Author Topic: Exploring The Area  (Read 193356 times)

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Offline Gwynant

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #210 on: November 09, 2012, 09:56:20 am »
               While we were walking through Llangefni yesterday we came across this building with a door (locked,I hope) which opens out into the open air about 15 feet above the pavement. We could not decide the purpose of the positioning of the door but after much speculation one of us concluded that Felix Baumgartner might have lived there during his formative years and it may have been an early practice area for his recent record-breaking jump to earth from the edge of space.
           We had earlier passed the Forestry Commission notice which describes a method for you to dispose of dog-poo quickly and efficiently (note the added on extra in felt tip pen!) which Jack mentioned some time ago. Apologies for the camera focussing, it was raining at the time.  :rage:
          Lastly, as we were coming back through the Llangefni Industrial Estate we dropped in on the newly-opened "Dewis Mon" (Anglesey Choice) Meat Factory Outlet which has just transferred across from Gaerwen and is well worth a look if you buy meat in bulk (half a lamb, half a pig etc) but also sells individual packs of chilled or frozen meat, fish, cheese, veg.etc. and advertises 30% reductions on local supermarket prices.
         

Offline Gwynant

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #211 on: November 09, 2012, 10:02:03 am »
           ))* $booboo$ This photo of the Forestry Commision shold accompany the previous post. I'm still learning with posting photos!  Sorry.


Offline Fester

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #212 on: January 02, 2013, 06:37:53 pm »
Ruthin, and more specifically Ruthin Castle has been a favourite place for the Fester's for many years.

Ruthin Castle, as most are are aware, is now mostly a hotel, which throws a fantastic medieval banquet on a regular basis.
The hotel was built in Victorian times onto the higher, and rear elevations of the ruined castle.
Much of the hotel is sitting on the footprint of what would have been the Upper Ward and Grand Hall of the castle.
The hotel is a superb building in its own right, but some parts are fading somewhat since its heyday of Victorian grandeur.
However, a period of refurbishment has reached most of the rooms, and the Restaurant is exceptionally good.

Now, what has always puzzled me, is how many guidebooks ignore the medieval castle itself.
Some guides say, 'few traces remain of the original castle'
Well, I have always been amazed by that, as I think that a fantastic amount of the medieval castle remains.
All one needs to do is to clamber around at the less attractive rear of the hotel.

The photos below show firstly, a view of the Victorian hotel, then the 2nd picture is of the internal castle walls, (the lower keep)
The 3rd picture shows quite clearly the remaining main Castle Gatehouse and steps, almost intact.
The 4th picture shows the extent along the front elevation, as to  how well the medieval ramparts have survived.
I find Castell Rhuthun to be a fascinating place.
Fester...
- Semper in Excretum, Sole Profundum Variat -

Offline snowcap

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #213 on: January 02, 2013, 10:43:55 pm »
is that spiderman in the third picture looking down at you?

Offline Ian

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #214 on: January 03, 2013, 07:05:21 am »
Quote
Some guides say, 'few traces remain of the original castle'
Well, I have always been amazed by that, as I think that a fantastic amount of the medieval castle remains.

Cromwell demolished the original castle c.1650 to prevent it being used as a military base, Fester, so I suspect the guide books are correct. It also seems that there might have been an even earlier castle on that site, but the main reconstruction was in 1826. Following the death of the last male heir of Chirk, Richard Myddleton, the castle and its estate passed to one of his three daughters, Maria. She had a new castellated two-storey, double-block house built which straddled the upper and lower baileys. The two blocks were joined by a covered stone bridge across the inner moat.  If you look closely at the photos you've taken, there are notable non-medieval features, and certainly poor defensive characteristics. 

Also, as I'm sure you know, however, almost all castles which remained in private hands were usually cannibalised by their owners to create newer homes elsewhere.  That resulted in ruin of many great castles throughout Europe.
« Last Edit: January 03, 2013, 08:00:27 am by Ian »
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.

Offline DaveR

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #215 on: January 03, 2013, 08:54:48 am »
So, it's actually more of a Victorian folly, similar to Gwrych Castle (1819-1825) in Abergele?

Offline Fester

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #216 on: January 03, 2013, 11:30:49 am »
I would be very surprised if that were the case.
Although anything is possible.
My camera battery ran out before I could take more pictures of the front elevation, the extent of the ruins is very great.

It wouldn't make sense to create that facade, as the access to that area is very difficult and the entrance to the grounds is to the rear, (the hotel part)  There is no natural vantage point to view it.
Most of the arches and arrow loops are badly eroded red sandstone, the stuff which gave Ruthin Castle its name, Castell Coch, (The Red Castle)

I know that when Cromwell ordered the ruin of castles, he did so to make them undefendable in future.
That meant blowing up towers with 'new fangled' gunpowder, stripping down curtain walls and demolishing upper crenellations.   Ruthin is certainly in that state.
It bears further investigation.
Fester...
- Semper in Excretum, Sole Profundum Variat -

Offline DaveR

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #217 on: January 03, 2013, 11:35:48 am »
On this site, it says the castle was dismantled in 1648:
http://www.castlewales.com/ruth_tl.html

"The castle was dismantled following an act of parliament which was passed to stop the reoccupation of fortresses by belligerent forces. The walls were torn down and the timber and stone was carted away for use elsewhere."

