Postcards from Wales
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I LIKE THE CLOUDS AND THE REFLECTION IN THIS SHOT OF THE CASTLE IN THE WATER.CAERPHILLY CASTLE IS IN SOUTH WALES
Before lockdown, Caerphilly Castle, with its leaning tower, reflects in the lake moat. Hopefully everything will be back to normal before long.
FLAWED PLANNING. I try to do some planning before turning up at a location, especially for sunrise shots. I checked the sunrise times, checked the parking and accessibility, checked the likely cloud cover and direction of the sun but didn't check for building work, so was a bit disappointed when I saw the scaffolding! Anyway, as I got up early and made the effort, I thought I would post anyway!
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On Sunday I went to catch sunrise at Caerphilly Castle, a shot I thought would look great on a cold and frosty morning.
I arrived just before 8am which was still before sunrise, but due to a family party the night before I slept in and missed most of the pre-dawn colours so the sky was quite blue. I think this added to the coldness of the morning, but unfortunately, the ground wasn't as frosty as I'd hoped for the shot I had in mind.
So I waited for a few minutes for the sun to light up the castle, and with the local Goose and Duck population splashing around in the moat, I opted for a 30 second long exposure to smooth out the water.
I only got the one shot before having to head back for breakfast but I'm still quite happy with the result.
The view from Caerphilly Mountain. I missed most of the icy weather we had recently but did catch the tail end in my one trip out. Looking towards the Garth.
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Light and shade in the woods on Caerphilly Mountain in south Wales.
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My new local go to place for sunsets, Caerphilly Mountain.
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SUNSET. Left the woods for an evening to get some fresh air up Caerphilly Mountain and a wonderful sunset. Certainly my new go-to place.
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Caerphilly Castle is one of the great medieval castles of western Europe. Several factors give it this claim to fame - its immense size (30 acres / 12 hectares, making it the largest in Britain after Windsor), its large-scale use of water for defence and the fact that it is the first truly concentric castle in Britain. Of the time of its building in the late 13th century, it was a revolutionary masterpiece of military planning
The castle was constructed in the 13th century and saw extensive fighting soon after its completion. It was attacked during the Madog ap Llywelyn revolt of 1294, the Llywelyn Bren uprising in 1316 and during the overthrow of Edward II in 1326–27. In the late 15th century, however, it fell into decline and by the 16th century the lakes had drained away and the walls were robbed of their stone.
The Marquesses of Bute acquired the property in 1776 and under the third and fourth Marquesses extensive restoration took place.
In 1950 the castle and grounds were given to the state and the water defences were re-flooded. In the 21st century, the Welsh heritage agency Cadw manages the site as a tourist attraction.
The long-running British television show Doctor Who chose Caerphilly Castle as a filming location for several episodes, including "The End of Time" in 2009, "The Vampires in Venice" in 2010, two parter "The Rebel Flesh" and "The Almost People" in 2011; "Robot of Sherwood" in 2014 and "Heaven Sent" in 2015
I only spent an hour in Caerphilly on the way to the Brecon Beacons and did not have a chance to take this shot during the golden hour, I regret now that I did not return another day as I'm sure the sunset light would have made this magnificent sight look even more interesting.
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