Caerphilly Castle / Castell Caerffili
History
Caerphilly Castle is the largest castle in Wales and, after Windsor Castle, the second largest in Britain. It rises from artificial lakes in a broad basin of the Rhymney Valley, beside the remains of a Roman fort, and guards an essential route between Cardiff and Brecon.
The man behind it was Gilbert de Clare, known as the Red Earl for his hair color, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford and Marcher Lord of Glamorgan. He began building in 1268 to secure his newly acquired lands in northern Glamorgan against Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last native Prince of Wales, who had united much of the country. A chronicler writing later in the 13th century records that work began on April 11th, 1268. Gilbert chose the site for its control of the local routes and because damming the streams nearby, including the Nant y Castell, would let him surround the castle with lakes and moats that kept siege engines and miners at a distance.
The result was the first true concentric castle built from scratch in Britain, with two rings of walls, towers, and gatehouses and the inner ward on a central island. Its design drew on French models and on Gilbert's experience at the 1266 siege of Kenilworth Castle, where he had seen how effective water defenses could be. Its ideas later reappeared in Edward I's castles in North Wales.
Llywelyn did not let the project go unchallenged. His forces attacked and burned the unfinished castle in 1270. The next year, Henry III sent two bishops, Roger de Meyland and Godfrey Giffard, to take control of the castle and mediate between the two men, and construction was halted. By 1272, Gilbert's men had seized the castle back, removed the bishops' soldiers, and resumed building. Most of the main work was done within a few years, though Gilbert kept adding water defenses, gatehouses, and towers until about 1290. After Edward I's campaigns of 1277 and 1282 to 1283 defeated Llywelyn, who was killed in 1282, the castle's role on the frontier faded.
The castle was tested again during Madog ap Llywelyn's revolt in 1294 and 1295, when Morgan ap Maredudd's forces burned much of the town but failed to take the castle. Gilbert the Red died in 1295, and the castle passed to his son, also Gilbert, who was killed at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. It then went to the younger Gilbert's sister, Eleanor de Clare, and her husband, Hugh Despenser the Younger, Edward II's favorite.
While the castle was in royal hands in January 1316, Llywelyn Bren led a Welsh revolt and attacked Caerphilly on the 28th. The castle held, though the town suffered, and a royal army soon arrived. Llywelyn surrendered on March 18th, 1316, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Two years later, Hugh Despenser the Younger earned the hatred of the Welsh when he had Llywelyn put to death at Cardiff Castle. Despenser was unpopular with the English as well, except for Edward II.
The great hall, with its tall windows and timber roof.
Despenser also made Caerphilly more comfortable. Around 1325 and 1326, he remodeled the great hall into a more luxurious space, with tall windows and a roof resting on finely carved capitals with portrait busts.
His time as master of Caerphilly ended when Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer invaded in 1326. Edward II and Despenser took refuge at the castle briefly with the king's treasure, then fled west to Margam and Neath, where Edward was captured, leaving extensive supplies and 14,000 pounds behind. Despenser was executed by being hanged, drawn, and quartered at Hereford Castle on November 24th, 1326, after being found guilty of theft and treason. William la Zouche besieged Caerphilly with 425 soldiers, and the castle, defended by 130 men under the constable, Sir John de Felton, and Despenser's son Hugh, held out for months. It finally surrendered in March 1327 on the condition that the younger Hugh be pardoned.
The castle's military role was now fading. It saw only limited involvement in Owain Glyndwr's rising in the early 15th century. In 1416, it passed through Isabel le Despenser to her first husband, Richard de Beauchamp, Earl of Worcester, and then to her second, Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. The Earl of Warwick and Isabel made repairs to the castle to make it suitable for use as their main residence in the region. It passed to Richard Neville in 1449, and in 1486, Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke and uncle of Henry VII, acquired it.
The leaning south-east tower of the inner ward.
Cardiff Castle eclipsed Caerphilly as a residence, and by the late 15th and early 16th century, Caerphilly was largely ruinous. The lakes drained, and when John Leland visited around 1539, he described the castle as ruined. In the 16th century, Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, used it for his manorial court, and in 1583, it was leased to Thomas Lewis, who removed a good deal of stone for his own house.
During the English Civil War, a small fort called a sconce was built nearby. Whether the castle was ever deliberately slighted is uncertain, and the famous lean of the south-east tower is usually blamed on subsidence, or possibly on stored gunpowder. After more than 700 years, the tower is still standing, albeit with a lean.
The Marquesses of Bute acquired the castle in 1776. The third Marquess, John Crichton-Stuart, began protective work and re-roofed the great hall in the 1870s. The fourth Marquess oversaw a major restoration from 1928 to 1939, then the largest such project in Britain, which gave work to local people during the Depression. Towers, gatehouses, and bridges were repaired, and the moats were dredged. In 1950, the fifth Marquess gave the castle to the state, and the lakes were re-flooded. Today it is managed by Cadw, the Welsh Government's historic environment service, and is a Grade I listed building and a scheduled monument.
After two years of conservation and refurbishment costing about £8 million, the great hall and inner ward reopened to visitors in July 2025, along with the restored water-gate passage that links the hall to the south lake and new digital exhibits. Conservation of the outer defenses is continuing.
Castle Highlights
Caerphilly is a concentric castle, with walls within walls, and it predates the iron ring of concentric castles Edward I built in North Wales. Its concentric towers and water defenses give it layer upon layer of defense. The artificial lakes were created by damming local streams, and the massive South Dam, about 152 meters (499 feet) long and ending in a large buttressed wall, holds back the water on the south side. The historian Allen Brown described them as “the most elaborate water defences in all Britain.”
The circular towers of the main outer gatehouse stand on spurred, pyramidal bases.
The outer ward has a long curtain wall and a massive gatehouse, also fronted by water. It was originally reached over two successive drawbridges, linked by an intervening tower that no longer survives. The circular towers of the gatehouse and curtain wall rest on spurred, pyramidal bases, a design unique to castles in South Wales.
The inner ward is the most imposing part of the castle. It sits on an island with two gatehouses and four massive drum towers. The Inner East Gatehouse, closely modeled on the gatehouse built in the 1250s at Tonbridge Castle, another de Clare property, had two large flanking towers, portcullises, and murder-holes. Its design later influenced the gatehouses of Edward I's castles. The great hall and private apartments are here too, along with the leaning south-east drum tower. The great hall still has medieval carved corbels in the form of male and female heads, which are thought to possibly portray members of the royal court of the 1320s, including Edward II, Queen Isabella, Hugh Despenser, and Eleanor de Clare.
A reconstructed timber hoarding projecting from the top of a castle wall.
One of the rarest sights at the castle today is its timber hoardings. Cadw has rebuilt sections of these wooden galleries, also called brattices, which once overhung the walls. Defenders could stand on them to shoot, or drop missiles, straight down on attackers at the foot of the wall. Reconstructed hoardings like these are almost never seen at castles now.
Two other towers protected the water defenses and the town. Felton's Tower, a square fortification at the end of the South Dam, protected the sluice gates that regulated the water levels of the lakes. It also guarded the overflow channel from the south lake, which in the Middle Ages was closed by a large gate similar to a canal lock. The South Gatehouse, also known as Giffard's Tower, led out toward the town and was originally reached by a drawbridge.
It can easily take all day to explore Caerphilly Castle. If you have a few hours to spare or want to visit other castles nearby, Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch are relatively close to Caerphilly.
Caerphilly Castle is also haunted.
