Sunday - St Fagans and Caerphilly

After a quick brekkie and checking out from our hotel, Ants hit upon the fantastic notion of checking out the outdoor Museum of Early Wales at St Fagans, about 4 miles from the centre of Cardiff. The weather was looking doubtful, but we decided that this open-air museum was worth a shot. We were right. The museum comprises several dozen buildings, ranging in age from 1500 to 2001 that have been painstakingly moved from their original locations and rebuilt in the grounds of St Fagan's castle (below)- which is more of a manor house really, built in the grounds of an yet another Normal keep, and surrounded by the old fort's original 12th century walls.

The old houses range from a reconstructed Celtic village, tiny16thC farmhouses on 'real life size' plots of land (made from clom - a mix of clay, straw and pebbles, and complete with pigsty, box beds and smoky chimney) to an entire shop and a row of workers cottages. Replica furnishings and implements adorn each, along with solemn Welsh guides all too happy to impart their knowledge of each building, how its tools were used - and even a few words in the local tongue.

Ants was a little disappointed by St Fagans Castle though ( little more than a 16th century manor house now, although the 11thC outer walls from the original Norman fortress still encircle the grounds.

So off we went in search of more, 'proper' olde worlde grandeur. Enroute, we managed to lose ourselves on several of the massive roundabouts that feed into/off the motorway (these babies are HUGE, hundreds of metres across), cutting a full lap round some of them before we found our way, arriving at last at Caerphilly CastleWow. This monster was built by Gilbert de Clare, who I think was a brother of the legendary Strongbow. He planned on making his castle impregnable, so built these massive water defences (see above) around it. These proved great at keeping out the local natives, but not so flash when proper seige warfare took hold, and the castle stood for barely a century before being captured and sacked. It never really recovered, and, to add insult to injury, was well nigh blown to pieces by Cromwell in the Civil War (he did that to a lot of places - the rotter!). Even today, parts of towers stand at precarious angles. Never truly restored as many others are, it's still a cracking example of an unadulterated Norman castle, and if the age blackened stones and open roofs don't make it appealing as a residence, they do add a great deal to its old world romantic appeal.

Well satisfied, we headed home to Oxford, with even Anthony confessing that he's all castled out for a bit...



Please note, all pix on this entry reproduced from the official websites mentioned above