History Summarized: The Castles of Wales
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- Опубліковано 15 жов 2024
- Every castle tells a story, but when one small country has over 600 castles, the collective story they tell is something like "holy heck ouch, ow, oh god, why are there so many arrows, ouch, good lord ow" - And that's Wales for you.
SOURCES:“Caerphilly Castle”, by Rick Turner, provided by Cadw - “A Concise History of Wales” by Geraint H. Jenkins - “Britain’s Medieval Castles” from “The Great Tours: England, Scotland, and Wales” by Patrick N. Allitt - Information from the Welsh Historic Environment Service Cadw, Cadw.gov.wales
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As a Welsh person I always have to remind myself that the castles we have aren't...normal? and the reactions that they can inspire in other people! Like Caerphilly is just where a close friend lives and the castle is just something you walk past on the way to the pub every weekend. Similarly Newport castle (or whats left of it) is a thing my bus route into town takes you past, Or Aberystwyth castle being a thing I sat in front of eating fish and chips while I was there for university. Meanwhile for Blue its this fascinating window into a world long past. God I love how history makes one persons mundane another's wonder and vice versa
I live in the USA, and there are absolutely zero castles anywhere here. We just don't have nearly that degree of monumental history on this side of the Atlantic. Our oldest buildings date back to the Spanish colonial times around 400-500 years ago, but you guys have buildings that are twice as old and it's kind of really cool. 🙂
I grewup in the western part of the US. We have amazing mountains and such shocking natural beauty that it's crazy. And still I was completely unprepared for the Welsh Castles. Caerphily and Caernafon (sorry for spellings) felt like walking into a fairy tale. Even now decades later they seem surreal!
I just put ‘medieval castles near me’ into google. There are over 40 within 50 miles of where I live in Scotland, I mean most of them are probably golf courses or hotels, or both, but yeah, they’re pretty normal here too.
It's a similar thing here in Newport, Rhode Island. The Mansions are one of the city's biggest draws for tourism, but for us locals they're just a thing we drive by on the way to work.
:o a fellow dragon yeah its hard to imagin going to some town and not walking past a castel or haveing a wedding at one XD
I refuse to die until I get to one day own a castle. Whether taken legally or by force, I shall have my keep.
Sure thing Galehaut
I fully intend to become an ubergazzillionaire, buy a European castle, have it disassembled and ship it to the US, then reassemble it on a cliff overlooking lake Superior.
@@Russo-Delenda-EstOr have one reassembled on top of an NYC skyscraper to see if the legends about the gargoyle "statues" in it are true.
The challenge of acquiring one is overshadowed by the costs to keep them. (You've heard that a boat is just a hole in water into which money is poured.)
Ay it's you!
As someone born and raised in Caerphilly, it's so refreshing to see someone non-Welsh not only do the castle and its history justice, but to almost nail every pronunciation as well. Da iawn!
Well, it REALLY isnt that easy with welsh names.
I mean - a friend of my fathers was married to a british expat in our corner of the world, who proudly declared himself to be welsh at every given opportunity.
And when I once followed up and asked him if he spoke any welsh, he only laughed in a "ohh, fuck no!" kinda voice. Grew up and got an eductation as english and history teacher in Swansea ....
@@FischerNilsA Fake Welsh lol I'm fluent Welsh from when I could first speak
@@FischerNilsA I can't say much about the example of your friend there but Welsh wasn't exactly well-treated over the ears (I mean I'm sure I don't have to explain the "welsh not.") And though there's plenty of welsh people who don't speak any welsh, there's also a LARGE amount who are completely fluent as a 1st language (found the further north and away from the border you go, apparantly.)
For me, I have a bad time learning languages anyway (P sure my English sucks too gramatically.) But I have the odd words. The simple ones getting by (Shwmae, tara, sudd wyt ti, dydw i ddim yn siarad gymraeg (sometimes I gotta use this), and other things) and a couple swears because there's nothing like telling someone that 1. A situation is fucked. 2. They are fucked. and 3. They should fuck off. All in a 4 word sentance. (which I only learnt orally so I can't spell. I was taught it as "mae lun fy ma" or smthn similar.) Cer i grafu is good too. I mean I'm also tryna learn welsh in general but here we are.
As a welsh native living and commuteing near castles I never really thought about them much. It is amazing to see from an outsider's perspective
I imagine it's what being g a Roman post collapse was like.
Mostly for us, they're things not built for us but we kinda have inherited.
Its probably similar to America's relationship with nature, we have an obsecene amount of natural beauty in our country. Ranging from full blown national parks to private nature reserves or just private forrest being ignored.
Europe general has a lot of old stuff everywhere so you get desensitized to it, America doesn't real have that, a house form 100 years ago is practically ancient to us.
But America has a lot if lightly touched wilderness that we drive past all the time without thinking about it, but someone from Europe might marvel at a forest preserve larger than their country that barely has name recognition except to the locals.
For scale, the Adirondack State Park in New York is 6million acres, Wales is 5.12million acres, which is about 1/5th of New York's total area. The ADK state park would only rank third if it was a national park, and it isn't even New York's only state park/nature preserve.
For Americans, as a country that started as a colony, it’s just equally refreshing and magical to see the rich and vibrant history of the local peoples still standing. Due to the very nature of our history, we don’t have that here.
For me it's kind of mind blowing to go vist what little family we have left in Wales and think "wow my family has been in this tiny slice of the world since the 1200s at *least*" and then to go to Abergavenny Castle right down the road and think "did my family work here? Did they ever go inside? Was the lord of the castle nice? Did my family walk on *these* stones???"
And then I just fall down the rabbit hole in my mind
Cuz most visible history in North America isn't much older than 200+ years, and we aren't very good at taking care of our old buildings so to see something so old still standing and functioning is just a total mind bender
As someone who grew up in California, where nothing built before the 1800s was built to last, the concept of going to a building that has stood for 500-700 years is utterly foreign to me and my only possible comment on the video is "Wow. Pretty stone buildings."
BTW, thank you for not re-recording the outro. It got a chuckle out of me.
There are Native American pueblo ruins in CO, not sure if there are any in CA though
What about the missions? And yeah, I grew up in California and now live in the UK and literally there just regular buildings older than California/US just kinda around everywhere
as someone from Llandovery, where the castle is directly next to our house (the walls of said house are probably made from stone stolen from the fallen castle) I have always been slightly jealous of the US's untameds wilderness, the deserts you have in Cali represent long and beautiful history that I hope to see for my self one day.
@@994mkt yeah it's definitely different. I grew up in LA and moved to the Isle of Man and I totally get what you're saying. At the same time we have a living museum here of a nearly perfectly preserved 1600s that you can walk through and talk to the residents etc
@@brynbloom5993 I suppose the difference is we have stuff that is old but still there, and "they" have wild that is still there. What you grow up around becomes normalised I guess 🤷🏻♂️
Your pronunciation of ‘Llywelyn’ was perfect!! I know that for people outside Wales, the ‘Ll’ sound can be a hard thing to do
Isn't it a 'kluh' sound? Or closer to 'clue'?
@@bringitonbatman Ll doesn’t have an English equivalent, to pronounce you position your mouth like you’re going to pronounce L, then blow air past the cheeks. It’s kind of like a hissing L.
@@lv2draw1 I was trying for phonetic rather than English. But thank you!
@@bringitonbatman I don't have that sound in my language either but i think it's supposed to be closer to TL rather than KL?
@bringitonbatman there's no k sound in LL, as the other commenter said, you position your tongue as if to make an L sound then you essentially hiss through your teeth
I visited Wales in college. It really is crazy how different it is from even western England. Saw a Best Western in a castle, ruined castles by the highway...Amazing!
Yet somehow so similar to Australia. The resemblance is uncanny.
Yo it's so weird how France and Spain are so different, even southern France is different from Spain.
@@oscarbarton4125 That's what I mean. England is all little farms and very organized and then boom, rocky mountains, ruined castles, vast pastures with sheep and no humans to be seen...like when I visited Wales, I really thought a dinosaur might lumber by.
Australia, much of the country was striped by warfare, clearfelling, and over-intensive stocking
love how he references Guy Fawkes (also known as John Johnson, who does work at place) in this
Our man of most respectable career!
I’m welsh and I never really thought much about them outside of they are apart of our country’s history. I grew up seeing one from my window and just anytime I was going just about anywhere school, work, shopping everywhere. I even remember playing tag and hid and seek as a kid at the castle 10 minutes down the road. I always forget how this part of are history is so unique to us and how people visiting must see them.
This look into the castles of Wales was fascinating. The closest things we have nowadays are military bases and forts, but they are not nearly as pretty as the castles were. Castles were so unique because they basically combined a fort and a walled city into one thing.
There are the remains TWO ruined forts in my village in West Wales, literally on opposite hills. You could probably shout from one and be heard on the other.
I now have a Monty Python esque image in my head of the residents shouting insults at each other!😉
Normans on one side, welsh on the other.
@@liam3284And at half time they change sides.... oddly enough this isn't *that* much of an exaggeration to what actually happened!
"That's my valley, you Norman!"
"Take it, Celt!"
"I hate you, Gilbert!"
"I hate you too, Owain!"
As a kid, whenever I went around the country with my family on our summer holidays, I would always find our visit to local castles to be the highlight of our trips 😊
Since we’re talking about “British countries that aren’t England”, I would absolutely love to at some point see a video in The Isle of Man, lot of interesting mythology and history to look into there
Loved this video. I tell you castles are EVERYWHERE. I can literally see one from my bedroom window, and the next two towns either side of my village have caslte ruins. I grew up among them, and I have to remind myself that not everyone is so familiar with them as a background object. They really are wonderful
Right?? It’s so odd to me to hear people from other countries go ‘wow wales has so many castles!’ And I’m just like ‘yeah and?’ They get pretty old (no pun intended) after a while and they just become part of our day-to-day lives
Also not everyobe had a segment dedicated to them in their history lessons. I knew what a Mott and Baily castle was when i was 12 due to it just being part of the curiculum
That sounds so cool. I live in a part of the west coast in the US where 2 story buildings are uncommon, let alone castles 😂
@@ozeozeoze Its like living near the ocean or mountains.
I live in a small town called Bridgend in South Wales. There are THREE castles there. And there are 10 more within a 16 mile radius!
I've got a castle literally other side of my back garden. A Norman motte and bailey built on the remains of a Roman fort! It's pretty destroyed, with only cracked outer walls and a renovated motte but it's a great place for town events with the open bailey and motte hill for sledging.
Speaking as someone from the town of caerphilly, castles to us welsh are such a normal everyday thing that I feel people don’t appreciate how weird it must be for everyone else 😅. I personally love your videos on history. (Particularly further back you go) keep up the amazing vids ❤
Great video, Blue; it's great learning about Welsh history. Awesome quality video as always. As a Cornish person, I especially appreciated the gradual reduction in English control heading down the West-Country peninsula in your maps. A lot of people always forget that, much like the Welsh, the Cornish were an independent people until quite a way after the Norman Conquest.
EDIT- The Welsh are still an independent people, but you get my point.
I went to Wales when I was 19 and my kid self was absolutely thrilled at the castles that were literally everywhere
OMG, being Dutch, this rings so true. Even though we fight over every square inch of land in our country, we still have tons of castles around here and looking into their history is soooo cool! They even preserved a small motte in the village I go to high school!
I think any European who lives near castles can confirm.
It’s always great to see more videos about wales, especially loved the spotlight on Caerphilly Castle because I live in Caerphilly. Hope you enjoyed visiting the town.
Diolch yn Fawr! It’s so lovely to see a UA-cam channel you follow do not only one - but two videos directly about your little country!
1:00 I understood (and appreciated) that reference :D
John Johnson, you're a real jokester.
as someone currently writing a homebrew campaign this video has solved my biggest problem, naming things like castles and forts. And problem solved less than two minutes into the video. Thank you Blue. I woke up today with a migraine so bad I was throwing up so this video has really turned my day around.
I have Welsh family, so I spent a lot of time in North Wales as a kid and if places like Conway and Caernarfon didn't spark my love of history/fantasy, I'm not sure what did.
Ayyy, love seeing my home mentioned online. Living here all my life, I sometimes forget its not normal for most to commute past roman ruins or a 14th century castle on their way to work. It's nice seeing my friends' reactions to them, especially.
Right! Like what do you mean you haven’t gone to at least three castles every year since you were born? welshies are truly winning
@@katharinesutton7556 Cymru am Byth!
I still remember going to an Aphitheatre most weekends for a picnic in the summer.
I would love a History Summarized of the Celts. I was trying to watch a doc about them but it was very dry and boring. It was talking about mainland Europe and since I grew up only knowing about Celts in the British Isles I was interested to learn more. I would like to learn it from someone more interesting though. :)
It's also interesting on how they evolved and later survived multiple rounds of forced cultural conversions from both the English and French.
I live in Cardiff and the castles always blow me away. I love that they host Concerts in the castle grounds!! Saw primal scream last year. Its great the castles are alive and get used
As a kid I always found Newport Castle to be cool since it was just beside the road where we'd drive by next to the roundabout
I sang in Caerphilly castle's hall as a child and ive never heard acoustics like it anywhere else.
I have Welsh ancestry and studied in Swansea for a semester in college, and I adored the fact that there were so many castles to visit!
I live in Bridgend, South Wales. There are 4 castles within a 5-10 mile radius of us, it’s crazy that something so normal to us is really fascinating to others. Great video
The castle of Wales are what inspired my love of history as a child. They're granduer, history and beauty is really something to behold. In fact I went to Caerphilly castle 4 weeks ago and it was absolutely stunning, and I got a free guide book to boot.
being Welsh myself, I always forget castles aren't the norm, there's one literally a ten minute walk away from my place xD
Wow! Never thought I'd see Ogmore Castle pop up in an OSP vid! I grew up right next to it! It's so nice seeing this special attention given to the lovely castles here in Wales. :D Thanks Blue!
It's always very strange to watch foreigners talk about my country because I regard where I live to be very ordinary but this video gave me a new perspective on my local area, so thanks!
Conwy Castle and Conwy/Llandudno in general is absolutely stunning. Would highly recommend. You can take the train there (took the train from Glasgow and it was actually quicker than driving down)
This channel (both your work and Red’s work) are the only UA-cam channel in my internet experience where I genuinely watch your new content less than an hour after it comes out
It was one of my favourite things as a kid growing up in Wales, being able to visit castles all the time like it was a regular Tuesday. I grew up in Flintshire so Ewloe castle was a regular wander spot when I was bored, Caergwrle castle became a picnic spot on days where we went to Wrexham for shopping, Hawarden castle was visited every month for a walk, freaking Moel Famau was the view from my bedroom window, (and even if it's cheating, having Chester's Roman walls nearby is always a treat to walk along). Being able to enjoy this history and nature so easily and regularly really gave me a love for walking, which I appreciate in my adulthood as a mentally ill person who has no motivation to get a gym membership, but also as a cheap date idea. Plus, you can't beat the nature walks in Wales as well. Almost every afternoon after school when the weather was good was spent walking through Loggerheads in Denbighshire. Just.... You can probably tell I miss it so much. I live in Liverpool city centre now, and I love this city and it has my heart, but a part of me will always long to return to my homeland.
I visited Conwy Castle in Wales… it was such a beautiful and informing experience. I highly recommend it to anybody.
That last picture shot of the castle and the lights was gorgeous.
I suppose there’s something magical about history, even though its nature is mundane.
I just got back from studying abroad in Cardiff and I definitely had to get used to all the castles that are just a casual part of the landscape. But it was really cool! And it was nice to see pictures in the video from places I have actually seen in real life, that normally doesn`t happen to me
I'm from North Wales! We have some bangin' castles, especially Harlech, Beaumaris and Conwy!
