Cardiff - setting foot in Wales

On Saturday 12th July we left the beautiful Henrietta House in Bath and drove to Cardiff, crossing over the Severn River by a fairly sizable toll bridge.  

Welcome to Wales

The toll bridge over the River Severn

It wasn't long before we started to see some of the things which are most popular with visitors.  No, not male choirs or rugby players, not corgi dogs, or even leeks (Welsh emblem, so I recall).  Castles - not quite "everywhere", but well distributed.

We first stopped at a town with the remains of a Roman bath house and fortified settlement, but soon we were onto the real thing.  A medieval castle, and a big one.  Caerphilly Castle is considered one of the greatest of the surviving medieval castles of Western Europe.  It is acclaimed because of its size (about 1.2 hectare or 30 acres), its imaginative use of water as a defensive medium, and the early adoption of the "concentric" principle - one layer of defenses inside another.

Caerphilly Castle from across the defensive outer moat

The leaning south-east tower (the result of
progressive decline after the castle was abandoned)

The mighty walls of Caerphilly Castle

Another wall, another gate - concentric defence

Inside the Great Hall

View from the top of the "keep" (central tower)

The castle was built by Gilbert de Glare, Lord of Glamorgan, towards the end of the 13th century.  It withstood at least 2 major attacks, but by the mid 15th century it was essentially unnecessary: it was abandoned and fell into decline.  Some of its stone was used to build surrounding structures, so we are fortunate that so much of the castle survived.

From Caerphilly we drove on towards Cardiff, capital city of Wales.  Not far out of Cardiff we saw the "new" Castell Coch" (red castle or fort).  It's a 19th century Gothic Revival structure built as a kind of "weekender" on the remains of a real 13th century fort by John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute.  The Marquess was fabulously wealthy, possibly the richest man in the world in his day.  He inherited Cardiff Castle and let his imagination run wild.

The turrets of Castell Coch, between Caerphilly and Cardiff

We stayed at  the Angel Hotel, well located between the (fairly) recent Millennium sports stadium and the ancient Cardiff Castle.

The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff

Opposite our hotel was Cardiff Castle.  It has a long history.  In about 50 AD the Romans built the first of 4 successively larger forts on this site.  The Normans built a new structure on the Roman site and it was enlarged and further fortified several times through the centuries.  In the 19th century the Marquess of Bute inherited the castle and engaged an architect to remodel the living quarters.  The new work was done in an imaginative Gothic revival style and the results are lavishly extraordinary.  It was eventually given to the people of Cardiff.

The top of the Clock Tower - viewed from Hotel doorstep

Crossing the moat and entering the castle

The Norman "keep" on the old "motte" (mound)

A section of the beautiful but fanciful craftsmanship in the
 ceiling of the gentlemen's smoking room at the top of the clock tower.

Part of the elaborate ceiling in the Great Hall (formal dining room)

On the fringe of Cardiff is the locality of LLandarf, one of the oldest Christian sites in Wales.  The present cathedral (dedicated to the saints Peter & Paul, Dyfrig, Teilo and Euddogwy) was begun in 1107 and was extended in subsequent centuries.  It was heavily damaged by bombs during World War 2 but has been largely restored.

The nave and Chapter House of Llandarf Cathedral

Llandarf Cathedral

From Llandarf we took the road towards Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon.