A visit to Castell Coch shows a 13th century shell given a 19th century makeover and voted the favourite building in Wales. The interior is a spectacular example of Victorian mock gothic extravagance.
Visiting Castell Coch
Castell Coch is easy to spot from the M4 and is well signposted. There are plenty of facilities there, as you’d expect for one of the most visited CADW properties, with toilets, cafe, car park, shop etc. There are also plenty of forest trails you can walk in from the car park if you want to make a day of it.
My Experience
This visit was in 2011 in February so the weather wasn’t ideal. The castle is basically a medieval structure that has been expanded and embellished to meet Victorian ideas of what a High Medieval should look like. As this visit to Castell Coch was with the kids it was a quick walk around to look at the rooms before going off shopping somewhere! It does make me realise we have left it far too long before revisiting.
Castell Coch Photo Gallery
These pictures are from 2011 when I was just starting out on photography and therefore are abysmal.
History
The Normans had invaded England in 1066 but, although they quickly overran that country, Wales was a separate entity and there was no centrally co-ordinated Norman campaign to conquer all or part of the Principality during the late eleventh century. However, William I did advance into South Wales in the early 1080s and shortly afterwards Cardiff Castle was founded on the site of a former Roman fort. To secure the new facility, a series of fortifications were built in the surrounding area including Castell Coch which was specifically raised to dominate the high ground over-looking the River Taff. Probably initially just an earth and timber fortification, it would have remained an important facility when Robert FitzHamon, Baron of Gloucester attacked the Welsh Kingdom of Morgannwg in South Wales in 1089. Supported by twelve Knights and their retinues, he advanced from Gloucester, built Newport Castle on the River Usk and then moved west into the Vale of Glamorgan where he established his administrative centre at Cardiff. However, as Robert seized more territory in Glamorgan, the frontier between Norman and Welsh forces was pushed further away from Cardiff and Castell Coch was probably abandoned shortly thereafter.
Castell Coch was rebuilt in the mid-thirteenth century probably by Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester who raised Caerphilly Castle at this time and would have wished to secure the land access between that facility and Cardiff. The new castle was dominated by a round Keep overlooking a small courtyard and hall. Built from sandstone rubble, it was the colouring of this that gave the castle its medieval name – Castrum Rubeum, literally ‘red castle’. Later two additional towers were added and the curtain wall strengthened. The newly built castle was attacked in July 1314 by Welsh rebels with some evidence to suggest they undermined the structure. Either way it fell into ruin and was not rebuilt until the nineteenth century.
In 1871 the castle, which had long since become an abandoned ruin, was resurrected by John Crichton-Stuart, Marquis of Bute who commenced a full scale rebuilding of the castle in a Gothic fantasy design. He commissioned William Burges, an architect with whom he had worked closely in the regeneration of nearby Cardiff Castle, to draw up plans to rebuild the structure. Although aspiring to conform to the original design an imaginative approach was taken to some elements with the conical roofs added on flimsy historical justification. The build was started in 1875 and continued until 1891, concurrent with the massive Victorian Fort building programme that was fortifying British dockyards.
References
The CADW site with full visitor information is here.
The history above is copied from the always excellent castlesfortsbattles site here.