s got some really ornate stone work around it. So you can tell it’s very lavish. If you’ve got the money to do this sort of thing you are a very very very wealthy individual. Gilbert de Claire was obviously doing very well for himself thank you very much. I hope you don’t have a problem with stairs, and specifically spiral stairs. Because they are everywhere in this place, which isn’t a problem, I’m pretty sure is keeping me fit. But all the steps are worth it because you end up seeing rooms like this. This is part of that main gatehouse and it’s amazingly lavish, I mean it’s really nice in here. See what I mean? It’s vast! It’s worth bearing in mind and what we’re actually standing above now is the drawbridge room so up here you’re pretty safe. I mean you’re in a castle, that’s pretty much within a castle, that’s within a castle that’s… surrounded by moats and lakes. Other than the people who are already inside, you don’t have to worry too much. Oh, and did I mention the spiral staircases?
The Circular Room
You go just a little way up the stairs and you come into this quite interesting little circular room. There are little alcoves off the side in it they go into rooms with windows that you can shoot from because there are Archer slits in them. Apart from that window there they’re all archer’s slits. And this is just off the main inner ward, so you’ve got this separate tower that comes off here and it’s got a roof, so this is it. It sticks out it’s here for this room and then the stairs go further up, presumably, to the roof.
The West Tower
I’ve come to the highest point that I can reach in the west tower and as you can see it’s got a roof. Which is the roof of the circular room that Jo’s has been in. And, although you could go slightly higher, there’s a gate with a lock which means that I can’t go any higher. I’d like to go up there because I’m guessing that the views from there are fantastic. The views from here pretty good too