Day 273 Caerphilly Castle

As I was taking Dad to visit Mum this afternoon, we decided to make the most of the fine weather with a visit to Caerphilly Castle.  This is very close to home, so ideal for a quick morning out, but we haven't been there for some time. First a quick potted history.  Building was started in 1268 by the Norman lord Gilbert de Clare in order to subdue the Welsh. We retaliated and it was razed to the ground in 1270 by Llewelyn the Last, Prince of Wales. Building was restarted in 1270 & this time it was completed. It's one of the largest castles in the UK being second only to Windsor in size.  


We arrived there at about 10.00 when the sun was still relatively low giving a lovely yellow light. Parking at the back of the castle we had to walk around the outside and around the South Lake to reach the entrance.  It has been much restored/ rebuilt in the early 20th century so a lot isn't original but it remains a very impressive edifice.  I couldn't resist playing around with the processing and aging this first photo

Here's the original version, it just looked lovely from this angle in the sunlight.  

The tower on the right reputedly leans more than the leaning tower of Pisa. Here's a close up

 As there was little wind there were some nice reflections. This is part of the curtain wall with buttresses by the main gate.

There were plenty of ducks, geese and swans on the water.  The black headed gull on a post & a wet feather glinting in the sunlight caught my eye.