Caerphilly Castle

 

View of Caerphilly Castle across the lake to the rear of the Castle.

Rear entrance to Caerphilly Castle taken from the side. Clearly shows the difficulties that intruders would face in entering the Castle.

View across the moat towards the left hand side of Caerphilly's tremendous defences.

The ramparts to the rear of Caerphilly Castle, taken from the left hand side of the defensive lake.

View of Caerphilly's frontal defences taken from the rear of the Castle. Impressive view of the current state of the Castles walls.

This image shows the main body of the Castle and the moat/ lake separating it from the initial gatehouse defences.

Another excellent view of Caerphilly's water defences. here you can see the gatehouse, bridge and imposing main entrance from the left hand side of the Castle.

One of Caerphilly's many impressive gatehouses. Imagine how terrifying a sight this must have been to intruders.

View across the water aimed at the main keep of the Castle. it demonstrates the size and strength of both the external defences and the main Castle itself.

The external wall to Caerphilly Castle. Beyond these lay another lake/ moat and a number of gatehouses. This image shows the scale of the task that any attacker would have to undertake in besieging this Castle.

View over the top of the external Castle walls towards the main keep. this image makes the scale of the defences quite clear.

A corner tower on the external wall of Caerphilly Castle. An intimidating site in itself.

Modern day view of one of the Bridges crossing to the main Castle.

Curtain Wall at the front of Caerphilly Castle.

The main entrance and gatehouse to Caerphilly Castle.

View of the main Keep at Caerphilly Caste, taken from the visitor's entrance.

The main Keep of Caerphilly Castle.

Modern day image of the defensive walls to the right of Caerphilly Castle.

Beyond the Water defences intruders would have faced a combination of curtain walls and towers. This image shows the defences of the Castle to the left of the keep, behind the initial defences.

View of internal curtain walls at Caerphilly taken from one of the towers in the outer curtain walls.

Internal Bridge and gatehouse at Caerphilly Castle.

This image shows us the curtain walls, moat, 'dead mans land' and outer water defences. This shows how treacherous an attack upon the Castle would have been, two boat crossing and scaling the Castle walls would have been required to impregnate the Castle.

Outer Curtain wall at the front of the Castle as it stands today.

Main gateway into the Castle. Notice the number of slits and holes built into the design for defenders to shoot arrows/ crossbow bolts from or to pour burning oils through.

View of the back of the main entrance to the Castle. A successful attack upon the gatehouse would have left the intruder in a wide open space, visible to defenders in both the main keep and a number of surrounding towers, such as the one seen here.

The rear of the Castle also had magnificent defences. This image is taken from within the inner courtyard of the walls defending the rear of the Castle.

Inner tower. towers such as these could be defended independently of the rest of the Castle, making attacking even more difficult. This tower enjoys a defensive position covering the inner water defences and the inner courtyard.

Rear view of the main gatehouse to the castle. Even after gaining entry through the gate the attacker would face strong resistance from this dominating defensive feature. to the right of the image is the Great hall.

Defensive weapons such as these would be used to propel objects at any intruding force.

The chapel within the inner section of the Castle. Notice the differences in the size of the windows.