Offline Fester

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #218 on: January 03, 2013, 12:01:45 pm »
I think a site visit is in order.  It is a very interesting place.

What I saw is commensurate with about 80% of the castle being dismantles, and some Victorian re-building on top of existing ramparts.
Fester...
- Semper in Excretum, Sole Profundum Variat -

Offline Hugo

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #219 on: January 03, 2013, 12:22:16 pm »
Ruthin Castle is built on a red sandstone ridge 100 feet above the Clwyd valley, overlooking a strategic river crossing. Judging by the curving moat to the west of the upper bailey, the earliest castle here may have been a motte and bailey. However, the first documented castle was given to Prince Dafydd ap Gruffydd by King Edward in 1277. It was known as Castell Coch yn yr Gwernfor - the red castle in the great marsh - and the redness of its sandstone walls can be seen to this day.

The castle of 1277 consisted of a pentagonal upper bailey that had revetment walls built up the quarried rockfaces of the ridge and was therefore similar to Holt and Whittington castles. The bailey was around 350 feet long by 250 feet wide and the floor level of the buildings was much higher than the ground outside the walls. This was particularly true on the north west side where the land sloped away towards the river. The opposite side of the castle was defended by a deep and broad dry moat.

Revetment walls featured heavily at other Welsh castles such as Dinas Bran, Deganwy and Ewloe and had the advantage that they could not be broken down by siege engines.

 
Ruthin was improved by its next owner, Reginald de Grey, perhaps when he first took over in 1282 and again in 1295 when the castle was further strengthened and extended. Reginald employed the famous military architect Master James of St George to provide the castle with a twin-towered gatehouse and six round towers, the northern tower incorporating a smaller Welsh one. The walls above the revetments of the upper bailey were 7 to 9 feet thick and rose to a height of 100 feet above the bottom of the moat.

The lower bailey had a drum tower at each corner and its own gate, which had a portcullis, a rounded fighting platform above the entrance and a bridge across the moat towards the river. This outer court was around 240 feet wide by 160 feet long and was overlooked by the main court. The baileys were separated by another deep moat that may have been spanned by a bridge. The current wooden bridge across this moat is not original.

There was a sally port between the two baileys from which defenders could rush into the moat to counterattack their foes at the base of the walls. A spiral stairway leads from this doorway up the side of the adjacent drum tower at the southwestern corner of the upper bailey. A second flight of steps curves around the outside of the tower towards a gateway into the upper bailey.

A similar doorway exists at the base of the northern tower and steps lead from it up through the tower into the apex of the upper bailey. There are also signs that yet another sally port was situated on the opposite side of the castle to the south of the main gate, the remains now hidden in the thick undergrowth against the revetment wall of the eastern moat.

In 1826 a fine house was built over the southeastern quarter of the castle, within both baileys, and it was rebuilt and extended in 1849-52. The house hid many details of the castle's internal buildings but some details of the main hall survive. It was 100 feet long by 40 feet wide and looked out over the Clwyd valley from the west side of the upper bailey.


Offline Fester

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #220 on: January 03, 2013, 07:58:47 pm »
Thank you Hugo.
That article ties in with my photographs, and suggests that the drum towers, the moat and the gatehouse (with fighting platform above) shown on my photographs are indeed original features.
It is still possible to ascend the spiral staircases in the two remaining drum towers... but they are a little treacherous.

Dave and I are planning a visit in the next 10 days or so to examine it in more detail.  $walesflag$
Fester...
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Offline DaveR

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #221 on: January 03, 2013, 08:08:26 pm »
Yes, I'm looking forward to taking a look around.  $good$

Offline Hugo

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #222 on: January 03, 2013, 08:55:49 pm »
I hope that you enjoy your visit to Ruthin Castle and look forward to some more photos of the place. I've enjoyed some Medieval Banquets there in the past and the whole place has a nice atmosphere.     $good$

Offline suepp

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #223 on: January 04, 2013, 12:59:56 am »
I hope you enjoy your visit. Ruthin Castle is an amazing place, I always think they should make an effort to clear some of the overgrown areas around the old castle ruins.

If you go into the Castle  for refreshments, have a look at the large portrait of a lady in blue in the inner lobby ( the room just before the  bar) - and then look at her  face in the  reflection in the mirror opposite    :o

Offline Ian

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #224 on: January 04, 2013, 08:13:52 am »
According to this site on medieval Denbighshire part of the original fortifications, with five towers and the remains of a gatehouse, can still be seen by permission of the hotel management – or glimpsed over the wall from Cunning Green, the footpath turning right outside the Victorian gateway. Medieval times, however, states that only a "small amount" of remains, er...remain. Denbighshire Library service's archive site does show some photos of the Grade 1 listed remains but to return to the Guidebook's original quote, Fester, I think it's probably quite accurate to say 'Few traces remain' of the original castle.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.