You've really done our corner of the world proud, Blue, diolch yn fawr. Living in Manchester but with family in North Wales, I spent many a summer stomping around castles like Beaumaris and Caernarfon. Thanks for stating that the Welsh made castles as well as the Normans and English because this is often something that's glossed over. Welsh-built castles that come to mind include Dolbadarn and Criccieth :)
Ewlo Castle is surprisingly impressive.
It's no wonder the ruins of stone castles inspired both the Gothic architectural movement, and the later Gothic literary tradition. That kind of desolate beauty stirs up so much emotion, one cannot but fixate on it. Especially in poetry and prose, where the ghosts of people (real, imagined, or embellished) can be raised up to tell their stories (again, real or imagined or embellished).
I’m half Welsh, and grew up in england, only ever visiting to see my nan in the countryside for a week every year/ few years. recently I’ve been interested in learning more about Wales and the language, especially now that my dad has a house there!! I’ve been really enjoying your guys’ Welsh oriented videos, and I adore castles so this video was amazing timing!!!!!
I guess it falls outside of the scope of this video, but the more modern parts of Cardiff Castle are also breathtaking. I visited it years ago and had the absolute time of my life marveling at the apartment where the old inhabitants actually lived, where each room was designed with a different theme by a mad interior designer.
Adding to the sense of Living History, the outer wall of Cardiff Castle was hollowed out and used as a bomb shelter during WW2. This medieval castle built on the site of a Roman fort saw use in war in the 20th century.
I grew up in Caldicot, a small town just 5 miles from the English border right on the south coast, and it has a lovely (mostly intact) small castle there, with large grounds surrounding it. I used to love playing in the fields when I was a kid. They even did medieval banquets at night.
The strange thing is that it's just a couple of miles from Caerwent, one of the biggest Roman camps, so it could easily be assumed that Caerwent would be where any new fortification was built. Yet, even though a Normal motte and baily was built there, it was Caldicot where the stone castle was built.
Very cool vid, the way you describe the feeling of walking into history when going into a castle is spot on! Like to see you do one on the Netherlands haha the Romans referred to us as swampy people that scavenge the shores during low tide
I adore the videos on Welsh history, since as a Welsh person, it's astounding that we never got taught about it. We'd learn the history of individual castles if we went to visit a particularly fancy one where they have little historical signposts and sometimes guides (Caernarfon and Conwy springs to mind), but there'd be a bunch of names swung around like Llewellyn who me and many other folks just didn't know. My history lessons started at the Norman conquest, and it was just kind of assumed that Welsh history was just English history. This was only broken when I came to University, where they had modules in Welsh history, most of which I didn't take because I just assumed it was English history with a few fancy embellishments.
Even in the beloved show of my childhood, Horrible Histories, I remember little eight-year-old me getting very distinctly salty because when they were covering England's conquest like a weather report, I remember looking at the graphic one moment where it was England, then the next it covered Wales without a word said about it. Meanwhile, they did detail how Ireland and Scotland were incorporated into the UK, and proudly called it the United Kingdom after they breezed over one of said United Kingdoms.
Especially here, like many a fellow countryman has said, castles are just normal in Wales, you see them everywhere. I regularly square up to my local castle, sit and watch the waves as I'll eat noodles or chips or something to that effect, with friends. It's really cool! And it's really cool to hear it from someone else's perspective.
So, yeah, I really love hearing about Welsh history on here from time to time. It's refreshing, and really interesting, and I hope that other folks, Welsh or otherwise find it as epic and cool as I do.
tl;dr - Welsh history is neat, I wasn't taught it particularly in the area of Wales I'm from, so it's neat hearing about castles and other bits and bobs from someone else.
That’s what happens to a country when they want a history replaced. You have to ignore inconvenient parts of it that implies something to the contrary that your controllers now want for you. This is why King Arthur is made to look like fantasy! By the English and French (Normans). And Why it’s taught that Wales was conquered, when if fact it was only ever occupied. The conquest actually went the other way at the battle of Bosworth field 1485. It was not a civil war for Wales as it wasn’t a part of English law in this period. It’s annexation by Henry Viii in 1436-42 proves it’s autonomy prior to Bosworth Field.
These OSP History Summarized videos are always something I look forward to.
