We are still enjoying our vacation in South West Wales, and yesterday we visited Carew Castle, which is close to Milford Haven.
The castle was built around 1270, so is nearly 800 years old. Its had a number of evolutions over the years.
There was an original Norman keep, which was put up for defensive reasons.
And then it was extended with quite luxurious apartments with fantastic tudor architecture in the later part of the 15th Century. The features left behind from this building phase are quite impressive and give the castle a lot of character.
The weather was completely crazy when we were there as a storm from the atlantic was blowing over the area. We'd have blue skies one minute and then rain the next !
The flags at the entrance were on the point of blowing away ! And you can see the storm clouds in the pic above.
Although ruined, its maintained well and is safe. You could get into a few rooms that had been mocked up like the one above showing some simple quarters.
And if you ever wondered what a toilet looked like in a castle, then you are in luck - above ! This just leads to a channel in the castle wall, so it all would have went down the outside of the wall into a smelly mess at the bottom ! Nice !
The castle had around 3 or 4 floors and you can see these in the pic above. At the bottom, the lower floors had vaulted ceilings to provide the strength needed to support the upper floors.
They even had a trebuchet (catapult) in the grounds, with a firing range setup ! It was too windy for it when we were there - but it was pretty cool to see ! They would have been a lot bigger, and were used to hurl large boulders at the castle to smash the walls. They'd also use them to throw dead animals and humans into a sieged castle in order to spread disease to the defenders - nice !
It was quite nice to visit and had quite a lot of history. There was a story about one guy who was meant to keep Wales safe from pirates, but instead made a deal with them whereby they could keep pirating, and he got a cut of their booty - making himself a fortune !
The castle is located overlooking a tidal river, giving it quite a nice defense on one side - the thick walls were there to do the job on all other sides.
There was a further outer wall which enclosed a drill ground and other facilities - not much remains of that. The cafe is now located there.
If attacked, they'd all then withdraw into the main castle via the secure gate (above).
It was quite impressive - and we spent a good hour+ there taking in the castle, and also hiding in the cafe from the storm !
It was well worth the visit - and I'd recommend it to anyone in the area - lots to see, with lots of history !
