|
Ah, now this was just lovely. This is Castell Coch.
It's the companion "country castle" to Castle Cardiff,
re-built and decorated by Burges as well.
This building is chiefly known as a romantic folly
supposedly reproducing a small medieval Welsh chieftain's stronghold,
built in the 1870s, for the 3rd Marquess of Bute to a design by
William Burges, and possessing the most remarkable interior decoration.
However, it was built upon the remains of a genuine 13th century
castle built in two stages. Evidence was found of the building having
been deliberately slighted by mining.
The castle was probably founded by a Welsh lord in c1240-65 and
had a round tower keep at the SW corner of a tiny D-shaped courtyard
with a hall on the south side, all built of rough rubble sandstone
from which the building took the name Castell Coch, or "Red
Castle." It stands upon a platform commanding the gorge of
the Taff and was protected towards the higher ground by a deep dry
moat from the bottom of which the walls rise with a very broadly
battered base. The keep contained vaulted rooms, and probably had
a fourth storey and a conical roof like it has now. The walls are
over 3.3m thick above the square battered base from which it rises
with pyramidal spurs.
|