How old is castell coch

Like most Norman fortifications it consisted of little more than a wooden palisade atop a mound. Like so many castles in southern Wales, Coch passed in time to the powerful de Clare family see Caerphilly Castle , who erected three huge stone towers the Keep Tower, Kitchen Tower, and Well Tower by the end of the 13th century. Castle Coch was badly damaged in the early 14th-century Welsh uprisings and it fell out of use.

By the middle of the 16th century, the antiquarian John Leland recorded that it had become ruinous. It might have remained so if it were not for the wealthy and eccentric 3rd Marquess of Bute. Bute hired architect William Burges, who was also responsible for another, even more extravagant, Bute fantasy at Cardiff Castle. Burges began work at Castle Coch in He died 6 years later, but the work was completed by his workmen.

Together they created an extraordinary idealized Victorian vision of a medieval castle in richly decorated Gothic style. Most photos are available for licensing, please contact Britain Express image library. We've 'tagged' this attraction information to help you find related historic attractions and learn more about major time periods mentioned. Heritage Rated from 1- 5 low-exceptional on historic interest.

Pause video. Castell Coch. About Castell Coch Cadw. Fairytale castle was a plaything for the rich and powerful What happens when a patron of unlimited wealth meets an architect of boundless imagination? The highly decorated interiors and rich furnishings of Castell Coch make it a dazzling masterpiece of the High Victorian era.

Underneath the mock-medieval trappings you can still trace the impressive remains of a 13th-century castle, once used as a hunting lodge by the ruthless Marcher lord Gilbert de Clare.

Castell Coch has been a plaything of the rich and powerful for over years. Having lavished huge sums on it neither Gilbert de Clare nor the Marquess of Bute spent much time here. He died at the Battle of Bannockburn in , triggering an uprising of the native Welsh in the region.

Castell Coch was probably destroyed by the rebels in July , and possibly slighted to put it beyond any further use; it was not rebuilt and the site was abandoned. The artist and illustrator Julius Caesar Ibbetson painted the castle in , depicting substantial remains and a prominent tower, with a lime kiln in operation alongside the fortification. A similar view was sketched by an unknown artist in the early 19th century, showing more trees around the ruins; a few years later, Robert Drane recommended the site as a place for picnics and noted its abundance in wild garlic.

The ruins were acquired by the Earls of Bute in , when John Stuart, the 3rd Earl and, from , the 1st Marquess, married Lady Charlotte Windsor, adding her estates in South Wales to his inheritance.

The 2nd Marquess carried out exploration for iron ore at Castell Coch in and considered establishing an ironworks there. The 3rd Marquess of Bute, another John Crichton-Stuart, inherited the castle and the family estates as a child in Interest in medieval architecture increased in Britain during the 19th century, and in the antiquarian George Clark surveyed Castell Coch and published his findings, the first major scholarly work about the castle.

The ruins were covered in rubble, ivy, brushwood and weeds; the keep had been largely destroyed and the gatehouse was so covered with debris that Clark failed to discover it. In , Bute asked his chief Cardiff engineer, John McConnochie, to excavate and clear the castle ruins. The report on the investigations was produced by William Burges, an architect with an interest in medieval architecture who had met Bute in The Marquess subsequently employed him to redevelop Cardiff Castle in the late s, and the two men became close collaborators.

The drawings were supplemented by a large number of wooden and plaster models, from smaller pieces to full-size models of furniture. The bulk of the external work was complete by the end of In , Glamorgan passed through marriage to the powerful de Clare family, the earls of Gloucester and Hertford. Under their strong control, more minor Welsh rulers of the uplands were forced into submission, and in the mid-thirteenth century only part of Senghennydd was owned by the descendants of Ifor Bach.

In , Gilbert II de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, armedly seized the uplands of Senghennydd, and a year later, to secure his gains, began building the castle of Caerphilly. It is assumed that this was also the period when Gilbert thoroughly rebuilt Castell Coch, which was to secure the area between the newly built Caerphilly and Cardiff.

Most probably, new stone fortifications of Castell Coch were built before They were built of sandstone, the color of which gave them the name Castrum Rubeum, meaning the Red Castle. The newly built stronghold did not function long. In it was recorded that it was in the hands of Joan, the widow of Gilbert, and probably already in it was captured by Welsh rebels.

Possibly, the castle could have been conquered in , during the uprising led by Llywelyn Bren, the son of the ruler, whom Gilbert took in Senghennydd. Castell Coch was then captured and destroyed. In , abandoned and forgotten ruins were bought by Earl of Bute. The third Marquis of Bute, John Crichton-Stuart, inherited the castle and the great family fortune in In he turned to his chief engineer, John McConnoch, to dig up from debris and cleanse the ruins of the castle from the vegetation.

Marquis then employed the architect William Burges, and the reconstruction of the castle began in Although Burges died in , his plans were continued by a team of his craftsmen and assistants, and the reconstruction was completed at the end of the 19th century. Castell Coch was situated on a high hill sloping south and west by steep descendes towards the narrow valley of the Taff River, meandering on the north-south line.

On the north side of the castle, the slope continued for about 60 meters to the base of the Fforest Fawr area above. The only gentle conditions were on the eastern side, where the slight slopes of the hill made possible to run the access road.

Originally, at the end of the 11th century, the castle probably had the form of a wooden keep or a perimeter of wooden fortifications ringwork, shell keep , placed on an artificial mound of earth about 35 meters in diameter at the base, 25 meters in diameter at the top and 9. There is no indication that the stronghold on the mound had an outer bailey at the base of the hill. One of the oldest stone buildings, possibly erected in the 12th century, was a rectangular building in the southern part of the mound.