I went to university in Aberystwyth. Saw a LOT of these beautiful fortresses during my time there. Wales is such a beautiful place
Hell yeah, fellow Aber student!
Grew up there and in about a ten mile radius you've got a decent size castle slap bang in the middle of the town, hillside chalk drawings, the Devil's own bridge, the lost sunken kingdom of Cantre'r Gwaelod, and the iron age hillfort home of the giant Maelor Gawr. All we need is a singing dragon called Idris and we've got the lot!
As a Welsh person, I gotta say that I'm really impressed. You're always so good and respectful in your videos, Blue. You should look into Newport Castle. Absolutely travesty. One of only two watergate castles in Britain (the other being the tower of London) and they tore down half of it to build a motorway.
that blues videos never make most watched is a tragedy. These are amazing
"Matchy shapes make happy brain go brr"...it's the deference to technical language that really makes me excited for Blue's videos.
Love your videos!! Would you be interested in doing an episode on Cornwall? We're also a very ancient celtic kingdom but since we were conquered by the English we don't get much attention. Would be so cool to see my homeland talked about by my favourite channel!
It means so much to see the castle of my hometown (Abergavenny) featured on OSP 🥰
Brilliant Video. Thanks for putting our tenacious little country on the map
I went to visit family in N Wales only a few months ago and saw the castles at Caernarfon, Baeumaris, and Conwy. They are just as beautiful and intimidating as they felt when I was a kid, and its amazing to see how the history of my country is being kept alive. Thank you for putting it on the world stage so more can know the Welsh as more than England's garden.
Deganwy Castle is virtually opposite Conwy Castle btw. There are lots of unknown castles even close to the mega castles.
You absolute legends, thank you guys for posting this.
I literally live 30 second walk away from a castle in Aberystwyth and it constantly baffles me. Really helped create my love for castles. Also it turns out there's been a fort of some sort there for over 2000 years now!
I love how you started a video about Wales - which my family visited almost every year I was a teenager - with a picture of the fortress in Nürnberg, where I lived during the same time. Of all the castles in all the world... 😂
I'm going to Cardiff in the summer for a few days and am hoping to visit some of these castles! Great video to get me hyped!
What a wonderful video on the awesomeness of Wales. Thanks Blue! I'm so glad you enjoyed your time here! 😀 🏴🏴🏴
I've been to Caernarvon Castle. I've driven by some of the others shown here. There is something thrilling about coming in sight of a castle that has its flags flying.
I went to Scotland and Ireland earlier this year, saw a bunch of castles... The ones I went inside were Edinburgh Castle, Dublin Castle, and Kilkenny Castle... Saw the outside of some others too...
I lived castles when I was a kid… and I still do. Great video!
I think that for many of us who grew up surrounded by many of these castles, ranging from the towering stone spectacles of the Edwardian conquests, to the humble remains of Celtic and Roman hillforts that are so numerous in some areas that one can sometimes stand atop one ruined fort & see another no more than a field or two away, we often fail to realize just how uncharacteristically dense these fortifications really are in Wales, even when compared to the rest of Britain and especially here in the Northwest, but some definitely consider it a point of national pride to some extent as well. It's certainly interesting to dive into the historical context that explains why & how this excess of fortifications came to be, be they for practical uses or simply for prestige.
And I have to commend you for going through the trouble of actually using the correct pronunciations of these various Welsh names, and pretty accurately at that (even the notorious "ll" which I know is hard to grasp for most English speakers) when I've heard plenty of people make unresearched attempts without understanding the major orthographic differences between Welsh & English, or simply defaulting to the Anglicized equivalents. Well presented indeed, diolch yn fawr!
If you ever get to north England, you MUST check out Skipton Castle. It's a Grade 1, 11th century medieval castle that's one of the most well preserved in the UK. I visited last year and it blew me away
As a welshmen, this video makes me happy.
To ease your conflict a little. Built heritage is allowed to change and still be significant. If we left everything to rot, it would rot. The important part is preserving the methods with which it's constructed, and using them where reasonable and safe to do so.
The idea that built heritage is dependent on the original materials is kind of a Eurocentric take on cultural resource management. Mostly because not all old buildings are made out of as sturdy stuff as stone; and their histories are just as valid. Now, this reconstruction was likely done before we had ideas about how these things should be done, so I wouldn't say it did things perfectly, but like you said; there's a full castle there now; and that's pretty cool.
If you're ever in the Southeast of England, Blue, I highly recommend visiting Arundel castle dating back to the Norman Conquest. Stunning against the scenery with the most beautiful formal gardens I've seen (including a lovely shell encrusted folly). The town is also great to visit. And is only a 15 minute drive from the coast.
I can appreciate this video SO MUCH! Castles are so cool but now we need a video on Parisian castles. Might I recommend The Clooney museum, a reconfigured castle now museum?
Planning on going to the UK next year, mainly for Worldcon in Glasgow, but also a day or two in Cardiff. I saw Cardiff Castle in 2014, but it sounds like taking a look at Caerphilly next time will be worth it.
I visited a friends in Wales, once, and it's absolutely bonkers the way they just... *have castles.* Like, it's just part of the scenery, as far as they're concerned. When we had some time to burn, we went back and forth over what to do, until they just went "Hey, we could go visit the castle, if you're interested?" Because of course they had a castle. Apparently, anywhere you may be in Wales, you've got a castle within walking-distance.
I got so excited when I saw Raglan Castle towards the end of the video!!! A lot of the Welsh side of my family live around that area so we’ve all been around the castle a few times during visits and it’s such an amazing place!!!
(As a side note, Scotland has some fantastic castles, too! As does England, particularly up north - if anyone reading this gets the chance to visit Bamburgh Castle, go for it!)
You uploaded this as soon as I got back from my holiday to Conwy
I seem to recall while looking into medieval building practices that it is often unclear exactly how medieval buildings were planned and work done etc. As I recall there are records from one Welsh castle in the medieval period that give a sense of how many workman were employed and so give some insight into the basic logistics.
An odd Norman castle is the one at Norwich, it was reclad in the 19th century and was continuously used for various things (it was a jail) throughout history, it is now a museum. I think it may be one of the few classic Norman castles from the period still standing even if it was heavily rebuilt at various times subsequent to 1066 and all that.
I love welsh history! It’s a interesting country because it’s evolved yet remained strong. I learned welsh so if I do ever visit I may be able to read certain manuscripts
When I visited Wales a few years ago, I got to visit two English castles (Harlech and Caernarfon, although the latter was closed by the time we got there) and two Welsh ones (Dolbadarn and Criccieth). Of the four, Dolbadarn was actually my favorite, despite being the smallest and one of the least well-preserved I saw. It's small enough you could probably fit the whole thing inside the courtyard of Harlech or Caernarfon, but the location makes it so much cooler. Picture a long, narrow mountain valley lined with steep hillsides, one side dominated by a massive slate quarry. Two long lakes run down the valley, a narrow strip of land in the middle separating them. It is atop a hill on that strip of land that Dolbadarn sits, a singular, ruined tower jutting into the sky, framed by the surrounding hillsides of the valley - even just seeing it from the parking lot with a Welsh flag fluttering on a flagpole in the foreground was a site to behold.
I can definitely recommend it if you ever visit Northern Wales. The Welsh Slate museum is also right nearby, which is way cooler than it sounds. The area is pretty, and not as inundated with tourists as the bigger castles are wont to be. There's few things that beat hiking up a trail through the woods by yourself to reach a castle at the top of the hill.
Still within topic but different country: Château de Caen in France - also built by William the Conqueror - is similar in design and flipping amazing. I went to Caen for a study abroad several years back and the castle is open to the public, so after a day of classes I would get me a crepe and climb the tower across from the cathedral to chill out while watching the sunset. Living & preserved history is magical!
If you are ever able to go to France, go to Caen and visit the castle. Also the preserved medieval houses all over the town transports you back in time, it's funny to walk out of a pharmacy and be facing a house that looks like it popped out of a storybook.
Enough of my ramblings.
Castles are just so cool to experience.
