Caerphilly Castle - bridge across the inner moat
Caerphilly Castle in South Wales boasts the most extensive water defences in the UK and is second, after Windsor, in being the largest castle by area. It is also somewhere I have been wanting to visit for more than 45 years, ever since I first read about it.
It is one of the first flowerings of the theory of concentric defence’ where high inner walls are surrounded by but also dominate some much lower outer walls, a concept also seen in Edward I’s great castles in North Wales especially at Harlech and Beaumaris. The castle features two separate moats and were thus protected by elaborate water management including a huge dam which function as an outer ward. CADW has rebuilt some of the castle's wooden brattices or hoardings which once overhung the massive inner walls and allowed for vertical fire on attackers at the very foot of the walls.
Essentially a single development by Gilbert De Clare from 1268 onwards, he appears to have built in three phases with some additions by Hugh Despenser the younger in the early 14th century. Edward II fled from here in 1326 to escape his vengeful French queen Isabella.
Damaged in the English Civil War it was restored by the Marquesses of Bute in the 19th and 20th centuries before being taken into public ownership. It is now run by the Welsh organisation CADW.
This is my first video and still photography shoot with a 20-minute accompanying documentary to be found here:
Caerphilly Castle - bridge across the inner moat
Caerphilly Castle in South Wales boasts the most extensive water defences in the UK and is second, after Windsor, in being the largest castle by area. It is also somewhere I have been wanting to visit for more than 45 years, ever since I first read about it.
It is one of the first flowerings of the theory of concentric defence’ where high inner walls are surrounded by but also dominate some much lower outer walls, a concept also seen in Edward I’s great castles in North Wales especially at Harlech and Beaumaris. The castle features two separate moats and were thus protected by elaborate water management including a huge dam which function as an outer ward. CADW has rebuilt some of the castle's wooden brattices or hoardings which once overhung the massive inner walls and allowed for vertical fire on attackers at the very foot of the walls.
Essentially a single development by Gilbert De Clare from 1268 onwards, he appears to have built in three phases with some additions by Hugh Despenser the younger in the early 14th century. Edward II fled from here in 1326 to escape his vengeful French queen Isabella.
Damaged in the English Civil War it was restored by the Marquesses of Bute in the 19th and 20th centuries before being taken into public ownership. It is now run by the Welsh organisation CADW.
This is my first video and still photography shoot with a 20-minute accompanying documentary to be found here: