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Taken this evening, a return visit with the A7RII to this ancient Iron Age Hillfort of “Castle-an-Dinas”...This time you can see clearer the burial mounds in the enlargement.
It dates from around the 3rd to 2nd century BCE and consists of three ditch and rampart concentric rings, 850 feet (260 m) above sea level (Tone mapped)
Nearly 1000 years and still standing proud alongside the River Avon.
PentaxK-3
Sigma 18-250mm
Aperture ƒ/11.0
Focal length 22.0 mm
Shutter 1/100
ISO 200
Shot last weekend. Enchanted castle amongst the enchanted wood. We searched for another enchanted castle in the forest and had seen its towers but could not find the way. We found this one though just before it was too dark.
The sky was foggy but very bright, even glowing at the same time. Everything was in a mysterious blueish haze. Difficult but spectacular light.
Slains Castle, also known as New Slains Castle to distinguish it from nearby Old Slains Castle, is a ruined castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It overlooks the North Sea from its cliff-top site 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) east of Cruden Bay. The core of the castle is a 16th-century tower house, built by the 9th Earl of Erroll. Significant reconstruction of the castle has been carried out a number of times, lastly in 1837 when it was rebuilt as a Scots Baronial mansion. At one time it had three extensive gardens, but is now a roofless ruin. Plans to restore the castle have been on hold since 2009
Hearst castle is located close to Highway 1 in California the "Pacific Coast Highway".
It was owned and used by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst between 1919 and 1947. Since he died in 1951 it has become a State Park and a National Historic Monument. The "castle" in just inland of the coastal town of San Simeon and the building has sometimes used that name.
It's a major tourist attraction in the area and 3/4 a million visitors come to see the building, it's contents and the grounds each year.
In it's heyday many big Hollywood stars and politicians came to visit. As well as the building there are two large swimming pools - one outside and one inside. To my great disappointment when I visited in 2015 the outdoor "Neptune" pool was empty as it was being repaired after leaking. When full it's a very impressive sight and I recommend that the house, etc is on your list of things to do if you are travelling on iconic Highway One.
For more information see here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearst_Castle
A very very special castle , a castle with it's own place in history , a castle of national importance , family connections , and an encounter with something unexplained on another photograph my wife took !!!
from the website of the Castle ..
"Let us pause .................. the scene invites reflection. How many generations have passed away since the first possessor of the castle, watched from its heights as we do now, the glorious sun sinking to his rest; - how many suns have set, how many inhabitants of the castle have gone to their rest; - changing scenes flit over the imagination like optic illusions of fading pictures: - the royal standard; the banner of D'Albini, the pennon of Montalt, are proudly floating on the battlements, - prancing steeds are in the courtyard and the hall rings with the sound of festive revelry..."
William Taylor, "The History and Antiques of Castle Rising, Norfolk" 1850
Castle Rising Castle is one of the most famous 12th Century castles in England. The stone keep, built in around 1140ad, is amongst the finest surviving examples of its kind anywhere in the country and, together with the massive surrounding earthworks, ensures that Rising is a castle of national importance.
In its time Rising has served as a hunting lodge, royal residence, and for a brief time in the 18th century even housed a mental patient. The most famous period in its history was when it came to the mother of Edward III, Queen Isabella, following her part in the murder of her husband Edward II. The castle passed to the Howard family in 1544 and it remains in their hands today, the current owner being a descendant of William D'Albini II, the norman baron who raised the castle.
The great earthworks which form the whole site and extent of the castle cover an area of between 12 and 13 acres, and comprise a main central enclose, or inner bailey, and two lesser outworks respectively to east and west. The central enclosure, in shape something between a circle and an oval about 73m north to south and 64m east to west, has a circumference around its crest of about 320m, and is far and away the strongest, with it banks, even now after the cumulative and combined effects of erosion and in-filling, rising to a height of some 18m.
Within the inner bailey can be found the remains of an early Norman Church. Discovered in the early nineteenth century when the bailey was cleared of accumulated sand and soil, it is the earliest building within the site, pre-dating even the castle itself. Dating from around the late eleventh century it is thought to be the first parish church of Rising (no earlier church has been discovered) and was probably replaced by the current twelfth century church when the castle was founded.
As I said earlier , a very special place to us , also a photograph my wife took here has two very strange and unanswered images within the picture that has been looked at by a paranormal specialist with an intimate knowledge of the Castle , it's history , it's structure and it's paranormal side
Restormel Castle is sited on a hill above the River Fowey, 1½ miles north of Lostwithiel. It is one of several round castles in Cornwall. The Normans probably built the first castle in about 1100, but the wooden castle was replaced in the 13th century by this new stone construction.
Restormel probably has the best example of a shell keep in the country. The walls of the circular keep are over 2.4m (8ft) thick and 7.6m (25ft) tall, and are surrounded by a moat. Within this shell a series of buildings were constructed that butted up against the wall, forming the kitchen, great hall, and living quarters.
This picture shows one of the staircases to the battlements.
Warkworth Castle is a ruined Grade I listed medieval building in the English county of Northumberland. The castle was probably laid out in its present form in about 1200 and was the favoured residence of the powerful Percy family from the 14th to the 17th centuries.
The 15th century great keep is built on the motte of the Norman castle. It was built as a stately residence and statement of power and was not designed for defence; and illustrates well the trend in the later Middle Ages to move away from buildings of purely military character to ones with greater thought for domestic comfort.
In 1834 the castle was rebuilt in the Gothic Revival style but was turning into a ruin beginning from 1849. After 1929 Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz made a project for rebuilding it again but it was never used. Finally the works according to a project by Zygmunt Gawlik began in 1952. Sadly neither the initial height of the tower nor the external wall with a gate were restored.
Findlater Castle is the old seat of the Earls of Findlater and Seafield, sitting on a 50-foot (15 m)-high cliff overlooking the Moray Firth on the coast of Banff and Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It lies about 15 km (9.3 mi) west of Banff, near the village of Sandend, between Cullen and Portsoy. The cliffs here contain quartz; the name "Findlater" is derived not from Norse as earlier stated here, but from the Scots Gaelic words fionn ("white") and leitir ("cliff or steep slope"). The first historical reference to the castle is from 1246. King Alexander III of Scotland repaired this castle in the 1260s in preparation for an invasion by King Haakon IV of Norway. The Vikings took and held the castle for some time. The castle remains that are still there are from the 14th-century rebuilding, when the castle was redesigned based on the Roslyn Castle model. [Wikipedia]
www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/pevensey-castle/
Pevensey Castle is a medieval castle and former Roman Saxon Shore fort at Pevensey in the English county of East Sussex. The site is a Scheduled Monument in the care of English Heritage and is open to visitors. Built around 290 AD and known to the Romans as Anderitum, the fort appears to have been the base for a fleet called the Classis Anderidaensis. The reasons for its construction are unclear; long thought to have been part of a Roman defensive system to guard the British and Gallic coasts against Saxon pirates, it has more recently been suggested that Anderitum and the other Saxon Shore forts were built by a usurper in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to prevent Rome from reimposing its control over Britain.
Anderitum fell into ruin following the end of the Roman occupation but was reoccupied in 1066 by the Normans, for whom it became a key strategic bulwark. A stone keep and fortification was built within the Roman walls and faced several sieges. Although its garrison was twice starved into surrender, it was never successfully stormed. The castle was occupied more or less continuously until the 16th century, apart from a possible break in the early 13th century when it was slighted. It had been abandoned again by the late 16th century and remained a crumbling, partly overgrown ruin until it was acquired by the state in 1925.
Pevensey Castle was reoccupied between 1940 and 1945, during the Second World War, when it was garrisoned by units from the Home Guard, the British and Canadian armies and the United States Army Air Corps. Machine-gun posts were built into the Roman and Norman walls to control the flat land around Pevensey and guard against the threat of a German invasion. They were left in place after the war and can still be seen today.
Castle Combe is one of the prettiest villages in the Cotswolds. As a result it is normally full of tourists, so I dropped lucky with not a soul about, and no cars.
The village has featured in many movies, most recently taking a starring role in War Horse
Margam Castle is a large mansion house built in Margam, Port Talbot, Wales, for the Talbot family. It was built on a site which had been occupied for some 4000 years and from the 11th century was an abbey. The castle is actually a comfortable Victorian era country house, one of many mockor revival castles built in the 19th century during the Gothic Revival. It was commissioned by Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890) and was constructed over a ten-year period from 1830 to 1840.
It is currently being used as a filming location for Da Vinci's Demons, an american television series.
www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Da-Vinci-blockbuster-pound-60m...
This photograph was featured in flickr explore from the 17 March 2013.
Newport, Rhode Island
Castle Hill Lighthouse is located on Narragansett Bay in Newport, Rhode Island at the end of the historic Ocean Drive. It is an active navigation aid for vessels entering the East Passage between Conanicut Island and Aquidneck Island. The lighthouse was completed in 1890 on property formerly belonging to the naturalist, oceanographer, and zoologist Alexander Agassiz of Harvard University. Agassiz sold the land to the United States Government for the lighthouse for $1.00.
Ruperra Castle Conservation Trust are currently working hard to find a solution to halt the demise of this beautiful building. Which I have to say is in a shocking state, as are the other buildings surrounding it. www.ruperratrust.co.uk/about2.html. Thank you very much to them for letting me use the information from their website. Also, having read up on it since my visit I have learnt that it is privately owned. So please get permission from the owner if you decide to go there. I wasn't aware of this at the time as there were no signs to indicate this.
Ruperra Castle was built by Sir Thomas Morgan, who was steward to the Earl of Pembroke. He was knighted in 1623 and was also Surveyor of the Wood to King James I. The income from these occupations, and a favourable marriage, enabled him to complete the building of his house at Ruperra in 1626, possibly on the site of an earlier mediaeval house. The architect remains unknown.
King Charles I stayed at Ruperra from the 26th to the 29th of July 1645, whilst gathering support in South Wales after his defeat at the Battle of Naseby. The present public footpath from the Rudry to the Castle was named after this visit as the King's Drive.
The following century Ruperra Castle was ravaged by fire. Thomas Hardwicke was employed to rebuild it and the earlier gables were replaced by flat battlements.
Lodges called Ruperra Park Lodge, East Lodge and West Lodge and Ironbridge Cottage were built in the Victorian era. The Iron Bridge, which is now listed, was built in 1826 to take the new carriage way from the Castle through Coed Craig Ruperra and across the Rhymney River to Lower Machen Church where the family and their servants attended services on Sundays.
By the end of the century the buildings at Ruperra were in desperate need of repair. The stable block had been destroyed by fire in 1895. After the death of Colonel Frederick Morgan in 1909, his son Courtenay started a programme of refurbishment. The brew house, laundry and dairy range built in the 1840s, were converted to accommodate the footmen, valets, garden staff and chauffeurs.
In spite of the building works, Ruperra was now the second home of the Morgan family. Courtenay, the current Lord Tredegar lived at Tredegar House and his son Evan did not make Ruperra his home as previous sons had. With only a small domestic staff installed, Ruperra was used for hunting and shooting and weekend parties.
By 1935 the fortunes of the Morgan family had declined and the 3000 acre estate was put up for sale. But there were no offers. The contents of the Castle were disposed of in a three day sale. What remained was taken to Tredegar House, the Castle abandoned and the gardens left to go wild.
With the outbreak of World War Two, Ruperra Castle was requisitioned and from 1939 to 1946 a succession of Royal Army regiments, Signals, Mobile Bakery, Searchlights, Medical Corps, Indians, Dutchmen, were sent to Ruperra to be trained and moved on. At the end came German prisoners of war.
On the 6th December 1941 a fire broke out in the castle caused by faulty electric wiring and the castle was gutted by the fire.
In 1956, the whole of the Tredegar estates of 53 000 acres were sold off, including the now ruined castle of Ruperra. The castle has remained in private ownership since then. However nothing has been done to stop its continued deterioration. As a result, in 1982, the south-eastern tower collapsed. There are large cracks in the other three.
Ruperra is a typical Jacobean pretend castle unique in Wales and marks the transition from medieval to modern design.
Castle Howard covers a vast estate with an impressive landscape garden. The Temple of the Four Winds, designed by Vanbrugh, offers panoramic views and closely resembles Palladio’s Villa Rotonda in Italy, thanks to its symmetrical layout and classical porticos.
Castle Howard beslaat een uitgestrekt landgoed met een indrukwekkende landschapstuin. De Temple of the Four Winds, ontworpen door Vanbrugh, biedt panoramische uitzichten en vertoont duidelijke gelijkenissen met Palladio’s Villa Rotonda in Italië, dankzij de symmetrische opbouw en klassieke portico’s.
Broughty Castle was erected in 1490 by the 2nd Lord Gray, on a charter from James IV, in response to increased English naval activity. It was taken without a shot fired by the English in 1547, and reclaimed by the Scots two and a half years later. The castle fell back into English hands in 1651.
In 1860 the threat of French invasion prompted Broughty’s conversion from a ruin to a modern artillery defence. The castle was further altered in response to the German threat in the two world wars.
The castle now houses a museum run by Leisure and Culture Dundee. It contains displays on the life and times of Broughty Ferry, its people, the local environment and the wildlife.
Dating from around 1430 (although built on the site of an earlier motte and bailey),Raglan Castle,in Monmouthshire,was one (if not the) of the last true Medieval castles to be built in Britain.As usual,it has been "Cromwelled" - although plenty remains to be enjoyed.
Haining, as the castle was called when it was built, is an impressive 15th century keep, built on the L-plan. The re-entrant angle, visible in the previous photo(s), faces north-west. The walls are of good quality ashlar, rather than the rubble that the majority of tower-houses are built of. Additions have come and gone - but mostly gone, on the two sides of the castle shown here - the east (left) and north (right). There was a central newel stair, positioned between the main block and wing, so as to provide access to both. The ground floor was vaulted throughout, in the usual manner.
Along with the east gate, this was the only other entrance in the final version of Spynie castle, a narrow and easily defended passage and gate that led down to the shore of the loch below. Remains of cottages and kilns for drying grain have been found in this area and it would have provided access to the jetty and for the folk that lived outside the castle, in the busy little village of Spynietoun - not a vestige of which now remains above ground.
If you look at the masonry on either side of the passage leading down to the gate, you can see that there is a wall within a wall. This is because in the 16th century it was decided that the passage was too wide to be easily defended, so they made it and the gate itself narrower.
The Wars of Independence demonstrated that constructing massive defensive complexes, typical of the 13th century, was a waste of money and effort. No matter how impressive a castle's defences might appear, they could he breached by an army suitably equipped with men and war machines or with enough patience to sit out a long siege and force its occupants to surrender. Therefore, in the 14th century, more attention was paid to the comfort and convenience of castle dwellers, and whilst security was still an important issue, new castles were not usually designed to withstand a besieging army. Therefore, when Spynie's original peripheral defences had to be replaced in the 14th century, the ditch was filled in, probably with the soil from the ringwork, and a 30ft high curtain wall was built, more than sufficient to keep out anyone not equipped with siege equipment.
Powis Castle is a medieval castle, fortress and grand country house near Welshpool, in Powys, Wales.
Talk Photography Roundhay Park Meet Up 22 November 2014.http://www.robertdickinsonphotodesign.co.uk/
Tintagel Castle (Cornish: Dintagel, meaning "fort of the constriction") is a medieval fortification located on the peninsula of Tintagel Island, adjacent to the village of Tintagel in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. The site was possibly occupied in the Romano-British period, as an array of artefacts dating to this period have been found on the peninsula, but as yet no Roman era structure has been proven to have existed there. It subsequently saw settlement during the Early Medieval period, when it was probably one of the seasonal residences of the regional king of Dumnonia. A castle was built on the site by Richard, Earl of Cornwall in the 13th century, during the Later Medieval period, after Cornwall had been subsumed into the kingdom of England. It later fell into disrepair and ruin. Archaeological investigation into the site began in the 19th century as it became a tourist attraction, with visitors coming to see the ruins of Richard's castle. In the 1930s, excavations revealed significant traces of a much earlier high status settlement, which had trading links with the Mediterranean during the Late Roman period.
Taken the same time as my earlier mono shot of this castle.
Burleigh Castle is a roofless but otherwise complete ruin of a tower house of about 1500, with a section of defensive barmkin wall and a remarkable corner tower with a square cap-house corbelled out.
Much visited by James 4th and quite a few other James's myself included.....
Burleigh Castle is in the care of Historic Scotland and is off the A911, 2 miles North East of Kinross, Scotland.
Bran Castle (German: Törzburg; Hungarian: Törcsvár), situated near Bran and in the immediate vicinity of Braşov, is a national monument and landmark in Romania. The fortress is situated on the border between Transylvania and Wallachia. Commonly known as "Dracula's Castle" (although it is one among several locations linked to the Dracula legend, including Poenari Castle and Hunyad Castle), it is marketed as the home of the titular character in Bram Stoker's Dracula. There is, however, no evidence that Stoker knew anything about this castle, which has only tangential associations with Vlad III, voivod of Wallachia, the putative inspiration for Dracula. The castle is now a museum.
Southsea Castle, historically also known as Chaderton Castle, South Castle and Portsea Castle, is an artillery fort originally constructed by Henry VIII on Portsea Island, Hampshire, in 1544. It formed part of the King's Device programme to protect against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire, and defended the Solent and the eastern approach to Portsmouth.
Doune Castle is a medieval stronghold near the village of Doune, in the Stirling district of central Scotland. The castle is sited on a wooded bend where the Ardoch Burn flows into the River Teith. It lies 8 miles (13 km) north-west of Stirling, where the Teith flows into the River Forth. Upstream, 8 miles (13 km) further north-west, the town of Callander lies at the edge of the Trossachs, on the fringe of the Scottish Highlands.
Recent research has shown that Doune Castle was originally built in the thirteenth century, then probably damaged in the Scottish Wars of Independence, before being rebuilt in its present form in the late 14th century by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany (c.1340–1420), the son of King Robert II of Scotland, and Regent of Scotland from 1388 until his death. Duke Robert's stronghold has survived relatively unchanged and complete, and the whole castle was traditionally thought of as the result of a single period of construction at this time. The castle passed to the crown in 1425, when Albany's son was executed, and was used as a royal hunting lodge and dower house. In the later 16th century, Doune became the property of the Earls of Moray. The castle saw military action during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and Glencairn's rising in the mid-17th century, and during the Jacobite Risings of the late 17th century and 18th century. By 1800 the castle was ruined, but restoration works were carried out in the 1880s, prior to its passing into state care in the 20th century. It is now maintained by Historic Scotland.
Edinburgh Castle “Castle of Light” event where the iconic landmark is illuminated with tales from Scotland’s past using state of the art projections.
Brough Castle is a ruined castle in the village of Brough, England. The castle was built by William Rufus around 1092 within the old Roman fort of Verterae to protect a key route through the Pennine mountains. The initial motte and bailey castle was attacked and destroyed by the Scots in 1174 during the Great Revolt against Henry II. Rebuilt after the war, a square keep was constructed and the rest of the castle converted to stone.