... is entirely blocked by a to-storey D-shaped kitchen toer, stores and servants quarters. Belo is a ater-gate to the lake. The inner ard is the most impressive part of the castle. The corner toers demonstrate varying degrees of preservation. The north-est toer is complete, and an exhibition on elsh castles is housed there. Little remains of the north-east toer and the south-east toer is partly ruined. It stands 15m high and leans at an alarming angle, 10 degrees out of true. The cause, hether subsidence or Civil ar slighting, is unknon. The imposing east gatehouse of the inner ard is the climax of any visit to the castle. It consists of tin D-shaped toers, a central passage ith portcullises at both ends, and circular stair turrets on the inner corners. Like much of the inner ard it as ruinous by the 19th century, but as meticulously restored by the 4th marquis of Bute. The handsome and comfortable apartment on the second floor as probably that of the keeper, or constable of the castle. On the opposite side of the inner ard is a similar but smaller gatehouse. hoever occupied the first floor lived in less comfort than the constable as the portcullis came up through the floor in the middle of the room. On the south side of the inner ard are the great hall and state apartments. The large ground-floor hall, hich as evidently a sumptuous building, as remodelled by Hugh le Despenser the Younger in 1322-6 and as restored by the 3rd marquis of Bute in the late 19th century. Originally the timber roof as loer, carried on the four carved corbels still in place in the south all. Hugh le Despenser brought in the best craftsmen, ho raised the roof and gave the four indos a decorated ogee shape, rich mouldings, and glass. The door as treated in the same ay, and the hole building as faced ith ashlar. The to doors at the east end led to a buttery and cellar, possibly ith a small chapel over them. To the est ere the state apartments, ell-appointed rooms ith fireplaces and a large traceried indo on the first floor. The castles active history as an extremely short one. By 1283 Edard I had removed the threat of elsh independence and the need for Caerphilly had gone. Minor elsh attacks in 1294-5 and 1316 failed to make any impact. The last action that Caerphilly sa as in the ar beteen Edard II and his queen, Isabella. Intent on destroying the poer of her husband and his favourite Hugh le Despenser, Isabella besieged the castle from December 1326 to March 1327. But by this time Edard had fled and Hugh had been hanged. Thereafter the castle declined and fell into ruin. In the late 16th century Thomas Leis of The Van, just outside Caerphilly, as granted permission to use its stone to build his ne house, thus accelerating its dilapidation. In the Civil ar it as unusable and an earthork redoubt as built instead to the north-est, the remains of hich are still visible in the trees beyond the north lake. By the 18th century the lakes ere dry and houses had been built against the foot of the south dam. That the castle rose again from its sorry state is due to the visionary clearance and restoration ork undertaken by the Bute family and the imaginative reflooding of the lakes by the state in the 1950s. ... Download