Caen! Another “French” place with Cymric (Brythonic) origins. The romans called these people Gauls and Gallic. And those Gallic people on the island of Britannia were called Britons (in English, they are now called Welsh). Many European nations still call Wales land of the Gauls. The Irish are Gaelic and the “Welsh” are Gallo-Brythonic.
Ha! Haven't been much into the Marches, but did get a stop at Kidwelly Castle. Even that bit that stands and was solid enough we could go into was a step into the past. I need to see more castles.
"Matchy shapes make happy brain go 'brrrr!'"
Yeah, I can see that.
Personally, I like the aesthetic of castles and buildings that look like they started with symmetry in mind, but then got added to as needs arose.
We in Wales totally take for granted the fact we have these incredible medieval structures just dotted all over the place. People come from abroad and are blown away by them, but they're so common here, we don't really appreciate how remarkable it is that they're all still standing after 700-900 years, many in great condition.
Recently saw a few myself for a field trip, my god, they are awsome.
This is a wonderful video. Would you be able to do one about Predjama castle in Slovenia, also? It’s built into a huge cave 😮
Born in the UK and live in New Zealand and I do miss just having so much history as part of daily life everywhere you go and it's just normal, castles everywhere and buildings hundreds of years old still in use
Being Welsh, its so easy to take castles for granted and not be overawed by their existence like, say, Americans are. Like, as a little kid I was often taken to Coity Castle and Ogmore Castle, so to me castle ruins have always been normal and just a thing that's there; they're pretty much just part of the background scenery like trees, and hills and even normal ass houses.
Don't think I've ever heard that pronunciation of Caerphilly before; I've live ~20miles from it for nearly 35 years and fairly sure I've only heard it pronounced more like 'cuh-philly' than 'car-philly'. Wonder if this is just a regional thing within Wales or if Blue misheard/misremembered it.
It’s so fun to see my country represented again! A lot of us who grew up here in wales were really used to castles - I’m from south west wales and basically every town and village has a castle, and there’s a bunch out in the countryside too! So to us they feel super normal 😂
There’s loads in Wales I love it, heck there’s one not even 10 minutes away from me. I need to visit these again.
As someone who's lived in Wales for the majority of my life and being born in Scotland, where there are also quite a lot of castles too 😅 I really enjoyed this ! Fun fact as well about Caerphilly Castle and the town of Caerphilly, they hold an event there called "The big cheese", a 3 day event where a giant wheel of cheese is pushed down an incredibly steep hill, where people run down after it, the winner I believe gets money and gets to keep the cheese 😄 not sure if they hold it anymore though because of covid. Which is a shame. There's multiple ginormous cheese tents with other unique food vendors, a big fair ground and medieval festival too. It's been many years since I went but I'm hoping it makes a come back !
I was literally at Cardiff castle for a sting concert. when I saw this. Really cool to be right next to something then learn more about it.
As someone who is of Welsh descent, thank you for this video!
It's interesting watching this while working on excavating one of the European castles in Ghana; that fusion of social, economic, and martial life clearly continues well into early modernity. And you also have the classic irony where the locals are unaware or uninterested in the incredible histories around them.
Growing up in the US Southwest, castles definitely feel mystical and otherworldly-cool to me. I've loved getting to visit some whenever I'm in an area that has some! Haven't seen Wales yet but hope to soon!
Love the channel!! Blue and Red knock it out id the park every time!
For a Stateside version of this, we have the Castillo de San Marco in St Augustine, FL. Place is built from more or less local cocina and never really got destroyed- it just kinda munched on cannonballs.
My relative was a kid during the Battle of Nuremburg and remembers playing in the castle ruins and tunnels for the year following the end of the war.
I just got back from Denmark where I biked to Kronberg Stor, in Helsgnor, the castle that was the inspiration for Elisonor Castle in 'Hamlet'. Something of a pilgrimage for me. and yes a diffident Danish prince reenactor wandered around the place.
Oh, nice! I actually learned about some of these castles during high school; a part of our course was all about the conquests of Edward I! So cool to see them featured in an OSP video!
Good quality photos. Some of these look even better than real life